Good free screen recorder for PC shmups

[tinotormed]

Any good screen recorders out there for free, in which I do not need to pay? (since I could not afford online payment) Whenever I record the gameplay, my in-game framerate goes down. One example is Gustav's Odd Mobs Zero Arrange Hyper Mode, in that then recording is activated, the framerate's going 'turtle' when there are numerous suicide bullets on-screen.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm at a crossroads with this myself.

For best performance I used to use VirtualDub's Capture AVI function with XVid codecs installed, but on my i3 machine I've found it causes a lack of synchronisation between audio and video. FRAPS is probably murder for you anyway, and CamStudio is a broken piece of shit.

[Capaneus]

I like Bandicam, but I know that doesn't help because its not free. There is also OBS, which is free, but I've found the quality leaves a lot to be desired. I haven't fiddled with the settings a ton, so it could be some buried defaults just suck.

[CStarFlare]

I've found that banicam works really well and doesn't cause lag like the other programs I tried. You can record up to 10 minutes at a time for free, so if you're playing something you can pause (or that has convenient downtimes, like level breaks) you could just stop recording and begin a new video occasionally.

[Capaneus]

I've found that banicam works really well and doesn't cause lag like the other programs I tried. You can record up to 10 minutes at a time for free, so if you're playing something you can pause (or that has convenient downtimes, like level breaks) you could just stop recording and begin a new video occasionally.

Don't forget though, there is also a big watermark on the video when in trial mode. At least its $40, which isn't astronomical like some video and photo editing software out there. As soon as I get some extra cash, I think Im gunna buy it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Maybe VirtualDub? Been a long time since I used it though.

Of the other free alternatives, CamStudio (the latest freeware releases) seemed the best. But it had lots of options which I couldn't tweak right for 1920x1200@60fps (VGA). Maybe lower resolutions are workable.

Of course, if you're going with for-pay programs, FRAPS is very good, and probably the best. It might make some compression and other choices for you but it still preserves full frames to work with, if you want that. I noticed frames were a bit darker than they appeared when I was using a program to begin with, though.

FRAPS is $37 to buy.

[beatsgo]

Give Open Broadcaster Software a try. My only pet peeve with it is no support for fullscreen recording at the moment.
I also heard XFire can record ingame video as well, but haven't tested it yet.

[Ed Oscuro]

No fullscreen recording is going to limit its use for PC games. However, it's promising, and being open source hopefully bodes well for its future. Nice clean website design too.

The "estimator" feature is neat too, haven't seen something like it yet.

[BPzeBanshee]

Oh wow, this Open Broadcaster Software works wonders for me. Thanks for the suggestion.