Quality Settings for DayZ recorded with FRAPS sent to YouTube?

[Chicago Wind 0]

I've been tearing my hair out trying to solve this problem.

I'm recording DayZ footage using Fraps. 30fps, 1920x1080. The output from Fraps looks fantastic, if a little dark (I understand this is normal). The raw video is much too large though, so an in-between encode is needed to get it up on YouTube.

Here are some examples of what I've put out so far:

This one was created using Virtualdub using x264vfw with high quality settings (a bit rate of 50 Mbps, I believe). The quality is excellent when I'm not moving onscreen, such as right at the beginning of the video. It drops dramatically though as soon as I move. Compression rears its ugly head constantly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSZ_5ytNV8E&feature=plcp

This was made in Sony Vegas (11, I believe) using wmv and a bitrate of 50 Mbps. The overall quality is far more consistent, but the image quality suffers as a result. Compare the crispness of the text in the debug monitor in this video to the one above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YMxgxOByNM&feature=plcp

This was also created in Vegas, but using MainConcept AVC. Bitrate is again at 50 Mbps. It looks pretty much the same as the wmv, if not slightly more crisp. Contrast and brightness has been adjusted to compensate for the codec.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdEIrttz8rg&feature=plcp

This is perhaps the most criminal of all: this is straight out of Fraps. No compression or anything. My upload speed isn't very fast so I didn't make this video long at all, but you can see that the quality is about on par with my first video. Theoretically, if I'm uploading raw video, shouldn't this be as good as it gets?

This brings me to SideStrafe on YouTube. His vids always look excellent, and I cannot figure out how to get them looking this good. An example:

I've reached out to him to see what settings he uses, but he hasn't responded.

Anyone have any clue what I'm doing wrong/advice to set me in the right direction? I'm away from my home computer right now so I can't post exact specs out of my outputs, but if anyone needs them I will happily oblige when I get home.

Thanks in advance!

[hrlambing@gmail.com 4]

In Vegas, I use 8Mbps .wmv. Edit the preset that comes with it to make sure the resolution is 1920x1080 (default is 1440x1080 I believe), and set it to VBR (variable bitrate). It's what I use and my videos look basically flawless when uploaded to youtube.

If you need more help, reply. I'm at work so the instructions are as specific as I could remember off the top of my head

[Chicago Wind 0]

That's actually less quality than my wmvs I linked to above. I tried your settings and they don't look very good.

[Pickerd 1]

I've always fond that XFire does a way better job of recording vids easily, and it automatically applies codecs so that it doesnt take up gig upon gig of hd space.

[Rowrin 2]

I use Avidemux 2.5 its freeware and really good.

use this guys tutorial to figure it out:

i recommend the settings the guy in the video uses. Keeps it very high quality and makes the files manageable.

[rotekz 18]

Just did some tests and I have some great results using Bandicam to record and Vidcoder to encode to x264.

http://www.bandicam.com/ free if you don't mind the bandicam website link on you video as in my example about.

http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/ Freeware.

With Bandicam use preset 'Youtube 720p' even if the game is running at 1080p like mine was. Recording at 1080p is overkill.

Bandicam outputs an mp4 file using MPEG-1 codec at about 16mbit. MPEG-1 is very inefficient so we will convert to x264 using Vidcoder.

Start Vidcoder and open the mp4 file. Choose the 'high profile' preset.

Then click the settings button above the preset to open the advanced settings window.

'Container' should say MP4.

Go through the tabs making adjustments as follows

Picture: Anamorphic=Strict, Cropping=Automatic (you should have 720p input going to 720p output)

Video: Quality=Constant at 22 on the slider, Codec will say H.264 (x264)

Audio: Codec=AAC (faac), Bitrate=192

No other settings should need messing with.

Save as a preset like 'HP x264 RF22 Youtube'

Select a destination folder & filename then start encoding.

The resultant mp4 file will have a bitrate of about 5mbit. Perfect for 720p on youtube. The file will be about 1/3 the original size now saving loads of time when uploading.

Upload to Youtube.

[AccidentalHuman 2]

Speaking as someone who does photography and film making as a living - Fraps files are so large because they are -so- high quality and because they are raw. Adobe Premier CS4 is what I use for the majority of my editing as well as some AfterEffects.

Play with the settings when you are exporting, make sure everything is configured. If you want a higher quality with less compression ".mov" is a good format if you don't mind a little bit of quality loss but still remaining very credible then ".wmv" is also a very good format.

Remember when you export video, it compresses it and formats the video to your desired format. If I were to take a Fraps recording and rendered it out once it would look "normal" if I rendered the footage that was already rendered, it would look worse. The more processing that footage has to go through makes it look progressively worse.

Furthermore, if you cannot handle the size of Fraps and you want to be able to make the best videos then you are sadly SOL (Shit outta luck). Fraps is by far the leader in recording quality for games and the large file size is something you'll have to deal with.

---

I've always fond that XFire does a way better job of recording vids easily' date=' and it automatically applies codecs so that it doesnt take up gig upon gig of hd space.[/quote']

Amateur and I guarantee your video proves it.

[AWad 0]

I use Fraps to record my videos.

A 30min video usually eats up 60-80G on my hard drive in 1080P.

I then use Windows Movie Maker. It's so damn easy to use. I installed a codec for 1080P video editing.

I select all the files, then I place then in the timeline. Set destination and select 1080P. It takes about 30mins to complete.

Then I go on YT and it takes about 50mins to be added.

I record on Medium graphics setting. I can play on very high, but I can't record 1080P or it will take my FPS and turn it into under 10FPS.

On medium I get about 25-30FPS which is fine.

The difference between Medium and High graphics isn't that important. No one watches the content to see how detailed things are.

Check out my channel and you'll see it runs great.

[Chicago Wind 0]

Alright, after much, MUCH testing, I've decided that exporting using VirtualDub with the x264 codec seems to provided the sharpest results.

I'm using the following settings: http://frapsforum.com/threads/fraps-to-youtube-with-h-264.894/ (1st post: "FRAPS TO YOUTUBE WITH H.264") The only difference is I am using a rate factor of 16 (higher bit rate).

Here is the result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dbOPtsZxA&feature=plcp

You'll notice that the green icons on the right, as well as the debug menu, remain crisp and clear throughout the video. What you'll also notice is that there still seems to be a lot of artifacting as I walk around (this is lessened significantly when I stand still, such as when I bring up my inventory).

My theory behind this is that my DayZ settings themselves don't lend themselves to a decent YouTube vid. I have anti-aliasing and post processing effects turned off, so there is no motion blur whatsoever. Anyone who has messed about with anti-aliasing in DayZ knows that having it off looks completely different from having it on even the lowest setting; on low, trees look completely different, and the overall image quality is just far more blurry.

Compare my vid above to this test I did with anti-aliasing on and post-processing effects at normal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzZTZXbh_Ro&feature=plcp A lot less artifacting, but the image quality just isn't as sharp.

I'm still kind of tearing my hair out over this game, but it's starting to make a little more sense. I think the sharper your DayZ footage looks, the more artifacting you're going to see on YouTube. Seems to be unavoidable.

Again though, if anyone has any recommendations, I am all ears!