If you are an “oldfag”, then you have probably already thought about Frapse. However, many users believe that this program is outdated. Today there are a lot of utilities that meet the modern requirements of gamers. While watching let's plays for your favorite game, you may often hear the word “Bandicam”. Most Let's Players choose this video capturer.
Let's figure out which of these programs will more fully satisfy the requirements of modern gamers. And most importantly, how to use them correctly? After all, it’s not enough to just install the program on your computer.
Fraps - easy, simple, but inconvenient
This utility can be downloaded for free from the official website. Finding a localizer is not difficult. The program weighs very little and has minimal functionality. Fraps allows you to capture video from 3D applications ( latest versions They also have the ability to record your desktop). You can also take screenshots and display the FPS value (that is, how many frames per second flashes on the screen).
What to pay attention to before recording?
1. The most important thing is that in the video settings we set a button that will both turn on and, when pressed again, stop the recording. Check if it duplicates keys that are responsible for something in the game.
2. Select the FPS value. The larger it is, the smoother the picture. It is optimal if the number of frames in the video matches the number of frames in the game.
3. In the settings, there must be a checkbox to record sound from the system, otherwise the video will turn out silent.
4. Select a folder to save files. There must be enough disk space. Fraps does not stand on ceremony with the video; it is saved uncompressed and weighs a lot. So that you have an idea of what you're getting into, here are the numbers: 1 minute is more than 2 GB of video at 60 fps and 1 GB at 30. When editing such a file, the video editor will slow down.
5. Uncheck the box to split the movie into separate files every 4 GB, otherwise you will have to assemble the future video piece by piece.
6. If you want to comment on the game, then turn on the recording with external device. Unfortunately, you can't select a specific microphone. You will have to disable everything in the system except what is needed. Select to capture sound when you press a key if you don't want your cat's meows to be accidentally included in the recording.
In principle, the program easily copes with the task of recording a game. But a significant drawback is the weight of the future video. If you do not need high image resolution, you can enable the “half size” option. As a result, the image will be half the size without loss of quality. But this option will not suit everyone.
Bandicam - improved fraps?
The app can do everything Fraps can do. All the settings described above will be valid here too. But Bandicam has a lot more additional options:
1. Rich video settings. You can choose codecs, format and, unlike Fraps, picture resolution. There are not only two size options: full or half, you can set any.
2. The recording is paused. This is useful if you don’t want to cut out game cutscenes, downloads, and some boring moments from the video later. The pause key is set in the settings.
3. You can capture video not only from applications, but also from any part of the screen! You can change the size of the area you want to capture by dragging the edges of the frame or selecting one of the standard ones. This is a great feature if you only want to capture a piece of the game in the recording, for example, individual interface elements or a character's face.
4. It is possible to overlay images from a webcam onto the game video! In settings select required device. You can change the size of the picture and its location: left, right or even in the middle!
5. Smaller size of finished files: 1 minute is equal to 200 MB at fps 60.
6. You can choose from which microphone, if there are several of them, the sound will be recorded.
Obviously, Bandiks are much more interesting and convenient than Fraps. In addition, with the same image quality, the final video weighs several times less. You can safely record gameplay without fear of running out of space on your hard drive and without bothering with compression. A small bonus is that Bandicam loads the system and RAM a little less.
The most popular utilities for capturing video of gameplay are, of course, Fraps and Bandicam. Whichever one you choose for yourself, they both cope with their task perfectly. Some users are guided when choosing by the advice of friends, others are inclined to choose one or another program after working in it and thereby testing the capabilities, user-friendliness of the interface, and the quality of shooting.
Of course, Fraps and Bandicam, like any other program, have both their pros and cons. It is difficult to say unequivocally which program is better, because each has its own evaluation criteria and requirements for the software. In addition, you will probably have to choose based on the possibilities own computer. To determine which utility - Fraps or Bandikam - is better to give preference to, let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Fraps program
Fraps has long established itself among users and continues to be successful. Thanks to its simple interface, understanding the program’s settings will not be difficult even for a beginner who has previously been far from creating gameplay recordings and screenshots, in particular, using utilities of this kind. With its simplicity, Fraps is undoubtedly better than many similar programs and compares favorably with them, allowing you to get started without much hassle with menus and settings.
Fraps Home Tab
Fraps can function in minimized mode, and you can start recording video or taking a screenshot by pressing the hotkeys you set in the settings or left as default.
