Is fraps worth the cost?

[Zahri]

Hallo people of the escapist, I'm sure at least one of you knows me by now.

Going straight to the point, I would like to be an LPer, but sadly, do not possess any form of recording software.

So i ask, would fraps be suitable on a computer with an ATI 4850 Graphics card, 4 GB of RAM, and a 3.0 GHz Quad core processor?

What's more, can it record audio from a headset? As in both from a game and the microphone? I tried with CamStudio once, but it failed in that respect, so it worries meh.

Please help me escapist, i loves you <3

-offers all people who reply a cookie-

 

[Hazy]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
I say this, because some of the video files (as, with full, you're not limited to 30 seconds,) can get really big.

If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

 

[lacktheknack]

Try the demo. That's what it's there for.

If you like what you get in the 30 second clips the demo lets you take, then buy it.

 

[Zahri]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

Thank you, don't forget your cookie. =3

Any other input?

 

[lacktheknack]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

Recording with FRAPS actually does slow your FPS down... a lot. But his specs look good enough.

 

[Hazy]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

Recording with FRAPS actually does slow your FPS down... a lot. But his specs look good enough.

Exactly. If your PC can run the game smoothly, then you shouldn't experience any difficulty with recording it with FRAPS.

That said, if you're lagging as it is, then it won't do you much good.

 

[Pielikey]

No. Fraps is a waste of money, especially considering Wegame [http://wegame.com] is free and gives the same effect. Wegame is a very non-process taxing program even when recording, and your computer is more than capable of being able to record while gaming.

You can get your headset microphone to project audio which wegame will pick up by going under your sound controls, and (on windows XP) you should find a playback. Set your microphone to also playback through your speakers (I haven't used XP in awhile)
or on Windows 7, go to sound options, recording, select the microphone you'll be using, go to properties and under the "listen" tab select "Listen to this device".

EDIT: Oh yeah, and if you don't have a large hard drive an External or a second hard drive is recommended. I've never done an LP before, but after watching a few they seem to get very big.

 

[manaman]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

Recording with FRAPS actually does slow your FPS down... a lot. But his specs look good enough.

Never noticed this issue, I never noticed any slow down at all.

Then again two years ago was when I last wanted to record something and then I was running dual 8800GTXs with 8 GB of ram and an 8400E processor.

 

[Zahri]

No. Fraps is a waste of money, especially considering Wegame [http://wegame.com] is free and gives the same effect. Wegame is a very non-process taxing program even when recording, and your computer is more than capable of being able to record while gaming.

You can get your headset microphone to project audio which wegame will pick up by going under your sound controls, and (on windows XP) you should find a playback. Set your microphone to also playback through your speakers (I haven't used XP in awhile)
or on Windows 7, go to sound options, recording, select the microphone you'll be using, go to properties and under the "listen" tab select "Listen to this device".

I'll give it a try in a moment, but when i check the listen to this box (running windows 7) is there a way to have it do so without it actually being fed in to my headset? xD just so i can pay better attention to the game and not listen to my annoying voice. =3

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Mmm, cookies. I'll bring up a post from one of my threads a few days ago:

Me: I've got a number (of questions) for you.

1. Does it record game audio?

2. Will said audio desync over a ten minute period? (a problem I'm encountering with an emulator recorder I'm using for my current LP)

3. Is the quality for full 3D games decent?

4. And if you can answer all of these questions with positive answers: Do you have a good guide on setting up FRAPS recordings or a source for advice?

I would really appreciate it.

tomvw:
1. Yes, it records game audio (you can also record a second device, like a microphone, at the same time)

2. Audio stays synced as far as I know, although I usually record in 10 minute bursts.

3. FRAPS doesn't compress your video, so the quality of the output is identical to what you see on screen (this does produce HUGE files however, I usually have 1Gb/minute). I recorded my Oblivion-videos (like this one) at 720p and the only limiting factor is my bad framerate and the compression afterwards.
It does usually seriously decrease my framerate in current games, so you do need a decent machine (this might not be a problem with Freelancer though)

4. This is a good place to start - http://www.fraps.com/faq.php#videocap
But here are some of additional tips from me,
- Set FRAPS to save your movies on a different drive than your game (prefferably internal, but an external USB drive will do), it'll improve performance in your game
- Set the framerate to 30, anything higher is wasted when you upload it to a video-site

Honestly, the hardest part of using fraps for me was compressing the video so I could upload it to YouTube (stupid 10 minute and 1Gb limit)

You could always torrent buy it, what could it hurt?

Also, if you are interested in LPing, want to join my fledgling LP group here on the Escapist: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Let-s-Players-of-the-Escapist

I currently have no experience with FRAPS but message [user]tomvw[/user]; I'm sure he'll help you XD

...*munch munch munch*...

