FRAPS Crashing FFXI - Help!

[Celvantes]

Hey all, I'm trying to do some recordings of the FFXI cutscenes for posterity before quitting the game for good.

Just did a fresh install of FFXI on a new Windows 8 machine. I've got all the updates done, all the graphical SNAFUs fixed with a new video card diver, and Windower 4 is working well. Everything seemed peachy until I tried recording a video with FRAPS. As soon as I hit the record button, both POL and FFXI crashed.

This happened both with and without windower running, so I'm pretty sure that isn't the problem. FRAPS itself works fine as well, the crash only happens when I hit the video hotkey.

Can any of you video makers point me in the right direction to getting this problem fixed?

Details:
OS: Windows 8
Video Card: Intel HD Graphics 4000
FRAPS Ver.: 3.5.99
Latest Windower/FFXI Updates

Thanks in advance.

[orinthia]

Try reducing your resolution (like 800x600), or recording at 1/2 size. Set the frame rate limiter to something like 25fps or 20fps, or leave at no limit. Do you get fraps' fps marker in one of the corners of the game before attempting to record? Does it work with any other game?

Just some thoughts.

[Celvantes]

Ok, I'll give that a try. I turned off the FPS marker, though I did get it originally. Is that something I need to leave on in order for recording to work?

Why would the framerate make a difference?

[Celvantes]

Try reducing your resolution (like 800x600), or recording at 1/2 size. Set the frame rate limiter to something like 25fps or 20fps, or leave at no limit. Do you get fraps' fps marker in one of the corners of the game before attempting to record? Does it work with any other game?

Just some thoughts.

Alright, I tried a few things and here are the results.

FRAPS works fine in other games. Framerate, etc, are not a problem.

I am getting the FRAPS' fps marker in FFXI, so it is working. I tried running FRAPS at 1/2 size, and at lower framerates all the way down to 10 fps - it still crashes FFXI. Further testing shows that it IS recording a video, but it's only 10 seconds long and it's frozen on the screen at the point FFXI crashed.

The Windower video recorder 4.0 will work, but the only way to get it to record without speeding everything up is to set it at 10 fps. Additionally, it does not record sound, so it really isn't a good replacement for FRAPS.

Given this information, do you have any idea why it may not be working?

Can user account control mess with it at all? Windows 8 insists on slapping the UAC stop on Windower, FFXI, and FRAPS whenever I start them up, requiring me to OK them each time. Vista did not do that to FFXI at least - I had Windower 3 and didn't use FRAPS back then.

Thanks again for the help.

[Madeline]

Can I suggest using OBS instead? I'm not sure if you're hard set on using fraps, but I've found OBS to be pretty good.

http://obsproject.com/index

As for helping you with the problem, I haven't used Windows 8 but I can tell you UAC on every other OS was a huge pain in the balls for everything gaming. It would frequently crash things and get in the way. If you can turn it off, I would do so and try again.

[Celvantes]

Thanks! I'll give it a try.

[orinthia]

Oh yes: UAC prompts, at least the ones that darken the screen, will crash ffxi. You may want to put UAC to it's lowest setting (it won't darken the screen) or turn it off in this case.

At least you know fraps is working since it records with other games.

[Celvantes]

Well, Nep, when I tried to install OBS, the program told me that it needed a DirectX component that I don't have. I'm pretty sure my DirectX is up to date - is this a common issue with OBS?

Orinthia - I completely turned off UAC, and it didn't change anything. Hate to keep asking, but do you have any other ideas?

[Madeline]

I can't say it is. When I installed it I didn't have any problems of the sort. Maybe try their forums if you want to pursue that route. They're usually fairly helpful.

[orinthia]

Well, Nep, when I tried to install OBS, the program told me that it needed a DirectX component that I don't have. I'm pretty sure my DirectX is up to date - is this a common issue with OBS?

As weird as this sounds, modern directx versions actually lack some of the older versions' files. It's why nearly all games that rely on dx9+ include and run installers for it, even on win7. It's retarded of MS not absolutely having everything necessary with dx10+, but you might need to look for offline installations of directx9.0c. It should be a large file, not some tiny web installer. At least that's how it is with windows7, not sure about windows8 (might not let you install that anyway, but I have no longterm experience with win8 yet).

And with UAC out of the picture and ffxi still crashing upon recording with fraps... I'm out of good ideas . More thoughts which probably won't amount to anything:

Tried without windower? Turned off antivirus/firewall/sandboxing applications? I know zone alarm and comodo firewall sometimes complain about applications accessing other applications, but you always see a prompt with them and you aren't seeing anything but a crash... Can you live without sound using windower's video recorder, or does it even work for you? Is fraps able to take screenshots of ffxi without ffxi crashing (could be an even weirder problem if this doesn't work)?

[Celvantes]

I've got OBS working now... except now IT crashes when I try to record (though it doesn't crash POL). I'll go to their forums and see if I can find out what's going on.

FFXI does not work when I try to run it in compatibility mode as a Windows 7 program. It's still working without compatibility mode, though. FRAPs works fine in Windows 7 compatibility, but it still crashes POL when I try to record.

Tried FRAPS without windower - still the same issue, and my antivirus is not at fault. Regarding windower's video function... unfortunately, I'm going to need sound as I'm wanting to do a recording of all the cutscenes, and a lot of them would suffer without the awesome FFXI music behind them. The windower video capture function does work, but in order to get it to play in real time, I have to turn down the FPS to 10, resulting in a very choppy video.

Strangely enough, FRAPS is able to take screenshots without any problem.

I appreciate all the help. If you have any other ideas, I'll give them a try. If not - thanks for the attempt.

Man, this is frustrating.