PC recording device advice

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Bocaj2000

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I plan on making a series of videos that deconstruct various video games and their series to discuss academic topics, starting with Mass Effect. However I need gaming footage. I am willing to record this myself, but I need advice on which software to use, both free and paid software advice is welcome. Another welcome topic is people whose permission I can ask to use their footage.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Fraps is pretty standard and free. It's a bit of a resource drain, but if your computer can handle it then it's not a bad choice. Pretty easy to use, and free. It's especially nice if you're just looking to record short clips rather than long gameplay sessions.
 

Private Custard

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If you have an nvidia card, you could give shadowplay a go. I hear it's very cpu-friendly as it does the work on the card.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/geforce-experience/shadowplay
 

DefunctTheory

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I have the payed version of Fraps (I actually did pay), and I can say it works well. It does, however, not compress anything as it records.

The only other software I've ever used is Overwolf. Do not use Overwolf.
 

mad825

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Dirty Hipsters said:
Fraps is pretty standard and free. It's a bit of a resource drain, but if your computer can handle it then it's not a bad choice.
I found that recording onto the same storage device as you're playing on will cause resource issues otherwise it runs smoothly. limiting the FPS to approximately 28-32 FPS will save quite a bit of storage space without reducing the quality that's possible on Youtube.
 

Bocaj2000

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Private Custard said:
If you have an nvidia card, you could give shadowplay a go. I hear it's very cpu-friendly as it does the work on the card.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/geforce-experience/shadowplay
Thanks for letting me know. I'll be checking this out and will probably use this primarily.

If all else fails, I will use Fraps or maybe buy Movavi (probably won't come to that)

AccursedTheory said:
The only other software I've ever used is Overwolf. Do not use Overwolf.
Story time?
 

MintSM

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Camtasia is an awesome screen recorder. Kind of pricey, though. Unlike FRAPS, it's not limited to recording a single window at the same time; it completely records the screen, and comes with its own editing software.

But if you're looking for gaming footage, you could always look up commentary-free longplays of the games you're looking for. They pretty much did all the work just for you. :D
 
Jun 13, 2011
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Bocaj2000 said:
Private Custard said:
If you have an nvidia card, you could give shadowplay a go. I hear it's very cpu-friendly as it does the work on the card.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/geforce-experience/shadowplay
Thanks for letting me know. I'll be checking this out and will probably use this primarily.

If all else fails, I will use Fraps or maybe buy Movavi (probably won't come to that)

AccursedTheory said:
The only other software I've ever used is Overwolf. Do not use Overwolf.
Story time?
Shadowplay is amazing. I use it sometimes when I want to show my friends what happened in a game, and there's no resource drain from what I could see.
 

drednoahl

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I use obs for both recording and streaming and prefer it to fraps or dxtory (surprising given that obs is free.) Dxtory is good but doesn't work with a lot of games, fraps is really heavy on system resources but outputs really high quality. Obs is kind of in between the two (at least on my rig) and converts what you've recorded automatically.

https://obsproject.com/ for the software

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-record-with-obs-add-a-webcam-text-settings-explained-video.80/ for a good (imo) tutorial to set up for recording.

You can even set up obs to do things like have an opening screen on the fly so there is less need to edit later. Worth a look in my opinion. If you watch the tutorial first you'll probably get an idea whether obs is what you are looking for or not.