Let's Play: A How-To Guide By A Bored Guy

So there's been a couple of LP threads started lately, and they're occasionally accompanied by questions of "how does this shit work" or "why isn't X working the way I want it to", so I reckon it's about time I attempted typing something worthwhile.

Or maybe not. Either way, it kills some goddamned time.

Part 1: Recording the video:
-Method 1: Using Fraps
-Method 2: Using an Emulator

Part 2: Commentary

Part 3: Compression and wrapup

Extra: How to Do A Co-op LP: Skype Edition

*Note: I recommend leaving about 10 gigs of free space. Some of the resulting video files can be fuckhuge, so having some space to spare doesn't hurt. Especially if you record multiple videos in a row or something.*

Part 1: Creating a video


It's probably a good idea to pick a game first. Just go with what you know, or take a recommendation from a regular. Just not evans. FUCKING HATE YOU EVANS.


Method 1: The FRAPS Method


Obviously the first step is acquiring FRAPS. It's easy to get at your local warez distributer, as the free version leaves an unsightly watermark over your hard played efforts. If you can't figure out how to install it, chances are you're in the wrong place. Hint: Double clicking is your friend.

You might ask why I use this. Well, it's worked pretty well for me, it's easy to use, and as such it's a pretty solid recommendation. If anyone would like to add some method to record with something else, be my guest. Just use whatever works.

So, once that's done, we have to run the executable. I'm sure a huge nerd such as yourself can figure this bit out.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/2197/fraps1.png

Lovely ain't it? Nothing of any real importance here. It's the tabs we're after. Let's start with the FPS tab (no relation to First Person Shooters).

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4746/fraps2t.png

There's a lot of technical mumbo jumbo here that we really don't need to fuck with. The only thing you want to play with here is the overlay placement, which determines where the frame counter appears (if at all). Since games tend to move the HUD around, you might have to adjust your corner, since there's nothing worse than some huge red numbers obscuring your vital statistics. You can also set it as "disabled" to hide the counter, but I don't recommend it, as sometimes you may stop recording without realizing it and such. Plus games typically don't show the display in the resulting video anyway (with the exception of ZSNES, for some reason).

Now onto the next tab, Movies:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8080/fraps3.png

Sadly, it appears there's no porn here.

And here's where the real "work" comes in. These are pretty close to the standard settings, and they've served me well over the couple dozen videos I've used FRAPs for (most recently, Ninja Gaiden). The video capture hotkey is a key/key combination that'll start your recording. I recommend setting it to something you're comfortable with, and also something that you won't accidentally hit mid game. No cursor is worth checking, as it prevents your pointer from sneaking into your videos. And Recording sound is typically a good idea.

Right now, it's set up to record the in game audio in the resulting video. So you'll have to add your commentary later (I'll cover that in a later step) You're pretty much set to record right now. But there's an additional step you can take if you so choose...

But if not, just open your emulator, load your game, hit your hotkey, and game away. Once you're done, just hit the hotkey again to end your recording. You can tell if you're recording, because your framerate display turns RED instead of the standard YELLOW

*additional note: while these settings are generally good, there are instances where you might want to check something differently. In particular, the framerate option might need to be set to 60. Drageuth stated that his PSX emulator encountered this problem while attempting to record Megaman X4, so if you happen to be recording a PSX game and it appears laggy, you may want to consider attempting to record at 60 FPS. Since I've spent more time recording since first posting this guide, I have run into games that tend to fall into 3 categories:

1. FRAPs records at 30 FPS, the game switches to 30 FPS mode. The game may appear slightly laggy or choppy, but not especially so. If you aren't too familiar with framerates, you aren't playing a game that requires absolute precision, you have never played a high spec PC game on a mid spec machine, or you don't tend to notice this stuff, you probably won't notice it. A LOT of my LP videos tend to fall into this category. A specific example would be the Alone in the Dark videos such as this one. Emulators appear fond of working this way.

2. FRAPs records at 30 FPS, the game runs at 60 FPS. This one is by far the best, although it appears somewhat rare. The game seems perfectly fluid to the point where you probably wouldn't know you were recording unless you noticed the red FRAPs counter. Any in-game counters will probably show a 60 framerate or close to it. As an example, even though FRAPs is running at 30 (as usual), the in game counter in this video tends to stick to the upper 50's and the only effect FRAPs is having on the game's framerate comes from the fact that they're both running on the same machine. The output video, however, will run at 30 FPS. If you're using a capture card, it's pretty much the same deal (since my card is set to capture at 30 frames while most NTSC games run at 60 FPS).

