FRAPS Super Fuzzy

[Kiisuke]

A friend and I plan on going on a BCNM duoing spree and I'd like to record most of them. I have the registered version of FRAPS and an Intel Core Duo @ 2.66 Ghz and ATI Radeon HD 2600XT, 3GB of RAM. I've noticed that FRAPS produces incredibly noticeable lag and skipping. And the quality is definitely not what I see on the screen.

I can show you the difference via screenshots. I recorded a small clip in FRAPs and then used Media Player Classic to save a snapshot from that video. Then I took a screenshot in-game. The difference is highly noticeable.

What I see in-game when I play
What the raw video looks like from FRAPS (Yes, the text really is that blurry)

I don't know why.


As for FRAPS settings.. I've got the FPS disabled. On the movies tab I have: 30 fps selected to record in, full-size, detects best sound input, no cursor, record sound. It doesn't seem to matter what I select though (sound-wise, fps, or full/half). All of it produces noticeable lag.

All my drivers are up to date as well.

For the FFXI settings... 1024x768 resolution with 1536x1152 background oversampling. I've tried playing with both of these, setting them down but FRAPs doesn't seem to care. Doesn't matter what resolution I've got it set to, it all looks horribly fuzzy and laggy.

Now, I've heard that FRAPS doesn't record 100% quality screen caps, but a friend of mine (who is the one who got me INTO using FRAPS) took one look at my capture and said "wow that's awful." He then proceeded to do the exact same thing I did (record a bit of FFXI, export a screenshot of the raw video using Media Player Classic) and his quality is amazing. His raw video looks just like my in-game screenshot (what I see while playing). It's 100% better than what mine captures.

The sad part is, my machine is better in every way compared to his. I've got more RAM, a better video card, faster processor, etc etc etc. So I don't understand why his video is coming out crystal clarity and mine is coming out looking like I need to check my vision.

We've compared settings. Everything matches (registry resolution/oversampling, the FRAPS settings, etc).

I'm at a loss and am hoping that someone out there can help me fix this.

[liquinas]

Windower maybe? I tried to use fraps for recording some programing tutorial I had to do and I couldn't do it because FRAPS could only record 3D renders and not what you see on the desktop.

[zantes]

I haven't had any problems with my computer and fraps. Graphics at 1680x1050 and high quality on all settings and the pictures (and movies) come out amazing.

[Kiisuke]

Windower maybe?

I don't know. Both my friend and I use the windower. He doesn't have any issues with it. I suppose I could try recording without it later and see if that makes a bit of difference.

[Jakson]

Nice hat

[Kiisuke]

Ugh. Okay I tried full screen. The video isn't any better than the windower capture. Can see for yourself here. Can see more of the screen but the text is still awful.


Here's a good comparison, the character selection screen of both me and my friend:

Mine
His

Notice the text on his is crystal clear and mine is a super blur. And yeah, he dat swapped his FFXI title. I don't know why.

Nice hat

Urahara's Hat DAT.

[Mairja]

Suggesting you do the following:

1. in game menu -> config -> misc2 -> change your background aspect ratio
2. change your background resolution in windower

and maybe also:
3. Change Environmental Animation to smooth
4. Bump Mapping on

Check this out: Graphics - FFXIclopedia - a Wikia Gaming wiki

Helped me a lot, was like a brand new game.

Before i made all the said changes:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w...219_144857.png

And after changes were made:

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w...225_220635.png

[Kiisuke]

Think I got it looking better now. A test I made [watch in HD] (not the BCNM I'm going to record, just happened to try it since I was helping someone earlier).

The original FRAPS avi uncompressed video still looks awful but after converting it to wmv it looks a lot better. Been playing with Virtual Dub to compress it without using Movie Maker but every attempt makes it look horrible. So for now I'll stick with wmvs.

[Thufir]

Looking at the text in your chatlog of your first two shots, it looks like Fraps is recording at a lower resolution than what you run at, then stretching it back up to the size you thought. So your video may be half the resolution you run FF at, but with every pixel doubled in dimentions, the movie itself is still the same height and width.

[Elesar]

Holy crap, those crates are supposed to be round!? Damn, I think it's time I upgrade my PC lmfao.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/ff...pmapObject.jpg

[Kiisuke]

Looking at the text in your chatlog of your first two shots, it looks like Fraps is recording at a lower resolution than what you run at, then stretching it back up to the size you thought. So your video may be half the resolution you run FF at, but with every pixel doubled in dimentions, the movie itself is still the same height and width.

This is exactly what it sounds like is happening. The question is, how do I fix that? Can I?

[fishstix]

Sorry for hijacking, but didnt want to start a new thread when it's a similar topic.

But I cant figure out how to upload to youtube in HD, or even a decent quality

this is the best i can get it at :/

[Araelus]

For the FFXI settings... 1024x768 resolution with 1536x1152 background oversampling.

Double check that "Full-size" is checked in the movies tab once again. If so...

