Fraps and Aces High

[BoilerDown]

Has anyone had much success using Fraps (www.fraps.com) to record Aces High while actually flying (not the film viewer).  I cannot seem to get acceptable framerates in-game while recording.  I've tried unlocking the framerate, setting the capture framerate to something low like 15 FPS, capturing at half-size, and all these in combination.  I've also tried using the minimal fraps settings with the minimum Aces High graphics settings (everything set to minimums).  Nothing I can change seems to result in decent in-game framerates.

My conclusions is that the AH graphics settings have only a small impact on recording, as I could still only top out at a 45ish framerate in-game with everything set to minimum, yet with everything maxed and the same fraps settings I would be around 30 FPS.  But gimping the recording that much makes it not worth recording the game live.

I'm wondering if there's something I haven't tried, if I just need a better system, or if its just a FRAPs or Aces High problem. 

I should note that I can record live in World of Warcraft with no problems at all with settings near maximum.

My system has:

Windows XP SP3
Intel E8500
4 GB physical ram (less than that available to my 32 bit OS)
GTX 260
I run at 1680x1050 resolution

I record Fraps files to a different physical hard drive than my boot drive and AH installation drive.  My Aces High films record to a folder on the boot drive, and I experimented with turning AH filming on and off without differing results.

[Chalenge]

You would be a lot better off recording with the built in recorder and then using FRAPS to record playbacks on AHFilm. AHFilm does allow you to go fullscreen too so there really isnt much difference.

[guncrasher]

I normally record the film with ah recorded. and only activate fraps when I think there's gonna be some good film.  doesn't address your concerns, which are the same as mine, but at least i get good fr most of the time.

semp

[BoilerDown]

You would be a lot better off recording with the built in recorder and then using FRAPS to record playbacks on AHFilm. AHFilm does allow you to go fullscreen too so there really isnt much difference.

Not for what I want to do.

The problem with the AH Film is that I can't evaluate what I saw and what I didn't see, as I don't see where my head was pointed. 

Also I think showing the pilot's actual view can add a lot of value to a potential video, especially when mixed with normal AH Film recordings.  And you just can't do without recording it live.

Another thing I just thought of is that I'm using Track IR.  And I forgot to test disabling it to see if that's what's causing Fraps recording to lag the game so hard.  Though I doubt I could fly well at all without Track IR, I could have tested it.

In any case, I'd like to get Fraps to work with Aces High while flying live, not viewing a film, and using Fraps makes the game nearly unplayable right now.

[Chalenge]

There is a check box in AHFilm labeled "Use recorded views" which will give you the same view you used in the game.

WoW has no where near the system load AH does.

There is a program available that will allow you to do what you want to do from what has been said. I dont know from personal experience what the frame rates are like. Akak had mentioned it once in the hardware forum when this same topic came up before. I do not recall the name of the program but I do recall it was $700-800.

[ImADot]

When I record with Fraps, I have it force the FPS to 30 while recording fullscreen (1920x1200).  Rock solid and video turns out real nice.  AH graphics maxxed out and I use TIR.  The reason I force it to 30FPS is two-fold:  PC video runs just fine at 30FPS and your eyes can't really pick up anything faster, and anything faster requires more drive space and the video files get enormous with no benefit to quality of the video.  Without recording, my FPS is a pretty solid 60.

And I too think live recording in the cockpit adds a lot to a video - you can see how nice the TIR works and what you're looking at during a fight, and also shows blackouts/redouts where the film recorder won't.  And, because I use TIR, the film recorder has no reference for "use recorded views" since I don't use the view buttons.

I would suggest posting some specs from a dxdiag and perhaps take a look at how many other processes you're running.  Both might shed some light on what's over-taxing your system with the processor-hungry Fraps is recording.

My specs:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00GHz
4Gb RAM
Vista Ultimate 64-bit
DirectX 11
GTX 260 (drivers 7.15.0011.8120)
Creative SB X-Fi (drivers 6.00.0001.1368)

[BoilerDown]

There is a check box in AHFilm labeled "Use recorded views" which will give you the same view you used in the game.