3. FRAPs records at 30 FPS, the game tries to run at 60 FPS, but the conflict between the game and FRAPs causes the game to run extremely poorly/half speed. This is the problem situation. If this happens, you'll probably have to set FRAPs up to capture at 60 frames. It's most common among fighting games, and an example of how the slowdown may look can be found here. As opposed to how it'll look when capturing at 60, which will look more like this.

So, why do I typically record at 30? It tends to give the best combination of processing power to both the game you're recording as well as the recording software itself. The framerate may be lower, but it's typically smoother. It also creates much smaller file sizes. All in all, it appears to work rather well for me.

As for the half size/full size thing, it's much the same case. However, some games record better on one or the other. So if you're encountering problems you might want to try jumping to "full size" or "60 FPS" or some combination thereof. The settings shown above are more of a good guideline than an absolute rule. I fully support experimentation as well as people pointing out what worked better for them.*

--------------------IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RECORD COMMENTARY AS YOU PLAY, GO STRAIGHT TO PART 2-----------------------------


This is for people that prefer to yak while cappin' fools. It's quicker, it's easier, and it can provide some humor if you're capable of doing both at the same time. The bulk of my LPs involve this.

So, how do we do it? First up, we drop into our volume controls down there. See that gray knob? Yeah, that.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/8549/fraps6.png

Nothing useful here, unless you want to crank the volume a tad and bust your eardrums. Instead, we go to options->Preferences

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9122/fraps7.png

Ah yes, now we're talking. Make sure to click the recording button. Then we hit OK. I know there isn't a shot of each step, but I'm sure if you're reading this you should at least have the minimal skills required for this sort of thing.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/6995/fraps8.png

This is what we're after, all right. Make sure the checkbox labelled "select" under the Mic slider is checked. I also recommend maxing it out, lest you may be doing a Tan impression. For best results, I recommend hitting Advanced:

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/5360/fraps9.png

Then clicking the Mic Boost box.

Of course, your mileage may vary. I recommend testing out your audio/video settings by doing a short 1 minute video before doing your proper 7-10 minute recording.

Now we head back to the FRAPS window

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/8387/fraps4.png

And we make sure "Use Windows Input" is checked. This'll change sound input to microphone (pictured). Note that this ONLY records stuff going into your mic. For best results, I recommend turning on your speakers to a reasonable level while doing commentary. This way you get the vocals and the music together, and at a good level. For an example of this, check the Ninja Gaiden videos (they were done this way).

If you record this way, you're pretty much set on the resulting video. It's just compressing and uploading. You can completely bypass Part II.


*********BUT RAY, I'M DOING A SCREENSHOT LP***************


That's what the final tab is for:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4247/fraps5.png

For those of you that prefer not to open your big mouths and expose your nasally geek voice to the world. Here, we just set up a button to press to create a screenshot, a folder to dump it into, and a screenshot format.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOWNSIDES
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First off, what you see is what you get. All deaths and savestate usage is kept intact. So you either have to be good at the game, savestate like a bitch, or deal with longer videos. Although this can be an upside depending on how you look at it.

It's also rather resource intensive compared to the alternative.

Plus, it doesn't work with anything. Some programs outright HATE being recorded, and will glitch up, drop frames, cause crappy video results, or even outright crash. So far, the only things that played especially nice with FRAPS were ZSNES (Rise to the Challenge, Spike McFang) and KEGA Fusion (Contra:HC, Ninja Gaiden) So how do we record other stuff....?

*update: I also used this method in the Alone in the Dark LP, and have gotten FRAPs to work well with a few other random games.*

Method 2: The Emulator Method


Well, certain emulator programmers made sure to toss in a method to create videos. Aren't they nice? This varies a lot from emulator to emulator, and not EVERYTHING can do it. I recommend just digging around for a "record .avi" or "convert replay to .avi" option somewhere. They're pretty straightforward and should work like/similar to the ones I'll cover. Thus far, I've managed to do this with two emulators, so I'll cover those here.

First up:

-------------------------VirtuaNES----------------------------

Let's get our oldschool on. This was my emulator (and method!) of choice during the Battletoads LP, so I can really vouch for it.

