Recording Fraps, Windowed?

Tallon

Guys, I'm going to be doing some minecraft videos very soon and was wondering if Fraps is ok to use?

I want to record it windowed on a second monitor. Is it handy enough?

Also, how much is fraps these days?

Cheers.

Tal

TheChrisD

Unless anything has changed recently, FRAPS is still the $37 it always has been.

To answer your main question, not particularly, no. Since Minecraft runs as a Java executable, it doesn't utilise DirectX or OpenGL, thus FRAPs can't track it directly. However, starting with version 3 on Windows Vista or 7, you can set it to record your entire main window (as it records the Desktop Window Manager) as an option. This means you can record desktop, web browser, file manager, whatever. The only problem with this option is that it is actually limited to your main monitor, from my experiences, so it's no good trying to record stuff on a secondary monitor.

So overall, it can be done, but it'll have to be on your main screen, and will require cropping in the post-editing.

Tallon

Minecraft does use OpenGL does it not?

TheChrisD

Tallon wrote: »

Minecraft does use OpenGL does it not?

Huh, so it does. I guess I had something else conflicting before, but just tested it there, and it does indeed track the Java executable window. I'd advise not starting the recording until after the initial loading screen, as it appears to jump from DX9 to OpenGL, which may cause recording to cut out or other errors with the resultant videos.

RopeDrink wrote: »

Not really related to Minecraft but I do have games that just refuse to allow FRAPS recordings normally, yet other people have stated they got it to record the game somehow but there's been no clear indication how (FRAPS wise).

Such as?

RopeDrink wrote: »

I'm using version 3.2.3 and there doesn't seem to be any other options to record the window rather than the application, can you elaborate on how to activate what you mentioned?

Settings -> General -> Monitor Aero desktop (DWM)

With that setting enabled, FRAPS will enable FPS tracking and all of it's other abilities for dwm.exe, which is basically your desktop. That way you can record anything you run in a window, and crop the resulting videos in editing to the size you require.
(Current version is 3.2.6, FYI)

Tallon

Just recorded some stuff there now, the frame rate was horendous

TheChrisD

Tallon wrote: »

Just recorded some stuff there now, the frame rate was horendous

I've always had problems with Minecraft framerate on my computer, even without recording. Not too sure the game scales all that well to higher-end machines.

RopeDrink wrote: »

Well I'll look into updating it then seeing as 3.2.3 doesn't have anything like that in the options.

Well, the big thing is that it's only there for Windows Vista or 7 with Aero enabled, not for XP, since dwm.exe is the Windows Aero process that FRAPS hooks into for desktop recording.

TheChrisD

Really? Then the option should be right there. It's the only one that's unchecked as you can see on my settings, as attached.

Tallon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys3vfr9wFOQ

TheChrisD

It's actually been in for two and a half years now...

2.9.0 - 10th Jul 2007
- Added support for DirectX 10
- Added option to monitor Desktop Window Manager under Vista
- Added Direct Stream sound recording for Vista
- Fixed screen tearing in video captured from DX9 games
- Fixed G15 LCD output running fast on Vista machines
- Improved resource sharing with multithreaded games
- Added numerous crash and compatibility fixes

Although, now that you mention only three tickable boxes, I think it's probably safe to assume that (1) you don't have a Logitech G15 or G19, (2) You don't have Aero enabled, and (3) well, I can't see why you would be missing a third.

Enable Aero, and it should appear.

adeline37

Looks suspiciously like promotion to me...

Dr Bob

RopeDrink wrote: »

I've no idea what you mean by Logitech (Keyboard? Mouse? Monitor? Something?)

both actually it's a keyboard with a small LCD monitor built in .probably not as useful as it used to be since having more than 1 monitor isnt that hard to do now , but handy for gaming and stuff like fraps.

TheChrisD

RopeDrink wrote: »

Then one day it mysteriously changed so that it couldn't record said movies because it now gained the ability to FRAPS the actual browser window (As in I could FRAPS myself typing in a response here on Boards)... This removes the ability to record on, say, YouTube because thats a seperate app or part of the browser, so it'd go from recording the movie itself to recording the webpage. Then mysteriously about a week later it converted back to the old way.

That was probably because your browser changed to using some sort of graphics acceleration to display pages? I know there were a couple of times when I was checking sites in IE9 and FRAPS showing me the FPS counter because it could record the browser :P