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How to make a nice recording for Youtube

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Topic Starter
Remco32
Guide has been moved to Wiki https://osu.ppy.sh/wiki/Making_nice_rec ... or_Youtube //Marcin
SPOILER
Want to use Virtualdub instead of Sony Vegas? Click here!

Always wanted to make a video for Youtube about osu!, but never figured a good way to make it happen? I'll explain in this thread how you can do that.
Please note that there are more ways to do this, this is just my way.


Watch in HD and fullscreen!


Needed
  1. Fraps
  2. Sony Vegas (Never ever use Windows Moviemaker, it will lower the quality of the video drastically!)
Step one - Configuring Fraps

Open Fraps, and lets screw around with the settings.



Make sure that...:
  1. you make the Video Capture Hotkey a key that won't be in the way;
  2. iif you get a output video that has a jumpy framerate, that you limit the framerate to 30. If this isn't the case, just use 60 FPS;
  3. if you get a output video that has a low framerate, that you record 'half-size'. The video will be the half of the resolution its recorded from (alternatively: you could run osu! in a lower resolution when recording);
  4. you have enough free space left on your harddisc. If not, the video will end early when there isn't anymore space left to store;
  5. No Cursor is checked
  6. YOU RECORD SOUND! There is nothing worse then osu! videos with later added music.
Step two - Recording your gameplay

Open osu! whilst Fraps is running. If everything goes right (and if you haven't disabled this feature), you'll see a yellow FPS counter in a corner of the screen.



Now, go to the thing that you want to record. i.e: a replay of yourself getting a highscore! When you are at the part where you want to start the recording, press your Video Capture Hotkey. The FPS counter might drop and must turn red. You are now recording. Look for a minute if the FPS rate isn't changing allot. If so, try some of these tips listed above.



Press the Video Capture Hotkey again to stop recording.

Step three - Editing your output video

Drag and drop the video on the timeline in Vegas. If there are multiple files, Vegas will add them to the end of the previous part automatically.



You can do some optional editing now.

Step four - Rendering your video

Now that you are done editing the video, go to 'File', then click 'Render As'
Use the following options (depending on your Vegas version):




Press the save button, and your video will be done in a couple of minutes. It's now ready for Youtube!
Please note that it will take some time before the video will be available in high res on Youtube, be patient!

This is my video after uploading it to Youtube:


Now, go make videos and spread osu!
MegaManEXE
This is really useful

But I can't get my Fraps to record sound lol
Nightfall91
looks like a good tutorial but heres the same,no sound...i downloaded a newer version of fraps so finally it shows up a sound device,i was happy that its working after all but it does not.
my sound device: "Mikrofon (realtek high definition)" its a mikrofon so thats probably the problem,but i cant change it no matter which options I use,and I dont even have a mikrofon :/
anonymous_old
Are you using the latest trial FRAPS or did you "buy" it?
Nightfall91
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Topic Starter
Remco32
Try manual changing the sound device, or reinstalling Fraps.
MegaManEXE
I'm using version 2.9.9 (full version)

And it doesn't give me the option to change the sound device
Topic Starter
Remco32
Try switching from Detect best sound input to Use windows input
MegaManEXE
Still nothing

But I did some Googling and found out what the problem is, so hopefully I can fix that for whenever I try recording next
Gens

Remco32 wrote:

When you are at the part where you want to start the recording, press you're Video Capture Hotkey.
:[

Nice tutorial. I might try again to record some replay. :)

I'm curious, though... Should I install Sony Vegas? Is it good/cool/awesome?
MMzz
Thank you! :3
I needed this
Nightfall91
Maybe I got no sound because I don't have speakers? I only got Headphones right now...and I can't change the sound device in fraps (still not the latest version)
anonymous_old

Nightfall91 wrote:

