Need a Kerbal video expert's advice

[Odyssey]

I'm trying to figure out how I can record videos of my KSP gameplay and upload them to youtube.

I've seen a ton of Kerbal videos there and I'd like to record my own.

I use a windows laptop (relatively high performance but not super - my framerate is fine with a decent amount of mods)

My goals are to:

1) Record video of my KSP gameplay, including with audio commentary that I would provide, either during or after gameplay

2) Edit that video for time (i.e. speed up building and some of the more dull parts of flights)

3) If possible, I'd like to add labels on screen to show basic things like the mission name and objectives.

So, my 3 questions are:

1) Is there a video recording program out there that is free (or relatively cheap, say, under 25$) and is simple to use?

2) If so, where do I get it and can you tell me some of the basics that I'd need to know?

3) Would I need to get an independent microphone or is it sufficient just to talk into my webcam?

[Kozak]

Fraps, is good, i think under 25, not too sure.

I dont personally have fraps so i'd look up some how-to videos for fraps

Webcam mics.... suck... If you have a headset that has a mic, that might work, so long as its a good mic, otherwise yes, you should get a dedicated microphone

[ShadowZone]

Hi there

from a fellow YouTuber to an aspiring YouTuber, here are my answers:

1+2) I use Bandicam and have paid 39 USD for the license, but I have heard of a lot of people using OBS, which is open source and free. Both are simple to use. Just be aware that you will record a lot of overhead and will need quite the amount of hard drive space. I am using Audacity to record voiceover, which I maily do after editing.

3) Regarding mic ... it depends on what level of quality you want to achieve. I have bought an Audio Technica AT2020 USB after my first videos using my cheap headset mic were unbearable (for me). Be aware that you will probably need to clean the audio anyway if you want it to sound good (which is why I use Audacity).

Happy video-ing

[impwarhamer]

One of the most important things when making youtube videos is audio quality. Depending on the quality of your webcam mic, it may be worth buying a new one.

Fraps is fairly good for recording.

As for editing, I used to use sony vegas, which I obviously acquired through certain means since the price tag on it is crazy.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Hello,

I am far from being an 'expert' like the legends of KSP on YouTube (ahem, Scott Manley )

But I've been poking at KSP videos since 2012 albeit with a huge huge absence for the past 3 years thanks to a certain sci-fi MMO.

I'm working on my 19th and 20th KSP short video this year and I think:

• Recording isn't a problem per se, as there are a number of free software options that encode video in real time. Since nVidia ShadowPlay doesn't seem to work (a pity, could use the GPU optimizations), I use MSI Afterburner. It does have push to talk mic recording you can use for real time narratives. Also, it's free: http://gaming.msi.com/features/afterburner
  
• I use Windows Live Movie Maker. I am proficient with professional video editing software but WLMM is simple, quick and provides enough options for simple snipping, speeding up and adding simple transitions. Due to CPU bottleneck on my laptop I often use 1.5x to 4x speedup depending on part count, to approximate the expected real visual speed of the craft. The type of video editing software you use, I'd say would depend on what kind of features you need. I just want simple craft showcases so WLMM is more than adequate, really.
  
• Suggest to do a test recording on your laptop and see if real time narration is okay. For my case due to framerate issues at 1080p, I would add narration in post processing if I wanted to narrate anything (currently, I don't). Otherwise ingame narration +4x speedup = chipmunk.
  
• Custom captions, image overlays, etc is where pro editing software has the edge over WLMM, as you could do much more than just text captions.
  
• I don't provide narrations as I would bore people to death or sound like a robot (when I'm not yelling like a drill sergeant:D ) so I will leave others to provide recommendations if standard laptop mics are adequate. I would recommend maybe a quality headset if I'm feeling impulsive. It's usually better than the default built-in mic but you never know - do a test first and see how much, if any needs to be improved in terms of audio quality.
  

Edited May 29, 2015 by pandoras kitten

[One-Way Films]

I used Fraps for a long while, but it's impact on performance made me change from it to Mirillis Action. It exports to MP4 after a bit of tweaking which is a massive advantage over Fraps. I invested in a mic by the name of the Blue Snowball. It's popular among Youtubers as it's durable and comes with a small tripod. I would recommend spending a large portion of your budget on an editing software. It's sooo worth it! I got Adobe Premiere Elements 13 for roughly €80 which is flippin' amazing for an editor of it's quality. It's a tier below Adobe Premiere Pro, but with that price tag you wouldn't think that.

[ShadowZone]

One of the most important things when making youtube videos is audio quality. Depending on the quality of your webcam mic, it may be worth buying a new one.

Fraps is fairly good for recording.

As for editing, I used to use sony vegas, which I obviously acquired through certain means since the price tag on it is crazy.

