Recording videos
From FreeGameDevWiki
Sometimes only a video can describe a game well. Dealing with the video format, that consists of audio, video and container formats can be tiresome but once learned, it is useful and rewarding for both player and developer.
Contents |
Recording
The first step is to find the right software for recording and use it and find a solution for why the $%)*@ audio will not be recorded. Do not give up. Do not use a camera to record the monitor!
Sofware
Sometimes changing the recording software can auto-magically fix any trouble at recording. You should try different recording softwares if recording does not work out of the box. Sometimes the engine you use has a video recording function (Cube2, DarkPlaces).
Windows
Linux
GLC will record OpenGL games, including audio using ALSA. It has by far the best performance and is well-documented.
Xvidcap is a well-working alternative with much output control.
recordMyDesktop is a working solution, that however is notorious for failing to record audio. Remember to enable "record every frame".
FFMPEG works when all other fail. Instructions
Troubleshooting
Problems are bound to happen. IRC and SearchEngine are your best friend in these cases, but hopefully this guide will help you as well.
Performance
- Reduce resolution until you have 30 frames per second, having a good frame rate is more important than high resolution
- Make sure to record the game window (window window decoration) and not the whole desktop (avoid this)
- If your system is strong enough for performance not to be a problem and the game supports it, choose 1920×1080 or 1280×720 pixels
Capturing audio
Capturing audio with your video recording app can be a problem. Some things to try:
- Play with your mixer settings, perhaps some software audio device is muted
- Get a correct cable and connect audio out and microphon in. At least it solves the problem (if you're lucky).
Sometimes it just will not work, even if you switch to ALSA/OSS/PulseAudio. Then you still can record audio separately. Use arecord or ossrecord or Audacity to record an audio track.
If you make a commented video, you can either try recording video and speech at the same time (make a test run first if you get lost) or add the voice track later. In both cases, make sure to record at a loud enough volume. The mixer settings can be of help there.
Editing
Most of the time you will have to convert to a different format or even will want to cut some parts out or combine multiple recordings.
Transcoding
The recording software might be using an own format (e.g. GLC). You will have to read the software's documentation to find out how to transcode it.
If the recording software provides the video in a format that is not currently widely supported (e.g. recordMyDesktop - OGV) and if you do not want to edit the video before submission, the video will have to be transcoded. If your want to edit and the editor supports the format, no pre-editing transcoding is necessary. A video editor can be used for the transcoding step.
The current preferred video codec by video hosts is x264 (H.264/MPEG-4). There are some transcoders avaiable.
Audio
If you recorded the audio track separately you will need to trim it to fit the video recording, at start and end. Use an audio editor like audacity for trimming. Export to .wav. You can use command line tools like mencoder or ffmpeg or avidemux to combine the video and audio track.
If you recorded voice comments, make sure the audio track has a good volume. Not too loud, not too quiet. You will have to compare to other videos around. The normalize function of Audacity might be of help.
Video
OpenShot is stable and simple, allows Transition and mixing of different video/audio tracks.
Avidemux allows frame-precise editing.
Export to x264/ac3 or x264/mp3. The video hosting services often give advice on encoding video.
General editing help
Music is not OK
Do not replace the game audio with music. Even if you failed to record any audio (unless it is the game's music, then it is acceptable)
Get started quick
If you have voice commentary, do not start the video with nothing happening on-screen and you talking long (2 seconds is too long). Say "Let's play some GAMENAME" and at the same time let the game start already.
Avoid showing game menus
Do not unnecessarily long show game menus or loading screens, get to know them before recording or cut parts with no action out. Still, showing game menus for a very short time can't be wrong, as the player will have to interact with them.
Releasing
Now the video needs to be put online. A host that preserves quality and provides feeds is preferable, also consider creating a user for the project, so different team members can upload videos and users who want to follow specifically new videos for this project can subscribe to the user.
Hosting
- YouTube is the best quick & dirty solution. Great visibility, good quality. The only possible problem is the ten minutes limit.
- Viddler is a good choice for videos over 10 minutes length.
- blip.tv is an option for insane-resolution videos.
Describing
The video name needs to include a version or date, if the version is from a non-linear repository. If you do not include this, videos of old versions will be taken as representative for new versions by viewers!
A link to the game's homepage in the video description is a must. Many viewers will hear about the project for the first time.
Feature - Game name - Version/date
for example:
- "Unit Building in Warzone 2100 2.1"
- "Showing off cloud shaders in FlightGear git 2010-01-23"
- "Gameplay in Nexuiz 1.3"
This way people will
- know the age of videos (which is most recent?)
- be able to find gameplay videos in search engines
Tagging
Game videos allow people to discover new games to play or contribute to. That is why you need to provide the proper tags to allow them find it.
Some kinds of information to provide as tags are:
- Genre: "RPG", "RTS" "FPS" "shooter"...
- Supported platforms: "OSX", "Linux", "Android"...
- Style: "fantasy" "sci-fi"
- Entities visible in the video: "grass", "penguin"...
- Libraries used: "OGRE", "enet"... (this is not just for giving back, someone searching for demonstrations of the libraries might be able to find your game if you provide this information
- Program used for recording the game video
You should create a text file that contains the tags you will always use for your project's videos. Or open old video submissions in edit mode to copy the tags.
Presentation
Make the videos part of your project presentation. Link to them or embed them in your gallery/screenshot page, embed videos in blog posts. The hosting services provide the needed HTML code for that.