To get it, go HERE.

First up, we have to install it. But I figure even you in the black shirt there can figure it out. Just extract it somewhere, mang.

And once that's done, just open the emulator. I recommend wearing a bib so you don't drool all over yourself while wracking your brain with the correct way to click twice on the icon.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1020/vnes1.png

Ah yes, the main window. Hopefully, I don't have to tell you how this works. Just open your ROM, as you normally would.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/7586/vnes2.png

Splendid. Now we click EDIT->Movie->Record

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1484/vnes3.png

And we come up with an appropriate name for our masterpiece.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7946/vnes4.png

Once that's done, we simply have to hit OK and start playing the game. Preferably, we do so in 10 minutes or less, as it's a good length and it's the cutoff for most youtube accounts.

Oh yes, and feel free to use savestates while it's recording. It'll just erase everything you've done since the savestate, creating a video that makes even an average gamer look like a mighty god. You just can't use savestates you created outside the recording (to use those, you have to stop the recording, load the state, then hit record). It'll all become second nature soon enough.

Once you're done, head to EDIT->MOVIE->Stop to end our recording.

And now comes the confusing part. You probably noticed that "AVI Convert" is blacked out, right? No, you're not using a glitched emulator, nor is the rom "funny".

What we must do now is go to File->Close to exit our ROM.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/1020/vnes1.png

And NOW is when we head to EDIT->Movie->AVI Convert

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/4913/vnes5.png

And we have 3 fields to fill in.

ROM file -> Your home phone number, obviously.
Movie file -> This is where you write in your penis measurements. Or you point it to the replay we just made. I forget which.
AVI file -> This is the resulting video file we're creating. I recommend an appropriate name.

And I recommend bumping the Sampling rate to the maximum to get the absolute best quality video. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT as it means the difference between this (default):



And this (maxed):

http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/5708/vnes6.png



And while we're at it, why not hit "select video format"

http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/6158/vnes7.png

And pick a codec that you fancy. Or just leave it at the base. Whichever you prefer.

Once that's done, we just hit OK and "Convert"

Now I recommend going to grab a sandwich, whacking off, playing another game, or viewing some anime. Whatever it is you kids do these days.

Once you come back, you should have a .AVI file of the game

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/4562/vnes8.png

Complete with in game audio and decent quality

*Note: The AVI uses emulator settings. So if you disabled the sound in the emulator to blare your FUKKKIN' METAL you'll have to re enable it before creating the AVI. Just FYI*

So we're all good here, we just have to tack on some commentary, recompress, and upload it somewhere.

*****Huh? Wait, didn't battletoads have live commentary?*****

Well, yeah. The way I did it here was by using this method, and, while playing, recording my voice with audacity. I'll cover Audacity's useage later. As for how to get it to sync properly, I recommend hitting record, and keeping your mouth shut until after you hit "OK" and the in game recording starts. Then trimming the excess. It more or less matches up that way.


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DOWNSIDES
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The primary downside is desyncs (for an example, check the level 12 video of battletoads which features a handful of desyncs). Which can lead to you losing some of your work. This is a lot more common if you're using savestates. This is why I recommend doing the gameplay in 5-10 minute chunks, as that way you only lose a little work. Plus if you aren't doing the voice overs at the same time, that decreases annoyance.

Also, you typically have to add in a step or two with the commentary.

And your deaths aren't visible (although again this can be an up side)


--------------------MAME------------------


So you say you want to LP that quarter eater you played way back? Or perhaps you feel like showing off your skills at fighting games? Maybe you're a shmup wonderkid looking to show bitches how you roll? Or you and your buddy are planning to play through that old school beat em up and record it for fun? Well, here's the place to do it.

Grabbing the emulator sounds like a good place to start.

http://mamedev.org/release.html

And typically we want this installed and ready to run before we record, right? Just try not to strain yourself with all this heavy complex computing.

So once we have it installed, we're looking at this:

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/6589/mame1.png

See? Alright, now right click that .exe. Or whatever equivalent you hosers have.

Now create 2 shortcuts. Why two? You'll see. And while you're at it, open your ROM folder in another window.

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5172/mame2.png

Now open the properties of the first shortcut.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/5125/mame3.png

Hooray, you get a gold star! Okay, now scroll AAAAALLLL the way to the end.

Now type the name of the ROM you want to play.

