PC Gameplay Recording Software/Hardware for new titles.

[Luceroboy]

Hey,
I recently got a GTX 970 and a i5 4690k 3.5ghz. Minimally overclocked and all that jazz. I was wondering what software and/or hardware you guys are using to record the most recent titles without too much of an FPS hit or quality drop. I'm currently trying to record the witcher 3. So far on a mix of high/ultra settings I can record on shadowplay with np (DON'T USE THIS, it has variable framerates and will mess you up when you try to edit it, also it has a nasty habit of getting weird on long recordings). I've resorted to using my Elgato HD (the old one) to record my gameplay to my laptop so I have no impact on my gaming PC. Also I record my webcam and commentary on the gaming pc not sure if that has a significant impact or not. I play and record at 1080

So what do you guys use to capture quality gameplay on these higher end games?
Do you guys have a beastly computer? or do you succumb and lower the graphical quality of the game or the recorder to maintain FPS

 

[Conso1727]

Open Broadcaster Software is the best choice for modern titles, I remember finding around a setup for the best quality of local recordings, donìt have the link handy, though

 

[Ninja]

I use external capture aswell, the same setup as you (Hauppauge instead of Elgato is the only difference) and to be honest, it's the best way to go, as long as you can trasnfer your files over to your main PC easily. No loss in quality or frames. I know several youtubers who run setups like that instead of investing in $5000+ PC builds (Robbaz for example).

 

[Luceroboy]

I use external capture aswell, the same setup as you (Hauppauge instead of Elgato is the only difference)

How do you go about hearing the audio? Do you plug headphones into your monitor? I have these USB headphones that I like to use, but if I were to use them I'd have to record gameplay audio separately and it's an inconvenience so I just go with the headphone to monitor method. As far as I know Windows 7 doesn't let you play audio through two different sources.

 

[LJay]

I use shadowplay almost exclusively but I also recommend DXtory if you have a separate SSD or a normal Hard Drive with 7200 rpm or higher. Go over to the DXtory website and check out how the program works.

 

[Ninja]

How do you go about hearing the audio? Do you plug headphones into your monitor? I have these USB headphones that I like to use, but if I were to use them I'd have to record gameplay audio separately and it's an inconvenience so I just go with the headphone to monitor method. As far as I know Windows 7 doesn't let you play audio through two different sources.

I leave my headphones plugged into my PC (as you would normally) and record commentary through Audacity. I also have another program called APowerSoft Audio Recorder that captures my system sounds. I que myself through Audacity when I start the audio capture and another for when I start my external capture so it makes editing easier. It's probably been the best setup I've used ever.

 

[Luceroboy]

I leave my headphones plugged into my PC (as you would normally) and record commentary through Audacity. I also have another program called APowerSoft Audio Recorder that captures my system sounds. I que myself through Audacity when I start the audio capture and another for when I start my external capture so it makes editing easier. It's probably been the best setup I've used ever.

Thats more or less what I use to do if I wanted to use my USB headphones, but I used OBS instead to capture the computer sounds. I guess I'm just lazy now, but having the sound go through the hdmi to the monitor is convenient. Also I have an adaptor on my headset that lets me adjust the volume so I don't mess with the computer mixer which I have to do with my USB set.[DOUBLEPOST=1433791488,1433791105][/DOUBLEPOST]

I use shadowplay almost exclusively but I also recommend DXtory if you have a separate SSD or a normal Hard Drive with 7200 rpm or higher. Go over to the DXtory website and check out how the program works.

How are you liking shadowplay? I'm surprised how well it runs, it probably compromises with your graphic output. So let's say if there's a slow down it will compensate by not loading the entire texture yet to ensure smooth gameplay and recording. As I said before the variable frame rate annoys me and if your graphics card ever stutters it really messes with the video file. Example: I would save my game and it would lock the card for a second. In the output file it would really only be 10minutes, but because of that 'lock' it would jam in an extra 15mins of still screen with tons of frames. A video player would just skip that, but in an editor it gets messed up. So if you're only going to minimally edit the footage and you don't record longer than 20mins at a time I think shadowplay works very well. Especially if you're not recording and something interesting happens you can easily save the pass 20mins or so to use for later.

I've used OBS and Dxtory and such. I believe my harddrive is a bit slow it's almost 8+ years old lol, one 400gb and another 600gb.