Fraps Video Tab
Despite its simplicity, the program has sufficient functionality to complete its task. In addition to the fact that everything is extremely simple and convenient, the program writes high-quality videos, but be prepared to consume incredibly large video files that are not compressed by the program itself. So it would be better to additionally acquire a video converter in order to reformat your video into a more convenient format.
Advantages:
- convenience and simplicity of the interface;
- ability to work from the tray;
- good video quality;
- the ability to set the FPS of your choice;
- selecting the image format.
Flaws:
- large video file size;
- In the trial version, recording time is limited to 30 seconds.
Bandicam program
Bandicam is no less convenient program than Fraps, designed for the same purposes. Some people think it’s better, but it all depends on the requirements, which, of course, are different for everyone. The size of the finished video files is much smaller, the program immediately compresses the video, using additional video card resources, but the brightness of the captured videos is inferior. Bandicam offers the ability to shoot videos in different formats, allows you to choose codecs, and records each recording in one file, which, of course, makes it stand out. The quality and format of the video can be adjusted independently before recording. There is also the ability to select the area of the recorded video and adjust its size on the screen.
Bandicam contains ready-made templates settings, so if you are shooting a video for YouTube, it would be better to immediately set the standard YouTube video format (720p/1080p). There is also the ability to add your own logo to the video, which is sometimes necessary for a YouTube video channel. Function restrictions for free version Bandicam is not rigid; for many, the set included in the trial is enough for work, but if you want to further expand the range of options, you can purchase full version on the official website. Its price, of course, is quite high, about 40 dollars.
Advantages:
- low weight of video files with little loss of quality;
- low requirements for computer characteristics;
- large set of functions;
- ability to select video format, codecs;
- convenient program menu.
Flaws:
- lags in operation on some computers;
- The trial version allows you to capture video up to 10 minutes.
Bandicam is great for computers with limited hard drive space and small RAM. Fraps should be installed by those for whom only high quality matters, despite the size.
To summarize, we can state that when choosing this or that software, it is best to proceed from your own preferences, because what may be important for one user will have absolutely no meaning for another.
Let's compare both programs a little.
Probably everyone has heard about Bandicam and FRAPS, some use them to take screenshots, while others (like me) shoot all sorts of video footage. while raping the eyes and brain of the beholder.
Let's look at their similarities and differences, and also highlight the pros and cons of both programs (but everything said below is just my opinion, you may not agree with it)
FRAPS
Probably the most popular program for screen video capture. And no wonder, it’s as simple as a felt boot. You just turn it on and record. There is no need to configure anything, and there is actually nothing. All settings for videos (Movies) are as follows:
1) Video Capture Hotkeys here you can configure the click button that will record.
2) Video Capture Settings- here you can adjust the frame rate of your video. There are three default positions 30/50/60 fps, this should be quite enough, but just below in the last 4 positions there is a field where you can enter the number you need. In general, 24 fps is enough, because... The human eye only perceives 24 frames; if you set more, it will load your system. If the computer is not powerful, lags and fps drops may appear. It's best to leave 30 fps as default. This is optimal, and even if you upload a video to YouTube, even if it is at least 60 fps, they will compress it to 30 (although they promise to support 60 fps). Also remember that the higher the fps, the more space the video takes up on your hard drive.
You can also adjust the video size here Full-size makes a screen-sized recording, Half-size accordingly, it reduces it by half, but at the same time the load on the system and the weight of the video are reduced.
3) Loop buffer length this is the time to process the number of frames per second. The default value is 30 seconds, which can not be changed.
4) Split movie every 4 Gigabytes splits your video file into several, 4 GB each.
5) Sound Capture Settings sound is adjusted here, Record Win7 sound enables audio recording. Must be included. In points Stereo And Multichannel Select the audio recording format, stereo and multichannel, respectively. The default is stereo, you don't have to change it. Record external input enables recording from your microphone. If this option is enabled and the microphone sound is not recorded, you need to go to the settings of recording devices on your computer and set the value for your microphone to default. Only capture while pushing Audio from the microphone will only be recorded when you press a key that can be configured nearby.
6) Hide mouse cursor in video hides the mouse cursor when recording.
7) Lock framerate while recording the fps of the game itself will not increase more than in your video, i.e. you have selected 30 fps, which means the game will run at 30 fps. Sometimes this option is useful and sometimes it is not.