Hit space. And type -rec*Space* *the name of your awesome video*

Click okay. Now open the properties of the other shortcut.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/7253/mame4.png

Likewise, we scroll to the end. And type the ROM name. But instead of "-rec AWESOMECOCKS" we type "-pb" (note the lack of jelly) followed by a space and the name of the replay file. Then we drop in yet another space, followed by "-aviwrite*space* *A cool name for an avi* "

And we're all done on the grunt work. Just hit "OK" and we can get this show on the road.

So when you want to start recording, hit up the first shortcut (you might want to label it "record" and the second "AVI" or something). Now you just play through the game normally. All the way through and savestate free too, as MAME doesn't take kindly to savestates. Many games don't support it at all, and the ones that do tend to cause issues with playing back the resulting replay file.

And once the credits roll, we just have to exit MAME and click the other shortcut and it'll do all the work. Don't worry if it appears to be slower than your actual playthrough, the video will look pretty much exactly like when you were playing. I recommend having a FUCKLOAD of free space for this step, and you might want to catch a movie or two while you wait. This will take a while, and it'll give you a rather large video file.

Also, take note that it doesn't drop it into that AVI folder like you would expect it to. It instead drops it into SNAP. Unusual, but whatever.

This is what the resulting video looked like:



Now all we have to do is cut it into level sized chunks, drop some commentary on that, compress it down, and upload it somewhere.

*LPs done this way: DoDonPachi and Pro Gear*

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DOWNSIDES
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


The largest one? The file size. You're looking at 20-30 GB of video easily. And if you can't get the LP out right away, that thing sits on your hard drive eating space better spent on porn (I desperately need to get PG off of this thing).

Also, MAME can be a picky motherfucker. Which means you may run into problems with stuff.

Furthermore, no savestates. So you're REALLY going to have your work cut out for you if you're doing something that limits pumping in a shitload of quarters to get through.

It can also be more than a little time consuming to cut these things apart and play around with this stuff. It's considerably worse than live commentary FRAPS work.

And you get a shitload of people proclaiming TAS! since you're not using official hardware and such.

As far as editing goes, I'll probably edit something in to cover that. Maybe. Once I'm done with getting all this in order.

----------------------AND I DO BELIEVE THAT COVERS GETTING THE ACTUAL VIDEO FILE--------------------------------

Part 2: How To Sound Like A Tosser While Playing Videogame


So we already have the video file, but we need to put some commentary and probably some in game sound effects into it before everyone at EP can laugh at you. No problem, says I.

For this step, we need two things: VirtualDub and Audacity

These need to be downloaded and installed. Hopefully you have the two braincells required for this monumental undertaking.

So once they're installed, we open vDub (not to be confused with G dubya)

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5061/vdub1.png

Now let's open that file we created in step one, shall we?

File-> Open video file -> Locate the video

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/vdub2.png

And we have it open right there. We click OK and suddenly it's all open.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5991/vdub2.png

So what do we do now? Simple. We just go to file-> save WAV. Why? You'll see. Make sure to name it something you'll recognize. Like "In game audio" or "Game Sounds" or "Jenna deepthroats a goat". Y'know, whatev.

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/6631/vdub4.png

It's now safe to turn off your computer close vdub. Or not, whatever.

Now let's take a look at audacity here.

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3118/aud1.png

Simple enough. Looks like a tape recorder. Clearly that big red button is for recording. Which one is the red circle? That one? Good boy. Have a cookie.

Now let's open our media player of choice and load in the video file.

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/6470/aud2.png

*note: if the video is crappy and choppy, you might have to compress it in vdub first. I'll cover compression later, it's more or less the same thing there and here*

Got that? Good. Okay, so hit record on audacity, hit play on your media player, and begin talking. Consider keeping an eye on your progress bar so you can get the proper timing. And you might want to mute the video sound to prevent issues later. Never hurts to do a dry run of the video first to get an idea of what you're working with (and to make sure you have a proper recording. Nothing worse than putting up an LP only to find out it's actually porn.)

Now there's a lot of comments about people not knowing what to talk about. Well, it's easy. Talk about what you're doing in the game, talk about strategy, explain how the game works, talk about the plot, make observations about the goings on of the game world, ramble about nothing in particular, review the game/level, tell knock knock jokes, threaten the game designers with death, or toss up some weird facts about the game (you can come across a lot through shit like wikipedia, a dev blog, memories associated with the game, or a couple old articles). It's all good. The point is that you just ramble pointlessly over the picture. If all else fails, just be an obvious narrator.

