FRAPS Super Fuzzy

[Kiisuke]

I really don't understand this now.

I installed FFXI on my laptop which can BARELY run the game (it lags even selecting a character) and tried FRAPS on it for kicks, thinking it'd look the same (or worse) than what it does for this machine...and.... holy crap the difference. The raw video looks just like the game should. The text is perfectly clear, no fuzziness at all. Everything is amazing..

Then I tried to match all the settings on THIS machine to try again and.. no change. Still so fuzzy it feels like I need glasses.

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.

I have a feeling this is EXACTLY what it is..but the question is, how do I fix it?? It's not like FRAPS has a whole lot of options to choose from.


I just can't wrap my head around the fact that a laptop that just barely meets the requirements to even turn the game on can record better than a state of the art machine (well, was when I got it a few months ago). *face palm*


Unfortunately just recording what I need to on the laptop really isn't an option. Like I said, it barely runs the game. I only intended to use the laptop to camp an NM that doesn't require much moving. I need to fix FRAPS on the desktop.

[Araelus]

(1) Have you confirmed that the desktop FRAPS is recording at half resolution?

(2) If FRAPS really is downsizing the recording, then try recording with your background resolution set differently. Note that if you're running an LCD it won't be at native resolution anymore. This could actually make things worse. >_>;

(3) If it still won't record at full res, go back to your monitor at native resolution, but try recording in FFXI with a resolution that is under 1152x720 (which is gibbledegook but you get what I mean) in other words, a resolution that does not exceed either the max horizontal pixels of 4:3 format or the max vertical pixels of 16:9 format.

(4) If it's still not recording at full res, try FRAPS on a different game. Although I had difficulty troubleshooting Vax's problem because he didn't have any other game on the computer that FRAPS would load into...

Good luck.

[Kiisuke]

(1) Have you confirmed that the desktop FRAPS is recording at half resolution?

According to the file it's recording at full size but it looks like it's half-size in terms of quality.

(2) If FRAPS really is downsizing the recording, then try recording with your background resolution set differently. Note that if you're running an LCD it won't be at native resolution anymore. This could actually make things worse. >_>;

I am using an LCD monitor. I doubt it'll help ;-;

(3) If it still won't record at full res, go back to your monitor at native resolution, but try recording in FFXI with a resolution that is under 1152x720 (which is gibbledegook but you get what I mean) in other words, a resolution that does not exceed either the max horizontal pixels of 4:3 format or the max vertical pixels of 16:9 format.

I've tried multiple FFXI resolutions. I even copied what my laptop is set to (the default 800x600) and tried that. Just fuzzy and small.

(4) If it's still not recording at full res, try FRAPS on a different game. Although I had difficulty troubleshooting Vax's problem because he didn't have any other game on the computer that FRAPS would load into...

Good luck.

Yeah.. that might be a problem with me too. I'll see if I have anything that'll work.

[Kiisuke]

SCRATCH THAT!

Hate to double post back to back but I think I know the problem now. It's not FRAPS. It's media player.

I copied a raw file I captured over to the laptop and watched it on there and it was perfect quality, the way it should be. I double checked it again on the desktop and it's playing back fuzzy.

I don't know why media player (both windows media player and media player classic) is playing back the video as stupidly fuzzy while the one on the desktop isn't. Hm..

[Araelus]

Oh! Yes. WMP is kind of odd with the FRAPS output. Load it up in VirtualDub to make 100% sure, since that program does not have a problem with interframe compression. Contrast and saturation balance may be funny, fair warning.

[fishstix]

could be a difference of the codecies installed

[Araelus]

Hmm. Only if he's doing something to the .avi FRAPS outputs before running it in Windows Media Player. FRAPS should have installed its own codec, since it records to a proprietary format (despite the generic .avi container format file extension). Nevertheless, I am interested in hearing what the actual problem was/is ...

[Kiisuke]

Figured it out.

Apparently deinterlacing and FRAPS don't like each other. I went into the codec control for when AVIs play and turned that off and now it looks great. Huh. It's the small things that get you, I guess.

[Araelus]

Figured it out.

Apparently deinterlacing and FRAPS don't like each other. I went into the codec control for when AVIs play and turned that off and now it looks great. Huh. It's the small things that get you, I guess.

I would never have guessed that was the problem. >_< Unless you're recording from a CRT monitor you don't need deinterlacing. Glad to hear it's fixed. :D Have fun recording!

[fishstix]

Thanks for the tips on the resolution, got it working perfect finally
YouTube - Dynamis Valkurm

[SnickySnacks]

Thanks for the tips on the resolution, got it working perfect finally
YouTube - Dynamis Valkurm

It really bugs me that youtube doesn't include a HQ option for HD videos. My laptop won't play HD videos (at least not with FFXI running)...

At least adding fmt=18 still works. The video looks great in HD, though...just runs at 1fps for me.

[Darkanaseur]

I got another problem with FRAPs, when I click to record my FPS drops to 4ish instantly. Never happened before with the older version. Any suggestions?

[Araelus]

Thanks for the tips on the resolution, got it working perfect finally
YouTube - Dynamis Valkurm

I'm glad it worked! "IM NOT COUNTING TO 45 EVER AGAIN" hahaha~

I got another problem with FRAPs, when I click to record my FPS drops to 4ish instantly. Never happened before with the older version. Any suggestions?

Same slew of questions as for the OP - are you running at higher background resolution than normal, are you running more than one CPU core, does FRAPS ground out the FPS in other games under similar settings to FFXI?

[fishstix]

Haha yeah, I've had that guy on our 2nd rdm/drk rotation 45s after start time, on the past 2 zergs we've done, and he hasnt been able to 2hr.

[Darkanaseur]

1280 x 800 resolution, windower set to same value. Regedit to 1536. Background resolution in FFXIconfig set to 1024, but it just shows as blank.
Dont play other PC games

[Araelus]

1280 x 800 resolution, windower set to same value. Regedit to 1536. Background resolution in FFXIconfig set to 1024, but it just shows as blank.
Dont play other PC games

Tough to say, with no other games to compare it to. You said older versions of FRAPS didn't crash the framerate? Check the Windows Task Manager and see what's going on with CPU usage when you turn on recording. It may be overtaxing the system. If CPU is at 100% before FRAPS turns on, it can't do much more. Try turning down FFXI settings (or do you have more than one CPU core?)

[Darkanaseur]

At about 70% CPU usage, 100% after I turn it on.
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU

[Araelus]

Odd. FFXI shouldn't be able to use more than 50% (maxing the one core). Something is up and I don't know if I can diagnose it. Is there any way you can borrow another game from a friend and test FRAPS on it?

Would have to wait till tomorrow, unless emulators are ok

EDIT: Anything else FRAPS will record in is fine. Just see if it can record there without dropping the frame rate so low.

[Darkanaseur]

Would have to wait till tomorrow, unless emulators are ok

[Darkanaseur]

Eh, works fine on other stuff, just FFXI.
Now it works when I turn off shadows lol, didn't before