Maybe I got no sound because I don't have speakers? I only got Headphones right now...and I can't change the sound device in fraps (still not the latest version)
Unless your headphones are attached to a special port on your PC, or are USB, there should be no difference between using headphones and speakers.
Nightfall91
Problem solved! I dont really know what i did,but it worked :P
Right now i tried to explain it but i dont have a clue how to translate all these weird word into english XD
well,ill try it simplyfied...i opened up the option for sounddevices(rightclick on that sound symbol on the bottom right corner of the windows taskbar...then choose...something that shows your sounddevices,for me it was just "sounds") then there should be...ahh ok ill add a picture even thought its german-.-



soo...ok i rightclicked the symbol in the red circle,then the shown window popped up,at first it only showed me the activated microphone and something other...then i rightclicked that window on empty space and the little window popped up,there i activated the upper option which i think is called "show deactivated devices",then i activated "stereomix" and whoops my fraps recorded sound :D
MegaManEXE

Nightfall91 wrote:

Problem solved! I dont really know what i did,but it worked :P
Right now i tried to explain it but i dont have a clue how to translate all these weird word into english XD
well,ill try it simplyfied...i opened up the option for sounddevices(rightclick on that sound symbol on the bottom right corner of the windows taskbar...then choose...something that shows your sounddevices,for me it was just "sounds") then there should be...ahh ok ill add a picture even thought its german-.-



soo...ok i rightclicked the symbol in the red circle,then the shown window popped up,at first it only showed me the activated microphone and something other...then i rightclicked that window on empty space and the little window popped up,there i activated the upper option which i think is called "show deactivated devices",then i activated "stereomix" and whoops my fraps recorded sound :D

Yeah that's basically my problem

Except my comp doesn't give me the Stereo Mix option so I have to do some funny workaround crap to get it to work
thepianist

Gens wrote:

I'm curious, though... Should I install Sony Vegas? Is it good/cool/awesome?
In my opinion, it is good/cool/awesome. :)
Gens
This should be stickied for the hell of it
Lesjuh
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Yohgi_old
the video i made with fraps is like 4 gb...y is it so big? D: it take forever to render...
MegaManEXE

Yohgi wrote:

the video i made with fraps is like 4 gb...y is it so big? D: it take forever to render...
Fraps doesn't have time to compress the video as it records so the resulting file is always big, that's why you have to use some other program instead to compress it before you upload it to Youtube.
Topic Starter
Remco32

Yohgi wrote:

the video i made with fraps is like 4 gb...y is it so big? D: it take forever to render...
If I record a long map, I'll mostly end up with like 10GB of videofiles (recording in high-res). It's normal.
Hanyuu
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Kitty McWittles
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Lybydose
I used the same rendering settings you did in the post and uhhhhhh 605 MB file. What. I am not uploading this.
Topic Starter
Remco32

Lybydose wrote:

I used the same rendering settings you did in the post and uhhhhhh 605 MB file. What. I am not uploading this.
You're surprised HD takes up more space or something?
Lybydose
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Hanyuu
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IppE

Samurai_X wrote:

Any recommendation for PC specs for this? My laptop runs Vista Ultimate on a 2.2GHz AMD dual-core with 4GB RAM and Radeon 3200 graphics, but I still lag horribly while recording, even when I make sure useless stuff isn't running in the background and osu!'s on the lowest settings, blahblah, all that stuff. :|
Its highly cpu depending seeing as I got the same except for AMD Turion X2 Ultra @ 2.4GHz and recording at 1024x576 stays at the 60fps most of the time.
anonymous_old
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Jeffro
Alternatively you could use Virtualdub with x264vfw to encode your video's HD quality. However I do stress the need for your videos to be at least 720p (1280x720)

These are my settings:

So you download Virtualdub (Freeware) Download

Then get x264vfw (Free codec) Download and install it.

Set up Fraps like this:


Set up osu! something like this if you can:


You might wonder why I use 1280x800. This is because it comes as close to 720p as osu! gives you the option to render :)

Then go ahead and record a replay of yourself of even when spectating someone :D

Extract Virtualdub to somewhere and open it.