And once we're done, we hit the black square in audacity. Which one's the black square? That's right. *clap clap clap*

And you should be looking at this:

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7978/aud3.png

That's what your voice looks like. Trippy shit, right? Anyway, this only contains your voice over. Remember that WAV we created earlier? Whaddya mean you don't know? You're skimming this shit, ain't ya? Ungrateful fucks.

You might want to save here, just in case. You should know how to do this.

Anyway, go to Project->Import Audio

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4640/aud4.png

And find that file. Hit OK.

Now we wait.

*some time later*

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6360/aud5.png

Feel free to click play now. See those sliders? Those allow you to adjust the volume on both audio streams. Basically you can make yourself louder/quieter or the game louder/quieter. Once you have it all in order, it's time to create a file.

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/2838/aud6.png

Go to file and export as WAV (or MP3, or whatever. This is just the easiest one to do, really). Give it a good name. Ignore that popup, it's just telling you pointless shit. And now we wait.

*some more time later*

Success!

So what do we do with this? Well, it's back to vDub and editing our video file.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/4273/vdub9.png

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3770/vdub10.png

Click "Audio" and choose "audio from other file...". Remember that WAV we just created? You'd better, you ADD having fucks. Point it to that. Presto, you now have an LP video on your hands. Feel free to hit play to get an idea of how it turned out. vDub isn't great with this though, so it's more of a general idea than a perfect match.

*note: when working with multiple files consecutively remember that your "audio from other file" carries over between videos. If you output a .wav from VDub and it contains the commentary + music from your last LP vid, you probably forgot to switch it back to Stream 1*

Part 3: Shrinkage In The Pool

So we have the video, we have the audio, but wait, the video is bigger than Ray's penis! How will I ever get this on youtube, what with its limits and all that?

That's where compression comes in. Before doing this, I recommend you guys get one of those codec packs. Preferably CCCP. Which I am not endorsing solely on the presence of the letters "CP". Chances are, a lot of you guys have this already. If not, google is your friend.

Chances are, you have VirtualDub open with your video file opened within it. If not, do that now. If you don't know how, kill yourself or scroll up. Preferably the former.

Now click video->compression

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/869/vdub7.png

And take a look through the codecs for one that catches your fancy. You might have to change your choice, as the restrictions might not allow you to use certain ones. The DivX encoders and Microsoft Video 1 are pretty decent.

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/964/vdub8.png

Now we just hit OK.

Beautiful. Now hit File->Save as AVI

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/4515/vdub11.png

And just toss a nice name for your resulting video file.

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/9416/vdub12.png

Aaaaaannnndddd more waiting. Keeping a gameboy on hand is a good idea. Alternatively, boot up your console and play some games. Unless you have a PS3, in which case you have none.

*several minutes later*

well wouldja look at that? It's a goddamned LP video. Feel free to check out your hard earned first vid. So nice and shiny. Now time to show the world.

[CENTER]Alternate Compression Method[CENTER]

As per Yubson's post here's another way to cut those files down to size:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yobson

I probably haven't found the optimum, but I have managed to compress a 3 minute 700 mB fraps video to a 40 MB video with a invisible loss, with a bitrate of 2000 kbs, which is almost halfway to HD rate at Youtube.

Here's a short process to setup your encoding preset (ss supplemented):

1. Choose your source file > video file > file you want to encode
2. Click Encoding - Settings
3. There you'll find 5 tabs, Picture - Video Filters - Video - Audio - Advanced
Picture
Use Anamorphic settings STRICT, just to use same format of the source video.

Video Filters
If you're concerned your video will have any glitches, sever losses or similar try playing with these options which usually enhance the quality, but I haven't changed any - video quality was still high.

Video
Use H.264(x264) codec- very important!
- 2 pass encoding
- Optional Turbo 1st Pass
Quality
I am using bitrate as criteria as it's universal for each format/aspect ratio - I am targeting around 2000 for a great quality/size ratio, and size in mB will show above.
My x264 Basic settings > Profile = Baseline if anyone cared.

Both Audio and Advanced tabs are already preset - nothing really to tweak unless you know what you're doing.

