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New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
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Author:  GeneralAdmission [ 21 Feb 2009, 18:15 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Could be another useful tool:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/playclaw/

I haven't heard of it before, but I will test it later and report here.
Author:  Frag Maniac [ 22 Feb 2009, 01:42 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
As a long time game capture enthusiast, I am always eager to try out a new product. However it's not just the product itself but this GiveAwayOfTheDay site that I am VERY skeptical about. First off, they make it sound like they are giving away retail copies of the tool, vs just providing a mirror for the trial version. There's no way any software author in their right mind would allow that. Second, they are trying to convince us you need this so called anti malware tool they have, if nothing else just to prove THEY are adware and malware free.

Then there's even a bit of reason to be skeptical about the tool itself. They are claiming there's "virtually" no slow down even whilst capturing high resource games, but never tell you anything about why that is possible. Then they make it sound like it utilizes modern multi core CPUs to achieve this, but in their support page it clearly states multi cores really only help for the high compression mode, which has nothing to do with a lack of FPS drop while recording high quality video.

Anyone who's used GameCam knows that the quality setting is largely what affects how much a capture tool like this affects FPS in the game you're recording. I can almost without a doubt guarantee you that this tool, depending on how it's set, will perform no better than GameCam or Fraps. In reality, the only ways you can get high quality capture of video games without loss of FPS while playing is via a demo record tool the game has or a built in replay feature, like some racing games have.

You need the game's engine to have a capture feature built in via a console command or replay feature to get efficient, high image quality without FPS drop. About the only thing I can see that makes this tool unique is it's sort of a GameCam/Fraps hybrid. You can capture without compression as per Fraps, or with compression as per GameCam. You can also select image quality as per GameCam.

Ultimately what it comes down to in tools like this is how well they are supported. No one is really reinventing the mouse trap. Many have tried already to do what they're claiming and still only built in recording features utilizing a game's engine can record high quality game video without FPS drop. Thus I still feel it's best to go with tools that have been out a long time that have a lot of game compatibility under their belt.

I may try it anyway though, as I'm always hoping someone will make them more FPS efficient. At $30 though, my guess is Fraps, for a bit more, is the better way to go. They may give GameCam a run for their money though. Their support, despite having a forum, has always been lackluster, and sometimes game compatibility is not so good either.

No matter what support staff you have, it takes a team of dedicated engineers, like Beepa has for Fraps, to really keep on top of things. GameCam has just one very eccentric guy, the software author, whom is also the sole person on the engineering team that is responsible for product fixes, etc. I'd rather have to email Beepa and get knowledgeable, concerned responses, then deal with one guy who's clearly taken on more than he can handle.
Author:  dopefish [ 22 Feb 2009, 02:06 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Let me know how it is, Frag, because I'm not trying it. ;)
Author:  Frag Maniac [ 22 Feb 2009, 02:13 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Let me know how it is, Frag, because I'm not trying it. ;)
Will do, IF I try it that is. It was a frustrating enough experience using GameCam, and I have a feeling this one will be more of the same if not worse.

I'll add to what I said above for further clarification though. Unless you intend on using a tool slanted more toward convenience than image quality, you won't likely be impressed with anything that has built in adjustability for compression and/or quality.

Once a person becomes adept at video capture and compression, which isn't as hard as some might think, it is PREFERRED to capture full quality uncompressed, then compress WHILST having the option of customizing the end result with your own transitions, effects, etc.

That, in a nutshell, is why so many use Fraps. They have been at making a no compression game capture tool longer than anyone else. If uncompressed video capture could be done any more FPS efficiently, Beepa would have done it by now.
Author:  g00seberry [ 22 Feb 2009, 02:38 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Just used it for a bit and it's very good. It doesn't cap the frame rate at whatever you chose to record at and produces very good video. I've found nothing fishy about it at all. I'll prob use this over FRAPS now.
Author:  Frag Maniac [ 22 Feb 2009, 03:30 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Just used it for a bit and it's very good. It doesn't cap the frame rate at whatever you chose to record at and produces very good video. I've found nothing fishy about it at all. I'll prob use this over FRAPS now.
Did you record uncompressed at max image quality? What games did you try recording and what were the frame rate differences from that of Fraps?

One thing I did like is the pause feature, which they say can keep appending other clips to the same file automatically. I am still skeptical that a capture tool can record with Fraps quality at higher FPS though.