 

[joshthor]

i say yes and no. i use it simply for screenshots and the occasional benchmark. i also, in my MMO days, recorded runs of farms for other peoples reference. nowadays i could get away with just the free version. think real good about what you are gonna use it for. its not good for showing off how well your pc runs, because it slows your pc down dramatically when recording; its good for simply recording gameplay - so good for lan parties where you think you are going to completely pwn your freind and wanna rub it in his face, or for showing off how a game works to your freinds. its a good program, but for most people it wont see much use.

edit: i now know what an lper is, so yes, it would suit your needs. it will half your framerate though and you will need to compress videos afterwords (a 30 second clip can equal 1gb)

 

[Pielikey]

No. Fraps is a waste of money, especially considering Wegame [http://wegame.com] is free and gives the same effect. Wegame is a very non-process taxing program even when recording, and your computer is more than capable of being able to record while gaming.

You can get your headset microphone to project audio which wegame will pick up by going under your sound controls, and (on windows XP) you should find a playback. Set your microphone to also playback through your speakers (I haven't used XP in awhile)
or on Windows 7, go to sound options, recording, select the microphone you'll be using, go to properties and under the "listen" tab select "Listen to this device".

I'll give it a try in a moment, but when i check the listen to this box (running windows 7) is there a way to have it do so without it actually being fed in to my headset? xD just so i can pay better attention to the game and not listen to my annoying voice. =3

I don't think it's possible to record the microphone in a different way. After just checking the wegame options, there's no way to change the sound recording options.

I'm not entirely sure if it's possible to make it record voice in a different way, however.

 

[Zahri]

No. Fraps is a waste of money, especially considering Wegame [http://wegame.com] is free and gives the same effect. Wegame is a very non-process taxing program even when recording, and your computer is more than capable of being able to record while gaming.

You can get your headset microphone to project audio which wegame will pick up by going under your sound controls, and (on windows XP) you should find a playback. Set your microphone to also playback through your speakers (I haven't used XP in awhile)
or on Windows 7, go to sound options, recording, select the microphone you'll be using, go to properties and under the "listen" tab select "Listen to this device".

I'll give it a try in a moment, but when i check the listen to this box (running windows 7) is there a way to have it do so without it actually being fed in to my headset? xD just so i can pay better attention to the game and not listen to my annoying voice. =3

I don't think it's possible to record the microphone in a different way. After just checking the wegame options, there's no way to change the sound recording options.

I'm not entirely sure if it's possible to make it record voice in a different way, however.

K, well it's currently telling me i have to enable the stereomix option for my sound device, but it's giving instructions for Vista o.o could you help me out?

 

[lacktheknack]

I recommend you get an external hard drive, and then yes, it is very much worth it.
If your PC can run the game, the chances that FRAPS will bog down you frame rate are very slim.

And yes, it will record audio via headset.

Recording with FRAPS actually does slow your FPS down... a lot. But his specs look good enough.

Exactly. If your PC can run the game smoothly, then you shouldn't experience any difficulty with recording it with FRAPS.

That said, if you're lagging as it is, then it won't do you much good.

Well, it dropped my FPS from ~40 to ~15 in Mirror's Edge.

Then I got a quad-core CPU, and it changed from ~60 to ~50.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

No. Fraps is a waste of money, especially considering Wegame [http://wegame.com] is free and gives the same effect.

Can you link me the download page? I can't find it.[footnote]yet another victim of the stupid virus but the subject is aware of it so there is hope for change and eventually recovery[/footnote]

I've never heard of it but I will check it out if I can get it.

 

[Mcface]

In 3 hours of gameplay, my buddy had over 200 gigs of fraps footage, get another hard drive for sure. I only use fraps for screen shots (the fraps SS dont blur like the normal print screen)
I'm sure the program itself would be very easy to pirate..

 

[Gigaguy64]

I tried it an liked it.
But it slowed down my frame rate really badly.

And i was just playing a 2D fighting game....

Still the video it took was clear and very nice.

 

[Jinjiro]

As far as I'm aware, if you're serious about making top-quality videos, Fraps is the only choice. I've tried, believe me. Tried WeGame, GameCam and the xFire tool, but Fraps' lossless capture combined with an h.264 codec for compression gives me great results with no hassle. I found that even though Fraps files are HUGE when you record them in full-size (and even bigger with sound), because they are lossless, when it comes to editing and compressing, it's a lot easier and smoother.

If your computer runs games at 45+ FPS, and you have a decent write speed on your HDD (or SSD if you're all rich and stuff), Fraps shouldn't be a problem. I use an external 250GB hard drive, 100GB of which is almost completely dedicated to game footage, and so far I've had no problems with slowdown, although as people have said, it's dependent on your own system.

Edit: Should mention that if you use YouTube, they process your video before it goes on the site with their own compression (which can reduce your video's quality further) so lossless capture is a huge plus if you intend on using the Tube.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Yes, after trying to find something free, nothing beat FRAPS. It does shoot your FPS in the face, just drop your resolution a step and lower things a tiny bit and youll be good, especially with your setup. It does record from both the game and your mic, I had to tweak volumes a bit, but the headset I use didnt need anything special. And you need a LOT of HD space. Its worth it, especially when you consider that some really crappy games cost more than it does.

 

[Zahri]

Well people, Wegame let me down epicly, as it can't record anything, while the fraps trial seems to be working beautifully. I am currently uploading a 30 second test onto youtube, so we'll see how things work from there. ^.^ When i do buy it, i may do a blind run of Dragon Age, but that game pissed me off rather easily initially, so i never finished it. That being said, if this works, it still may be high on the list. =3