Is Fraps worth $37?

I have been looking for a program to record my gameplay... and Fraps has been the suggestion of most... Is it actually worth $37?

I also had a few more question while I am at it...

1) Is Fraps trustworthy? If I give them my credit card info to buy Fraps, they aren't going to use it or anything like that right?

2) Can fraps record in HD... most videos I see on youtube of Fraps recorded gameplay is very low res, some offer HQ option, but I don't think I have ever seen one with HD option... So can it record at like 1280x720 or 1920x1080?

3) Does it affect performance a lot while playing...?

Thanks for replies!

1. Yes

2. IDK

3. Yes

It can record some pretty high resolutions. I don't know if it is worth $37 though.

It can record some pretty high resolutions. I don't know if it is worth $37 though.

Wasdie

Do you know of anything better that cost less?

1. Yes it is worth the 37$

2. You can trust them

3. Fraps will have conflict if you are running Xfire/Steam while using Fraps in game or any other program. Fraps has great quality, depends on how early or late the game was made.

1. Yes it is worth the 37$

2. You can trust them

3. Fraps will have conflict if you are running Xfire/Steam while using Fraps in game or any other program. Fraps has great quality, depends on how early or late the game was made.

StealthKing93

Do you own Fraps, because if so, I have a question for you..

After I purchase it, can I put it on a disc to use multiple times... because I plan to upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released, and I know I would have to reinstall everything... so what does fraps do for things like that? Would I have to buy another license... same with hardware upgrades... I may buy a quad core processor soon... would I need to buy another license at that point?

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

It can record some pretty high resolutions. I don't know if it is worth $37 though.

Squeets

Do you know of anything better that cost less?

[QUOTE="Squeets"]

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

It can record some pretty high resolutions. I don't know if it is worth $37 though.

Wasdie

Do you know of anything better that cost less?

Does it/can it record in HD and can I put the videos on youtube? Or can I only put them on Xfire's website?

[QUOTE="Wasdie"][QUOTE="Squeets"]

Do you know of anything better that cost less?

Squeets

Does it/can it record in HD and can I put the videos on youtube? Or can I only put them on Xfire's website?

You can put them in You tube but you have to convert them to a smaller format, I used fraps with race driver grid, & fuel to make my videos, ( my other videos were made with Growler gun cam but it's not worth it, bad quality video)

Fraps is great but your Framerate will be affected, if you have a good pc you don't have to worry

My videos are on you tube here

http://www.youtube.com/user/hrah20

But Only Fuel for pc, and race driver grid Okutama video are made with fraps , check them out

No, just use xfire.

there is a free version of FRAPS...gamerguy845

1-FRAPS worth the money, yes.

2-I had no trouble paying.

3-FRAPS let you to record vids at THE SAME native resolution that you play your games OR at 17" resolution, which means that if you play currently at 1680 x 1050 you can record at these res or at 840 x 525 (waht means 1/4 of the amount of pixels per frame). Mostly of the times you will choose this last one because at full screen 10 seconds in FRAPS easily means 300-400 MB, because the recording procces in real time and the compression is very slight (you are recording raw uncompressed pixels). Since 1/2 of your full screen is usually better than DVD res this is not a problem.

Main problem with FRAPS is that you will lose 173 or your framerrate while recording; if you can play the game over 60 fps this is not a problem (ex.: droping in BF2 from 120 fps to 80 fps), but if you run Crysis at 40 your framerrate will drop to 27 fps or so. But Xfire recording is worse, since it cuts a 50% your framerrate -I test both in my very capable system-. To me, FRAPS woth the money; the options in screen captures are very interesting and the video recording is good, even taking in consideration that with some games I like more to camscreen with my JVC to avoid drops in framerrate (Crysis and ArmA II).

Try the demo!

*OR at 1/2 resolution instead of OR 17" resolution (typing mistake :p)

Ok thanks for all the replies... I have been looking into this xfire that has been suggested and I am uploading a video as I type this to see how well it works for what I need...

I have never made videos before... but JEEZE! The files are huge... I recorded 4:30 of gameplay at 30fps, 1080p with sound... and the file is almost 3GBs! Guess I will need to make these things smaller eh?

wel i have fraps it works great but i got it free as a torent so yea, but i love the res on it, 1080p for me

I made a second video of the same gameplay at 720p half sized (so 640x360)... and I uploaded that instead... is Xfire like youtube in that videos are low quality at first? Because I just put the video up and it is a lot lower quality than the video I watched before it was encoded? Plus the file size went from 850mb to 7.1mb? Does that mean anything because that is a major change lol?

I made a second video of the same gameplay at 720p half sized (so 640x360)... and I uploaded that instead... is Xfire like youtube in that videos are low quality at first? Because I just put the video up and it is a lot lower quality than the video I watched before it was encoded? Plus the file size went from 850mb to 7.1mb? Does that mean anything because that is a major change lol?

Squeets

The video is insanely compressed before being uploaded so that would explain the loss in video quality for the uploaded version.

[QUOTE="Squeets"]

I made a second video of the same gameplay at 720p half sized (so 640x360)... and I uploaded that instead... is Xfire like youtube in that videos are low quality at first? Because I just put the video up and it is a lot lower quality than the video I watched before it was encoded? Plus the file size went from 850mb to 7.1mb? Does that mean anything because that is a major change lol?

shakmaster13

The video is insanely compressed before being uploaded so that would explain the loss in video quality for the uploaded version.

