Although the recording section of my assignment doesn't begin for a few weeks, I decided it would be a good idea to get to grips with the recording software I will be using. I have looked around for various recording software and the majority result in a noticeable frame rate drop. (Frames per second, fps, is the speed at which the game refreshes, 60 is smooth, 30 is slightly choppy and anything below 25 is pretty much unplayable as the stuttering is too distracting.) Nvidia offer a piece of software called 'Shadowplay' which captures the frame before it is sent to the screen, resulting in an unnoticeable frame rate drop. However, I am using an AMD card which means the software is unavailable to me so I had to look at alternatives.
MSI Afterburner (AB) is free software that allows you to monitor your card, overclock it and record gameplay. It is often recommended due to it's ease of use, quality, because it is free and not manufacturer restricted. I opened AB and started Skyrim, the game instantly froze, I then tried starting Skyrim and then starting AB but the game crashed to desktop. I have recorded footage with AB before but on other games, after a bit of research, I concluded that the issue was with the ENB I was using and possibly the 300 mods I have installed. After some more research, I found that the ENB does not like third party software particularly on screen displays/overlays. I uninstalled the wrapper version and installed the injector version instead, allowing me to use AB within skyrim which gave me access to the monitoring and recording functions. I started recording some footage and everything was going well until about 45 seconds in.
My screen turned from the first image on the right, to those below it. I was unsure what was causing this but after even more research, the problem appears to be artifacting. (Basically put, artifacting is when textures/meshes mess up, or blocky squares/circles appear on screen. Usually brought about by high temperatures or overclocking. 
I have had to look at alternative recording software such as Open Broadcaster and Bandicam. The biggest issue is frame rate drop, recording software is very taxing on the CPU and there for slows down any processes relying on it. I decided to test the effects of the recording software by running a custom benchmark. I walked through a busy part of a village with several NPCs, water, trees, long draw distance and shadows ensuring I was viewing the majority of what would be used in the trailer. Without any recording software I got 30/35 average fps. You can see the fps in bottom left corner.
With Open Broadcaster the frames dropped to 20 fps.
Although this doesn't have as much as an fps drop as the program below, there is more stuttering and isn't as high quality.
With Bandicam the frames dropped to 15 fps
(The watermark and recording bar can be removed if using for filming)
This software results in a lower fps, but less stuttering and higher quality.
I am spending so much time researching this because recording my own footage is very important for the trailer I wish to produce. I want my trailer to be comprised of footage people haven't seen before, that is truly my own. The other benefit of capturing my own footage, as opposed to downloading clips from Youtube, is that I have complete control over the content. Instead of having to merge clips that aren't right for my trailer, I can film the section I want, how I want. This also gives me an advantage as I can plan my trailer and transitions, and tailor my footage to this. (e.g. Filming footage that will transition smoothly)
Things to research
- Alternative recording software (Dxtory)
- Alternative games/software to capture footage from
- Fixes for Afterburner (Remove ENB, default clock speeds.
- Modify/Optimise or install performance ENB for better fps
No comments:
Post a Comment