Recording videos with an external program

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Recording Videos

This will explain how to record Xmoto with "gtk-recordMyDesktop"(for GNU/Linux) and "taksi"(for Windows). I do not know of any good Mac video recorder yet.


GTK - Record My Desktop

This recorder does not seem to create too much lag in processing, so videos should be smooth and there should be no problem while playing. First open up the program and it should start up with this screen:

  • The Main Screen This main screen you have a few options: you can activate or deactive the recording of sound, via the check box. The two slide bars are a quick adjustment to the quality of your recording, before you record.
The Main Screen for GTK
  • Selecting a Window When you click the "select window" button, go over and click the Xmoto (or whichever) screen and it will draw a black box around that window and display a red outline in your GTk recorder screen. (NOTE: if you want just the Xmoto window to be recorded then click INSIDE the Xmoto window, NOT on the title bar.)
The Select Window for GTK
  • Start and Stop of Recording After you have selected a window, before you push start you should see a red circle in your task bar like: The record for GTK You can either click this circle or you can click the record button on the main screen.:
The Select Window for GTK
After you push record the GTK window will go away and it will begin recording. Once you have finished all of your recording, in the spot where the red circle was, there will now be a red square like: The record for GTK Click this to stop recording.
  • Encoding/Processing When you push stop it will bring up this screen and start to write out your video to a file. Depending on if you have "Encode on the fly" activated you may not see this screen.:
The Select Window for GTK


Advanced Screen from the button on the main screen:

The Main Screen for GTK
  • Files From this tab you can:
    • Overwrite the file it records to, or have incremental file names (ie. video001, video002, video003, etc...)
    • The Temporary Directory that it uses for recording the video. (sometimes it will not write the video out fully to your chosen directory and it will keep the completed video in the TEMP folder, so if you dont see it check the TEMP folder.)
The Advanced Menu for GTK
  • Performance From this tab you can:
    • Frames per second change the rate at which the video will record in. (NOTE: the higher the fps, the more lag there will be. 15fps is smooth for human eyes, 24fps is movie, 30fps is normal tv, and this is what I use to get more detail for each second.) Frame Rate depends on how fast of a processor you have.
    • Encode on the Fly means that it will record and process the video while it is recording it. This requires a lot of processing, but is you have the ability, then it will save when you are done recording.
    • Zero Compression this will only work if you have encode on the fly active. this will require less processing power, but will require more hard disk space. This does not compress temporarily recorded files.
    • Quick Subsampling this requires less processing, but may (and probably will) cause some color and other defects in the outputted video.
    • Full shots at every frame use this when you are recording 3D windows.
The Advanced Menu for GTK
  • Sound From this tab you can:
    • Channels is the amount of sound is recorded. Mono = 1 channel, Stereo = 2 channels. Stereo would give better quality, but if it requires too much processing, then do Mono or no sound at all.
    • Frequency is the number of wavelengths recorded in a segment of audio data. Most Stereo sound files have 44100 frequency, but the higher the number the more processing is needed.
    • Device is the audio device you are using, Default usually works just fine.
    • Jack, used for those you use Jack as part of their sound output/input.
The Advanced Menu for GTK
  • Miscellaneous From this tab you can:
    • Display is the connection to the Xserver. (not Xmoto server, but it is some other server.)
    • Mouse Cursor, this enables the mouse to be seen or not seen while you are recording your video.
    • Follow Mouse will keep the mouse centered in the video, but for recording Xmoto, I do not recommend this feature.
    • MIT-Shm Extension, leaving this enabled is recommended, it allows for some memory extension. if it is disabled it will slow down the program drastically.
    • Include Window Decorations will record the window decorations of what is being recorded.
    • Tooltips, display pop-up windows that give a short description.
    • Outline Capture Area On Screen will record the outline that the "select window" feature displays.
    • Reset Capture Area, this will reset the "selected window" every time you stop recording. If you are recording multiple times in a row, I recommend that you do not have this active.
    • Extra Options allows for separate commands that will allow the program to do other things.
The Advanced Menu for GTK

Final Notes on GTK

  • You should be able to leave most of the settings on default, but play with settings until you find out what does best for you and your computer ability. Otherwise have fun recording videos with GTK, here is an example of my video recording of the level "Lavine" for/posted/edited by Mig: (NOTE: the music was not recorded in this video it was added afterwards, I was not recording sound when I recorded this video.)
<youtube>xD4TUPIBTFk</youtube>
Watch the High-Res




Taksi

  • Currently, I have not written any tutorial for this....