Open the avi Fraps made in Virtualdub (File->Open Video File)


If your video is that long so that Fraps generated multiple files you can just go to File->Append AVI segment so it will put the videos behind eachother :)

Ok first problem. Youtube loves videos the most when its fedded in 720p but we just recorded using 1280x800. This is where a little editing comes in handy.

Go to Filters (Video->Filters or CTRL-F)
And from there click on Add and search for the resize filter.


And then from there we can setup the settings for resizing to 720p correctly.


Here I choose for a Letterbox/Crop. I choose this options because you will always maintain your aspect ratio and the quality will not go down. All we'll be doing is cutting off some of the screen which is irrelevant.

Then its time to setup the codec we'll be using for encoding the video to a youtube acceptable format.
Go to Video->Compression and search for the x264vfw codec you installed.


In this screen you can see some of the settings you can make as where the ratefactor should be noted as one of the most important settings in here. This ratio will be make or break your video's quality and try to regulate the filesize as well.
I use 25 myself because I found out this has been working rather well. But if anyone has better settings that will make the videos even more better on Youtube, don't hestitate to tell me.

Also make sure the Virtualdub Hack is checked.

Now we have the basic settings to make a good video.

If you are smart I recommend saving the preset you just made or just lazily download my processing settings here

You can accomplish this task by going to File->Save Processing Settings, (Load for loading them ;) )

Then you could eventually cut out some material you don't want or add some text in virtualdub itself. I refer to the helpfile/FAQ's from Virtualdub itself for that.

Well then you can just go to File->Save as AVI, Choose a spot and save :)
You should see the status of the movie you're rendering.


After you are done you can upload the file to Youtube and after it's been processed it will show up and get the HD version a little while later.

And thats how you do it with Virtualdub and x264vfw :)

I am rendering the file used in this tutorial as we speak and will be editing this post to link to the video to show you guys the quality :)

Have fun! :D Jeffro

Edit: Here is the video aka the result:
IppE

Jeffro wrote:

You might wonder why I use 1280x800. This is because it comes as close to 720p as osu! gives you the option to render :)
1. Open osu!.current user name here.cfg (its in the same folder as osu!.exe)
2. Edit line Height = 800 to Height = 720
3. Open osu!
4. ??????
5. PROFIT!

Peppy should add a 720p resolution preset too tho seeing as there is the 1920x1080 one too...
aTunaChu
Why can I only record 30 seconds? :(
Layola_old
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Jeffro

IppE602 wrote:

Jeffro wrote:

You might wonder why I use 1280x800. This is because it comes as close to 720p as osu! gives you the option to render :)
1. Open osu!.current user name here.cfg (its in the same folder as osu!.exe)
2. Edit line Height = 800 to Height = 720
3. Open osu!
4. ??????
5. PROFIT!

Peppy should add a 720p resolution preset too tho seeing as there is the 1920x1080 one too...
Lol! I forgot all about that :D ty xD
Boring_old
I've found that a combination of HyperCam+Xvid to record, and VirtualDub to edit, works fairly well. however, I haven't tried it with osu! specifically yet; Xvid may be a bit fickle, so you may have to turn a setting or two down. if that is the case, downloading the CamStudio Lossless Codec (poor man's xvid) may also boost performance.
Jeffro
I wouldn't use Hypercam IMO, you will loose quality or it will not keep up with the frames.

And xvid is compressor but its better to first use the lossless codec in your case then and then use virtualdub with the right codecs to get out a nice image :)

lossless codec has NOTHING to do with xvid because lossless is nill compression :)
Boring_old
I have had very good quality with HyperCam. I was fed up with Fraps because it doesn't work in as many situations as HyperCam, so I did some tinkering with a HyperCam+Xvid combo and it looks just as good. uploading as -lossy a video as possible is certainly what YouTube wants you to do but it seems near pointless

Xvid is better than CamStudio's mess, assuredly. CamStudio's codec is for computers that can't do high-level Xvid options well
IppE

boring wrote:

Xvid is better than CamStudio's mess
And then there's h.264 which is even better then XviD :)

And when x264 (or MeGUI if you don't want to mess with command lines) is free there is no excuse to use XviD.

And the final size isn't too horrible either, a 2 minute 720p video could easily go to ~12Mb if you compress it right.
(Mine end up at around 60Mb though since I use ~4096kbps bitrate for some reason...)
Boring_old
you mean DivX, not XviD

yes, the backwards spelling was intentional, "copyleft of DivX" lol

actually XviD has support for H.263, which while certainly isn't H.264, was at one point excellent for YouTube

edit: oh hey MeGUI takes XviD
IppE

boring wrote:

you mean DivX, not XviD

yes, the backwards spelling was intentional, "copyleft of DivX" lol

actually XviD has support for H.263, which while certainly isn't H.264, was at one point excellent for YouTube

edit: oh hey MeGUI takes XviD
I did mean XviD. It's great for smaller videos but I wouldn't really used it with HD stuff tbh.
DivX is quite the poo and is rarely used nowadays afaik (only seen it as a streaming codec)

And MeGUI has support for Snow, x264 and XviD
Boring_old
oh, I'm sorry, it's just when I saw this...

IppE602 wrote:

And when x264 (or MeGUI if you don't want to mess with command lines) is free there is no excuse to use XviD.
...I thought you were referring to how DivX was not free, thus pointless when there are free alternatives, etc
Emile
About the Fraps+Sony Vegas method.
I recorded a 1:40 video of me playing a beatmap.
When I finished rendering with the settings on the first page, it was a 236mb file.
Anyone know how to lower the size so it would be easier for Youtube to upload?
thepianist
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Jeffro
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MegaManEXE
I've been having a ton of random slowdown issues with my Fraps lately.

I can't seem to record anything now without the framerate dropping to like 6-8 fps at some points and screwing up the video.

At first I thought it was just that there were too many circles on the screen (I was recording streamy videos) but I did a video of JtB in the past and it went flawlessly on the first try so I don't think that's the problem.

I've tried closing everything else I have running, turning off all the graphical bonus things in osu, reducing resolution, and limiting framerate even below 30 to see if that solves anything but still nothing.

Maybe I just have to wait til I get a new computer that can handle it better. :/
heintsi
For sound recording, make sure there's some recording volume, for me it was turned to zero by default. but do not turn the knob to max cause it very possibly causes distortion in sound and that sounds horrible. also stereo mix can be found on your sound driver manager. For me it's realtek and it really likes to make this distortion sound if recording is too high. Also i have to have sound settings on fraps on "Use Windows input".
Tadashi Hamada
I only have the free version of fraps. Is this only for people who have the full version? D;
Starrodkirby86
You should still be able to record videos through this method, but I think you'll just have a time limitation in recording and an ugly watermark (I think?). I don't know, I don't use Fraps. XD
Jeffro
You can also do the same recording with xfire and still use my virtualdub tutorial. :) (or just get the full version of fraps, it isn't hard to get.)
Jinxy
So what exactly is a good filesize for youtube, or what are the sizes of your videos after you guys are done with everything?
Topic Starter
Remco32
IIRC, I mostly ended up w/ mpegs less than 400MB or so.
I'm pretty sure you can get that filesize lower with a different container, but I have a hi-speed internet connection, so I don't bother.
Jeffro

Remco32 wrote:

IIRC, I mostly ended up w/ mpegs less than 400MB or so.
I'm pretty sure you can get that filesize lower with a different container, but I have a hi-speed internet connection, so I don't bother.
What he said, I get about the same size :) sometimes around 100mb if I'm lucky, it depends on the beat map and stuff.
Rokodo
Meh, I use x264 encoding to get the filesize down to around 20mb, since I don't have a high speed connection.
rad140
Very nice tutorial. I was wondering how to do this, and then stumbled upon this, so thanks!

