Recommended recording program?

[2dog13]

Hey guys. I've been considering recording some gameplay to show the world how much I fail )

Here's where you come in.

What's a good program to record PC gameplay that 1. is free, 2. runs decently on a low-end machine, and 3. does not lag or lags minimally.

I've asked countless people but they just smile and nod, and this being a gaming community I figured this is a good place to ask )

(Once again, if this thread is in the wrong place, simply move it if you'd please)

Any and all help is appreciated and thanks in advance

[Drageuth]

You will be hard pressed to find a really good free recording program. Most of us here use Fraps, but it isn't free.

I'm not sure how it will run on a low-end machine, but if you are recording an emulator or something, you could try using Camstudio. It's a screen recording software that some people swear by, but it will probably take a little bit of tweaking/getting used to before you're really satisfied with it.

[bigbigbuddy]

There isn't much free screen recording software that is any good (that i know of). Only one that is "okay" is hypercam. If your willing to spend some cash, i would recommend fraps. Hope i could help =]

[Supreme Warrior]

I suggest Fraps (Easy) or Camtasia (Difficult)

[Lee]

Fraps is very processor intensive but yields very good results.

Camtasia is a bit harder to use, is a bit less processor intensive (still intensive, just a bit less so) and yields good results.

I know fraps likes to drop frames when it's breaking it's video files. (after about 4gb it starts a new recording, in playback there is no break, but you notice it when playing.)

[2dog13]

Thanks for the reply and yeah but I heard fraps saves video to huge sizes. and i guess i'll give camstudio a whirl. any settings you would recommend?

[Supreme Warrior]

I have not used it in a long time but, watch some tutorial videos, once your done recording you will have a large camtasia format video file, then you play around and you can compress it with your selected settings and boy does it greatly drop in size.

[!nstaGib]

Fraps is very processor intensive but yields very good results.

Camtasia is a bit harder to use, is a bit less processor intensive (still intensive, just a bit less so) and yields good results.

I know fraps likes to drop frames when it's breaking it's video files. (after about 4gb it starts a new recording, in playback there is no break, but you notice it when playing.)

If you have seriously fast harddrives it doesn't do that (not noticeably anyhow, and I'm talking RAID0 Caviar Black type fast )

There's also the option of Xfire, and FRAPS can have the settings turned down to be less intensive IIRC. It's been a while since I've done any of this though tbh
I know Steam recently added screenshots, not sure if they added any sort of video functionality at all though =/

[possnfiffer]

It's not free But Camtasia Studio is great

[Lee]

If you have seriously fast harddrives it doesn't do that (not noticeably anyhow, and I'm talking RAID0 Caviar Black type fast )

There's also the option of Xfire, and FRAPS can have the settings turned down to be less intensive IIRC. It's been a while since I've done any of this though tbh
I know Steam recently added screenshots, not sure if they added any sort of video functionality at all though =/

Source Recorder works amazingly, but it only works for source engine games.

I haven't seen good quality out of xfire yet, so i can't really recommend it.

[!nstaGib]

Source Recorder works amazingly, but it only works for source engine games.

I haven't seen good quality out of xfire yet, so i can't really recommend it.

If you tweak it you can get pretty decent quality, although I haven't used it in a while. It works pretty good on low end machines too.

[Lee]

If you tweak it you can get pretty decent quality, although I haven't used it in a while. It works pretty good on low end machines too.

I'm kind of a perfectionist

If it's discolored, blurry, or even a bit distorted I'm angry

[2dog13]

I'm with lee

and every time I used Xfire it was crap