[FRAPS] help

[Deleted]

Hello everyone. I will try to be really specific here so that it is easier to help me - this post may be quite long. My basic question is: Is there a setting I should alter OR is there a weakness in my hardware you would advise could do with updating?

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I've recently purchased an external 1Tb hard drive to store FRAPs footage on; I was aware how much storage non-compressed video files can take up and I believed that this would reduce the performance drop I was suffering when I began recording.

However, trying to record a "Full size" video drops my in-game frame rate to largely unplayable levels, probably about 10fps, even in non crowded areas. Let alone a raid environment.

Basic computer specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-BIT OS
4.00GB RAM
AMD Phenom II x4 955 Processor 3.20 GHz
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Monitor: 23''

To my knowledge, I am using the latest version of Fraps and the graphics card driver is up to date.

In game WoW settings

1920x1080 resolution (wide)
Multisampling 4x
Enabled vertical sync

Textures:
Resolution: High
Filtering: 4x Anisotropic
Projected: Enabled

Environment:
View distance: High
Detail: Good
Ground clutter: Good

Effects:
Shadow: Good
Liquid: Good
Sunshafts: Low
Particle density: Good
SSAO: High

The above selection generally allows me to run at 60fps in low populated areas and I don't notice performance drops outside of being in overcrowded areas during peak time (Not too rare on Kazzak at times) even then, it is ok.

Fraps settings:

version: 3.5.9
build: 15586
Movie/Video capture settings:
Generally I tick 30 fps, but I experimented with 60, no difference there it seemed
Full-size
Hide mouse cursor in video
Everything else is unticked.

[Reaya]

The bottleneck is probably your external hard drive. Although having a second hard drive is virtually required you are now limited by the speeds of USB.

I am only guessing here so I will leave this open for some more technical minded souls.

[vesseblah]

Yep, external USB disc is probably the reason for bad performance. It's easy to rule this out by testing recording on internal drive to see if there's any difference.

Also it's normal that your fps drops by 10-20 during recording 25man raids.

[Flaim]

a friend of mine had the same issue.
after he took the hdd out of the external case and plugged it in internally everything went unbelievably smooth

[Faithh]

a friend of mine had the same issue.
after he took the hdd out of the external case and plugged it in internally everything went unbelievably smooth

He would void his warranty doing that.

Well which model is this? Some models are supporting Esata so you just use a sata cable instead of usb.

[vesseblah]

He would void his warranty doing that.

You can open most external USB discs without leaving a mark. And you'll still have HDD manufacturer's warranty since the manufacturing week is almost always present somewhere on the device.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Since I've done extensive 1920x1080 videos with FRAPS in WoW: never record on an external HDD. Even if you get PCI connect externals it won't keep up with an internal HDD on writes (and writes are slower). FRAPS records in AVI and that's normally 29fps (29 1920x1080 screen shots a second, for example). Too much data is being pushed through a very narrow pipe.

Record on an internal drive, then move the recorded video to an external drive.

[vesseblah]

FRAPS records in AVI and that's normally 29fps

Using the old obsolete NTSC 29.97fps is totally pointless unless you aim to transfer the video to DVD (who the hell would want to do that, I don't know).

Always should stick to 30fps if possible because it's maximum youtube allows in 1080p. Optionally go down in reasonable steps if the write speed is not high enough for 30fps. -> 25fps -> 24fps -> 20fps etc. Commercially produced BluRay movies are usually recorded at 24fps but with motion blur which isn't present in games.

[Faithh]

Try Dxtory with the lagarith lossless codec. This video codec is really better than fraps one.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Using the old obsolete NTSC 29.97fps is totally pointless unless you aim to transfer the video to DVD (who the hell would want to do that, I don't know).

I always use 29.97. I don't have to fumble with any other conversions, be it from 24fps film to 29.97 video. For max compatibility you shoot in 29.97 and work with it in video editors...

http://s970.photobucket.com/albums/a...wItWasDone.png

Check the timebar...29.970.

Enjoy!

[vesseblah]

I always use 29.97. I don't have to fumble with any other conversions, be it from 24fps film to 29.97 video.

Try combining material from multiple sources, and you see immediately why fractional fps is dumb idea. On boss kill videos with some guildies running video capture on low spec machine they have to lock framerate to 15 or 20 for example. When I capture at 30fps and combine it with such material the end result is always pretty with clean 1:2 or 2:3 or 5:6 etc frame ratio. Trying to inject 29.97 or 23.976 or some other "close but not quite" speed with it causes horrible jerkiness in large movement.

Of course it doesn't matter with single source, but going for anything more complicated than that you'll run into problems.

For max compatibility you shoot in 29.97 and work with it in video editors...

Every single proper video editor lets you enter fps with 3 digits precision minimum. There are no compatibility issues.

[Milkshake86]

Is it usb 2.0/3.0 or E-sata? Esata should run fast enough to record to however usb 2.0 is definitely not Idk about 3.0 id have to look into it. Using an SSD boot drive and game drive w/ a seperate "not external" HDD @ 7200 rpm or better is ideal, optimally the drive would be for fraps only thus a second identical HDD for raid0 which increases performance, and space.

---------- Post added 2012-11-11 at 01:58 PM ----------

Try combining material from multiple sources, and you see immediately why fractional fps is dumb idea. On boss kill videos with some guildies running video capture on low spec machine they have to lock framerate to 15 or 20 for example. When I capture at 30fps and combine it with such material the end result is always pretty with clean 1:2 or 2:3 or 5:6 etc frame ratio. Trying to inject 29.97 or 23.976 or some other "close but not quite" speed with it causes horrible jerkiness in large movement.

Of course it doesn't matter with single source, but going for anything more complicated than that you'll run into problems.



Every single proper video editor lets you enter fps with 3 digits precision minimum. There are no compatibility issues.

Ty god all my friends have near identical machines to mine now a days >.> bigger SSD's tho.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

Turn down the multi-sampling to 1x and you should see a decent performance increase while recording

[Faithh]

Using the old obsolete NTSC 29.97fps is totally pointless unless you aim to transfer the video to DVD (who the hell would want to do that, I don't know).

Always should stick to 30fps if possible because it's maximum youtube allows in 1080p. Optionally go down in reasonable steps if the write speed is not high enough for 30fps. -> 25fps -> 24fps -> 20fps etc. Commercially produced BluRay movies are usually recorded at 24fps but with motion blur which isn't present in games.

Uh? Fraps allows you to record whatever FPS you want. It's not the file type deciding, but the video codec.

Fraps doesn't use the old codec ntsc or whatever.

Commercial produced Bluray movies aren't being recorded at 24 fps. They're later being encoded to x264 codec & .mkv (bluray) and the FPS is set to 25 limited.

Recording at 25fps you always notice a black shadow when an item or person moves. This should make you clear what I meant -> http://frames-per-second.appspot.com/

Recording with a camera or fraps at 25 fps (LIVE) isn't the same as recording a video at 200FPS and later being reduced to 25.

Recording & encoding are two different things.

[BicycleMafioso]

Uh? Fraps allows you to record whatever FPS you want. It's not the file type deciding, but the video codec.

You realise that has nothing to do with what he actually wrote at all, do you? Youtube caps FPS at like, 30. Superceding that is pointless unless you aim to use slow motion.

[Faithh]

You realise that has nothing to do with what he actually wrote at all, do you? Youtube caps FPS at like, 30. Superceding that is pointless unless you aim to use slow motion.

Haha lawl my mistake :P