How to Record Game with FastCap

This tutorial is a general guiding on recording 2D and 3D games (or game replay) with FastCap.
The methods on recording gameplay would be varied depending on the type of games you want to capture. You can use the console to record what your performance on screen in some games and use FastCap to record the playblack as this is will relief the CPU stress on system resources. Some other games, however, may not have this sort of option and you just need to capture directly what you are doing on screen.

Setting FastCap
You would set up FastCap (the FPS, resolution on your video and the real time encoding format etc.) before you start recording. FastCap will memorize your settings and there's no need to reset the functions every time you want to record the gameplay. Let's do it step by step:

1. Choose the folder to save your movie:

The save path is the same as the directory in which you install FastCap in default. Click the "Change" button to repoint a folder for your movies if need.

2. Input the hotkeys for start/pause/stop recording (default: Start/Pause: F8; Stop: F9).

You can set any hotkey but make sure they do not control a game function.

3. Click the box of "Record Sound" to record the audio.

The game audio and video recorded by FastCap are in full sync, which will save you lots of aftereffect on combine the motion and sound. You need not to choose this option if you plan to add other sound or music on your movie via the movie editing tools.

4. Setting the FPS and resolution

Now it comes to the most important step: choosing the FPS and the video resolution. The better computer you have (depending on your CPU, graphic card and memory), the higher FPS you can choose to make the high quality video. One important thing to keep in mind is that the resolution and frame rate of the video should be lower than what you would normally have in a game.

Note: The video resolution of FastCapPro is elective (e.g. full screen, 800 X 600,..., 600 X 480, ..., 320 X 240 etc.) The video resolution for FastCap Mini is full screen.

5. Choose real time encoding your movie if need

FastCap saves game movie into avi file. You can compress your long movie into smaller file size with other tools like Divx or Virtual Dub after you complete your recording (we will talk about this in other tutorial). Another option to reduce the file size is choosing FastCap's real time video and audio compression while you are performing the capture. Thinking you are running the game, doing and recording and encoding all at one time, it is recommended to lower the FPS of the video when you choose real time encoding so to reduce the stress on your system resources.

Note: It is better to record a short movie of your game to judge whether the settings you assign meeting your requirements on the movie before you really start the recording.

Note: FastCap Mini does not support real time compression.

Recording Gameplay
Recording gameplay with FastCap is quite easy.Once you have FastCap running, load up the game you want to record. Press the capture hotkey (default: F8) and once you finish, press the hotkey you set to stop (default: F9) the recording. If need, press the hotkey you set for pause (default: F8) to remove the footage you do not want to record in your movie. You can start and pause capturing as many times as you like before you stop the capturing. Once you stop recording you will be able to find the movie saved in the default location or in your appoint folder.
Note:
When you are performing the recording, you will see the game FPS in the left hand side of your PC screen. You will also see the notice: "FastCap is busy working now, please stop it first" on the software interface when you are recording. You can not alter your settings in FastCap during your recording. If you want to change the settings, you need to stop your recording at first.

Default Settings
Hot Keys: Start/Pause: F8; Stop: F9
Save Path of FastCapPro: Install path
Save Path of FastCap Mini: Install path
Video Format: AVI.
Video Frame Rate: 30 FPS
Video Resolution (the size of your movie): full screen, which is the resolution you set for your game.
Audio Device: Stereo, 16 bit, 22kH
Record sound is on in default
Video Compression and Audio Compression are disable in default (for FastCapPro)