4. While in Encoding options, on top your window you'll have options for Container > mp4, I suggest; Extension mp4 and Web-optimized option clicked.

5. Click Save-as > name your preset and you're good to go.

You can preview the file with Preview button, or close the window with small [x], and press >Encode> Button on main window screen.

Happy Encoding.Attachment 29270Attachment 29271Attachment 29272

---

Part 4: I Don't Want To Send The World A File~

Too goddamned bad. You're uploading this so we can all enjoy it. You might want to take a look at the video length. If it's >16 minutes, it's probably a good idea to use Viddler (google it) and if it's <16 you can youtube it. Of course, you can always just split the video into parts using vDub.

Just create an account (or depending on who you are, get the EPLP login details). Click the upload button at the top of the screen, and point it towards the video file. Those sites have their own guides to this shit, so just go bother them about that part.

Part 5: Laugh And The World Laughs With You, RAGE And The World Laughs AT You.

Post a thread here showing your exploits with the accompanying hilarity. It'll boost your viewer count, and you get your own shiny listing in the EP LP thread courtesy of Tanthias (and provided it's a Youtube LP, I'll probably get around to creating a playlist on the EP youtube account. Because that's how I roll)

Record video
Record Audio
Combine Video and Audio
Compress Video
Upload video
????
Profit!

Co-Op Let's Play Help

Tan and myself have recently begun an LP co op project of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, which can be found here. During the process of getting this working, we tried several alternative programs and a couple methods for recording. Here, I'll be covering the one we used and what worked best for us. We attempted using Ventrilo and some other applications a couple times, but that didn't really pan out. I could make a guide for that, but since this worked better, I'll be covering this method. If you want to write something up explaining an alternative, feel free. I'm not looking to hold a monopoly on guides here.

Part 1: Can You Hear Me Now? Good!


First up, you'll actually need to be able to hear the other person. For this, you'll almost certainly need an external program. The option that worked best for us, as well as the option present in the LP video was Skype

WHICH YOU CAN GET HERE

Don't worry, it's 100% free and no harder to operate than the average instant messaging client EX: MSN/Yahoo messenger.

The process of downloading, installing, and setting it up is pretty straightforward. If you can see this, you're probably overqualified to run it. So I'll avoid the specifics. Once you and the other player have everything set up, simply add them then double click to open a chat window. Use "Call" to open a voice chat. Avoid hitting "video call", unless you want them to see you tugging your sausage.

You might want to take this opportunity to make sure that you can both hear each other clearly, and everything is smooth. Also, consider adjusting any volume levels so that everything is fine. Although the defaults should be more or less fine anyway. It's a snap, so don't worry about it.


Now that you can hear the other person, the question becomes how we record it. Skype doesn't have a record button in sight, so how does that work?

Part 2: This Call May Be Recorded For Quality Assurance Purposes


For this step, you're going to need "iFree Skype Recorder".

YOU CAN GRAB IT HERE

Also, 100% free and all that stuff.

Just install it and run it. You'll probably get a banner in skype that says something along the lines of "iFree wishes to use skype". Just click "allow". Remember, only ONE PERSON NEEDS TO RUN THIS PROGRAM. You may choose to have separate duties for this method of LP. In our setup, Tan does the video recording while my computer handles the audio recording. We then combine them in post production. More on that later.

But first, let's do a little bit of setup on iFree, shall we?

First, you should be seeing something a bit like this:

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP1.jpg

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the interface. It's rather easy and straightforward. Now let's click that hammer and screwdriver combination there to hit our settings.

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP2.jpg

Nothing of note here, however, if we click the "Call Recording" Tab....

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP3.jpg

We'll see this. Ensure that "record both sides" is active. Make note of where it records your calls (this'll make it easier to find them later!). And you *may* want to disable automatic recording, in favor of manual recording. This way, you only record when you hit the record button, instead of automatically recording every skype call from the moment they start to when they end. Alt-Tabbing lets you hit this in game, and you can easily use Audacity to trim the excess when we get around to combining, so don't sweat it.

It's worth noting that this will ONLY record the stuff that goes throuugh skype. the in game audio is best recorded using your screen capture software (Using FRAPs, this means making sure the audio record is set to "Stereo Mixer" or something equivalent.) Although there can be some issues here (Tan stated that he would be able to pick up my voice using FRAPs when he recorded in game audio, which is why he uses 2 PCs to handle the recording. I'm unsure if this'll be a problem for everyone. If so, just have one person play the game on speaker or something. I'm not sure how that would work out, but if anyone has something to say about it, go ahead and enlighten me.

once the recording is completed, just hit the stop button. You can click the clock to see your history, and check any recordings made. You may want to do a quick conversation and recording just to make sure everything is flowing right. If not, double check any settings and such.