So if I want any kind of quality, I need to record either full-sized or half-sized at a higher resolution...? If that is the case, I have a new question... can I delete videos off my computer after they are uploaded? Because I only have like 100gb left on my HD... so I can't have too many of these huge files...

THANKS AGAIN!

This was recorded with Xfire. However ignore the sound lag. That was a issue that Windows Movie Maker created.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1C6R9YT36o

Thats me playing BTW.

1. Yes it is worth the 37$

2. You can trust them

3. Fraps will have conflict if you are running Xfire/Steam while using Fraps in game or any other program. Fraps has great quality, depends on how early or late the game was made.

StealthKing93

Your third point is fail btw. Fraps DOES NOT conflict with xfire/steam. Older versions of Fraps conflict with PunkBuster. That's it

Also that HQ button on youtube isn't the video itself, its when it was uploaded on youtube, youtube only introduced HQ recently.

You can remove the files off your drive no problem. The way to get around the video sizes is to convert them yourself (using a program like VirtualDub or Pinnacle VideoSpin [both free]). I haven't noticed an XFire option to have multiple qualities for the video - they use a crazy compression that lowers quality dramatically from what I have seen. I prefer to do the work myself (plus then I get to edit the video and make it 'just right' before posting. I know you can edit XFire created videos, but I'd rather use FRAPs. You are going to lose quality no matter what when uploading, thats due to the compression needed to upload (no site is gonna let you upload the best quality 3GB video file for 4mins of video) - at least YouTube has a HQ option.carlosjuero

So if I use an external program to encode the video, Xfire will still accept it and upload it...?

[QUOTE="carlosjuero"]You can remove the files off your drive no problem. The way to get around the video sizes is to convert them yourself (using a program like VirtualDub or Pinnacle VideoSpin [both free]). I haven't noticed an XFire option to have multiple qualities for the video - they use a crazy compression that lowers quality dramatically from what I have seen. I prefer to do the work myself (plus then I get to edit the video and make it 'just right' before posting. I know you can edit XFire created videos, but I'd rather use FRAPs. You are going to lose quality no matter what when uploading, thats due to the compression needed to upload (no site is gonna let you upload the best quality 3GB video file for 4mins of video) - at least YouTube has a HQ option.Squeets

So if I use an external program to encode the video, Xfire will still accept it and upload it...?

I just downloaded that videospin program and it says I only have a 15 day trial, after which I will need to purchase a license... I thought you said it was free :D

[QUOTE="carlosjuero"]You can remove the files off your drive no problem. The way to get around the video sizes is to convert them yourself (using a program like VirtualDub or Pinnacle VideoSpin [both free]). I haven't noticed an XFire option to have multiple qualities for the video - they use a crazy compression that lowers quality dramatically from what I have seen. I prefer to do the work myself (plus then I get to edit the video and make it 'just right' before posting. I know you can edit XFire created videos, but I'd rather use FRAPs. You are going to lose quality no matter what when uploading, thats due to the compression needed to upload (no site is gonna let you upload the best quality 3GB video file for 4mins of video) - at least YouTube has a HQ option.Squeets

So if I use an external program to encode the video, Xfire will still accept it and upload it...?

Xfire will record a huge file, then when you upload it will compress it into a smaller file, you can then delete the large file leaving you only with the smaller file.

I thought it was worth it. I bought it when I had some extra money laying around. You can trust them and it doesn't effect gameplay too much if you have a nice computer. With me it shutters CS:S for a second, then it's like it's not even on.

My only problem is that you have to have a lot of HD space because the raw video is multiple gigs in size, even if it's only a minute or two long. It bumps down to about 500 mb when you run it through windows movie maker and the like.

When I tried FRAPS it never recorded the sound in my games, so I wasn't a huge fan of it.General_X

It does but you have to make sure the 'record sound' box is checked in. Also in the tool bar on the bottom right of your desktop, you need to click on the speaker and go into your audio manager. From there you should see a box checked in called 'stereo mix' uncheck that to record sound. Make sure you check it back in after you're done. Otherwise you'll have the problem I had. My friend could hear everything I was doing in games, desktop, youtube, ect because my audio was being fed directly to his headset.

My old pc has 512 ram and a 2.0 ghz sempron processor with a dedicated 64mb geforce 6100 video card, and 1.5mb dsl internet

Fraps lagged the crap out of my pc, Xfire never once gave me lag. You can have people xfiring you left and right and it wont take up system resources as much as fraps will. Xfire is vastly superior to Fraps and it's totally free.

[QUOTE="Wasdie"]

It can record some pretty high resolutions. I don't know if it is worth $37 though.

Do you know of anything better that cost less?

No, just use xfire.

kozzy1234

[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]

No, just use xfire.

JangoWuzHere

I used it to record 2 videos on Mass Effect yesterday when I asked this and they didn't lag...? And they were at HD resolutions with max settings?

I've been using WeGame. It's free and turns out videos of pretty good quality. It doesn't slow down gameplay, even in games like WoW or Fallout 3 that end up getting very graphics heavy. Used it to record a 100v100 fight in WoW the other day and it worked fine.

But, if you'd like to pay money, enjoy :)

1. yes

2. yes

3. yes the higher rez you go the bigger hit you will take. it'll also fill your hard drive space very fast.

if you aren't going to be making a lot of machinima i wouldn't get it.