Video Capture

[ncc1701e]

Im just wondering what kind of software some of the guys in our community are using for video capture. I don't know too much about making x-plane videos but wanted to try my hand at it. Is there any freeware package out there which will capture video and audio for a beginner to experiment with? I use a PC (Windows).

Thanks

[Kesomir]

Fraps

http://www.fraps.com/

[OlaHaldor]

Yes, I use Fraps too. I bought it years ago. I know they have a freeware version, not sure what the limitations are though. It's well worth the $ it costs.

[Oliver]

Yes, I use Fraps too. I bought it years ago. I know they have a freeware version, not sure what the limitations are though. It's well worth the $ it costs.

The limitations of the freeware are that it only records 30 second clips. I use Fraps as well and it is a great tool!

[Simmo W]

Yes, I use Fraps too. I bought it years ago. I know they have a freeware version, not sure what the limitations are though. It's well worth the $ it costs.

The limitations of the freeware are that it only records 30 second clips. I use Fraps as well and it is a great tool!

Yep, and it has that little watermark up top, but it's easy to crop out.

I prefer to just use the built in QuickTime recorder, no sound but there are creative ways around that, plus fps is much smoother.

[NoutvanZon]

Given I am on a Mac I cannot user fraps.

For this reason I use Screenflow. Equally worth the money. Great software.

[ncc1701e]

Thanks for all the great advice guys. When recording videos longer than 3.9GB I've notice that fraps will truncate the video into multiple files. Is there a way to append these files together to make the video continuous?

[Simmo W]

Easy, just use a video editor to splice the tracks together. I use Sony Vegas home, I'd love to use iMovie, but I'm pc based.

If you get into movie making, you might end up like me and leave 90% of your takes on the cutting room floor anyway

[OlaHaldor]

Capnsully-SimonW, i tried using the QT recording once, but the resolution was like 200px wide. Didn't find a way to adjust that.

Anyway, Screenflow is a very nice app indeed. If you can wait a few more weeks, we'll have Final Cut X too. Should be a great tool to edit on.

[Warmbrak]

I can also recommend Fraps highly. Looking at a lot of the X-Plane videos out there, I often wonder which techniques have been used in game to make to get the shots. Are there view plugins involved, how is panning/camera movement done smoothly etc?

[Oliver]

I can also recommend Fraps highly. Looking at a lot of the X-Plane videos out there, I often wonder which techniques have been used in game to make to get the shots. Are there view plugins involved, how is panning/camera movement done smoothly etc?

It's mainly just experience. Unfortunately there isn't many video enhancing plugins. It just takes time to master the smooth panning and shooting.

Oliver

-Sent from my iPad

[Simmo W]

I can also recommend Fraps highly. Looking at a lot of the X-Plane videos out there, I often wonder which techniques have been used in game to make to get the shots. Are there view plugins involved, how is panning/camera movement done smoothly etc?

It's mainly just experience. Unfortunately there isn't many video enhancing plugins. It just takes time to master the smooth panning and shooting.

Oliver

-Sent from my iPad

Summed it up perfectly Oliver. Learn to use Cntrl-O and freebies cam.

Typed on my iPhone 3GS to be shredded on receipt of iPhone 5

[Warmbrak]

Good feedback, thanks guys (Sorry for the slight hijack of your post here ncc1701e).

Can one disable the replay controls at the top of the screen so that they don't to show up when doing captures (during a replay of course)?

[Oliver]

Good feedback, thanks guys (Sorry for the slight hijack of your post here ncc1701e).

Can one disable the replay controls at the top of the screen so that they don't to show up when doing captures (during a replay of course)?

I don't believe it's possible, it needs to be cropped out later during the editing of the video.

Oliver

Sent from my iPad

[OlaHaldor]

I record in 1920x1200 or 1280x800. Plenty of room to leave the replay control bar out of frame.

I used ChaseView a lot on the Dash 8 video.

[Keith Smith]

I use DXTORY, a tool from Japan that specifically records OpenGL apps, dumping the images directly out of the buffer (apparently).  It has the ability to capture audio from multiple sound devices, with each channel being captured as a separate audio track in the resulting video file.

It also captures in RAW format, using tons of space, but excellent visual quality. If you have drives that can keep up, it does a good job and uses comparatively little CPU in the process.

Here's a video that shows the video quality, and has two separate audio tracks: