Fraps + Sound Input

SaladFork · 04-19-2006, 05:14 PM

Perhaps one of you guys can help me, as I'm completely lost. I'm trying to record a video of some in-game footage in Fraps, and have some sound with it (including VoIP and whatnot), for added effect. When I use Frap's "Detect best sound input", it records it using Stereo Mix. The only problem with that is my microphone is no longer used as sound input, and nothing I say is heard by other people in the squad/ts/vent (and it's not recorded). If I set input to my microphone and select the "Use Windows input" in fraps, then the only sound that's recorded is my microphone and what I say, and not what other people say, or any other sounds in BF2.

I know a few of you have made videos with both bf2 sound and your own voice, so could one of you guys lend me a hand?

Thanks in advance,

~Salad

**Rock** · 04-19-2006, 05:49 PM

With thanks to Exploding_silver on the write up

On the movies tab, set to 'Detect best sound input'

Click start/control panel/sounds and audio devices/advanced, to get the menu pictured below (assuming you have sound blaster card)
Under microphone untick 'mute'
If you can now hear your own voice when you talk then this procedure will work for you.
Your voice is now feading back through your speakers/headset and can be recorded by Fraps.
Normally Fraps records ingame sounds & other players talking but not your voice, however by hearing your voice as well, this enables Fraps to record it as well.
The volume of feedback is a key factor to tinker with latter to make sure your voice is load enough in-game and on video playback.

Under microphone click advanced. Make sure '+20Db boost' is ticked.
This is the same setting as 'Boost mic gain' in BF2 Options/audio menu

Inside BF2 options/audio menu, lower game volume effects to 20-40%.
This is a key factor to play with latter because in-game sounds are loader in the video then when ou hear them live in game.
If the setting was 100%, the video in-game sounds would be loader and drown out the voices recording

SaladFork · 04-19-2006, 06:18 PM

Thanks, I forgot to unmute the microphone from playback. I knew someone would know the answer.

Appreciate it!

~Salad

**Exploding_Silver** · 04-20-2006, 02:12 PM

I was just re-writing this advice as a coincidence and here it is......Click here for sample movie of it working 1Mb

How to record all sounds with FRAPS

Download fraps at www.fraps.com
Test out this procedure on the free version of Fraps before buying.
The free version allows you to record 6 secs of video.
On the movies tab, there are two settings.
'What you hear' will record in game sounds, the voices of other people on your squad & voices on teamspeak BUT will not record anything you say
'Microphone' will record your voice BUT nothing else.
I wondered if there was a way to record all sounds so that I could record all voices when I was SLing.
I emailed fraps and they vaguely mentioned soundcard settings.
With the help of my friend Rock we worked out how to do it, with Sound Blaster cards (thats what we both have)

Click start/control panel/sounds and audio devices/advanced, to get the menu pictured below (assuming you have sound blaster card)
Under microphone untick 'mute'
If you can now hear your own voice when you talk then this procedure will work for you.
Your voice is now feading back through your speakers/headset and can be recorded by Fraps.
Normally Fraps records ingame sounds & other players talking but not your voice, however by hearing your voice as well, this enables Fraps to record it as well.
The volume of feedback is a key factor to tinker with latter to make sure your voice is load enough in-game and on video playback.

Under microphone click advanced. Make sure '+20Db boost' is ticked.
This is the same setting as 'Boost mic gain' in BF2 Options/audio menu

Inside BF2 options/audio menu, lower game volume effects to 20-40%.
This is a key factor to play with latter because in-game sounds are loader in the video then when ou hear them live in game.
If the setting was 100%, the video in-game sounds would be loader and drown out the voices recording.

What you hear in-game while playing is not quite what FRAPS records

You will nead to experiment with your settings so that in-game audio experience and
recorded movie audio experience are both OK. I suggest playing with these factors;

The microphone volume, inside the sound card menu (I suggest set at 50%)
Game volume effects, inside BF2 audio menu (I suggest 30%)
Game volume voice over, inside BF2 audio menu (I suggest 100%)
Output volume, in Teamspeak input/output settings (I suggest 40%)

Sample movie

This is the sample movie that Rock recorded to demonstrate all sounds being recorded, he then edited down and compressed with Windows movie maker.
Click here for sample movie 1Mb
Windows Movie Maker is a good editor and comes with Windows XP as standard, you can do all basic editing methods and it compresses as well !

Before you buy FRAPS consider these things

The price of a unlocked Fraps, its not cheap, unlocked fraps removes the 6 sec recording limit
That the above procedure works for you and you can record all sounds ie
1. In-game special effects
2. Squad mates talking
3. Your own voice talking
Recording fraps with the above settings halves your frame rate, Rock has a powerful computer and his frames go down from 100fps to 45, even 35 ! so you need a powerful enough computer that can cope with recording without destroying gameplay. The best test is to be assualt and when there are ten guys in close proximity deloy smoke and test recording FPS.
That the size of fraps movies in the raw recored format is massive, 20 mins of footage could be Gigabytes (tip defrag your hard drive first)

What can we do with this

Make a movie of in game squad chatter and post it to the wider BF2 community as a marketing tool for TG