I don't think Sony Vegas' price tag is crazy for what it is offering. I used to edit with Window Movie Maker and compared to that, Vegas is really lightyears ahead. Except for one thing: WMM allows you to speed up to 64x - Vegas only up to 4x. So I still use WMM to speed up clips of long transfer burns or other tedious maneuvers that would probably bore my viewers to death

[Ival70]

Since nVidia ShadowPlay doesn't seem to work (a pity, could use the GPU optimizations)

Actually, it does work. I used it to record KSP videos. It can be a wee bit finicky, but I haven't had any major issues with it. You just have to change one line in the files to make KSP use fullscreen instead of borderless window mode. The GPU optimizations are great, and allow me to record more CPU intensive situations. (such as the beasty in my sig). The biggest issue was that under heavy load it would occasionally stutter, but this can be removed with post-editing fairly easily, allowing smooth video.

[Vectura]

OBS is the best recording software I have found. 100% free too. Rather a lot of advanced options, but once you understand them you can tune it nicely. Have had no problems recording KSP with it.

[WWEdeadman]

I've been using fraps for all my videos forever, and it's relatively cheap to get. The recorded files are huge though. Expect a few GB per minute. You could alternatively use OBS (Open broadcaster software) ( https://obsproject.com/ ), which mot people use for streaming to twitch. It is free and also has a local recording option, and you could have live commentary recorded along right away. It's a bit tricky to set up for local recording though, if you want the best possible result, but there are enough tutorials for that on YouTube, so you should be fine.

As for audio: Your webcam mic is probably - to put it friendly - not good audio quality. You could try to record with it (Use Audacity, a free audio recording program for trying it out: http://web.audacityteam.org/ , also you can easily make a lower quality audio less crackly and remove background noise with it, if you record your audio separately.)

Now, I myself use a large diaphragm studio mic. Those are really high quality, but expensive, and definitely not a requirement for a starter. If your webcam mic really sucks, you can use a headset instead. Those usually have at least half way decent mics in the middle price range. My headset for instance (Sharkoon GSone, ~45€) has a pretty OK mic. Really, most headset mics would be OK for a starter.

Oh yeah, and for editing I use Corel Video Studio x7. Not a very popular one, since most people use Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, but I gotta say I haven't had any problems with Corel, and I hear people complain about Vegas crashing all the time, so yeah. It's also a lot cheaper than either vegas or premiere. As for free stuff: I really don't think that Windows Movie Maker is good, and I don't know of any other free ones, so that's that. Decent editing programs have a price.

Edited May 29, 2015 by WWEdeadman

[Vanamonde]

Why not ask the experts in the player-made-video sub? Moved.

[vixr]

My Nvidia graphics card has a record function "shadow play" that works very well... it was a bit pricey at 300 bucks though.

[TheMoonRover]

I'm trying to figure out how I can record videos of my KSP gameplay and upload them to youtube.

I've seen a ton of Kerbal videos there and I'd like to record my own.

I use a windows laptop (relatively high performance but not super - my framerate is fine with a decent amount of mods)

My goals are to:

1) Record video of my KSP gameplay, including with audio commentary that I would provide, either during or after gameplay

2) Edit that video for time (i.e. speed up building and some of the more dull parts of flights)

3) If possible, I'd like to add labels on screen to show basic things like the mission name and objectives.

So, my 3 questions are:

1) Is there a video recording program out there that is free (or relatively cheap, say, under 25$) and is simple to use?

2) If so, where do I get it and can you tell me some of the basics that I'd need to know?

3) Would I need to get an independent microphone or is it sufficient just to talk into my webcam?

I'm definitely not an expert with recording videos and uploading to YouTube, but I've literally just started myself and this is what I'm doing:

1) Yes, I use Open Broadcaster Software.

2) You can find it at (https://obsproject.com/) If you click help in the program it links to a getting started type guide with the basics, and it should be fairly obvious from there. You can record a commentary live if you want (but I've not tried that yet)

3) That depends on how good your webcam mic is and how good you want the sound quality to be. An independent microphone would almost certainly give better sound quality. I'll probably just use the webcam mic if I decide to do any commentaries.

You can add text, change the speed, and add a post-commentary in Windows Movie Maker. You would need a seperate program to record the commentary itself, but you should have a simple sound recorder installed by default. (I've not done any of that in my actual videos yet though)

You can also add annotations in YouTube itself after uploading. It's fairly intuitive, although not the easiest feature to find. You can see examples of what I mean in my 0.7.3 challenge video (link to channel in sig)

Question: My videos have a low resolution. Is that simply because I've set the recording resolution too low or does YouTube also need me to upload in a particular format or something like that?

Edited May 30, 2015 by TheMoonRover