As I'mADot said, that's useless if you use Track IR as I do.

WoW has no where near the system load AH does.

You're mistaken.  Maybe a few years ago, but WoW has upgraded its graphics quite a bit since you may have last run it.  And I'm not even counting the new system-crushing shadows that came with Cataclysm.

When I record with Fraps, I have it force the FPS to 30 while recording fullscreen (1920x1200).  Rock solid and video turns out real nice.  AH graphics maxxed out and I use TIR.  The reason I force it to 30FPS is two-fold:  PC video runs just fine at 30FPS and your eyes can't really pick up anything faster, and anything faster requires more drive space and the video files get enormous with no benefit to quality of the video.  Without recording, my FPS is a pretty solid 60.

I tried locking the framerate as well, but I thought the 30fps it was giving me was way too jumpy to be playable... there were constant hitches in the action, to lack a better descriptor of what was going on, even if the fraps framerate counter didn't say so.  This brings up another point, I don't think the fraps framerate counter was accurate while recording, as it seemed to move to a multiple of 15 and stay there... when I turned everything to minimum settings this was 45fps, when I had some or all things turned on it was 30 fps, but imo it was an unplayable 30.  You're right, the video looks fine, but I'm not a good enough sim pilot to cripple my flying with framerates that constantly fluctuate.

[BoilerDown]

DXDiag is too long to post, over 10000 characters.  Even when I truncate the last couple sections its still too long.

I uploaded it to MediaFire.  http://www.mediafire.com/file/yv9vcxhbrmvx7cs/DxDiag.txt

If you won't download it from MediaFire, please mention an alternative.  Some people have a "thing" about the public free file storage sites.

[The Fugitive]

Aces is set to use 100% of your computer resources due to all the calculations on top of the graphics. WOW on the other hand doesn't. If you start running other programs while you run Aces you start taking resources away from it. The more you run the worst it gets.

If you must run fraps while in game, get your processes down as low as you can go. Kill off any other program you have running. Unless you have  a monster system you'll need to clear up some room.

[Skuzzy]

Just because a game has pretty graphics does not mean it is loading up the computer more.  Pretty graphics loads up the video card more.

Aces High is far, far more demanding on the overall system than WoW will ever be.  If WoW adds a dynamically driven physics based flight model, and gets into fights where hundreds of players have to be kept up with while in those mathematically draining models, then it might get to the hardware demand Aces High has.  

Fugitive pretty much nailed it though.

[Chalenge]

As I'mADot said, that's useless if you use Track IR as I do.

Yes I am aware of that. I dont use TrackIR anymore due to it deciding to show me the seat of the P-51 whenever I exceed the bounds of the IR pickups which happens all the time unfortunately.

Why not just ask Ack-Ack what the name of that program is?

[BoilerDown]

Back from holiday vacation, so I'd like to resume this now.

Why not just ask Ack-Ack what the name of that program is?

Well if its a $700 program it lacks relevance to me, as its too expensive, even if it is somehow better than Fraps, which I find unlikely unless its a hardware solution.

However, you are known on this BBS for having a top-of-the-line computer system, would you mind testing Fraps with Aces High and reporting back on how well it functions with your computer?  If it doesn't perform well for you either, then I may as well not put a lot of effort into resolving this, as no adjustment I can make will likely matter.  You can get a free trial version of Fraps at www.fraps.com if you don't already own it, as I recall the trial is restricted to capturing only 30 seconds at a time, but that is plenty for testing purposes.

Aces is set to use 100% of your computer resources due to all the calculations on top of the graphics. WOW on the other hand doesn't. If you start running other programs while you run Aces you start taking resources away from it. The more you run the worst it gets.

If you must run fraps while in game, get your processes down as low as you can go. Kill off any other program you have running. Unless you have a monster system you'll need to clear up some room.

Just because a game has pretty graphics does not mean it is loading up the computer more.  Pretty graphics loads up the video card more.

