Little bit stumped on video capture

Hi all.

I studied film making in university, so I'm not worried about using the /demorecord to change poses in-game, as I've storyboarded a one-minute 'ad' for my SG. I intend to use edited in-game footage to get my shots, but I'm a bit confused on two points:

1)Using either FRAPS or Windows Video Encoder (I have Movie Maker on my PC, so editing isn't an issue), is it just a matter of using the program directly when the game is running? I'm a little confused on how that works.

2) Obviously to have an uncluttered screen, I need to have my screen emptied of various bars and am wondering aside fromt the obvious hotkeys if there are specific commands to do so and also restore them after filming.

Any comments and questions about this welcome.

S.

I tried messing with that video encoder a few months back, figuring I could stick it into the Demo Launcher or something. Yuck. It might be good for recording demos of how you use Word or Autocad but it was getting under one frame per second in City of Heroes.

FRAPS is a good one (and very handy for taking screenshots in games that don't make screenshots easy) but you'll have to pay for it if you want really good recordings. I think I'll be using http://www.wegame.com to do mine.

Demorecord is a completely different animal. There's lots of info on ParagonWiki about them.

To get rid of windows, just go up to the health bar and menu window (the status window) and turn things off except for the chat window and, of course, the status window itself. Now go down to the chat window and do a "/window_hide status". Poof, the status window is gone. Then press the C key to hide your chat window. To bring things back, press the C key again to bring your chat window back, do a "/show status" to bring back the status window, then use that to bring everything else back. (Or you can press \ to bring the menu back if you forget how to bring your chat window back.)

If you're worried, make a new character somewhere and test it out. It's what I did.

The simplest and fastest way to get from demo to video is, of course, using something like FRAPS while playing the game. As for getting rid of all of the UI clutter, I'd playback a /demorecord and record that with your screen capture software. Alternatively, you can dump the demo into a series of screenshots and compile that into a video format, but that's more labor intensive and uses a lot of hard drive space.

Pretty much all of the basic how-to on demos is in the aforementioned wiki article, but I'd like to point out that Zloth's demo launcher is extremely useful for demo playback and a few other things. You can find links both in the wiki article and Zloth's signature.

Thanks guys! I went the Fraps/shut down of windows route and did a test movie which recorded perfectly....I have a reasonably powerful PC for this game (AMD 2.4 gig, 2 gig of RAM, 7600GS nvidia card) so recording and playback was as smooth as silk, and I don't forsee any issues with the editing process once I get the raw footage sorted out. I wouldn't mind extra video options from Movie Maker, but I guess that's why the other programs are listed....

Anyways, thanks again, guys.

S.

Just an FYI to SuperOz...

I personally use the demorecord feature and then play it back using Zloth's Demo Player so I can remove the HUD. The only time I record in-game stuff using FRAPS is when I need to record the passage of time (ie, the sun or moon moving across the sky), because that is the one thing it seems a /demorecord will not capture.

In that instance, your best option is to close all HUDs save the top righthand one (the one with your menu) and FRAPS-film the scene, then crop your footage in the editing program of your choice.

Michelle
aka
Samuraiko/Dark_Respite

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2) Obviously to have an uncluttered screen, I need to have my screen emptied of various bars and am wondering aside fromt the obvious hotkeys if there are specific commands to do so and also restore them after filming.

[/ QUOTE ]

/bind f12 ++disable2d

Hit F12 to make the entire 2D interface dissapear, F12 again to get it back. Remember, two plus signs.

[ QUOTE ]
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2) Obviously to have an uncluttered screen, I need to have my screen emptied of various bars and am wondering aside fromt the obvious hotkeys if there are specific commands to do so and also restore them after filming.

[/ QUOTE ]

/bind f12 ++disable2d

Hit F12 to make the entire 2D interface dissapear, F12 again to get it back. Remember, two plus signs.

[/ QUOTE ]

The keybind is also in your Options menu.

Gah! How did I miss that command? I need to add that to my common binds. Thanks!

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
2) Obviously to have an uncluttered screen, I need to have my screen emptied of various bars and am wondering aside fromt the obvious hotkeys if there are specific commands to do so and also restore them after filming.

[/ QUOTE ]

/bind f12 ++disable2d

Hit F12 to make the entire 2D interface dissapear, F12 again to get it back. Remember, two plus signs.

[/ QUOTE ]

The keybind is also in your Options menu.

[/ QUOTE ]

Aye, in the last section under keybinds is "Disable UI". I bound mine to the + sign and have my FRAPS toggle as the - sign. Makes things very easy.