Making a video demo of your game
by Joseph Mueller · in General Discussion · 10/05/2012 (9:04 am) · 7 replies
Greetings to all! I'm at the point where I need to make a video demo of my game. I've seen some pretty good demos posted on the forums, and was curious if anyone would care to share how they did it. I know about FRAPS, are there any comparable or better products you prefer? Thanks!
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#2
10/05/2012 (9:46 am)
Just to clarify, T3D does not have video recorder. What ahsan is referring to the demo recorder (which is an old feature from TGE and rather poorly named). The demo recorder more of a journaling system that will record player actions so the engine can play them back later. It can be useful for things like an instant replay feature in your game, but not for making videos of the game. Though you could use it to record a play session and the play it back later to have FRAPS capture it. 
#3
Then compression in VirtualDub (free) using x/h264 (can't remember which off top of my head) codec to get a reasonable filesize for uploading.
10/05/2012 (9:47 am)
FRAPS with framerate capture >30 for smoothness.Then compression in VirtualDub (free) using x/h264 (can't remember which off top of my head) codec to get a reasonable filesize for uploading.
#4
I recommend FRAPS and I also found CamStudio just recently: camstudio.org/. Both work well and CamStudio is totally free and Open Source.
Some recommendations when capturing the video:
1. Turn off or close any programs not associated with the game or the capture software.
2. Capture at at a decent resolution but, maintain a frame rate of at lest 30fps. as an example: YouTube HD will require you to capture at least a 1280 X 720 frame in order to present a 720p image. Bigger the better. I highly recommend you get some editing software as well. It helps make the presentation look more professional in the long run. You can usually find something that works fairly cheap in places like Walmart or Target or other box stores that have electronics and consumer software. I personally use Vegas Studio 11. I think I picked that up for around $70 and honestly it's overkill for game captures but I use it for other things.
That should be a good starting point for you. Good luck.
Ron
10/05/2012 (10:15 am)
Joseph,I recommend FRAPS and I also found CamStudio just recently: camstudio.org/. Both work well and CamStudio is totally free and Open Source.
Some recommendations when capturing the video:
1. Turn off or close any programs not associated with the game or the capture software.
2. Capture at at a decent resolution but, maintain a frame rate of at lest 30fps. as an example: YouTube HD will require you to capture at least a 1280 X 720 frame in order to present a 720p image. Bigger the better. I highly recommend you get some editing software as well. It helps make the presentation look more professional in the long run. You can usually find something that works fairly cheap in places like Walmart or Target or other box stores that have electronics and consumer software. I personally use Vegas Studio 11. I think I picked that up for around $70 and honestly it's overkill for game captures but I use it for other things.
That should be a good starting point for you. Good luck.
Ron
#5
10/05/2012 (11:08 am)
Thanks to all for your quick replies! @Ron- camstudio sounds promising, I will give it a shot along with FRAPS. Hopefully I will have some results to post soon.
#6
I use Microsoft Encoder because that is the only program that didn't screw up the codecs :P
10/05/2012 (11:45 am)
@Scott it does have a theora video capture built in. However it tends to slow down the game so much that it is not really usefull (the playback is fine however)I use Microsoft Encoder because that is the only program that didn't screw up the codecs :P
#7
10/05/2012 (1:46 pm)
I've been using CamStudio for a while, but I found I couldn't make the settings work for me - maybe I just need a beefier rig. I've recently switched to FRAPS and it's very impressive - I get great captures right out of the box. The files it generates are massive, of course, so I combine and render them down in Blender. 
Ahsan Muzaheed
Default Studio Name
t3d have a own video recoder.
(alt +c) and that script function for recoding did good job for me.