I'm using FRAPS only when watching replays. And for recording i set the screen resolution to 640x480. Videos in higher resolution doesn't make sense imo.
You are saying that when you record with fraps in GTR and in very high resolution the FPS doesn't drop? Or, do you mean when the fraps is on, running on the backround?
I see, when i use fraps the video file after a race is ridiculously big, much bigger than the LFS oilder itself!!! i use virtual dub to compress it to divx but the quality becomes alot poorer, any ideas how i can keep the quality to a good standard and the file size down ?
Never had a problem with fraps either recording or just showing FPS. Says 120 in LFS which is right and doesnt lag me out either if i record. (1024x768 windowed)
You will have to learn virtual dub, and the divx plugin. You can make nearly lossless movies (in a relatively small output file), but it will take hours to convert your fraps movie, then. Its learning by doing, but start out reading about it.
Interesting question, and I can't be totally sure my understanding is correct but I believe that capturing the image, even though it is stored on the graphics card, is a CPU+system bus intensive task.
Unlike glosssy arcade games you buy in the shops LFS is a very serious simulation with advanced physics so this hits the CPU more more intesively than a shader derived, modularly coded cut & paste code joby produced by a commercial software team which spends most of it's time talking to the graphics card.
For this reason when running LFS the effect of Fraps on the processor and system bus is manifesting itself to a far greater degree.
Nah, no AA or anthing, dont see a point tbh. Racing, im going to be going fast so its going to be wooshing past, which to the naked eye will be blurry, why get AA and AF to lag me up more to do the same sort of job plus some other smoothing extras i dont really look at / care about when racing?
Some peoples PC's (Mine included) have issues with Fraps and LFS. No matter what settings/res I use I get no more than 10FPS, when I can easily get 30fps solid in other games while recording.
The solution to this is to change to a 16bit video mode... Then viola!
I have a reasonably fast system, with hyperthreading enabled. Both fraps and the driver for my ATI video card will take advantage of hyperthreading. I used to record full size with the game set to 640x480, but I find I get better quality recording at half size with the game set to 1280x960, letting Fraps do the equivalent of anti-aliasing when it reduces the screen size by a factor of 4 (1/2 width, 1/2 height).
Although it's a bit annoying, setting refresh rate to 60hz, with fraps running at 30hz seems to also help.
Afterwards, Windows Movie Maker should be good enough to convert the AVI into a reasonable sized .WMV file without any issue.
I use Adobe Premier Pro 1.51, but it's expensive, and unless you need multiple videos on the screen at the same time, it's doesn't help much.
I haven't made a LFS video in a while, but will make another soon. In the meantime here's are dual view ones from one of those older other "... for speed" games, graphics isn't modern, but it is colorful and has a cool "feel":
Ok, I made another LFS video, the 52.10 hotlap of a BF1 at BL. Set ansiotropic filter to 16x. No anti-aliasing, since fraps does the equivalent when doing half size video. Screen at 1280x960x32-60hz, fraps at half size, 30fps. I checked the frame rate of LFS when doing a capture and it drops down to 30 fps, which lucky for me, just matches the fraps capture rate. With fraps off, it's just over 90 fps with AF set to 16x. Converted to a WMV file using Premiere. Ended up pretty clean. When I get the time, I'll make a dual view video, adding chase view to the bottom of this one.
I tried this 16 bit mode - No improvement !?
Fraps stinks, as a piece of software. Maby because there is no competing programme on the market.
I have tried using the tv out from one machine, to another. The picture quality is not to good, but framerate is just the same, as in the game.
The only way one can get this fraps working reasonably, is turning playback speed down to 1/2 or 1/4, but this make mega big output files !?
I don`t know how big computers we need, to get divx files out of the process - But I know it is a very craving process for the computer. Is there anybody out there, who has another solution, when we speak of recording Lfs replays ?
Nice flickerfree movie. But you can do better in the same size of file, with divx, xvid, mpeg4.
The visual quality is just a bit over average. Best possible would be same quality as in the game. I had some exsamples on divx movies from fraps, but they are sitting on my 200Gb sata HD which went on strike a month ago. :-(
True, but with .WMV files you can watch them while streaming them instead of having to download the entire file. Plus the source has a lot to do with quality:
Souped up porche at road america (from Sony HC1 hi-def cam, but 1920x1080 too big for most computers): ra.wmv
I don't have the original, but I'm uploading a 1365x768 right now. You using a CRT monitor (like me), or are there high end flat panel displays now? I've got an HC1, will see if I have any videos worth watching.