8) Force lossless RGB capture (may be slower) FRAPS produces the highest quality picture, without color distortion and in uncompressed form. May greatly slow down recording. Turn it on if you have a powerful computer.
That's all for settings. FRAPS is suitable for beginners and lazy people. But when recording, you can immediately see the main disadvantage of this program - it eats up an incredible amount of free space on the hard drive. If you don’t have enough of it, you will either have to clean it hard drive, or think about shooting short films. You will also have to acquire a program that can process video in order to reduce its weight. This often leads to loss of quality due to severe compression. And this is not good.
Because I write mainly from a laptop, but upon comparison it turned out that there is less fps drop when shooting with FRAPS. But there are more delays, seconds (sometimes longer), on it.
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Bandicam
A program that I use all the time. And all because it is more functional. There are a lot of settings in Bandicam. This makes it much more flexible in terms of computer hardware. Stable video without lags and a serious drop in fps can be achieved even on a weak machine. But you have to sacrifice quality.
With the update to version 2, Bandicam now has a lot of tasty goodies. Let's look at the settings:
1) Bandicam has 2 shooting modes: DirectX/OpenGL And screen area. Very convenient things, the first mode is suitable for games, because... The program will not write anything other than this (even if the game is in windowed mode). The second mode is suitable for shooting, for example, video players and just the desktop, while the program will write absolutely everything that falls into the frame field (suitable for games, but in windowed mode the desktop will be visible, unless of course you adjust the frame size)
2) Hotkey Start/Stop everything is clear here, just like in FRAPS, pressing this key will start recording.
3) Hotkey Pause When you press this key, the video will pause, but recording will continue. Those. Unlike FRAPS, Bandicam allows you to record video in one file, without the need to tear the video into pieces.
4)Show cursor everything is clear from the title.
5) Mouse click effects in addition to the cursor, the field where the mouse click was made will be highlighted in the video.
6) Add video from a webcam this is undoubtedly a useful thing, this option forces Bandicam to simultaneously record from your webcam (if you have one) and immediately embed it into the video. In FRAPS, you need to download a separate program for this.
7) Video and audio format here you can adjust the frame rate (up to 120 fps, in FRAPS only up to 100fps), the size not only for the entire screen and half of it, but also for the height or width of the screen. You can also adjust the resolution of the video itself in the dimensions (from 320x240 to 1920x1200 by default, or you can select a special one and enter the desired resolution manually, and it can be much higher than those stated). Next, the codec is configured, unlike FRAPS, bandicam has not one, but many codecs and at the same time supports the use of third-party ones (and almost everything can be configured separately). This allows you to very accurately adjust the program to the capabilities of your hardware. But I would recommend the Motion JPEG codec, it is not too demanding on the system and produces a good picture. Next, the video quality is adjusted, you can select from 10 to 100 (where 100 is the closest value to what is currently on the screen). Sometimes the quality is adjusted in the selected codec. The lower the quality, the less load on the system and the weight of the video. It is best to set it in the range from 50 to 100, optimally 70-80.
Sound settings begin with selecting a channel, stereo or mono. Next, select the frequency, set the highest number to ensure high-quality sound. But this affects the weight of the video. The next thing to configure is the audio codec, just like for video. Install the PCM codec and don’t mess around for too long.
That's all for Bandicam settings. In general, there are other settings, but for simple recording the above will be enough.
Bandicam good program, but due to incorrect settings it can kill the recording in the trash. Therefore, without knowledge it is better not to experiment. Plus, on some computers it initially causes severe fps drops and lags. The MPEG-1 video codec, which is installed in the program by default, may be to blame for everything. Another positive factor of Bandicam is the light weight of the recorded video. You can write almost all day long. One hour of video takes me about 10 GB. In FRAPS, this number, given the same time, would be much higher. But it is still advisable to have a video processing program on hand. And I’ll mention one more plus. Bandicam contains settings templates. With their help, you don’t have to bother with the settings, but choose the one you need and that’s it.
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Bottom line
From all of the above we conclude: You need to have both programs on your computer and alternately use the one that is in at the moment works better))
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P.S.
The world doesn’t end with these two) If you don’t like both, then there are still a huge number of others. For example, you can look at: UVScreenCamera, Movavi Game Capture, PlayClaw.
