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Hellbent

Using FRAPS to record doom videos.

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Hellbent said:

Also... how do you convert .lmp to .wmv?


You mean a demo file? Run the demo and use a video capture program such as FRAPS to record what is on screen as a video.

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Enjay said:

You mean a demo file? Run the demo and use a video capture program such as FRAPS to record what is on screen as a video.

oh, interesting, thanks.

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Hellbent said:

oh, interesting, thanks.


oh well, the .avi output file won't play in wmp, winamp or quicktime. It also only records for about 30 seconds and then stops recording.

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Hellbent said:

It also only records for about 30 seconds and then stops recording.

Maybe it's because you only have the demo version.
Get the full package :>

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[WH]-Wilou84 said:

Maybe it's because you only have the demo version.
Get the full package :>

any idea why i can't play back the .avi file?

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Hellbent said:

any idea why i can't play back the .avi file?


Not sure. I know that FRAPS records videos in a very large uncompressed file format. Before I upload them or send them to other people, I load them into Windows Movie Maker and convert them to a much smaller WMV or something. However, I can play the avi that FRAPS produces if I want to. If the WMM tip doesn't work, you might look into installing a codec pack of some sorts to see if that helps.

You could also try another capture program. I use FRAPS because I have registered it but I know that there is also CamStudio. Not sure how good it is at recording games though. I'm sure that there will be other options too.

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i imported the video into windows movie maker like the online help instructed but it gave a similar error message of not liking the file. I have version 6 of movie maker. Dunno how to download codecs. That's always been a headache of jumping through hoops.

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Perhaps virtualdub can import it, but as other people said it's very likely a (custom) uncompressed or low compression format, like GunCam's GCF files. Perhaps you could just use the AVGN's method of connecting your video card's video output to an external DVD-R and directly burn playable DVDs from there. Or to a DVRs input to directly make MPEG-4 compressed videos. The advantages of these methods are that they don't interfere with gameplay in any way and do not eat up system resources.

Regarding Virtualdub, I recalled a method that worked for me, at least for windowed stuff: VirtualDub has a capture mode that can be set not only to use TV cards and webcams, but it also has a lesser-known screen grab plugin, that can grab any area of the desktop including windows and DirectX/OpenGL apps.

It needs some tweaking with windows sizes and tiling though, as it just caps stuff relative to the desktop (so overlapping windows will show), and from what I got it can't (or is tricky) to get to work full-screen. However it's free, has no usage limits, and can also cap audio real-time, and directly save to MPEG-4/Xvid/DivX/whatever. Just my 2c.

If I were you, I'd just play back the demo in the source port you are using, set it to use a windowed mode with a reasonable resolution (I'd say max 480*360 for something that'll get youtubed) and set virtualdub to grab the useful part of the window.

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FRAPS seriously lags any engine I attempt at recording with. I have a pretty fast PC - but it always manages to cut the framerate in half.

When I import the FRAPS movie into WMM the audio quality freaks out. Anyone else have this problem?

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I think that (the lag thing) depends on the codec and compression level used, as with virtualdub. In general, with most MAME game and low-res Doom recordings you can even get away with Xvid single-pass at a reasonable quality and real-time 128 kbps MP3 audio. For full-screen, hi-res (anything >640 x 480 is pretty much hi-res as far as video formats go) you will need multiple cores and well-tuned drivers/chipset.

Windows Movie Maker has a horrible audio resampling engine. If it encounters an audio format it can't handle, it will just chop the samples without even filtering and thus results in metalling-sounding, clinking audio.

I haven't noticed which sample rates produce that, but it happens a lot with audio coming from low-fidelity sources e.g. from digicams or camera phones, which usually have a sampling rate under 16KHz. WMM tries to "upsample" it to 22 KHz or the closest higher (or lower?) it can handle, and in doing so fucks the audio pretty badly. The only remedy is to feed it only hi-fidelity audio, preprocessing the audio track with another app if needed.

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Jeeze, sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth. Next time I record anything it'll be with a program other than Fraps. Despite the hype the program turned out pretty disappointing.

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I've been using FRAPS for years and I've never had any problems with it. It does what it says it will and does it pretty well for me.

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Enjay said:

I've been using FRAPS for years and I've never had any problems with it. It does what it says it will and does it pretty well for me.

Maybe it's just the engine I'm using that bogs down then. Hmm..

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Enjay said:

I've been using FRAPS for years and I've never had any problems with it. It does what it says it will and does it pretty well for me.


Uhm... ask me about FRAPS? ;-)

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Hellbent said:

any idea why i can't play back the .avi file?


I can play it back in vlc. Also, I would suggest a torrent of fraps to rid of problems, but I dont know the moderators position on torrents yet. BTW my DOOM is legit if anyone is wondering that now. Also, try TVC to convert the avi to wmv. Hope that helps.

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avery1555 said:

I would suggest a torrent of fraps to rid of problems, but I dont know the moderators position on torrents yet.


Let's just say that "proletarian expropriation" doesn't cut it as an excuse when you're losered :-p

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Maes said:

Uhm... ask me about FRAPS? ;-)


Can't be. I'm actually being positive about FRAPS, not going off on an uninvited, overly wordy, negative rant about it. ;)

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avery1555 said:

http://transatlanticassembly.blogspot.com/2005/02/theoretical-background-of-proletarian.html

uhhh... ok.

Anyways, you could always try other screen recorders like GameCam which is also very good.


Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I just downloaded Game Cam and when I load it it says: "No XviD MPEG-4 Codec is found! A computer must have this video codec or any other compatible codec in order to play your recordings in media players. It's freeware. Do you want to downlaod it?"

It's rare computer softer is so friendly. Why, yes I would Mr. Computer Software! :D

No wonder why the videos weren't playing in any of the players I tried.

YAY I successfully recorded a demo! It didn't playback sound, but the video is good.

I'm uploading now, It's 35mb.

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Hellbent said:

"No XviD MPEG-4 Codec is found!"[/b]

...

[b]No wonder why the videos weren't playing in any of the players I tried.


OK, seriously, how long can anyone "resist" without an MPEG-4 compatible codec installed? Leaving video recording aside, pretty much every downloadable video that's not wmv or quicktime, is compressed with Xvid/DivX, not to mention DVD rips etc (using Realmedia is a punishable offense, BTW). Unless you absolutely never used your PC for watching videos or you only ever watched quicktime/realmedia/wmv strictly.

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Chu said:

FRAPS seriously lags any engine I attempt at recording with. I have a pretty fast PC - but it always manages to cut the framerate in half.

When FRAPS records I notice the game's FPS goes down to what you selected as the video framerate. So if you selected to record a 30FPS video in fraps, the game will run at 30FPS while recording.

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