Can I run these and record with FRAPS at the same time?

[xenoriddley]

So, if using FRAPS doesn't work, then would using the internal recorder actually be a better alternative? And If so, would it be good quality and what setting should I use?

[miseru99]

In theory recording uncompressed video would be best and also very light on the CPU, but that abuses hdd soo much that when recording full HD res that's not worth the effort.
Better install x264vfw encoder, then you'll be able to select it from the list in pcsx2 internal recorder and for the config, from the top set preset to ultrafast, tick zero latency under it and under that change single pass - loseless, that's all.
Don't worry if you get a slowdown, couse the resulting video will be at full speed(yes this means you could use settings you cannot play like x6 upscale and still make a nice fast video of it).

[Tyestor]

erhm, ''rule of thumb never use custom resolution'' tekken 5/any namco game says hi

Yeah, that's why it is the rule of thumb. How many games have black lines running through them that require a specific custom resolution? Oh? Not the majority of games? That's what I thought. Or maybe you just don't know what rule of thumb means: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb

to your speedhacks, VUcyclestealing at 1 max, more will only result in worse perfomance except in a few games. (shadow of the collosus etc)

Not necessarily true. I've found that if you're lagging in a game, first thing to do is up those sliders, it almost always helps. And of course resolution matters. The higher the internal resolution the more juice required to run the game, which means more lag if your PC isn't up to standard. I managed to get Mortal Kombat Deception to run on my friends pretty weak laptop at 60 FPS with 2x internal res. It wouldn't go past 45-50fps with native res and 2EE/1VU.

[xenoriddley]

In theory recording uncompressed video would be best and also very light on the CPU, but that abuses hdd soo much that when recording full HD res that's not worth the effort.
Better install x264vfw encoder, then you'll be able to select it from the list in pcsx2 internal recorder and for the config, from the top set preset to ultrafast, tick zero latency under it and under that change single pass - loseless, that's all.
Don't worry if you get a slowdown, couse the resulting video will be at full speed(yes this means you could use settings you cannot play like x6 upscale and still make a nice fast video of it).

My question is though, the reason I use FRAPS, is because I do commentary while doing blind Let's Plays. Would that give me the option to record audio along with the video? because I feel that if I do it your way, if the video slows down, gets recorded, then the recorder fixes it back to regular speed, the audio will be thrown off because their's less video.

[miseru99]

Audio from game as long as you don't use anything strange like async mix will work just fine(make note when using internal recorder, you'll have it in different file called "recording.wav" in pcsx2 dir even if you choose other dir for video), commentary will always be off if you record it while playing laggy game;p. There's no perfect solution to that other than getting hardware which is fast enough to simply not lag while playing and recording at same time:]. Sad reality, but encoding in real time needs properly powerfull hardware. But you could record just the commentary while watching the movie you recorded and then mux it with the rest with any muxing program or editor you use. That can be bothersome, but seems best way if you care about quality on your system.

Other thing you could try would be a recording program which allow choosing encoder as fraps isn't really soo brilliant, it uses it's own encoder which isn't super light on the cpu and yet doesn't give any nice compression either and doesn't allow for any external encoders nor uncompressed recording;]. I used hypercam(there are many similar programs, no need to use this;p) before I started using internal recorder and could play at full fps while recording without much cpu use at all thanks to not encoding it on the fly(exactly by using uncompressed recording) and resulting video was still very nice "movie" quality. But that worked mostly couse the low fps(around 24 or 25) I set and 720p helped as well, if you want the movie to be at full fps and full hd, hdd will probably make it lag even more than when you're cpu limited, that's also exactly why I mention external program here couse internal recorder always record full 50/60 fps and give no choice for that(a pity;c 25/30 would decrease encoding lag by alot, now I start to wonder how it works and how to mod it;p).