Aces High is far, far more demanding on the overall system than WoW will ever be.  If WoW adds a dynamically driven physics based flight model, and gets into fights where hundreds of players have to be kept up with while in those mathematically draining models, then it might get to the hardware demand Aces High has.  

Fugitive pretty much nailed it though.

This is actually quite useful information.  So what you and Skuzzy are essentially saying is that Aces High is CPU bound, while WoW is more GPU bound.  

To me the computer's performance while playing a game such as WoW or Aces High is directly related to the framerates achieved (and consistency of said framerates).  Saying Aces High is more demanding on my "computer" when I can get it to run at nearly max settings at 60 FPS (synced with my monitor) while I can't do the same in WoW is to me disingenuous.  Because to me, the computer is the entire system, not just one aspect of it that you seem to be measuring against.

But I will agree that Aces High might be more CPU-intensive... or from another perspective, that I have over-invested in my GPU for Aces High and over-invested in my CPU for WoW.  This neatly explains why Fraps might run well for WoW but poorly for Aces High even when I set the graphical settings to minimums.  

The next step would be to test the theory.  Unfortunately I don't have access to a quad-core CPU that might be able to do the job better than my dual core, but I'll certainly try shutting down as many processes as possible before trying again.

[Chalenge]

When I was on a dual core system I could never reliably get more than 30fps out of AH with fraps on and frame rates in AH dropped just turning a recording on but got steadily worse as the action grew. Now I can get a good 50fps with a full frame recording in heavy action or 60fps at half-size no matter what the action is like. I have not tried to set processor affinity specifically for FRAPS but I can tell you it wont help a dual core at all.

I do not use a top-of-the-line computer for AH. My AH system is mostly made of components that have dropped out of my preference in other areas like FSX or CAD. FSX is probably the best soaring environment possible for a computer and so I spend tons of money getting the most I can from it. Still... it doesnt hold a candle to CAD systems.

My AH machine is:

Windows 7 x64 (x64 is NOT needed for AH and really no other game I can think of)
EVGA 780i SLI with custom thermal treatments of the MOSFET SPP and MCP as well as voltage regulator area
EVGA GTX 480 (2) SLI (custom modified with phase change cooling - constant -46C)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3.0GHz @3.6GHz (Thermaltake Blue Orb II air cooling)
Corsair 4x2GB 800 MHz memory @ 5-5-5-18-2t 1000 MHz
2 x 6Gb/s WD 1TB HDs w/ ASUS USB3-6Gb/s controller
6 x 3Gb/s WD & Seagate HDs (mixed) on onboard controller
2 x Seasonic X750 Gold PSUs
Phonic Firefly 302+ firewire audio interface (for vox)
Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatality Champion (uber 3D positioning)

And yes by todays standards that is a tame system.

[BoilerDown]

When I was on a dual core system I could never reliably get more than 30fps out of AH with fraps on and frame rates in AH dropped just turning a recording on but got steadily worse as the action grew. Now I can get a good 50fps with a full frame recording in heavy action or 60fps at half-size no matter what the action is like. I have not tried to set processor affinity specifically for FRAPS but I can tell you it wont help a dual core at all.

Thanks that helps me a lot.  I think its fairly conclusive then that I need a better CPU, and probably more cores would help more than more speed.  But... what resolution were you running when you did that?

My motherboard is closing in on 4 years old and the CPU can't be that much younger, and I used to be one of those people that upgraded both every year.  So perhaps I'll get one of those Sandy Bridge CPUs that are supposed to be out in the next few weeks, if they bench like they have in the previews.

As for your tame computer, I'd hazard a guess that its still top percentile or two among Aces High players.

[Chalenge]

I run 1920x1200x32. I think if you run into the i7s you would find FRAPs possibly would not effect frame rates but I dont know if the cores make that much difference or how much influence the second HD controller has. I would put more money on faster CPU for AH performance before I worried about the number of cores or how good recordings come out but thats me.