That being said, when you load a Fraps clip into VirtualDub, there are many identical frames. If they could so much as eliminate those, I tend to think there would be noticeably less drain while playing. It is my understanding that those are key frames that are necessary for compression codecs to utilize though, so I'm not sure that is possible.
Author:  Cynagen [ 22 Feb 2009, 06:13 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Giving this a test run now, GRiD style... Now you can all watch how much I suck.
Author:  Frag Maniac [ 22 Feb 2009, 06:40 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Well I gave it a little taste test. First the bad, this is merely a 30 sec limit trial version like the Fraps Demo. There's a big watermark at the top of the clips and you only have BMP as a screenshot format. Another minor nit pick is the bindings can be tricky. For instance I usually use NumberPad Enter for Start/Stop record. This app recognized NumberPad Enter as being the same as Enter, so in any game such as Burnout that has lots of places where you have to hit Enter, you're starting/stopping record if you like to use that key, so obviously I can't.

Now for the good, uncompressed videos seem to look true full image quality, and have just as may key frames as Fraps clips. I've yet to do a side by side visual comparison with Fraps though. Better yet, despite the game initially seeming to play at a lower frame rate than with Fraps while NOT recording, the frame rates while recording are at and at times above what I set the FPS setting to, and better than I got with Fraps.

I can only guess the initial lower FPS while not recording was the app caching and/or an erratic FPS meter. It was often times less than half of what the Fraps meter showed while not recording. However the second time I launched the game and PlayClaw, the FPS while not recording looked similar to that of Fraps, odd.

Unfortunately it is very hard to rate a product such as this on just a 30 sec trial version. There are things to consider other than FPS and game compatibility, like audio/video sync problems. For some time I did not buy Fraps due to having out of sync audio and video (I tired a friend's copy). The lack of sync would get progressively worse, the longer the clip, the bigger the sync problem. Then suddenly due to probably a Fraps update and/or audio driver update for the sound recording device I use, it started recording in sync, so I bought it.
Author:  Cynagen [ 22 Feb 2009, 07:24 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Well I gave it a little taste test. First the bad, this is merely a 30 sec limit trial version like the Fraps Demo. There's a big watermark at the top of the clips and you only have BMP as a screenshot format. Another minor nit pick is the bindings can be tricky. For instance I usually use NumberPad Enter for Start/Stop record. This app recognized NumberPad Enter as being the same as Enter, so in any game such as Burnout that has lots of places where you have to hit Enter, you're starting/stopping record if you like to use that key, so obviously I can't.

Now for the good, uncompressed videos seem to look true full image quality, and have just as may key frames as Fraps clips. I've yet to do a side by side visual comparison with Fraps though. Better yet, despite the game initially seeming to play at a lower frame rate than with Fraps while NOT recording, the frame rates while recording are at and at times above what I set the FPS setting to, and better than I got with Fraps.

I can only guess the initial lower FPS while not recording was the app caching and/or an erratic FPS meter. It was often times less than half of what the Fraps meter showed while not recording. However the second time I launched the game and PlayClaw, the FPS while not recording looked similar to that of Fraps, odd.

Unfortunately it is very hard to rate a product such as this on just a 30 sec trial version. There are things to consider other than FPS and game compatibility, like audio/video sync problems. For some time I did not buy Fraps due to having out of sync audio and video (I tired a friend's copy). The lack of sync would get progressively worse, the longer the clip, the bigger the sync problem. Then suddenly due to probably a Fraps update and/or audio driver update for the sound recording device I use, it started recording in sync, so I bought it.

You didn't activate your free copy then, cause there's now less than 3 hours left to activate it for free.

I have a number of gripes with this application, but FRAPS now seems to run a ton better. I couldn't run it at all with GRiD, now I can, at 30fps too. I'll be posting video of my FRAPS capped race. (I think it's the drive I was saving to previously...) Either way PlayClaw was breaking files apart every 2gb or so, and causing me to lose even more frames in game and in the recording, even with dual threads on. Close but no cigar for PlayClaw.
Author:  GeneralAdmission [ 22 Feb 2009, 08:32 ]
Post subject:  New Game Recording app on Giveawayoftheday today
Well I didn't get to my comments as fast as I'd hoped. PlayClaw performs fairly well for a new app. Image quality is great (customizable based on compression), it ran stable for me, and frequently it maintained higher overall fps than Fraps, though not as good as VirtualDub. Overall I think I'll keep it in my toolbox, as I have yet to find the perfect game recorder, and I can't argue with free.

BTW, GAOTD is a handy site. Often they just have random shareware screensavers or uninteresting apps, but I have picked up a number of cool/useful programs through their site.

@Frag:
You should have the unrestricted version of PlayClaw. If you can't figure out where the install went wrong, send me a PM and I'll try to help.
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