Recording game footage - A Complete n00bs guide

So you want to show your skills to the world? But don't know how? This is the place to be. This guide explains step-by-step how to capture your gaming footage.

GAME FOOTAGE

First thing you need when making a video is some in-game action you want to show the world. I suggest you don't use any third party software at this point, for the following reasons;

1. Such applications may slow your game down, making it unplayable.
2. They capture uncompressed video, taking up a large amount of disk space. Recording via the in-game demo feature uses less disk space because it doesn't save the picture itself, but stores the parameters. These parameters are then read by the game-engine when the user wishes to play them back.
3. Resolution can't be changed without loss of quality, or re-recording the whole event.

In conclusion: Use the in-game demo option.

RECORDING DEMOS

Call of Duty: United Offensive

• Bring down the console by pressing either the ~ or ` key.
• Type /record
• When you are finished recording, bring down the console again and type /stoprecord.
• Default location is: C:\Program Files\Call of Duty\uo\demos

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• Bring down the console by pressing either the ~ or ` key.
• Type /record
• When you are finished recording, bring down the console again and type /stoprecord.
• Default location is: C:\Program Files\Activision\Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare\main\demos

PLAY BACK

Call of Duty: United Offensive

1. Start Call of Duty: United Offensive.
2. Bring down the console and type /demo DEMONAME (typical demo names are demo0000, demo0001, demo0002 etc.)

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

CoD4 does not allow you to playback demos that are stored in the main directory. There is a simple work around for this;

1. Copy (or move) your demos from CoD4 Directory/main/demos to CoD4 Directory/Mods/ModWarfare/demos.
2. Start Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, click on Mods.
3. Load ModWarfare.
4. Bring down the console and type /demo DEMONAME (typical demo names are demo0000, demo0001, demo0002 etc.)

CAPTURING YOUR PLAYBACK

Fraps - Download here

The free version records for a limited period of time (30 seconds) and watermarks your videos. The paid version allows for unlimited recording time and removal of the watermark. Once installed;

1. Go to the Movies tab and choose your Folder to save movies in. Ensure you have sufficient room on your hard drive, because the output will be uncompressed, and therefore large.
2. Sound - You can choose to record in-game sound or not (for example if you want to play music instead).
3. FPS - The higher the FPS (Frames Per Second) the smoother your footage will appear, but the more disk space it will consume.
4. Remember your video Capture Hotkey (Default is F9).
5. Open your selected game, you should see yellow numbers in one of the corners of the screen, this is the FPS.
6. To record, press your video Capture Hotkey, the numbers should turn red.
7. To stop recording, press your video Capture Hotkey again, the numbers should return to yellow.

GameCam

• Some info.

Xfire

• Some info.

COMPRESSION

You should now have one (or multiple) large file(s) in your designated folder. You have three options;

1. Compress now, without editing.
   • You're happy with your game footage and want to share it as quick as possible.
2. Compress, then edit.
   • You want to edit your video, but don't want to work with large files that may slow down your computer.
3. First edit, then compress the final output.
   • This is the way to go if you want the very best quality, but will require a high spec PC.

Popular compression formats are: DivX, XviD and WMV.
You can probably compress the video with Windows Movie Maker (which comes with Windows). Or you can use a third party application, like: TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress ($), AutoGordianKnot (Free!). For encoding and decoding I suggest FFDshow.

EDITING

If you chose option one in "Compression" then you can skip this stage and go straight to uploading. If you choose either option two or three then continue reading.

Windows Movie Maker

• Some info.

VirtualDub

• Some info.

Adobe After Effects

• Some info.

UPLOADING

Finally, upload your video to GamingPerfection!

Good Luck!