 

[Tarmack]

The hard drive issue may be your problem. Imagine having the fastest brain in the world, but you can only write so many lines of the novel you're working on because your hands only go so fast.

You didn't specify the rest of your setup and implied in your last post that you only have one hard drive. If that's the case, then you're asking your hard drive to both read from, and write to itself at the same time. This will cause problems.

I'm running an i75920K, GTX 970, 16GB Ram and a 3 main drive setup. SSD for Windows, 1TB HDD for game and program installs, and a 2TB Raid 0 array for recording. This way, neither the operating system, games or recording is ever being handled by the same drive at any one time, leaving each drive dedicated to it's primary task. The system has plenty of overhead to record and stream 60FPS concurrently.

Your CPU may have issues streaming 60FPS, but your graphics card is not the limiting factor in the arrangement by any stretch.

 

[LJay]

How are you liking shadowplay? I'm surprised how well it runs, it probably compromises with your graphic output. So let's say if there's a slow down it will compensate by not loading the entire texture yet to ensure smooth gameplay and recording. As I said before the variable frame rate annoys me and if your graphics card ever stutters it really messes with the video file. Example: I would save my game and it would lock the card for a second. In the output file it would really only be 10minutes, but because of that 'lock' it would jam in an extra 15mins of still screen with tons of frames. A video player would just skip that, but in an editor it gets messed up. So if you're only going to minimally edit the footage and you don't record longer than 20mins at a time I think shadowplay works very well. Especially if you're not recording and something interesting happens you can easily save the pass 20mins or so to use for later.

I've used OBS and Dxtory and such. I believe my harddrive is a bit slow it's almost 8+ years old lol, one 400gb and another 600gb.

I go thru all my recordings and delete what I don't need. The only problem I can remember having with a recording is that one of my South Park Stick of Truth segments ended up having dialogue that wasn't synched up with the character's who were talking. I can't say whether it was the game or Shadowplay but that's the only issue I've had. I really like shadowplay though. I haven't had any reason to revert back to Dxtory.

With recording video games you do not want to record and game on the same HD/SSD. If you are still saving for new PC parts I recommend getting both a new HD (at least 7200RPM and 500 GB of HD space) and a SSD (at least in the 250 GB space range). SSD's are more likely to fail over time and use so be sure you do your research on them.

 

[Luceroboy]

I go thru all my recordings and delete what I don't need. The only problem I can remember having with a recording is that one of my South Park Stick of Truth segments ended up having dialogue that wasn't synched up with the character's who were talking. I can't say whether it was the game or Shadowplay but that's the only issue I've had. I really like shadowplay though. I haven't had any reason to revert back to Dxtory.

With recording video games you do not want to record and game on the same HD/SSD. If you are still saving for new PC parts I recommend getting both a new HD (at least 7200RPM and 500 GB of HD space) and a SSD (at least in the 250 GB space range). SSD's are more likely to fail over time and use so be sure you do your research on them.

Yeah I make sure to record to the hard drive where my OS and game are not running off of. I do the same for rendering videos.

For your desync of audio it is common for that to happen with shadowplay and it has been attributed to the variable framerates. I've been told using HandBrake you can convert the video to a specific fps and sync the audio[DOUBLEPOST=1433806447,1433806242][/DOUBLEPOST]

The hard drive issue may be your problem. Imagine having the fastest brain in the world, but you can only write so many lines of the novel you're working on because your hands only go so fast.

You didn't specify the rest of your setup and implied in your last post that you only have one hard drive. If that's the case, then you're asking your hard drive to both read from, and write to itself at the same time. This will cause problems.

I'm running an i75920K, GTX 970, 16GB Ram and a 3 main drive setup. SSD for Windows, 1TB HDD for game and program installs, and a 2TB Raid 0 array for recording. This way, neither the operating system, games or recording is ever being handled by the same drive at any one time, leaving each drive dedicated to it's primary task. The system has plenty of overhead to record and stream 60FPS concurrently.

Your CPU may have issues streaming 60FPS, but your graphics card is not the limiting factor in the arrangement by any stretch.

Thanks for the info! I actually have two separate hard drives, but I'm sure they're not fast. I guess my next upgrade will be new hard drives or at least the one I'm writing to.