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP4.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tanthias

Just noting that the Skype recorder does work with conference calls. To make a conference call, just do the following:

Quote:

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Open Skype and log in with your user name and password.


Click the Contacts tab in the main section of your Skype window.

Find your friend's contact information and double-click the name.


Find another friend from your contacts list whom you'd like to invite to your conference call. Right-click his or her name and select "Invite to Conference" from the menu that appears.

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And with that, we have now covered the entire process of setting up and recording a voice chat. But wait, what would an LP be without video of you guys playing together?

Onward to the next step:

Part 3: When You Ride Together, You Ride With ZSNES


Since it's the only option we've used, I'll be using ZSNES as a guideline here. Although it should be easy enough to extrapolate how to work most other netplay features through this general guide.

First, you'll need a version of ZSNES, and one that supports netplay.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND V. 1.42, WHICH YOU CAN GET RIGHT HERE

Also, you'll both need the same rom. For best results, you should both just download the same rom from the same site, then shove it into the folder with ZSNES 1.42. Preferably without any similar looking ROMs in there.

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP5.jpg

That'll do nicely.

Before we proceed further, you may want to enable UDP on port 7845 and/or set an exception on any firewall software you may be running. You can't exactly play online if your computer is actively fighting your ability to connect to people. There's A LOT of guides out there on that sort of thing, and it's a pain in the ass to go through the process. Google is your friend, and I guess at least some of you know how to do this anyway.

Also, make sure that one of you knows your IP address. No, 192.168.0.1 isn't your IP. Go to

http://www.whatismyip.com/

To find out what it actually is. Consider writing it down. Or typing it into Skype's instant messenger window. In any case, one of you has to do this, and the other has to type it in when we get to that part.

Now open up ZSNES.

Go to Netplay and click Internet.

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP6.jpg

*NOTE: IF IT'S GREYED OUT, YOU'RE USING A VERSION OF ZSNES THAT DOESN'T SUPPORT NETPLAY. Again, highly recommend 1.42.

http://i1180.photobucket.com/albums/...e/HowtoLP7.jpg

Excellent. And no, what it shows there isn't your IP. Nor is that my IP. In any case, the person "hosting" now clicks "start as server", meanwhile the other person types in the IP of the host and clicks "connect to server". If all goes according to plan, you'll see a prompt for a second or two and a chat box will open momentarily. If it fails at this step, someone may have fucked up on the port forwarding and security disabling. Consider trading places as host/connecter and see if that works.

Once the text chat is up, you can type a few quick words in here if you want. Now one of you just opens the rom like normal. If all goes according to plan, then it should start the game. If it spits out a "file not found at remote host" error, that means either the rom doesn't match up, the name doesn't match up, or someone doesn't have it in the right spot. Consider checking that out.


Part 4: GAME ON!


Now all that's left to do is hit record on your voice recorder (assuming you didn't do so already) and on your screen capture software of choice. Once you're done, you just have to go through the process of setting up the audio and compressing it.

I've already covered both processes HERE and HERE

So I'll avoid a retread. Once you've got that taken care of, you should be good to go. Savestates will work just like they always have, but the host should be the one to make them so as to avoid any issues. You may want to consider a shorter game and/or somethign with passwords just to be on the safe side.

Now you just have to upload your collective failures and let us all bask in the hilarity of it all.

Thanks Ray. Now I can use fraps for rcording games safely!
One More thing Ray, to give me reputation, please bring back
Beyond Oasis gameplay!

Just noting that the Skype recorder does work with conference calls. To make a conference call, just do the following:

Quote:

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Open Skype and log in with your user name and password.


Click the Contacts tab in the main section of your Skype window.

Find your friend's contact information and double-click the name.


Find another friend from your contacts list whom you'd like to invite to your conference call. Right-click his or her name and select "Invite to Conference" from the menu that appears.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Aliengrounder

Thanks Ray. Now I can use fraps for rcording games safely!
One More thing Ray, to give me reputation, please bring back
Beyond Oasis gameplay!

