game play recording - mac

I need good software that's either free or cheap to buy that i can use to record gameplay on a Mac such as Minecraft, Diablo 3 and Crysis being able tot record in at least 720p but being able to choose which fps i record at would be good so i can control the size of the if the recording

recording mac gameplay

asked Jun 17 '12 at 09:13

mutley2209
761●114●127●134

i'd have an easier time if i ran boot camp and then sued fraps right? Since this is my first Mac i'll keep the door open on using boot camp windows 7 where if i do i would wait for Mountain Lion before doing so. I'll have a 256 SSD so if i end up using Windows 7 as my primary system i'll probably divide it up 200GB for Windows and 56Gb for Mountain lion but can i still edit the recorded video on Mountain Lion when after i've recorded it on fraps on the Windows 7 partition? For instance, if i recorded the video on fraps in Windows then moved the file to my external, then booted up Mountain Lion to edit the video would that work?

(Jun 17 '12 at 11:22) mutley2209

3 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

IShowU has some pretty great recording software for Mac but be carefull, there is no application that works like Fraps for the Mac.

Fraps taps in to the OpenGL/DirectX drawing line and takes the image kinda like a second monitor. By doing this it plus not compressing the video it creates a massive file but is quite easy on your system. A application like IShowU, Screenium or the QuickTime screen recorder takes a screenshot every 16 ms (60 Fps) and compresses it (while the game itself has to do all of it's own things which easily take up about 15-18 ms per frame). Taking the screenshot is a expensive task for the CPU since it doesn't take it from the GPU but rather the VRAM through the GPU (an extra step) and compressing the image is just a really expensive task for when you want to record at a nice speed without any lagg.

Just thought I'd give you a little bit extra info on how they work and my advice would be to get a Windows partition (XP would be best) via BootCamp and then get Fraps for your games. It just works much better from my experience.

Be sure your Mac can handle it because no-one likes lagg in their videos.

answered Jun 17 '12 at 16:26

nitrocrime
3.6k●64●77●126

I'm not a Mac user but I think QuickTime has a screen recorder?

answered Jun 17 '12 at 15:13

cameronnnn
165●20●23●31

yes but it does not work for gameplay and can't record the microphone and the audio from the application at the same time

(Jun 17 '12 at 15:14) mutley2209

oh that sucks

(Jun 17 '12 at 15:17) cameronnnn

yeah otherwise it would be a great option

(Jun 17 '12 at 15:17) mutley2209

Screenium on the Mac App Store is great and cheap! I have it. Theres also Quick Time Player X? Free to use, nopt as good quality though.

answered Jun 17 '12 at 14:31

Fish
7.3k●109●144●215

so i can record gameplay with it? how big to the video files get in general? I don't really fancy having a 20GB file after just ten minutes of video as i've been told will be the case with fraps =p

(Jun 17 '12 at 14:34) mutley2209

I second Screenium, QuickTime is more for like screencasts and whatnot.

(Jun 17 '12 at 14:36) DJ Scooby Doo

Well the idea behind most screen capture software is that it records in the finest quality possible, usually uncompressed formats, with the most common being AVI. The idea is that you initially record at the best quality then when you're doing your editing you will compress it to the type of quality, size, and file format that you need.

By recording in an uncompressed format with amazing quality it makes it easier to do post-production work. Then once you've finished the editing you can move the uncompressed files to another drive or delete them.

(Jun 17 '12 at 16:38) Zbob750

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