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Geek Culture / Recording your game

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FieldDoc
21
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Joined: 30th May 2003
Location: London, UK
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 02:53
How can I record my game in action, perhaps to make a tutorial for it? I know it's possible but I don't know what software I need.

Thanks,

Shadow Robert
22
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 05:57
well there are a few ways... first is to just dump the backbuffer per Nth frames into an open file.

next way would be to get a third party version of that.
i had a pretty damn good one about a month ago, i'll try to fish it out - it was called River Past Screen Recorder from Astrum, can't remember the website.

but you'll need a DAMN good processor to get it decently as well as enough ram.
i'd recommend atleast 1.3ghz (or atleast 800mhz above the game specs) ... and you'll need around 128mb per resolution double.

ie 640x480x32 = 128mb 1024x768x32 = 256mb etc...
also you'll need large FAST harddisk for realtime use - for anything under 5mins then keep around 20gb free and try to make sure its as fast as possible, so a DMA/100 7200rpm drive with a 2mb cache would be helpful - but the faster the better as this reduces the time it need to record the data in raw format (doesn't compress whilst taking pics, compresses once you finish)
it also records sound at the same time (you'll need to tag on another 300mhz for that on what you've already calculated, 500mhz if you want stereo)

but its definately the best thats really out there unless your willing to spend alot of money. Free version is fully functionality (almost cept for a few video compressors) for 30days and its only $20-30 to register

CloseToPerfect
21
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Joined: 20th Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 06:00
CAM STUDIO, it's free and works quite well. video and audio

http://www.ehelp.com/camstudio/product/screenrecording/
BatVink
Moderator
21
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Joined: 4th Apr 2003
Location: Gods own County, UK
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 12:19
An alternative is to record the positions and actions of everything in code, and write a replay routine that uses this data to do a Machinima style re-run of the action. This is how Carmageddon did it.

The data being saved will be a fraction of actually screen-dumping the action.

Van B
Moderator
22
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 12:30 Edited at: 19th Sep 2003 12:34
If you want action replays then you should check out the source for Stoked in the code snippets forum. Because each game lasts for 120 seconds, and the frame rate is 30 fps - I only needed 3600 recorded positions. I stored the XYZ position of the player, the frame, the action (part of the internal animation system) and the X and Y angles for each position. Obviously you'd need a lot more memory for enemy positions etc - which is why action replays are best for sports games. I updated the replay routine in Stoked before uploading the source - so now it has fast forward, rewind, slow motion etc. If you want to record to a video, you'd probably be better off doing it with a similar system, record yourself playing the game - then save the data to a file. After that you can play the file back while recording the video - it'd be pretty tough to play it convincingly while recording because of the lag, recording to memory first means you can record the video without worrying about speed, perhaps even put the detail levels right up too.


Van-B

My cats breath smells of cat food.
Van B
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22
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Joined: 8th Oct 2002
Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 12:36
Ohh, btw - I suggest saving each frame as a seperate bitmap then using a program to compile them into an AVI file - which can be easily converted to an .MPEG movie with a soundtrack using free software.


Van-B

My cats breath smells of cat food.
FieldDoc
21
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Joined: 30th May 2003
Location: London, UK
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 15:43
Pricey
21
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Joined: 22nd Feb 2003
Location:
Posted: 19th Sep 2003 21:12
i'm download that cam studio right now!

My programs don't crash... your computer does

http://johnsgamesuk.topcities.com
CloseToPerfect
21
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Joined: 20th Dec 2002
Location: United States
Posted: 20th Sep 2003 02:51
cam studio is very nice, heartbone showed it to me, thanks heartbone.

CTP
heartbone
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Joined: 9th Nov 2002
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2003 08:18
I'm glad that you appreciated it Close To Perfect.
That's what these forums are for,
helping each other solve our technical problems,
and learning.

The more you see, the more you know.
The more you know, the more you see.

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