Making KSP videos (e.g. with VLC)

[Hotel26]

(I've performed the obligatory 10-minute search using KSP Forum Search...  )

If anyone has made a tutorial on video capture for KSP, I'd surely love a pointer to it.  I generally operate on Linux but I've switched for the moment because I don't think VLC captures audio on Linux (very easily).

I'm actually quite close now to Total Success (and have the bruises on my forehead to show), but reading a tute by an expert would be great.  (I've seen so many magnificent KSP videos!)

And a very specific question: didn't we use to be able to switch in and out of full-screen mode in KSP in a (much) earlier version?  I could be wrong about that.  In order to get VLC to lock on to KSP, KSP needs to be already up and running and NOT minimized.  That means it can't be full screen at the point you wish to trigger VLC.  That means you have to go right out to the first menu Settings to fool with it.  I can live with this but not if everyone else is using a better way and I can hear the snickering... 

Is there anyway to unbind the F11 key?  (Edit a config file?)

I'll listen to other suggestions but I prefer VLC because it seems to produce the smallest video output (file size), although I recall that was as an AVI and I'm not having luck with that at the moment.

Any assistance will be wildly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Hotel26

[qzgy]

I don't know of any tutorials per say, but with OBS at least its pretty simple - set it to capture only KSP.exe windows and the desktop sound and then record stuff (and edit....). Its my personal choice cause it works pretty much. And is quite customizable.
And to that unbinding a key (specifically F11) there probably is a way in both settings and the settings config file. Don;t qoute me though, probably need to poke a round to make sure.

Also... I'm relatively new so I am unaware of any fullscreen easy toggle feature that may have existed...

[Rocket In My Pocket]

8 hours ago, qzgy said:

And to that unbinding a key (specifically F11) there probably is a way in both settings and the settings config file. Don;t qoute me though, probably need to poke a round to make sure.

I have poked the file, and it has revealed it's secrets to me!

The relevant line of settings.cfg:

TOGGLE_TEMP_OVERLAY
{
    primary = F11
    secondary = None
    group = 0
    modeMask = -1
    modeMaskSec = -1
}

8 hours ago, qzgy said:

Also... I'm relatively new so I am unaware of any fullscreen easy toggle feature that may have existed...

Alt+Enter works for most programs, never tried it with KSP though.

Edited January 6, 2018 by Rocket In My Pocket

[qzgy]

4 minutes ago, Rocket In My Pocket said:

Alt+Enter works for most programs, never tried it with KSP though.

Can confirm this works for KSP as well (just tried it.)

Does displace graphical elements on the main screen but that shouldn't be a problem....

[Hotel26]

@qzgy  OBS works very well!  Thank you. 

@Rocket In My Pocket, with OBS, the need for the f11 switch is not obligatory; however: thank you, I think I will still use it!

 

[Geonovast]

I use Kazam for screencaptures on Linux.  Very simple to use, work perfectly.

It does produce huge files, but I can always encode them down later.

[Hotel26]

5 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I use Kazam for screencaptures on Linux.  Very simple to use, work perfectly.

It does produce huge files, but I can always encode them down later.

Ease/flexibility of use is paramount, isn't it?

For comparison, the 4m22s video OBS produced (Aquila Cruise flight test included above) was 34MB.  (About 7MB per minute.)

[Geonovast]

10 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Ease/flexibility of use is paramount, isn't it?

For comparison, the 4m22s video OBS produced (Aquila Cruise flight test included above) was 34MB.  (About 7MB per minute.)

Yeah Kazam isn't that small.  Last capture I did was about 2 minutes and right around 75 MB.  I've got it set to h.264, but it has a few other options.

It's very limited on options, but also incredibly easy to use.  It has a couple source selection options, and you pick "Window" then just click on what you want to record.  It can start recording instantly or on a timer.  I don't know about full screen, I play KSP in a maximized window.

It's in the Linux Mint software manager.  You didn't specify which distro you were on, but it's likely available.  Try it out, if you don't like it, just uninstall it.

 

[Hotel26]

2 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

I play KSP in a maximized window

I'll definitely compare it since it seems like good software for this is not trivial to find.  I'm on Linux Mint (Sonya) which shares the Ubuntu distribution system.

Funny you should say this because if KSP hangs up in full screen mode, your system is gone and you have to reboot.  Not often.  But that's what caused me to play in maximized mode on Linux, too.  I haven't had a hang in KSP now for a good while, and I've upgraded to 1.3.1, so I might revert to full screen mode for a while.  I also have two monitors on this machine, so I ought to be able to bullet-proof myself from a hang by having a terminal running on the other wi8ndow...

[Geonovast]

It's good you've got two (I've got three), since the way to stop the video ends up getting put down here.

When you record the KSP window, it won't show the top bar or anything.  The video will look like it's in full screen.  So unless you need those extra few pixels, you may be better off just leaving it maximized.

[Hotel26]

So, I love OBS.  (I also recommend Open Shot Editor.)  But every time I go to use it, it's a 30-minute hunt to coax it to record sound.  Should be very easy, shouldn't it?

So, this time, I've made some notes for myself and I'm going to add them here, too, so others might benefit.

This might be a bit rough, but I'll revise them every time I go through this to make it very straightforward.  [Feedback welcome.]

                                                                                                       

In the Source panel, select "Audio Output Capture (Pulse)".  (I'm using headphones.)  The trick is that, for this to take effect, you have to deselect the Scene Collection checked item (KSP-x64) and recheck it.

Similarly, select "Screen Capture (XSHM)" and, when you do this, a dialog will contain a drop-down that allows you to select the screen (KSP, if it's fullscreen) from which you wish to record.  Again, if this doesn't take effect immediately, uncheck the KSP Scene Collection and recheck it.

Note that I am running Linux Mint 20 Ulyana and OBS Studio 25.0.3.  Your mileage may vary.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

On 1/4/2021 at 11:59 PM, Hotel26 said:

So, I love OBS

Or did.  (Now I feel jilted.)

I believe OBS has self-updated without notice and without permission.  So now it claims my "video drivers" are out of date.  Cheeky, if true.

I restored my system to an earlier time and OBS worked for a few minutes while I tested it.  I set up the video shoot again -- back on strike: video drivers out of date.

Tried simplescreenrecorder: no game mike even though it's configured by default.  (I read the article on how to solve this (pulseaudio?) problem and immediately called a prevention hotline...)

                                                                                   

I am truthfully starting to believe that "computing" has moved beyond the capability of the human mind and/or future generations will have no incentive to learn this shinola.  Maybe that's a good thing?

Edited August 18, 2021 by Hotel26

[Hotel26]

Initial indications are: Kazam works, straight out of the box...

@Geonovast, right on the money.

                                                                          

UPDATE: one thing I didn't like about Kazam (and haven't tried to work-around), is that I can't hear the game audio at all while it is recording.

So I went back to simplescreenrecorder and applied the Easy fix listed in this, which is to execute these two command lines, one before recording and one after:

before:  pactl load-module module-loopback

after:  pactl unload-module module-loopback

It does mean you hear your own voice echoed as you record...

Edited August 19, 2021 by Hotel26