Thread: FRAPS    

What part of your system effects this program the most? I would assume hard drive speed and access.

I plan on building a new desktop in the future and will be spending quite a bit of money to do so. I want to play the game in "pretty" mode while being able to record whenever I want w/o noticing a drop in framrate at all.

Currently I have a beast of a laptop that I push to the max and the game looks incredible. But it refuses to record via FRAPs at a decent framerate. Im talking going from 29 FPS to 2-5 in non-laggy zones. My need to have a laptop will be dropping pretty soon, so I want to settle behind a desktop.

My focus for this topic is: What parts of my system do I need to concetrate on to record w/o losing quality? 10k+ HDDs? Dual 10k+ drives with the game playing on one and recordings being dumped on a seperate HDD? Or is it something else all together?

Is there alternate programs to FRAPS?

Try adjusting the amount of FPS Fraps records at if you haven't already (i.e. limiting it to 25-30 FPS in options).

If you are recording at full size, make sure your in game screen resolution is set to the same resolution.

If you only want the game in "pretty" mode and not as worried about the quality of the videos, lower the settings on FRAPs until your FPS goes back up to an acceptable rate. They're going to lose a lot of quality when you reduce the size for upload to the net anyways.

As far as hardware goes, concentrate on processor(s), video card, and memory, as they'll have the most impact on the problems you're currently having.

If money's not an option and you want top quality videos with no loss in performance, you could output the video and audio to a 2nd PC and capture/edit on there.

As far as solutions that don't involve anything I just mentioned-

1. Defrag often. Before defragging, always make sure to free up disk space (delete temporary files, old attachments, browser history files, etc).

2. Turn off any unnecessary processes running in the background. Here's a decent guide for XP users- http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

3. In addition to this, turn off your antivirus and any other unnecessary program running in the system tray.

4. Make sure DMA is enabled for the hard drives.

[img]If money's not an option and you want top quality videos with no loss in performance, you could output the video and audio to a 2nd PC and capture/edit on there. [/img]

details prease

Im wondering if I could record using this laptop when i get my new PC

edit: wrong tag and yes im lazy, want to fight about it?

The CPU is the piece of hardware that will be taxed the most. A dual core CPU will be your best bet compared to faster HDs, better access time, more RAM, etc.

Compare:

10,000k RPM HD (WD Raptor) and CPU equivalent to the Intel Core 2 Duo e6300, though not dual core.
http://www.stfcc.org/ffxi/videos/061%20 ... tscene.wmv
http://www.stfcc.org/ffxi/videos/133%20 ... azurka.wmv
Things to notice: Low FPS, low resolution (recorded it at 50% res), no shadows.

7,200k RPM HD (another WD one) and an Intel Core 2 Duo e6300.
http://www.stfcc.org/ffxi/videos/138%20 ... on%204.wmv
http://www.stfcc.org/ffxi/videos/143%20 ... ltheia.wmv
Things to notice: High FPS, high resolution (widescreen, bigger than previous, recorded it at 50% res), shadows on high (on 1st vid).

Originally Posted by Tekki

details prease

Im wondering if I could record using this laptop when i get my new PC

It all depends on the specs of your laptop.

Do the audio/video cards on your laptop have audio and either DVI (best results) or S-Video inputs? If not, you won't be able to.

If your current hardware has the capabilities, and your new desktop can output audio/video to multiple devices, you'll be able to run audio/video capture software on the laptop, record the videos in real time and do all the editing there as well.

However, I doubt your laptop has the hardware to pull it off unless you bought one designed for this kind of work in the first place.