[Computer Games] Capturing and Rendering Quality Video

Constrictor

I want to capture and render computer video game footage with high quality, without making the file size too large, if possible.

The purpose of the video would be to share with friends/interested parties, upload to youtube, etc.

I have Fraps for raw footage capture and would probably use Sony Vegas for rendering and editing.

I would like to know what codec is best to use, how to download/install, and use the codec, what settings to capture in (framerate, native resolution).

I have seen some videos out there with reasonable bit rates that have incredible quality and would like to reproduce these results without doing 100 trial and error sessions with various codecs, bit rates, and other settings.

Does anyone have any expericence doing this or know any good guides out there?

StrifeRaZoR

What I've done in the past is basically what you're doing. FRAPS to capture the video, then Sony Vegas to render/compress it into a simple MPEG4 file. Although, much like you're doing now, I had to sit there and spend an entire day compressing files over and over with Vegas trying to find a good mix between quality and file size. Here's what I've noticed:

When compressing a file in Vegas, it's almost always beneficial to use a custom setting. It's been a while since I've used Vegas, but I believe that the XVID compression is actually very nice. I also learned that the audio is a big deal. I believe I used standard MPEG3 compression 44,000khz 128kbit. That does sound familiar. Another thing I did was Windows Movie Maker (Came with Windows Vista, so why not?). After I add any editing to the video with Vegas (chopping, cutting, overlays, text, effects, etc...) I just slap the final file into Windows Movie Maker and tell it to render a WMV file that "this computer can handle". Basically what I get is an original edited .mpg file that was about 500MB and great quality that has no been turned into a 40MB WMV file that somehow kept it's quality.

I don't know the magic behind that, but it's worked in the past. Here's a quick example of something I uploaded using that method:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mji6M9XqfT8

The quality is pretty nice, and so is the audio. I'll do some more research on Vegas today and give you the exact settings.

Edit: I just figured out how to do Spoiler Tags. I don't post here often...more of a lurker. I feel FANCY!

Constrictor

StrifeRaZoR wrote: »

snip

Awesome. If you could tell me the exact settings you render in, that would be appreciated.

i.e. resolution, other tweaks.

StrifeRaZoR

Installing Vegas as we speak. I had forgotten that I formatted a few weeks ago. I'll definitely have the settings to you by tomorrow. I have a rough idea of what they are, I just need to confirm them

StrifeRaZoR

Alright, so apparently I do not have the XVID or DIVX encoding options. (apparently I didn't download their codecs.) But there is some good news. I did some experimenting and found another great option for you to use. I'll post the details below:

Save as Type: Windows Video Media V9 (*.wmv)
Click the custom button to the right.
Video Rendering Quality: Best (If you want to lower file size, experiment with this one)
Audio Tab at Bottom: Mode: CBR. Format: Windows Media Audio 9.2. Attributes: 128kbps, 44,000 khz, Stereo (A/V CBR) (Once again, experiment to lower file size)

Video Tab at bottom: Mode: Quality VBR. Format: Windows Media video 9. Image Size: DVD Quality (640 x 480). Frame Rate (Default, 29.970 NTSC). Quality slider should be at 90%. (Another tab to experiment with).

So basically, the end result? A 1.6 GB file rendered with FRAPS compressed to a 55MB WMV. I didn't even have to use Windows Movie Maker. Here's the end result in spoiler tags:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlEUikStvb8

Quality was preserved, so was the audio. The rending quality was 640x480, but you can experiment. This is the basics though. Apparently the newer versions of Vegas are pretty powerful and can render/compress these pretty nicely.

Be sure to post here what you've uploaded. Their original FRAPS file sizes and their compressed (uploaded to YouTube) file sizes. These are just the basics man. It'll definitely save you the trouble of rendering the same video a thousand times over to get the perfect settings. Hope they helped!

Fantasma

There are to methods to achieve the highest quality. Pros use a second computer to capture the Video-Out from the gaming machine video card using the S-Video connection in raw format, the raw format is then edited cropping and cutting and if necessary resizing to a more suitable screen size.

The edited video is then compressed in avi format using Xvid, Divx or directly to mp4. I use Virtualdub and the lame audio codec for compression.

The second method is using the gaming machine for storing the raw video and audio, but saving this data to a second hard disk (SATA) using FRAPs.

The first one is a little tedious, but provides better quality without stressing the gaming machine.

Constrictor

I use fraps to capture to a second hard drive.

The primary HDD is solid state and has the OS/Applications on it.

The capture HDD is a SATA drive.

I'll give this all a try and let you know my results.

Thanks again all who helped.