Built-in recording software

[tmccreight651]

i just thought it would be a good idea to have a recording software in game so like it puts it into a separate folder and you can upload it to youtube and stuff like that

[Kimberly]

What would the added value be? There are plenty of fine recording programs out there that can output in a format compatible with Youtube. Many even let you specify what folder you want to save your recordings in.

[Anton P. Nym]

I'd like a variant of this; not a screen-cap utility (which is commonly available already from third parties) but the ability to record game inputs so that you can play back a saved mission in-engine.

My first encounter with this was Marathon by Bungie, and it allowed players to save fairly small files to go back and rewatch... and because it's in-engine, you can change camera angles and points-of-view at will unlike capture gear. I used it more in my Halo days and many a great vid was posted by using/abusing the "Saved Films" feature before busting out the screen-cap gear.

-- Steve

Edited August 11, 2013 by Anton P. Nym

[ravener]

What would the added value be? There are plenty of fine recording programs out there that can output in a format compatible with Youtube. Many even let you specify what folder you want to save your recordings in.

many people dont have the nessecary programs to record propperly. an ingame recording feature would be welcome, even to me that aleredy uses fraps.

[Kimberly]

many people dont have the nessecary programs to record propperly. an ingame recording feature would be welcome, even to me that aleredy uses fraps.

...so why not get the necessary programs? If money is the issue, then you're basically just begging the Squad developers to write a feature entirely unrelated to the game and give it to you for free.

Anton P. Nym, that does seem like an interesting suggestion. Can't say I'd use it much myself, but it would definitely allow for better cinematography if you could replay missions in-engine.

[dave4002000]

but the ability to record game inputs so that you can play back a saved mission in-engine.

There are a few flight simulators out there that have this functionality, as well(DCS and Falcon4 come to mind). It is a nice feature, both for cinematography and training purposes because it also allows you to take control of the aircraft at any point during the recording playback. That being said, i haven't a clue how that would get implemented into KSP because of all the extra variables and calculations going on in the background.

[Exsmelliarmus]

C7 brought up the possibility of integrating this in Scott Manley's Breakfast with the devs video (9:07)

It would be pretty cool though, if it was integrated, especially if there was a mode to let you see the HUD while playing, but not on the recorded video, so that your beautiful shots aren't messed up by the interface, or you don't have to constantly hide it when recording.

It would be even cooler if it was integrated like Anton suggested, and would make for some truly stunning cinematography, especially if you could run the actual mission at a playable framerate, and then render it in high quality for the actual video.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Exsmelliarmus

[VerdammteSeele]

many people dont have the nessecary programs to record propperly. an ingame recording feature would be welcome, even to me that aleredy uses fraps.

This is quite a foolish thing to say. FRAPS does a fine job. There are many free recording programs that do just fine. On top of that the full FRAPS and DxTory aren't expensive at all so why not just buy them if you really want? Requesting the devs make this feature would be a total waste of their time.

[Beeman]

I'd like a variant of this; not a screen-cap utility (which is commonly available already from third parties) but the ability to record game inputs so that you can play back a saved mission in-engine.

Kinda makes me think of HL1 demo files. Not sure if they still do that for new Source games or not, but demo files essentially recorded what every player did, where they went, when and where they fired and so on. Demo files were really small, too which was another added benefit.

I would think, though, that physics would need to be much more optimized and stable than what we've got now for demo files like that to work. Sometimes a ship I know can get to orbit will spontaneously fall apart for no apparent reason. Imagine loading up an awesome flight and having your rocket spontaneously explode XD

[JakeGrey]

Something else to consider is that FRAPS is kind of a resource hog and sometimes detrimental to stability; it's basically playing man-in-the-middle between your GPU and screen, only in software.

[LeadMagnet]

This is quite a foolish thing to say. FRAPS does a fine job. There are many free recording programs that do just fine. On top of that the full FRAPS and DxTory aren't expensive at all so why not just buy them if you really want? Requesting the devs make this feature would be a total waste of their time.

Agreed

Kinda sounds like the "Instant Replay" suggestion, kinda.

I would definitely NOT want this added. I port my HDMI to another PC to do all my recording. This way, the only thing running on the gaming machine is the game.

[Tex_NL]

This is quite a foolish thing to say. FRAPS does a fine job. There are many free recording programs that do just fine. On top of that the full FRAPS and DxTory aren't expensive at all so why not just buy them if you really want? Requesting the devs make this feature would be a total waste of their time.

Agreed

Kinda sounds like the "Instant Replay" suggestion, kinda.

I would definitely NOT want this added. I port my HDMI to another PC to do all my recording. This way, the only thing running on the gaming machine is the game.

Disagreed

A feature like this would be incredibly useful. Not only just for reviewing your flight searching for what went wrong and why your rocket collapsed but also for recording video's. You could fly your mission from an easier viewpoint and record the video for a more cinematic angle later.

I would definitely DO want this added!

Edited August 12, 2013 by Tex_NL

[IvanTehFennec]

Source engine currently does this with Demos, and TF2 even added a "Replay" system, which just actively took demo's server-side, and then allowed the player to download portions of it. I think it'd be a great thing to add to KSP, especially for film-makers. It'd make making videos a much more user-friendly task, and allow more people to do it as a result. Though, it's not something KSP needs right now. It's something that should wait till much further down the line.

[Anton P. Nym]

I would definitely NOT want this added. I port my HDMI to another PC to do all my recording. This way, the only thing running on the gaming machine is the game.

If we're talkilng about screen capture software, yes that would be a good way to ease the load on the gaming machine.

If we're talking about in-engine capture, though, it should have no observable effect on the gaming computer as it's just caching the control inputs on hard disc and even a slow HDD should have no trouble with that. Indeed, I'd be surprised if there wasn't something similar running right now in KSP as it's an excellent QA tool for reproducing bugs; think of it as a more detailed version of the Event Log we can bring up with the F3 key.

-- Steve

[LeadMagnet]

an "in-engine" capture, oh yes, I can see having that (several posts on replay function and your QA suggestion is a great one), but what's being discussed is actual video recording . So there would be the load of recording video (rendering output) in addition to game play. Admittedly, if KSP was the only thing running most PC's wouldn't have an issue, but why add this type of load when there are off-the-shelf products optimised for this purpose?

[karolus10]

Adding video recording software has no sense to me, there is a lot of 3rd party software available already.

Replay files would be better, because it would allow unprocessed sharing, so You could run replay in-game and see active scene from every angle ... it would be great for video-makers, because they could record same event (within active ship and it's render area) from multiple camera angles and speeds.

Also this tool could (?) made possible to see replay of last 30 seconds of game-play after crash or when paused.

Edited August 12, 2013 by karolus10

[Tex_NL]

To make my post a bit clearer, I too see no real benefit in a build-in video capture. The feature I'd like to see is as several others have mentioned a physics capture tool allowing the user to replay a part of or possible the entire mission.

The 'older' users probably remember the good old classic '95 space shooter TieFighter. That game too had a mission replay feature that allowed you to rotate and zoom at will. 20 year old PC's ago are no match for modern machines. If a game was able to do this in the mid 90's with no ill effect I am darn sure a modern game can do this too.

The length of the recording could possibly be controlled be a slider. If a user thinks it strains his/her system too much they should be able to turn it down (or off). Those with a stronger PC could turn it up to several minutes or even longer.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Tex_NL

[VerdammteSeele]

Something else to consider is that FRAPS is kind of a resource hog and sometimes detrimental to stability; it's basically playing man-in-the-middle between your GPU and screen, only in software.

Yes, and in-game recording software isn't really all that different and also destroys frame rate.