Fraps performance hit?

[guncrasher]

Fraps records really large files.   It will fill up 200 gigs in less than a week recording just a few hours.

Semp

[Chalenge]

The best method I have found is to use the MB controller in unison with a second controller like PCIe. If you fly off of the MB controller and record FRAPS to a HD on the PCIe controller the performance hit on your system is greatly reduced. You may notice a pretty good hit as you start recording just the same. And its cheaper than an SSD method even if you go with SATA3.

[Krusty]

Do you mean something like a PCI card with SATA headers?

[Krusty]

My research has indicated that it is random writes that kill SSD life.  Fraps recordings would be sequential writes though, so I don't think they should be a problem.

It's more like any single cluster on that drive can only be written to "X" amount of times. After that it no longer works. So, what they do is they load-balance it... They scatter it across the drive to try not to hit the same clusters too many times.

This also means that if you have a 100GB drive, there is probably more than that much on the drive, as they keep some room reserved to do something (I can't recall what, but I think it was to hide the sectors that are no longer used and reveal fresh ones?).

So sequential or random it doesn't matter. They're not on a patter drive, so the controller is placing them where it thinks is best, not where the next free spot is.

[Shane]

the controller is placing them where it thinks is best...

so, SDD leads to Skynet to Neo?   

[Krusty]

I also would have accepted MCP references, a la Tron.

[BoilerDown]

I just received the Plextor PX-256M2P SSD I ordered.  With luck I'll be installing Windows 7 (64 bit) on this thing over the Thanksgiving holiday and I'll see just how much a SSD affects Fraps performance (among other things).

[guncrasher]

warning do not record fraps to ssd, they are huge files we talking gigabytes within minutes.  it will fill up your space within a few days if you arent careful.  if you must then only record when you are actually in a fight and not just the whole flight.


semp

[BoilerDown]

warning do not record fraps to ssd, they are huge files we talking gigabytes within minutes.  it will fill up your space within a few days if you arent careful.  if you must then only record when you are actually in a fight and not just the whole flight.

I have every intention of recording directly to the SSD, otherwise there wouldn't be much of a test, would there?  If performance is noticeably improved, then I'll record directly to the SSD as the default setting as well.  But I also intend to transfer the files off to a platter disk as soon as I'm out of the game, or at least before I fly and capture again.  And no I won't be capturing the whole time, no one wants to see my climb out, lol.  I do have a general idea of how much space each minute of footage takes up and will make sure not to fill the SSD.

[guncrasher]

cool let me know how the testing goes and how it affects the ssd.  if it works for you, i may get one for myself  .


semp

[Rob52240]

I notice a hit in game but not with the film viewer

[Krusty]

The film viewer requires a lot less muscle to render than the actual game does, FYI. If you're getting slowdown in real-time recording, try rolling AH film and then record from the film.

I would suggest not rolling AH film WHILE running fraps, unless you have fraps set to save to a different HD than Aces High. You don't want too many competing I/O commands being run to save those big files on the same disk.

[Flifast]

Krusty
That's what Fraps experts told me.  Play on one HD or SSD and record on a 2nd HD.
What size of SSD do you have and do I need a 10,000 WD for best recording or will my 1TB 72,000 work as my 2nd hard drive?

I did have a problem going from Fraps to Movie Maker, but the issue was an outdated version of Movie Maker that recorded in something like 480x480!  The new Movie Maker is harder to use but HD quality.

Here is a question.  I have about 1/2 TB of recordings of Aces High and want to cleanup my HD.  What external HD would work and would it matter USB 2.0 or 3.0 or maybe wifi?  Any external HD would you recommend?

Flifast

[Krusty]

The HD doesn't need to be blazing fast to save files with FRAPs. It's just that adding multiple simultaneous read/writes on the same drive will slow you down. The 1tb you have will do just fine.


Note, however, that FRAPS doesn't compress audio. You can cut down your files significantly if you re-encode them afterwards with MP3 audio compression. It will save a CHUNK of HD space. Trust me on that!

[BoilerDown]

Note, however, that FRAPS doesn't compress audio. You can cut down your files significantly if you re-encode them afterwards with MP3 audio compression. It will save a CHUNK of HD space. Trust me on that!

No.  Just keep them regular size until you do whatever video project you plan to do.  The audio only accounts for around 1% of the total file size.


Properties of a Fraps file of mine picked at random:

General
Complete name                  : D:\Fraps\Yak9TestLRearChase6.avi
Format                         : AVI
Format/Info                    : Audio Video Interleave
File size                      : 3.95 GiB
Duration                       : 2mn 17s
Overall bit rate               : 247 Mbps

Video
ID                             : 0
Format                         : Fraps
Codec ID                       : FPS1
Duration                       : 2mn 17s
Bit rate                       : 246 Mbps
Width                          : 1 680 pixels
Height                         : 1 050 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 1.600
Frame rate                     : 30.000 fps
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 4.643
Stream size                    : 3.93 GiB (99%)

Audio
ID                             : 1
Format                         : PCM
Format settings, Endianness    : Little
Format settings, Sign          : Signed
Codec ID                       : 1
Duration                       : 2mn 17s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 1 411.2 Kbps
Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
Sampling rate                  : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth                      : 16 bits
Stream size                    : 23.1 MiB (1%)
Interleave, duration           : 995 ms (29.86 video frames)