Quick question: Let's say your computer can't handle both a full-size recording and 60 fps through FRAPS without stuttering and lag in the video.
Which option would sacrifice less quality: half-size with 60 fps or full-size w/ 30 fps?

Thanks.
Jeffro

rad140 wrote:

Very nice tutorial. I was wondering how to do this, and then stumbled upon this, so thanks!

Quick question: Let's say your computer can't handle both a full-size recording and 60 fps through FRAPS without stuttering and lag in the video.
Which option would sacrifice less quality: half-size with 60 fps or full-size w/ 30 fps?

Thanks.
Fullsize 30 fps.
Niva
Very useful, but the sound won't show up >:(
Any hints? My sound manager is Realtek HD Audio Manager.

EDIT: After months I finally know how to do it, unmute the audio recording.
Jinxy
Because I don't have Fraps nor Sony Vegas, I made a video in Xfire. However, the music desyncs after a minute of recording. Why? Are my settings wrong somewhere?

I'm recording with 30fps, Half Size of 1280x960 = 640x480.

Audio: Vista Audio, Vista Audio Mixer.
Jeffro

JInxyjem wrote:

Because I don't have Fraps nor Sony Vegas, I made a video in Xfire. However, the music desyncs after a minute of recording. Why? Are my settings wrong somewhere?

I'm recording with 30fps, Half Size of 1280x960 = 640x480.

Audio: Vista Audio, Vista Audio Mixer.
Sorry, but its because xfire always desyncs, or most of the time anyway.
Natteke
Easier way:

Run fraps, record the video.

Download VirtualDubMod
Open it, drag the video into the VirtualDubMod window.
Go to Video -> Compression -> Choose "XVid MPEG4 Codec", then press 'Configure', set Target Quantizer to about '6.81', press OK.

Go to File -> Save As..., name your video yourvideoname.avi and save it.



Also Codecs



why did I write this, it was already in a thread. I need to use search = =
Jeffro

Natteke desu wrote:

Easier way:

Run fraps, record the video.

Download VirtualDubMod
Open it, drag the video into the VirtualDubMod window.
Go to Video -> Compression -> Choose "XVid MPEG4 Codec", then press 'Configure', set Target Quantizer to about '6.81', press OK.

Go to File -> Save As..., name your video yourvideoname.avi and save it.



Also Codecs



why did I write this, it was already in a thread. I need to use search = =
hehehehe :P
IppE
x264 with crf around 20, 1280x720, 30fps. Rather good quality/size ratio imo.
XviD lacks some of the more advanced macroblocking features that really help with compressing stuff like osu videos.



Also protip if you want to cheat youtube with 1080p videos:
Record it at 1600x900, resize to 1920x1080, nobody will see the difference when its uploaded.

Then again the quality difference between 720p and 1080p is pretty minimal on youtube so why bother.
Powerdrone
I dl Fraps, but it only makes 30 second videos... I'm assuming it's because it's a trial version. -_-

Any free screen capture programs?
Glass
Thanks for this guide

and yeah this should be pinned :?
Gens
Oh yeah I'll do it now that I can
Topic Starter
Remco32

Gens wrote:

Oh yeah I'll do it now that I can
Thanks for the sticky :D
Jeffro

Remco32 wrote:

Gens wrote:

Oh yeah I'll do it now that I can
Thanks for the sticky :D
Thank you as well :D
Querencia
umm . im stuck at the part where you open osu! with fraps running . you said there should be a yellow number at the top right corner of osu! which you had already provided a screenshot . but for some reason my osu doesnt have a yellow or red number at the top right corner . and im using the free version which doesnt require money . i basically downloaded it . can anyone fix my problem for me pls ._.
Querencia
and i just found out that my fraps can only record for 30 seconds .
Zeugziumy
Fraps is win... :D
Querencia
can anyone help me ? my fraps can show the fps at the top right corner of osu! now . but it can only record 30seconds and lagging when i review the 30second replay .
OzzyOzrock

NeetOtakuHikikomori wrote:

can anyone help me ? my fraps can show the fps at the top right corner of osu! now . but it can only record 30seconds and lagging when i review the 30second replay .
You can choose whether or not the numbers appear on the corner in FRAPS. Go to FPS, and in the box that says 'Overlay Corner' you can choose which corner to have it in, or turn it off. That could be off. The thirty seconds thing is because you have the trial version. Either find/steal a registration key, or pirate it, hah.

