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Growler Guncam, Fraps or other?

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Growler Guncam, Fraps or other? Empty Growler Guncam, Fraps or other?

Post  yozz76 Sun Apr 24, 2011 5:06 am

I'm expecting (or hoping) that MJ will help me out here but interested to hear the opinions of others also. Inspired by MJ's vids, I'm looking at having a go at doing my own. However, whilst I would like the vids to be good quality (720p and above even) I don't want to compromise too much on FPS in game!

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Post  MJDixon Sun Apr 24, 2011 5:48 am

The one I use is Growler Guncam, I used to use Fraps a while back but it started to slow my PC down a lot, although now I'm on Windows 7 and have the latest version of Fraps the performance seems about the same (although the PC freezes for a few seconds and the recording stops when recording Fraps after a while - but I think that's an issue with my external hard drive.)

The thing with Guncam is that it records the clips in its own format (called .gcf I think) and then you can export them into proper video files, where as Fraps records straight into .avi (I think) which can result in some pretty big clips if you're recording for any long period.

Also I find Growler Guncam better for filming Guncams (go figure) like the ones I've been making more recently, becuase in Growler Guncam you can set both the resolution of the film, and the resolution of the capture area - so for example I run at a resolution of 1920 x 1200, and record film at a resolution of 1280 x 720 (to get 720p) so if I'm filming a 'normal' film I set it so that the capture area is the whole screen, so it records everything on the screen but only at 1280 x 720 - where as when I'm using it as a gun camera I set it so that it records at full resolution (1920 x 1200) but the capture area is only a 1280 x 720 pixel box at the centre of the screen (so essentially the footage is in full resolution, but it only records the centre of the screen.)

Where as with Fraps you only get to choose the resolution of the recording, which is either full resolution or 50% resolution.

One problem with Growler Guncam however is that it only supports up to a 1600 x 1280 resolution, so I couldn't make a 1920 x 1200 res film of my whole screen in the same way I could in Fraps (although if I tried it'd probably end up being about 50GB. Razz )

Also Growler Guncam has trigger set up options, for example you can set it so that it will record for 10 seconds whenever you pull the trigger - like a real guncam would, personally I just have an on/off button for filming - but I think the Skipper uses the proper guncam method.
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Post  yozz76 Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:13 pm

Cheers MJ. Have installed GG but I can't get it to record for more than 16 seconds! Do I need to change something in advanced settings? I'm wondering if it something to do with resource limiters within the advanced settings.
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Post  MJDixon Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:11 pm

Hmm, not too sure about that.

It might be to do with the maximum video size option, if you go to Setup -> Advanced Setup there's a box for 'Mebabytes - Max file', I have mine set to 1048575 (just so that it doesn't reach the max size and cut the video) also I have my 'Number of frames in buffer' setting at 2000, which is the maximum - not sure if that would have any effect.

Another reason might be to do with the trigger set up, for example you might have the trigger set up so that it records 16 seconds after you press the record button, if so it'll probably show up under the Trigger Setup page.
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Post  yozz76 Mon Apr 25, 2011 1:24 am

It really does make you growl lol. I've uninstalled it as the app itself kept randomly crashing, windows 7 kept changing to basic theme and WW2 OL kept crashing or wouldn't launch when it was running!

Installed the FRAPS demo (30 second footage is a pain and I need to decide if I'm gonna pay for full version). Anyway I've uploaded a test to youtube. Used windows movie maker which I understand isn't the best but I got to start somewhere. No combat footage, just me taking on a hangar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7IJPPiir7w&feature=player_detailpage

Even on 720p it doesn't seem as sharp as I think it should and the sound quality seems a little rubbish. Do you think it could be down to windows movie maker? Is more likely that I just don't know what I'm doing lol.
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Post  MJDixon Mon Apr 25, 2011 3:04 am

Aye that's probably due to Windows Movie Maker, which is a bit naff (at least the XP version was, anyway) I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 9.0 to make my films, the latest version is 10.0 and there should be a free trial version if you fancy looking into some proper video editing stuff.

As for Growler Guncam, if you're running Windows 7 I think you have to run it in Windows XP compatibility mode, or at least I do. Razz
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