Recording videos: what are you guys using ?

So, let's start a fresh thread here...

I'm using Open Broadcaster Software (a.k.a ObsProject) because it's free... However, I haven't found out how to record several layers of video at once (like my DxNothing mini-maps), and also I have been experiencing another problem lately, a new problem, which is...

The software now records a random client instead of the main client. I mean, I run a test to ensure that my main client is recorded, then I enter a GR, start video recording, but it's zDPS point of view that has been recorded. Pretty odd.

What about you guys ?

In order to capture VideoFX you need to capture the desktop, and not just a single game client. If telling OBS to capture the desktop eats up a lot of resources, then you can try telling it to capture dwm.exe instead, but regardless, capturing the desktop is going to require more resources from your machine.

Personally, I use nVidia's Shadow Play (disclaimer: you need an nVidia GPU) because there is zero impact on CPU and the filesize is nice and compact. However, if you leave the Mbps setting for recording at default, then it's likely you will end up with shitty quality video, so kick it up to something high (or the 130 Mbps max) and you will have much better results.

If you don't have an nVidia GPU, then Mirillis Action is also good for capturing the desktop.

Always used Xsplit Broadcaster. Got a lifetime license on sale a while ago and never tried anything else. I also have an nVidia GPU but never tried Shadowplay. Last video I recorded was from yesterday and used a couple options I never tried before from Xplit: NVENC codec and Optimize for Youtube which I have no idea what it does. The NVENC codec uses the GPU for encoding so my game was a LOT smoother compared to the default codec and at 1080p 60fps, a 10 minute video was around 2.6GB.

I tried to record the desktop a while ago but it was PAINFUL. I was able to capture my DxNothing with all my VideoFX but my FPS ingame were crap. Haven't tried again, but if it's the same case, don't think it's playable like that. I was doing 20-30fps back then.

PD: Reading about NVENC seems like quality is pretty bad compared to x264 and even Quick Sync. I'll give Quick Sync a try and see how much better it looks and if the file is much bigger or not.

Funny this thread popped up today I was thinking something similar and was wondering what people were using. I have ShadowPlay installed but never used it. I have used OBS in the past as well as the stuff that comes with my Elgato HD60

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Originally Posted by Devile

Always used Xsplit Broadcaster. Got a lifetime license on sale a while ago and never tried anything else. I also have an nVidia GPU but never tried Shadowplay. Last video I recorded was from yesterday and used a couple options I never tried before from Xplit: NVENC codec and Optimize for Youtube which I have no idea what it does. The NVENC codec uses the GPU for encoding so my game was a LOT smoother compared to the default codec and at 1080p 60fps, a 10 minute video was around 2.6GB.

I tried to record the desktop a while ago but it was PAINFUL. I was able to capture my DxNothing with all my VideoFX but my FPS ingame were crap. Haven't tried again, but if it's the same case, don't think it's playable like that. I was doing 20-30fps back then.

PD: Reading about NVENC seems like quality is pretty bad compared to x264 and even Quick Sync. I'll give Quick Sync a try and see how much better it looks and if the file is much bigger or not.

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NVENC is what Shadow Play uses, but I've never had good results when manually adjusting NVENC through any program (BandiCam, Action, or OBS), and I've certainly tried. Here's a quality test I did with Shadow Play and Far Cry 4 with my personalized recording/encoding settings just two weeks ago, and if you watch it at, at least, 1440p quality (even if you only have a 1080p display), the quality is, in my opinion, absolutely fantastic for as much high-level detail needs to be retained for that game to look good. Also, you can watch any of my recent multiboxing videos that are in 4K quality, and they're all recorded with Shadow Play.

However, anytime I've read about NVENC not being up to par is when people were trying to use it through a non-nVidia recording program or trying to do live streaming with it (or using their live streaming settings and recording locally), and at that point you should probably still be using H./x264 for that.

If I have any issues with Shadow Play it's that I can't choose to record in a bitrate higher than 130Mbps, and that mouse clicks aren't visualized, but other than that it's been adopted as my new recording program. I don't mean to sound like an nVidia rep/fanboy because I was incredibly skeptical that some "shitty" NVENC setup was going to be the answer to my quality (and storage) issues (because it was terrible through all the other programs I tried it in), but when I tried it through Shadow Play and realized that I was wrong, I was incredibly happy. :)

I will def test it as soon as I get home, but from what I see, I won't be able to swap displays like I do with Xsplit. With Shadowplay I will just cast my main screen and won't be able to swap chars. Is that right? With Xsplit I have screens assigned to each of my chars hotkeys (F1, F2, etc.) so whenever I press F2, I switch to that char and cast that screen.

Regardless I'll give it a try later tonight but if I can't show my other chars full screens, no point on switching to Shadowplay. I'll try Intel Quick Sync as well and see how good/bad it is vs NVENC and x264 in Xsplit. So far, I can't complain about Xsplit NVENC results. From what I've read, Shadowplay uses something else compared to 3rd party software NVENC, which is probably why u noticed such differences.

I'm testing ShadowPlay at the moment. Downloading video to YouTube... 102 minutes left ;)

It seems that the recording is truncated every 4 GB, and I don't know how to create a bigger file. Fortunately I sped up things a little in-game so that the generated file is "only" 3.6 GB this time.

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Originally Posted by Devile

I will def test it as soon as I get home, but from what I see, I won't be able to swap displays like I do with Xsplit. With Shadowplay I will just cast my main screen and won't be able to swap chars. Is that right? With Xsplit I have screens assigned to each of my chars hotkeys (F1, F2, etc.) so whenever I press F2, I switch to that char and cast that screen.

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No, ShadowPlay is not a full-on streaming program (suite), so you won't be able to create different scenes to switch between. The only programs which allow for "scenes" like that are streaming programs, such as OBS or XSplit. However, neither OBS or XSplit use their own codec like an actual recording program does, and they just tap into what already exists on the internet. Programs like FRAPS, BandiCam, Action, or DxTory all use their own proprietary versions of H.264 (or similar) to capture video footage, but some of them, like BandiCam and DxTory, can also use other "external" codecs (e.g. x264, Lagarith, MagicYUV, etc) to record with.

I think ShadowPlay is worth a shot, but it's certainly not a streaming suite (although I think nVidia is trying to get it there), and it sounds like you want more of a streaming program/suite so that you can record different monitors at different times.

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Originally Posted by Devile

Regardless I'll give it a try later tonight but if I can't show my other chars full screens, no point on switching to Shadowplay. I'll try Intel Quick Sync as well and see how good/bad it is vs NVENC and x264 in Xsplit. So far, I can't complain about Xsplit NVENC results. From what I've read, Shadowplay uses something else compared to 3rd party software NVENC, which is probably why u noticed such differences.

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As far as I know, NVENC (short for "Nvidia Video ENCoder") is the GPU-accelerated H.264 encoding that ShadowPlay uses. If there is somewhere that you can point me to which says ShadowPlay doesn't use NVENC, then I'll read it. However, I have no doubt that nVidia is doing something slightly different under the hood of their own program because I've tried to reproduce the results with OBS and NVENC, but was unable to (this was months ago). Maybe I'll try again in the future after my new machine is completely finished, because that was when I was still on Windows 7, and perhaps Windows 10 changes the playing field.

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Originally Posted by Cmoidudu

I'm testing ShadowPlay at the moment. Downloading video to YouTube... 102 minutes left ;)

It seems that the recording is truncated every 4 GB, and I don't know how to create a bigger file. Fortunately I sped up things a little in-game so that the generated file is "only" 3.6 GB this time.

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ShadowPlay certainly doesn't truncate my videos based on filesize, so I'm not sure why you're experiencing that unless, perhaps... You're using a 32-bit operating system?

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Originally Posted by MiRai

ShadowPlay certainly doesn't truncate my videos based on filesize, so I'm not sure why you're experiencing that unless, perhaps... You're using a 32-bit operating system?

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Well I don't know, maybe I did something wrong... and I use Win7-64.

Anyway, here is what I recorded with Shadowplay, nice quality, the video itself is not interesting however. Not my best GR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZVbZ_cM_Dg

The good point is that there is absolutely no difference in terms of computer load or lag when I'm recording, and when I'm not.

Also thanks Mirai for your explainations (and the other too, for sharing).

Did quite a few tests tonight with Xsplit and Shadowplay, all at 1080p 60fps. I honestly can't tell the difference in video quality from Xsplit Quick Sync, Xsplit Nvenc or ShadowPlay Nvenc. All 3 looked exactly the same. Even going from high to ultra quality, I can't tell the difference. I can see bitrate differences but there's no noticeable difference on image quality.

ShadowPlay had the highest bitrate (45-50MBps) which translated into bigger files. Very High quality was around 20MBps and Ultra was around 30MBps. Quick Sync gave me the smallest file size for the same bitrate and image quality. Also tested X264 which had higher bitrate and decent filesize but I could notice FPS drops. Quick Sync and Nvenc were both really smooth and no noticeable performance hit. With ShadowPlay I had to record my desktop in order to capture char swapping.

I'm sure other games with higher details will show more quality differences. D3 seemed all the same and it's really hard to compare since there's no replay option. Not to mention Youtube encoding will just blur even more any slight difference there is.

I'll stick to Quick Sync on Very High for now. Smaller file size and pretty much the same image quality.