Also, I'm not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but Sony Vegas can NOT read audio from .avi files. Or well... at least 8 can't. Not so sure about nine.
Jeffro

OzzyOzrock wrote:

NeetOtakuHikikomori wrote:

can anyone help me ? my fraps can show the fps at the top right corner of osu! now . but it can only record 30seconds and lagging when i review the 30second replay .
You can choose whether or not the numbers appear on the corner in FRAPS. Go to FPS, and in the box that says 'Overlay Corner' you can choose which corner to have it in, or turn it off. That could be off. The thirty seconds thing is because you have the trial version. Either find/steal a registration key, or pirate it, hah.

Also, I'm not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but Sony Vegas can NOT read audio from .avi files. Or well... at least 8 can't. Not so sure about nine.
It can, it just depends on the audio codec used, Anyway, Virtualdub FTW~ And Sony Vegas for professional editing :)
IppE

OzzyOzrock wrote:

Also, I'm not sure if it has been mentioned in this thread, but Sony Vegas can NOT read audio from .avi files. Or well... at least 8 can't. Not so sure about nine.
Vegas Pro 9.0c sure can.

At least from the fraps raw videos (where audio is 1536kbps LCPM)

As a more compressed format I either use Vorbis (aoTuV b5d) or MPEG-4 AAC (Nero)
OzzyOzrock
Maybe I'm just stupid and had it really soft...
noneed
same thing here.. only 30 sec vids.. =.=
what version can record more than 30 secs?
Topic Starter
Remco32

noneed wrote:

same thing here.. only 30 sec vids.. =.=
what version can record more than 30 secs?
Buy/pirate the app, ffs.
IppE

Remco32 wrote:

noneed wrote:

same thing here.. only 30 sec vids.. =.=
what version can record more than 30 secs?
Buy/pirate the app, ffs.
Quoted for truth

Also, if someone is feeling randy and willing to explore the exciting world of commandline apps:

x264 now has some built in audio encoding features!

Patched builds by JEEB:
http://x264.fushizen.eu/

Only needs the .exe and Quicktime to be installed (cause aac > others)
Create a .bat file to the directory where the x264.exe is with this line:
x264 --preset veryslow --level 41 --crf 20 --colormatrix bt709 --force-cfr --acodec qtaac --aquality 54 --asamplerate 44100 --acodec-quality 2  --output "PAT TO OUTPUTFILE.mp4" "PATH TO INPUT VIDEO.avi"
The one I used last for example, looks like this:


Now double click the .bat and this window will pop up (first it'll index the input video, though)
After a while (depending on cpu power) you'll have a nice video ready for uploading.

By changing the preset (available ones are ultrafast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow and placebo) you can affect the speed of the encode (slower the preset, smaller the file) and by changing the value of crf you can affect the quality of the video, thus affect filesize (0 being best quality, lossless mode, 51 being worst quality. Sane range is 16-24)

Watch this video and/or PM me if you have questions/issues/difficulties/downs/bad case of loneliness, I'd hate to totally hijack this thread ;)
Jinxy
I used FRAPS and Virtualdub, from viewtopic.php?p=252802#p252802
and got this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aTaktjvzwI

Its 960x720, instead of 1280x720. Is there any large effect since I don't have a 720p option, or am I missing out something?

Oh never mind, it didn't appear because the video wasn't fully processed yet.
UtsukimiJerry
Here's another quick tip when recording.

Reduce the effects sounds because it will make the sound well...sounds bad. Reduce it to half will do
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