What Video Recording software works with Morrowind?

Post » Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:45 pm

I've tried to get Hypercam to work, and it does... Sorta. It will video everything I do up to actual gameplay, but when I watch the part of the video that is the gameplay, the ground disappears randomly, NPC's bodies flash in and out of existence. Indoors is not as bad, but it could be better. The Free version of Fraps and CamStudio also have these same problems. Is there a free alternative to video-ing my gameplay, or is this what I'm going to have to live with FOREVER??? :banghead:

Some specs of my comp are;
2GB ram
Not running MGE
Not running Tribunal or BloodMoon
Vista
I use the highest resolution when I play

I can't think of anything that would be the fault of my Morrowind Mods or anything. I think it's the video recording software that I'm using. Any ideas on how to fix this? Thanks a million!
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Conor Byrne
 
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Post » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:44 pm

I recommend lowering the resolution, 800x600 is the max I'd go for.

For software, I've used VirtualDub, and a driver called VH Screen Capture Driver - http://www.splitmedialabs.com/vh-video-sdk/vh-screen-capture .Virtualdub also includes it's own built in screen capturing driver, which can work if you set it up right.
I think that's right, and done this in XP, not anything above. Made a couple tutorials for interior building.


Use a fast codec, Xvid for example. Have it on fastest, not best compression, set it to a very high bitrate (2500kbs+), you can always re-code it to a lower one after it's captured, with better compression.
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Britney Lopez
 
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Post » Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:06 am

Instead of using fast compression, I'd recommend no compression while recording. If you have decent disks (SATA or better) and enough space, that'll save you even more time and lower CPU work. It doesn't always work like that though, if you have a quad or hex core processor or a second video card with a compression-capable chipset, then turning compression up is a better idea to save disk writes.

Either way, the issue you're describing is your system, not the video recorder. Fraps works great with Morrowind, and I would assume Hypercam and VirtualDub and all the others do as well; Morrowind doesn't do anything terribly creative with the video interface.
Your problem sounds like things are slowing down too much or you're running into depth issues/z-fighting, provoked by the recorder.

What video card do you have, and how fast is your processor? You mention it happens more in exteriors, if you try a very simple interior (where you get very high FPS), does the problem still occur? Can you post a brief video with the issue present to YouTube or somewhere similar?
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Aliish Sheldonn
 
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Post » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:22 pm

Okay, it took me a bit, but I got a video up. I'm using Unregistered Hypercam2. I haven't the slightest idea what kind of video card I have or anything about my processors. I went into Arrile's Trade House which isn't too bad FPS-wise and it still looks horrid. http://s777.photobucket.com/albums/yy53/darkbro999/?action=view¤t=clip0026.mp4.
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Shelby Huffman
 
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Post » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:39 pm

Do you know the make and model of your computer?

Judging from the video, it's obviously a rendering issue. I, personally, have never seen a screen-recorder introduce that issue, but I have seen it before with overheating GPUs, bad VRAM or driver errors.

Considering that it might be a hardware issue, please try the following:
- Update Morrowind as much as possible (1.6.1820 + code patch)
- Update your video drivers to the latest available
- Update your DX redistributables to the latest (9.0c June 2010)
- Update your capture program
- Press your windows key and R at the same time
- - In the box, type dxdiag
- - In the window that opens, save the report
- - Post that report here, in a codebox

Restart your computer between each of the above steps (except for the first).

That will give us some more info and help rule out hardware issues and most major software problems. If it still occurs, and you have an obviously-good video card, we can start in on software issues.
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Nicole Elocin
 
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Post » Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:27 am

Hypercam is not suited to be used with fullscreen video games, I think. It is for desktop recording. I don't think it is your graphics card as long as you're not using an intel gma. :D But even then maybe you should use MGE. MGE switches Morrowind to DX9 which has many benefits over DX8.

I used fraps and Xfire with success. Xfire is also free.

To use Xfire with MGE, you have to edit the http://wiki.xfire.com/wiki/index.php/Common_data_path

[4312]LongName=The Elder Scrolls III: MorrowindShortName=morwndLauncherDirKey=HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind\Installed PathLauncherExe=Morrowind.exeLaunch=%UA_LAUNCHER_EXE_PATH% %UA_LAUNCHER_EXTRA_ARGS% %UA_LAUNCHER_NETWORK_ARGS%InGameRenderer=D3D9InGameFlags=USE_PRESENT|ENABLE_MOUSE|USE_DINPUT_MOUSE

InGameRenderer was set to D3D8 normally. We should change that because Morrowind with MGE uses Directx 9. :)

Mouse doesn't work with xfire gui but keyboard shortcuts are functional and enough. I wonder if some xfire dev or MGE dev look into the issue.

PS. Installing MGE without expansions could be tricky. But I heard it is possible. I mean patching the game to 1.6.
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Nitol Ahmed
 
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Post » Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:15 am

I would recommend FRAPS. It has served me well with no problems. :)
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DeeD
 
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