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Beyond Oasis is Ivolt's LP. So he'll be the one to restore it when he gets around to it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tanthias

Just noting that the Skype recorder does work with conference calls. To make a conference call, just do the following:

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Pasted the info into the appropriate section.

Do you close fraps, minimize it or what when recording movies?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mega-death1

Do you close fraps, minimize it or what when recording movies?

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When you're done, you hit the same key combination you hit to start recording. After which the FPS counter will change back to yellow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raype

When you're done, you hit the same key combination you hit to start recording. After which the FPS counter will change back to yellow.

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I meant how do you get the movie to start. I press my key combination and still nothing. The FPS counter doesn`t show up at all. I don`t know if i`m doing somthing wrong or what. I`m using v.3.0.3

You start up fraps, and then just minimize it, or don't do anything.

But if you close it, fraps won't work.

It's nice to be able to see the overlay, but it's not nessecary.

Fraps defaults all your recordings to C:\\Fraps\Movies so that's the place you should look if you can't find your recordings, and as ray said, they will be fuckhuge.

Yeah, you need to constantly run Fraps in the background, and then start recording, obviously. You can also change the recording button to whatever button you want if that's causing problems. Movies tab/Video Capture Hotkey.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mega-death1

I meant how do you get the movie to start. I press my key combination and still nothing. The FPS counter doesn`t show up at all. I don`t know if i`m doing somthing wrong or what. I`m using v.3.0.3

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It's possible you may have stumbled upon a program that doesn't support FRAPS or possibly one that needs further configuration.

FRAPs works on DirectX based programs, so stuff that functions on another form of graphic display doesn't work, and some default to another type of display. DX is exceptionally common, but there are exceptions. If it's an emulator, set it up so that it's using a DX based plugin or display driver. That typically solves it.

Um, if I may contribute the compression/encoding part of the guide regarding the video size and quality, just let me know with the reply. Of course, I believe, plenty have found way to go around sizeful Fraps recordings but it would be nice to actually add it to the guide.

I can easily edit the post with method I am using, and some are too I hope which is very effective and actually requires use of a freeware which is a plus always, no need to pay for the software to do the job. :) Thanks for the guide it helped in couple of aspects I had difficulties in.

Go nuts. I can edit in or link to whatever information you want to post. All additional information for this half assed guide is quite welcome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Raype

Go nuts. I can edit in or link to whatever information you want to post. All additional information for this half assed guide is quite welcome.

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Thanks for the prompt reply, you can just use the post and paste it to the OP, no problems there.

I was seeking for a better solution, since the one presented here didn't give me wanted results. What most complained about was compression rate. Then I discovered a software called VidCoder http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/ - it's free to download, which basically lets you customize a preset which you can use to encode/compress your recorded video.

I'll attach couple of screenshots you can then upload - embed on your POST in the guide, describing the process.

I probably haven't found the optimum, but I have managed to compress a 3 minute 700 mB fraps video to a 40 MB video with a invisible loss, with a bitrate of 2000 kbs, which is almost halfway to HD rate at Youtube.

Here's a short process to setup your encoding preset (ss supplemented):

1. Choose your source file > video file > file you want to encode
2. Click Encoding - Settings
3. There you'll find 5 tabs, Picture - Video Filters - Video - Audio - Advanced
Picture
Use Anamorphic settings STRICT, just to use same format of the source video.

Video Filters
If you're concerned your video will have any glitches, sever losses or similar try playing with these options which usually enhance the quality, but I haven't changed any - video quality was still high.

Video
Use H.264(x264) codec- very important!
- 2 pass encoding
- Optional Turbo 1st Pass
Quality
I am using bitrate as criteria as it's universal for each format/aspect ratio - I am targeting around 2000 for a great quality/size ratio, and size in mB will show above.
My x264 Basic settings > Profile = Baseline if anyone cared.

Both Audio and Advanced tabs are already preset - nothing really to tweak unless you know what you're doing.

4. While in Encoding options, on top your window you'll have options for Container > mp4, I suggest; Extension mp4 and Web-optimized option clicked.

5. Click Save-as > name your preset and you're good to go.

You can preview the file with Preview button, or close the window with small [x], and press >Encode> Button on main window screen.

Happy Encoding.Attachment 29270Attachment 29271Attachment 29272

What in gods name is Ass to mouth 7? Or should i not even ask?