Recording a video game on a P4… speed me up, Scotty?

Question

I'm trying to record a d3d game, but I have HUGE lag issues. I'm on a p4 with an onboard 128mb 3d video card and 2 gigs of RAM. I'm trying to record quarter-size video with only 15 fps, but I'm still getting some extreme delay.

Is there any way to capture gameplay without seriously lagging things up? I'm trying to share videos with a clan for comments and gameplay tips, but I can't play at my peak when everything is so laggy.

Answer 1

Trying to encode video and having the game take up CPU at the same time, plus the hard drive communications something has to give. Analyse your biggest bottleneck in the process.

• Reduce the game resolution total. That would be the first and most relief , starting with less resolution. reducing bitdepth might also be usefull.

• If you have a really fast disk, don't try to "encode" it at that
  time, uncompressed just needs major disk speed and space.
  Alternatively use encoders that do not require as much processing,
  all the best encoders of video do a lot more work than an older
  encoder, like Mpeg1. Then re-encode the video when your done.

• Process the video as minimally as possible. If you do shrink use
  lesser shrink methods, good shrink alogrythms take a lot of
  processing power. Sometimes making sure it is 1/2-1/2 instead of
  requiring non-integer interpolations. same thing with frame rates.
  That trick rarely works, but I think it does :-)

• If the disk is the biggest bottleneck (I doubt it) make a RAM disk on the system , and use some of the RAM disk for storage of short clips. You don't really have enough RAM to try that stunt though.

• Put an SSD drive in and use less compressed, or fully uncompressed. The solid state drive will be fast if the motherboard can pass data to it without there being another bottleneck.

• Get a multicore processor, so it can do more than one thing at once. Many P4-capable boards could use a multi core processor. Check your hardware compatability for the computer or motherboard.

• Get a better video card if all of the other options don't work and you still can't pull it off.

• The software your using to record , make sure your using the best game recorder for your particular setup, what might be "best" for others might not be best for your machines ability.