This is Only a Test
One of the problems with the WoW Mac client is that when we set the preference to record at 15FPS, it sets the entire game to 15FPS. This makes for a nice-sized file but lousy play. All the movies we’ve done so far have been, basically, run at 15FPS.
Moroes, Maiden, Maulgar, etc. all recorded while our play was at 15FPS. Yuck, we’ve hated it.
So we’ve cranked it up to 30FPS for this movie. Our playing frame rate was, of course, set to 30FPS and it was easily playable. However, our five minute recording was 353MB. Not good for our hard drive storage capacity. We see potential problems down the road with this setup.
The movie is very nice, especially the 42MB, 960×600 full-sized version, but the files are just too big. We think. Maybe. /sigh
This movie is just a test-run of frame rate settings and excuse to abuse the cobras some more.Edit:Same movie, exported as 425×355.
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I wonder if reducing the graphics quality on your video pane helps speed up the play at all? Or is the recording thing completely different? Just an idea.
Salci
EU-khadgar
Perfect reason to get an external hdd and think of a way to write it off on your taxes
@BRK: Does any of this help?
If you want to record at a low framerate but play at a high framerate, and you want to have decent quality results at a small file size, then it is necessary to do the frame dropping manipuation before encoding.
That is, you cannot encode the files to h.264 and post-process them to shrink them, and get good results (small file, good looks). Thus, you’ll have to use a tool that can shift the framerate or simply drop frames before encoding, which means the wow builtin recording is right out.
You *could* record to a non-lossy format, but at 30fps at your native resolution you will probably generate video faster than your hard drive can accept it.
Another option of course is to use an external recording solution which does not have this limitation. I understand the built-in recording takes away a lot of the hassle, but this filesize business is a form of hassle too.
*sigh* software.
@ded: the WoW client does not give one the option of recording to an external disk drive. We have one, we just cannot record to it.
@someone: nope. we have wonderful movie-making software in iMovie. Our problem is that if we want to retain the original recording of a five-minute WoW-movie, we’re going to need 350MB of storage if we record at 30FPS. That’s a lot of storage for a project for which we don’t get paid.
@jrod: we tried the external sofware solution and didn’t like the final product. Our iMac is two years old and came with a video card that was 6-9 months old at the time, so our video technology is basically almost three years old and can’t do the game AND a separate video capture app at the same time.
OR you could just
1) Throw the mac in the trash
2) Get a PC
3) Install Fraps
4) Set fraps to record at whatever FPS you want
5) Drop the fraps output into WINDOWS movie maker and save an output at whatever compression rate you want for a nice tight, down-sampled, manageable file size.
Srlsy, I was recording MC/ZG/AQ and even 5 man runs when you were still using core marksman’s. A lot of my old vids are still archived at my old blog site: http://www.jupei.net/?page_id=5
The cobras!
Won’t somebody think of the cobras!?
Buying a new Mac would solve our problem, too.
When ever someone says, “Buy a PC and use MS Movie Maker” we throw up in our mouth a little bit. Timion, you’re fired.
BRB, gotta get some Scope.
what James said. These poor cobras dying for the cause.
Let us observe a moment of silence for them.
(moment of silence)
Gah! Windows Movie Maker… I get cramps just thinking about that so-called piece of “editing” software!
If you must do editing over on the Windows side of the world, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Vegas or, better yet, use the free version of Avid XPress. It does WAY more than MSMM, costs nothing and other video editors won’t ridicule you.
I’m a Final Cut Pro editor and teacher, so I kind of have fits when anything other than Avid or FCP is mentioned. Mention the Adobe product and I start seeing red and stomping my heels looking for a target to charge.
iMovie is a great little app. If you get a new iMac, I would highly recommend getting the $99 Final Cut Express upgrade though. Little bit more of a learning curve, but an entirely more powerful editing program.
Now if WoW would only let us compress/capture to a decent video codec, I’d be happy. Working with these compressed video formats in Final Cut is a nightmare!
Pelides has the goods. FCP is the shiznit! I use iMovie when I’m going quick and dirty though, but sometimes we are lazy and just want to go nap.
I too am gaming on an old Mac. A Dual 500MHz with a whoppin’ 32MB video card upgrade (7 years old I think). For those of you saying get a PC, you get no love. I do windows when I’m forced, but movie making in MSMM is like cooking a turkey in a toaster.
movie making in MSMM is like cooking a turkey in a toaster
+5 BRK Cool Points to thomas. Now that was funny.
FRAPS works the same way, your frame rate while recording will never go above the recording frame rate. I have a decent PC so I can usually record at 35 or 40 fps which makes the gameplay real nice and I’ll just throw the video in Sony Vegas and chose the output framerate there. Now I know Vegas doesn’t work on Mac but I’m sure there are other tools out there that does.