[miseru99]

Sorry for double post, want to bump that to show some more interest as I made a simple patch for Gsdx which could help with recording:

Code:

Index: plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.cpp
===================================================================
--- plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.cpp    (revision 5547)
+++ plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.cpp    (working copy)
@@ -471,8 +471,8 @@
    }

    // capture
-
-    if(m_capture.IsCapturing())
+    
+    if(m_capture.IsCapturing() && captureHalf==true)
    {
        if(GSTexture* current = m_dev->GetCurrent())
        {
@@ -493,6 +493,14 @@
            }
        }
    }
+    if(captureHalf == false)
+    {
+        captureHalf=true;
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        captureHalf=false;
+    }
}

bool GSRenderer::MakeSnapshot(const string& path)
@@ -514,7 +522,7 @@

bool GSRenderer::BeginCapture()
{
-    return m_capture.BeginCapture(GetFPS());
+    return m_capture.BeginCapture(GetFPS()/2);
}

void GSRenderer::EndCapture()
Index: plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.h
===================================================================
--- plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.h    (revision 5547)
+++ plugins/GSdx/GSRenderer.h    (working copy)
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@

    virtual bool BeginCapture();
    virtual void EndCapture();
+    bool captureHalf;

public:
    GSCritSec m_pGSsetTitle_Crit;

And a download:
-patch only:
  Record every second frame gsdx(source only).7z (Size: 615 bytes / Downloads: 163)

-GSdx build with source

Basically it add's variable that makes GSdx capture every second frame, this takes alot of load off cpu and still results in quality video at 25/30 fps(pal/ntsc). Very usefull thing for weaker cpu's. Possibly will allow OP to record without any lag(if it wasn't too awfull previously and was caused by recording as this only doubles the speed of that;p) using internal recorder.

Made over fresh latest svn, no hidden changes etc. Guess it shouldn't be hard to add a gui option for something like that in the future.

[xenoriddley]

Well, I just got done doing a test on my Dark Cloud game, and I was playing it on x2 native, texture filtering half enabled, with 8-bit textures. Recording was done with FRAPS. With those settings and the MTVU hack enabled, I averaged about 55 fps, with the lowest going down to 47 fps. So, would the new CPU allow me to get better FPS at all then, and if so, do you all think I would be able to run Eternal Ring, Michigan: Report from Hell, and the final fantasy games with those settings? Also, would having 8 gigs of ram also help instead of the 6 I have right now?

[miseru99]

If you want to stick to fraps then yeah, you'll need mostly stronger cpu intel would be best but high clocked phenom should be significant upgrade already, better gpu would probably also be needed, radeon hd X670 is surely not enough for x2 in all games even if it works ok in most of them. Have no clue about Eternal Ring and Michigan, even pcsx2 wiki doesn't have any info about those two:], but with FF series you'll probably have similar problems as with Dark Cloud.

As for games exact requirements with fraps recording at same time - no clue. As far as I compared fraps is actually slower than pcsx2 internal recorder with x264vfw and that hack I just made and the resulting video takes much more space, seriously it's just awfull:C.
Also for your emulation settings, whenever you don't need MTvu, turn it off couse it always wastes some processing power on synchronization.

[xenoriddley]

If you want to stick to fraps then yeah, you'll need mostly stronger cpu intel would be best but high clocked phenom should be significant upgrade already, better gpu would probably also be needed, radeon hd X670 is surely not enough for x2 in all games even if it works ok in most of them. Have no clue about Eternal Ring and Michigan, even pcsx2 wiki doesn't have any info about those two:], but with FF series you'll probably have similar problems as with Dark Cloud.

As for games exact requirements with fraps recording at same time - no clue. As far as I compared fraps is actually slower than pcsx2 internal recorder with x264vfw and that hack I just made and the resulting video takes much more space, seriously it's just awfull:C.
Also for your emulation settings, whenever you don't need MTvu, turn it off couse it always wastes some processing power on synchronization.

Well, I'm already beefing up my CPU to MD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz and I might be OC'ing it. don't know about the graphics card though, it seems to be doing just fine for me so far at x2 native.

[Tyestor]

Well, I'm already beefing up my CPU to MD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz and I might be OC'ing it. don't know about the graphics card though, it seems to be doing just fine for me so far at x2 native.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814125418

You'll be able to record games with Fraps at 60 fps with 4x+ resolution (or higher) with that card. Plus there's the added benefit of being able to play many native PC games at nice quality with nice FPS.