Recording Question

[Laguna]

Ok this is going to be kind of hard to explain but il give it a go.
Right you know the way when you are playing a full screen game you can hit print screen to get a snap shot of the game?Well is there anyway that i can record 5-10 seconds of a game say or anything else and have it as a gif or something.As i want to record the Victory poses from Final Fantasy VII to make it into a signature.

So basicaly is there anyway of doing that through a program or anything windows has(haha windows having something usefull)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Laguna

[mjc]

Can you tap the PrintScreen key 20+ times a second?

I haven't heard of anything like you are describing...

There are probably a number of reasons why there isn't, but the one that I can think of most likely applying is that most games directly interact with the hardware, leaving the OS out of the loop (DirectX/OpenGL) or take up enough of the system's resources to run a program of that nature would bring the system to a grinding halt.

Of course that is leaving out all sorts of other reasons why game publishers wouldn't wnat to see such a program...just think of the 'cheat' sequneces that could be shown.

[Whyzman]

Hmmm...what about an All-in-wonder using the RF from a console to record...??

[mjc]

Well, out to a VCR? Then transfer the tape and make an avi?

That might work, but didn't Laguna want a software solution?

[Whyzman]

Not sure if the game is on PC or console.... If on console and played through the RF on my ATI All-in-wonder, I think I could record. I know there are copyguards with prerecorded movies that will not allow me to do so.

With a console game being played it more than likely would allow me to record the sequence of events. Once on disk, I'm not sure what the images would allow based on what Laguna desires to do...

[Laguna]

Any solution to this would be great.And about hitting the Print screen key 20 times a second that would just keep getting rid of the picture taken before it so that wouldnt work.And even if that wasnt the case i would never be able to hit the key fast enough and then there is always the problem of making it a Gif from there so thats out.lol

And I can record it to a VCR as i have all needed equipment.But i have NO way of getting it onto the PC.I have both the PC game and the Console version.

Final Fantasy VII is nearly out 10 years now and puts little or no stress on anything.
If i remember correctly it only needs 132mhz of CPU to run.lol and something like 2mb video card.Which i THINK my machine is capable of.=P lol

So if there was a program i doubt it would stop everything.
If anyone else can turn it to an AVI or GIF for me that would be great but the odds of anyone having the game or having the time to do it is very low.

[pave_spectre]

I remember seeing something about a program that would allow you to copy short segments of gameplay, a while back. Cant remeber what it was called unfortunately but I will try and find it if I can get the time.

EDIT--

FastCap (http://www.ejoystudio.com/index.htm)
Fraps (http://www.fraps.com/)
Game Cam (http://www.planetgamecam.com/index.php?locid=download&pgcsid=f483294ee1a67af869ec6ae24eee07ef)

[Laguna]

I remember seeing something about a program that would allow you to copy short segments of gameplay, a while back. Cant remeber what it was called unfortunately but I will try and find it if I can get the time.

EDIT--

FastCap
Fraps
Game Cam

Thanks a lot pave_spectre il try them out and post back with the results.

[Laguna]

OK Fraps does the job great......Now i have to go about converting a video clip to a GIF lol.

Or is there anyway i could get that video uploaded somewhere and have it appear in a signature as an IMG?

[pave_spectre]

avi2gif (http://downloads.zdnet.co.uk/0,39025604,39146593s,00.htm) maybe

[Laguna]

Ok great.But the only thing is this is a rar file i dont run winrar.
Would anyone be able to download and either Zip it or just give it to me un rarred?

[i an not a nerd]

Can't upload to the site, too big. If you want, PM me your email address and i'll email it to you.

MIkeB

[Laguna]

Thank you all so much for your help.
And that e-mail you sent me i couldnt download the attatchment!!(Damn hotmail!!!)
But i got lucky on a google search and found a great program and here are the results.

http://67.15.181.134/5386/21/upload/p7234835.gif

[i an not a nerd]

Damn hotmail.... Ah well at least it all worked out in the end.

Nice animation BTW.

[saphalline]

Cool! :cool: Amazing what computers can do these days. :D

[Laguna]

I plan on making many more :D

Thanks again for all your help. ;)

[i an not a nerd]

Heres my attempt.

I have more, but i'm trying to find a place that will host them! (80mb lol)

http://www.imgmonkey.com/show.php?img=3390-uglythinggif.gif

MIkeB

[Whyzman]

Very nice! :)

[Laguna]

Yeah well timed!

I have a REALLY good one that il post up as soon as i have it perfect.=)

[Laguna]

Ok here it is.I dont understand why the ones i make take so long to load on its 1st time but anyway here it goes.If you want to see what its supposed to look like just wait a minute or two before scrolling down to watch it






















http://67.15.181.134/5386/21/upload/p7265151.gif

[i an not a nerd]

Hey nice! Kinda long though. For some reason GIF files lag on my system.

MIkeB

[saphalline]

They work fine for me! :D Fun stuff. Oh hey! Can you make a movie of the loading screen? :p That would be so funny!!

[Laguna]

Oh hey! Can you make a movie of the loading screen? That would be so funny!!

Do you mean the loading screen for a battle in FF7?Or do you just mean a loading screen from a game?If you didnt mean the first one you just sparked my interest as that also would be funny.Im in the middle of doing another one too just trying to time it perfect.

Will post results

[Laguna]

Ok i have made three more that i am very happy with.
And here are the three the 1st one is what i THINK sapphalline requested im not sure.Give it a minute before scrolling down.

























































http://67.15.181.134/5386/21/upload/p7286912.gif

http://67.15.181.134/5386/21/upload/p7286832.gif

http://67.15.181.134/5386/21/upload/p7286604.gif

[saphalline]

That swirly effect looks cool, but yes, I meant a loading screen for the game. I think it would be funny to watch of movie of a progress bar! :D

So how big would a movie of an entire battle be? And how long? I mean, I know some battles are longer than others, but say for instance that you had a fan site and wanted to record a boss battle to show your particular technique for defeating that boss. Instructions are one thing, but a movie that shows you the whole battle from start to finish (including the timing for the commands) would be a lot better IMO.

Also, can you change the resolution on these movies? Like make them bigger or something. I know that would make the files bigger, but can you make them bigger?

[Laguna]

Well i can make it smaller with the Fraps recording program but the program i got to change them to GIF, when you hit convert there are no options to make the resolution bigger or smaller.So i dont know about that.

And on the note of recording a battle.The one i took of him doing Omnislash was 5.4 Mb and thats just the GIF so a whole battle of any significance would take up a lot which is bad in terms of finding a place to host it never mind having a HD big enough to fit the Movie before conversion.

I would do one of the loading screen of loading your file but it happens too fast on the PC version.

But id guess a gif of a whole battle could be anything from 100-300Mb

[Laguna]

Lookies what I did.I actually think this one looks really cool.
If large GIF's lag on your computers internet connection give it a minute or two before scrolling down.

Enjoy :)



































http://209.85.12.232/5386/21/upload/p8199911.gif

[saphalline]

Hey, that's pretty cool! Where'd you get that? Or did you make it yourself?

[Laguna]

I made it in the sense that I made the GIF, but its from a show i watched a few years ago called Beast Wars.

He was my favourite character so I decided to make a GIF of him transforming.
I was happy with the way it came out

[Whyzman]

'Tis pretty cool! ;)

[saphalline]

Oh yeah... I remember Beast Wars... Never had time to watch it, though.

Anyway, cool GIF! :cool: