Recording tutorial for beginners

[Altus_Demens]

Contents

• Introduction
• Recording tools comparison
• FRAPS
• Dxtory
• Bandicam
• OBS
• OBS basic configuration
• OBS advanced configuration
• Appendices
• About FLV
• Using replay buffer

Introduction

As some of you know, I am recording every my game. It started on the old server as a way to prevent regulars' abuse towards me, as I was mere unregistered player for around a year. I keep this habit until now, it helps to deal with rulebreakers and save funny and interesting moments from my gaming experience. Some people were independenty asking me what software I am using and how to configure it properly, that's why I decided to make this tutorial.

I will explain how to configure and use OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), because it is the best recording tool I have met so far. But before it I'd like to overview a few other popular tools.


1. FRAPS (the worst)
This one is likely the most popular. It is not free so you need to buy it (or find an alternative solution) to use it without restrictions. There are no additional settings, and the output file will be always uncompressed avi; one hour of video will be around 32Gb! Besides, it can cause uncommon FPS drops while recording even on powerful PCs, and it is not really compatible with other recording tools. But at least the quality will be perfect; in your video you will see exactly the same that you've been seeing on your screen while playing. Probably the worst option to use.

2. Dxtory (satisfactory)
It is also commercial software. It is way better than FRAPS, it provides additional options but recording like limiting your FPS. As for recording, it allows you to choose video codec and some more settings. But your output file will be avi once again of around 8GB per hour if you use standard Dxtory video codec. It caused noticeable FPS drop on my PC (which is quite good and modern) even after some playing with settings. Better than FRAPS, but still far from perfect.

3. Bandicam (quite good)
Another one commercial tool, but this one is quite nice. It also features some nice things like limiting your FPS on key press. And you can record mp4 files just by picking respective option in the settings! The quality is quite nice, and your resulting file will have the size of ~4.5Gb per hour. But it can also cause spontaneous slight FPS drops, which is generally fine, but annoys me sometimes. If you are really lazy and not too demanding to your recordings, that's probably your choice. But it lacks customization, and you can't record in other formats but avi and mp4, so if your game, or recording software, or video driver crashes, your recording will be irreversibly gone. Another pleasant benefit, which is not related to GTA SA though, is that it supports almost all of the versions of DirectX. That means that you will be able to record ancient clumsy games without any graphic artifacts - other tools can hardly reach this.

4. OBS (the best so far)
I'll simply state the reasons why I prefer this one over all:

• It is free;
• It is highly customizable, which allows to configure it properly to reach the optimal quality/performance/file size balance on practically any machine;
• It supports a lot of output file types including unbreakable flv;
• It is lightweight itself, it won't consume much of your resources (if configured properly);
• It is easy to use.

It is compatible with other recording tools (say, you can use dxtory to limit your FPS along with OBS), an hour of my recording weights around 1.6Gb, it has zero impact on my FPS, and the quality remains quite good - you can take a look at the videos on my YouTube channel.

Basic configuration

Follow these steps to make it work:

   1. Download (scroll down to the classic one) and install it. You can use OBS Studio though, but I prefer more lightweight and simple OBS Classic; I'll cover it in my tutorial.
   2. Open the program, press RMB on "Scenes" area and pick "Add scene". It will be a scene for GTA SA; I'd suggest calling it so to prevent confusion.



   3. Launch the game, minimize it and press RMB on "Sources" area, then pick "Add -> Game Capture". Give it some proper name to prevent any confusion too.


   4. Select your "GTA:SA:MP" application in the opened window and press "OK".


   5. Go to "Settings -> Settings -> Broadcast Settings" and switch the mode to "File output only". Additionally specify your path to the output file along with its extension. I suggest using *.flv, and I will explain in the end why, but it's up to you. By the way, $T just means that your file name will be a timestamp of recording start second (format: year-month-day-hourminute-second).


You can start to use OBS now, but you might want to play with settings in order to reach optimum quality/size/performance balance - read further in order to achieve it.

Advanced (yet advised) configuration

   6. Go to Video tab and make sure that your primary video adapter is selected if you've got more than one. Additionally you can change your frame resolution.


   7. Now go to Encoding tab and put the following:

• Use CBR: unchecked;
• Quality Balance: 10;
• Bitrate: 1000;
• Use Custom Buffer Size: checked;
• Buffer Size: 0.

   8. Go to Advanced tab and put the following:

• x264 CPU Preset: Ultrafast (NB! If your PC is not that good and you face sufficient FPS drops or CP load during recording, start with gradually lowering this setting, it usually helps);
• Use Custom x264 Parameters: check;
• Custom x264 Encoder Settings: "crf=" and an integer value bigger or equal to 1. The lower it is, the better the quality is, but it also increases your file size and CPU usage. You might need to play with it for a while; I use 25.

   9. Check Audio tab to configure your sound recording. For example, I don't want any sounds from my microphone to be recorded, so I've just disabled it.


Everything is done , you can start recording by picking your scene and pressing "Start recording" button on right or assigning a hotkey for it. If you launched any other recording software like Dxtory, a warning will pop up when you start recording, but you can simply skip it.