Depending on which version of FRAPS you have, full-size video capture is limited to a maximum of 1152x864 (4:3) or 1280x720 (widescreen). With a Dual-core CPU it is theoretically raised, but I've never been able to find that setting even with a Quad-core.

The reason FRAPS is not recording at fullscreen for you may be because it thinks you're in widescreen even though your resolution is a 4:3 ratio. If it thinks that, then you've exceeded the max vertical resolution by 48 pixels, as silly as that sounds, and BAM down to half res.

The background rendering resolution should not affect FRAPS - at least I never had any issue with it even up in the 3600x or higher range at which point your CPU will begin to wish FFXI could utilize the GPU instead.

Good luck.

Sorry for hijacking, but didnt want to start a new thread when it's a similar topic.

But I cant figure out how to upload to youtube in HD, or even a decent quality

this is the best i can get it at :/

If your file is at a high enough resolution, YT will enable a highdef option by default once it starts to play as a little text click option, as you already know. I upload at 720p typically and it's acceptable.

If you can encode directly to YouTube (some programs have this option) then you should be able to get the even better "HD" key from the site, which plays the video at a true higher sized resolution instead of keeping the frame locked and increasing the bitrate. I'm sure there's some way to get this without direct encoding, but YT won't accept my .flv files.

What format are you encoding to right now?

[fishstix]

I'm using Virtual Dub and encoding it with the divx settings, using the 720p profile there. You mention the resolution though, I was unaware that it mattered, thought it was based on the aspect ratio. I was using windower @ 1600x900 and then using the half-size option inside of fraps.

I'll try setting the windower resolution to 1280x720 and then use full-sized? Also, does the fps play a factor in getting the HQ option or not? And... what are some programs that can encode direct to youtube?

[[Vax]]

I also didn't want to start a new topic about FRAPS, but for some reason when I run fraps my FPS drops to about 4... when in the middle of WG I sit on 20+. I can't record anything important because I'm rendered useless while fraps is running...

My PC isn't that horrible that I shouldn't be able to run the program, and in-fact it did the same thing on my old PC...

I am on windower.. and my specs are:
Intel Core2 duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz
3gigs of RAM
GeForce 8300GS
Vista home premium D:

Any help would be awesome. I'd love to cameraman for my LS lol

[Araelus]

Virtual Dub is a great choice - I use xvid instead of divx but it's similar.

If you have it set to halfsize with that FFXI resolution then FRAPS should be giving you 800x450 video (which isn't HD). VirtualDub won't scale it back up to 720p for you, unless I'm misunderstanding the divx setting.

Your suggestion for yourself seems correct: try fullsize recording and FFXI set to 720p. That will produce true HD output.

So far as I know fps doesn't matter. I use 23.95 instead of 30 just to save file space because I work in Adobe Pro CS3 which does not like the interframe compression FRAPS makes. CS3 is greedy for fully uncompressed video...

For YouTube, it'll get re-timecoded somewhere in the process later and most people can't see the difference so long as the game's animation frame rate is set to 100%. But if you can capture 30fps go ahead.

As far as encoding directly to YouTube, since you're already using (IMO) the best freeware out there, don't worry about it. Just make sure the video itself is higher than 704x480 pixels, which is where standard definition ends.

[Araelus]

I also didn't want to start a new topic about FRAPS, but for some reason when I run fraps my FPS drops to about 4... when in the middle of WG I sit on 20+. I can't record anything important because I'm rendered useless while fraps is running...

My PC isn't that horrible that I shouldn't be able to run the program, and in-fact it did the same thing on my old PC...

I am on windower.. and my specs are:
Intel Core2 duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz
3gigs of RAM
GeForce 8300GS
Vista home premium D:

Any help would be awesome. I'd love to cameraman for my LS lol

What frame/background resolutions are you running at?

Make sure FFXI is being processed by a different core than FRAPS. Remember that FFXI is basically a bad PS2 port, and it will often utilize 100% of available CPU cycles. On your rig that should be 50%. Also, are you recording to a different hard drive than FFXI is running from? I've found that helps. Good luck.

[[Vax]]

Yeah, I'm using Core0 for FF and Core1 for Fraps.

I did tweek up my graphics.. BG rez is 1280x1280 where front rez is 1280x1024.

[Araelus]

That sounds reasonable for a Core2 Duo recording setup. Hmm.

Have you tried using FRAPS in any other game under similar conditions? Granted, few other games will shun your GPU for the CPU, but it might still be a video card driver problem.

Also, with FFXI, what in-game settings are you using for bitmaps, 3D rendering distance, shadows, weather, etc.?

[[Vax]]

That sounds reasonable for a Core2 Duo recording setup. Hmm.

Have you tried using FRAPS in any other game under similar conditions? Granted, few other games will shun your GPU for the CPU, but it might still be a video card driver problem.

Also, with FFXI, what in-game settings are you using for bitmaps, 3D rendering distance, shadows, weather, etc.?

Well all of the FFXI IG settings depend on what I'm doing. Usually when I'm trying to record I have weather, shadows and other things off. Drawdistance would be set to normal...

Let me shoot ya a PM~