Hi,

 

Believe it or not, after all this time, I have just got around to having a go at capturing some video of P3D using FRAPS. Sadly this has been unsuccessful and, so far, I have been unable to work out why. I am hopeful one of you video experts can help to sort me out!

 

I have emailed the FRAP's author and have yet to receive a reply - extract follows:

RE: Video Capture

Windows 7 Pro 64bit SP1, Screen resolution; 1920x1080x32
FRAPS 3.5.99 Build 15618

I'm trying without success to capture a video of a flight simulation sequence. This simulator (Prepar3D v2.4 by Lockheed Martin) runs full screen in a maximized window and not the true full screen as employed by many games. There are many videos of this sim on YouTube and I am assuming that many were captured using FRAPS.

Large .avi files are captured at FRAPS setting of 25fps (I have tried other frame rates as well) and saved successfully to my HD, but when played back using Windows Media Player I hear audio but the playback window screen remains blank and black.

I have searched your support area and this issue has not been mentioned.

 

Thanks.

 

Mike

 

 

 

Do you have, by any chance, an nvidia GPU ? It has a built-in feature for recording your screen at little to no FPS cost. It is called ShadowPlay.

 

I think AMD gpu have an equivalent feature but which requires the use of a dedicated software (raptr, but I am not sure).

Do you have, by any chance, an nvidia GPU ? It has a built-in feature for recording your screen at little to no FPS cost. It is called ShadowPlay.

 

Unfortunately 'ShadowPlay' is not supported by the GTX 580M. I have 2 and upgrading is not really a realistic proposition, nor do I feel it to be necessary....yet.

 

Mike

Did you try playing your recorded video files with an other player, like vlc or media MPC-HC ?

Did you try playing your recorded video files with an other player, like vlc or media MPC-HC ?

 

Sorry, not familiar with 'vlc'or 'media MPC-HC'. If no other suggestions are forthcoming I will of course investigate. I found their respective home sites.

 

I've tried with the following without any luck - always blank screen/window:

IrfanView 4.37, Adobe Premier Elements 11, Windows Live Movie Maker and Corel DVD MovieFactory 7

 

Prior to 'ShadowPlay' what did you guys use to play/convert your FRAPS videos? I presume they need to be converted before uploading to YouTube?

 

Mike

Start Fraps, THEN start P3D.

+1 robertorizzo

 

works his way of loading

Start Fraps, THEN start P3D.

Hi,

 

No problem capturing a large video file with audio and, yes, I do start FRAPS first before P3D. The problem is absent video on playback.

 

Have had a response from the author who is suggesting a codec problem. More specifically he is suggesting that there is another codec/filter pack installed on my laptop that is trying to handle the Fraps video. He goes on to recommend I identify the codec responsible and uninstall it. Apparently codec packs like K-Lite and CCC are known to be implicated. However neither is relevant here. He points out that if using players like VLC to play back my captured videos I should be aware that this media player software has been designed to use it's own set of custom codecs, it will not use the specific codec that Fraps installs on the system.

 

He suggests I try Windows Media Player (despite my having told him that it has failed to deliver the goods) or VirtualDub which apparently will interact with the FRAPS codec directly.

 

I guess I'm up against it with no easy way out. I'll look around for a decent record and streaming tool that isn't likely to be hampered by such issues - should be fun!

 

I've turned up the following so far which seem to have earned good reviews:

Action, D3DGear and Bandicam. Bandicam may be a non-starter as it introduces substantial lag issues during capture. Otherwise it appears to perform very well.

 

Thanks for trying to help.

 

Regards,

Mike

I've used Bandicam very successfully for both full-screen and desktop (instructional) video capture. I find Bandicam superior to FRAPS in many respects including slightly smaller raw video files to work with video editors.

 

JJ

I've used Bandicam very successfully for both full-screen and desktop (instructional) video capture. I find Bandicam superior to FRAPS in many respects including slightly smaller raw video files to work with video editors.

JJ

Thanks JJ, that's useful to know. I'll certainly keep your experience in mind. Did you encounter the lag issue problem while making recordings?

 

Regards,

Mike

Any CPU based capture program will hit your frame rate hard. We only use FRAPS for capturing stills.

 

The only way to capture gameplay without lag or frame loss is via a dedicated card which taps an output from the GPU and then writes it directly to a hard drive as an MP4 file. There are plenty on the market but none are particularly cheap, or in my experience very reliable.

Mike,

 

Based on my experience using tools such as FRAPS and Bandicam, lag will always be present while recording but will vary depending on the resources required to run and display a given scenario (simple vs complex) and the hardware's capacity to deliver (processor, video card, access speed to information (HD vs SSD)). I have a decent system overclocked at 4.7 and find that when recording, smoothness is only truly achieved when demand for resources is kept reasonably low.

 

JJ

I use to use Fraps. These days I stream and record each flight, and I can't recommend Open Broadcaster enough. Incredibly frame rate friendly, very high quality, and you can record without streaming.  The saved file size is based on the quality level.

 

Hope this helps!

In any case (Shadowplay, FRAPS, Bandicam etc) you will have to encode the recorded files.

 

I suggest Handbrake which is a free, open-source video transcoder. Quite easy to use, fast, simple, won't install bloatware.

 

https://handbrake.fr/

Any CPU based capture program will hit your frame rate hard. We only use FRAPS for capturing stills.

The only way to capture gameplay without lag or frame loss is via a dedicated card which taps an output from the GPU and then writes it directly to a hard drive as an MP4 file. There are plenty on the market but none are particularly cheap, or in my experience very reliable.

Hi Ben,

 

Capturing Stills:

 

Up until a few days ago I captured a still image of P3D by pressing the 'Print Screen' key. The drawback is, of course, that you must paste and save the image immediately to empty the clipboard before you can capture another. Then, quite by chance, I discovered you can use the 'V' key to capture as many images as you want in rapid succession. Each image is saved as a .bmp file in the 'My Pictures\Prepar3D v2 Files' folder ready for editing in Paint and saving as compressed jpegs or high quality .png files. Not sure if this feature is available in FSX but it sure makes life a lot easier!

 

Can't believe I missed that one!

 

Regards,

Mike