The only thing left I'd like to tell you about is why it is preferrable to use flv.

About flv

The point is, avi and mp4 files need finalization after they are created - it will write all metadata needed to the end of the file. If your game, or OBS, or video driver, or Windows crash, your file will be corrupted with the slight possibility of being restored as OBS doesn't use constant framerate. But it will never happen with flv, as this format writes your video file just as a bit stream, so your recording won't guaranteely go anywhere. You need additional software to play flv files like VLC media player, and you'll likely want to convert your file to mp4 without loosing quality. Follow these steps in order to do it:

   1. Download ffmpeg for Windows and unpack ffmpeg.exe from the archive anywhere you like;
   2. In the same folder create a file called ffmpeg.bat, edit it with any text editor and put the following contents there:

Code: [Select]

ffmpeg.exe -i input_filename.flv -c copy -f mp4 output_filename.mp4
pause
   3. Each time you need to convert your flv file, edit your ffmpeg.bat and replace input_filename.flv with your actual file name, and output_filename.mp4 with your desired output filename, then start this file and wait for a few minutes.

   
Using replay buffer

Thanks to Mia for this useful addition.

As some people have mentioned, it's usually more practical to save only the last minutes (for example, after an epic move or after you see someone breaking the rules) than keeping the whole gaming session.

OBS does support this, under the name Replay buffer. You need to do a few things to be able to use this:

1. Go to settings.



2. Go to Broadcast settings.

3. Pick a file path to save your replay buffers (you can choose any, and it doesn't necessarily have to be the same as the one for normal recordings).

4. Enter a replay buffer length (in seconds). For example, if you want to keep the last 9 minutes (like I do), simply pick 9 * 60 = 540.



5. Go to Hotkeys settings.

6. Pick a hotkey for:

• a) Start Replay Buffer. Every time you press this key, OBS will start capturing your game, but it will not create a video file.
• b) Stop Replay Buffer. Every time you press this key, OBS will no longer capture your game.
• c) Save Replay Buffer. Use this key when you want to save what was captured in your last minutes of gameplay. This generates a video file in the file path you wrote in step 3. If you don't use this key, all what was recorded in the last minutes won't be saved.

That's it, I tried to cover everything in this tutorial so it would be easy even for those who haven't ever been recording anywhere. Record your game, report hackers and share your interesting moments. If you've got any questions, feel free to post them here.

[Manish]

I've used Fraps, Bandicam and Dxtory. Fraps causes a lot of lag while recording but somehow I'm still using it with the best settings. Bandicam is also good and runs smooth but doesn't give good Video quality. I didn't know that much about OBS so I'm going to try it now. Thanks Altus , this topic is quite informative and helpful for me.

[Jai_Kundu]

I've used Fraps, Bandicam and Dxtory. Fraps causes a lot of lag while recording but somehow I'm still using it with the best settings. Bandicam is also good and runs smooth but doesn't give good Video quality. I didn't know that much about OBS so I'm going to try it now. Thanks Altus , this topic is quite informative and helpful for me.

OBS is Really helpful you must try it ,

BTW Thanks Altus

[Ege]

Nice tutorial !

I use Bandicam too, never tried OBS though, might take a look.

[COBRA]

Tounsix should see here first! Good job Altus

[Hito]

Thanx altus I will try OBS

[Arabiane]

Thx altus  !
I was using fraps...like you said just 15 mins of recording you find a video with more then 20 GB... Then i had to converte it wich make the quality bad.
+ FPS dropped too.

[LPCOLTER]

OBS IS THE BEST FOR INGAME CAPTURE AND LIVESTREAMS!!
(CUZ I RECORD FIFA VIDEOS EVERY TIME)

[SLiKkeZ[GgT]]

altus you my man are serioulsy good in making turtorials. nice,clean and good to understand. you should go and start to make more of these. 

[Hero]

Thx demens

[PraY]

That's pretty good thanks! i'ven ever tried the others, but OBS yes in another game but the problem is when i start recording with OBS i start lagging idk why and my fps too is down

[Finisher]

I have a software that allows me to record with 175 fps, and I can even press a key to save my past “2minutes to 30minutes” of gameplay, so I rarely use manual recording, always “saving” Clips with 1080HD 60Fps.

[Sani]

I have a software that allows me to record with 175 fps, and I can even press a key to save my past “2minutes to 30minutes” of gameplay, so I rarely use manual recording, always “saving” Clips with 1080HD 60Fps.

The name of that software please   . And thanks altus for the info but you can also use xboxlive in WIN10 if you to record gameplays.

[SoLoD]

Using non-stop recording to 1 file instead of using "save x last minutes"? I do not think so.
See abuser - tap X and save 1 last min. And do not wasting time to lurk into ur 2 hour video and cut what u need.
Using 264 codec to film long videos? Dont think so.
>Use CBR: unchecked;
What does that mean, you do not know difference between CBR and VBR?
There are programms that much better and easier to use for tasks you mentioned.

[Magic]

Great job Altus! Nice tutorial :)