Recording video games is one of the most popular games nowadays, which is taken care of by esports stars and people who play as a hobby. Regardless of whether we want to show off our skills or plan to show the game’s difficulty, we will need a good game recording program. Although the market is full of this type of software, we decided to choose the ones that best cope with this task.
Streaming or Recording Games
Streaming and recording video games is much easier than you might think. Just install the program you want, configure it. And you’re done. However, both forms of communication differ significantly from each other.Â
Streaming requires proper preparation, some flexibility, and spontaneity. It also involves constantly being the center of attention and constantly interacting with viewers. On the other hand, video recording of games entails the necessity of proper planning of the material and subsequent editing, offering much less pressure on the host.Â
Which game recording software should you choose? The answer to this question is neither short nor straightforward – unless you are satisfied with the “it depends” standard. Although it is 100% true: it depends on your financial capabilities, equipment, and individual expectations. Here is the best software for recording video games. Most of them will also be great for streaming them.
How Do I Record Game Videos
Recording the game in decent quality and high framerate requires quite a bit of performance. Most image capture programs rely on CPU performance, often taking over one or two entire cores. For this reason, playing a title that relies heavily on CPU performance, such as the network mode in Battlefield 5, and has a quad-core processor, can drastically drop performance during gameplay recording. 6-core processors and more, such as the Ryzen 5 1600 AF, Ryzen 5 2600, or the i5-9400f, should provide a comfortable experience.
However, some applications rely on the graphics card instead of the CPU, which is usually much more efficient. As a result, recording gameplay from even very demanding and resource-consuming titles, the performance drop should not be that drastic, allowing you to save a smooth image and at the same time enjoy comfortable gaming.
There is also a third way to capture a game image with the software, which is to save gameplay that has already happened. How it’s working? If you have a large amount of RAM in your computer, such a program still keeps the last seconds or minutes of the game in it.
Fraps
The first and perhaps the most recognizable game-saving software is Fraps. This small application allows you to record gameplay in a very high maximum resolution, amounting to 7680 x 4800 pixels. In addition, it captures the image at a top speed of 120 frames per second. Fraps can also display the number of frames in the game in real-time on the screen in the indicated place and take a screenshot with a single hotkey. The free version allows you to record a video of 30 seconds.
Download and install the program on your PC from fraps.cоm. It is better to purchase the paid version for $ 37 – the free version has restrictions on the length of the video, and watermarks are added to the videos themselves.
- Launch Fraps and click on the Movie tab.
- Set a hotkey for video recording.
- Put your video frame rate and audio settings.
- Minimize Fraps and start the game.
- Press the hotkey to start recording.
When the video is ready, you will have to use any video editor to make changes and upload it to YouTube. Regardless, Fraps is a great program for the quality freak. Please note that YouTube does not support fraps video recording format. You can use Freemake’s free video converter to compress the recorded video or upload it to YouTube.
Bandicam
Another great and easy-to-use image recording software is Bandicam. Thanks to this application, you can record the game in the maximum resolution of 4K at 480 fps. Despite its small size, the program allows you to capture an image from the game and the desktop or almost any external device, such as Xbox, PlayStation, or even a smartphone.
OBS Studio
This application is entirely free, thanks to an open-source license. At first, it can be put off by its not very friendly-looking interface and many options. However, it is enough to look for beginner tutorials to discover that this is a true harvester. Not only does it allow you to record gameplay and image from various sources, adjust the voice captured from the microphone, but also it is an excellent tool for streaming thanks to the option of superimposing several different images at the same time. Thanks to well-implemented codecs, it does not burden the computer too much.
- Download OBS from obsproject.com and run the program on your computer.
- Open the Settings tab, find the Broadcast settings section and select the File Output Only mode. If you wish, you can immediately stream your game.
- Close Settings and open Source. Right-click on the desired Source and select whether to record the entire monitor or a specific area. If you have multiple monitors, you can choose one of them and set additional options.
- Press the Start button to start recording.
OBS is not a simple program. If you don’t want to waste time on guides and tweaks, check out the other tools.
Action!
This seemingly simple tool allows the user to easily record outstanding gameplay using formats such as MP4 or AVI. It also enables video streaming to the most popular websites such as Twitch or YouTube Live. The friendly interface and the multitude of options make it one of the best image capture tools. However, remember to have enough free disk space because video files are saved with Action! they can weigh a lot.
Action also has a built-in video editor that lets you crop, rotate, slow-motion, and much more. Moreover, your game videos can be easily streamed to popular sites like YouTube, Twitch, Livestream, etc. To record a game video in Action, follow these steps.
- Download and install the program from mirillis. cоm
- Launch Action and open the Video recording tab.
- Select the recording mode, the output format of your video (AVI, MP4), set the recording size and frame rate.
- Set your sound options.
- To start recording, click on the big red Record button.
In a nutshell, Action is an easy-to-use program with an excellent interface and many features. However, it’s not free – you’ll have to buy the app for $ 29.95.
Game recording programs you probably have
If you have a dedicated graphics card on your PC, it is possible that you do not need an additional application to save the game. The GPU producers themselves have prepared perfect solutions for image capture for you.
NVIDIA Shadowplay
Shadowplay is part of a larger software such as NVIDIA Geforce Experience. If you have a graphics card from the “green” stable, you need to select Geforce Experience when installing the latest drivers and run it. Shadowplay is an overlay that can run during the game. It allows you to record the game in 4K resolution and 60 frames per second.
When the program is running in the background, it allows you to save the last few moments of the game by clicking on one key. It also supports all the most popular streaming services and even allows you to create short GIFs. In addition, it hardly slows down the computer’s performance, using the graphics card’s resources. It’s all completely free, as long as you have an NVIDIA graphics card, of course.
The program has two recording options: automatic, which saves the last 20 minutes of your game, and manual, which allows you to start and stop recording randomly.
- Download Nvidia ShadowPlay from geforce.com and run it on your PC.
- Set the desired picture and sound quality.
- Select a mode.
- Start the game and start recording.
ShadowPlay is suitable for those who need excellent quality and do not interfere with large files.
AMD Radeon ReLive
The “red” answer to Nvidia’s Shadowplay is Radeon ReLive. As in the competitor’s solution, ReLive is part of the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition, containing drivers for AMD graphics cards and additional GPU management applications. It allows you to record video with a maximum resolution of 4K and 60 frames per second.
Interestingly, the gameplay streaming option is also available for video captured from VR glasses. There was also the Instant Replay function, which saves the last 20 minutes of the game. Multiple options for recording quality selection and audio customization features make ReLive a worthy position for all owners of AMD graphics cards.
