Best way to record Warcraft 2 singleplayer commentary?

[Erenussocrates]

That's what I'm asking. For campaign let's plays and such. Lately, I've downloaded that warvideo thingy, and tried it out. But it's output was a file type named ".dk2", which I have no idea about how to open. Plus it seems warvideo recordings doesn't include any audio from the game, that's what I've heard from a bit of searching around. So that's why I'm asking this. I tried open broadcaster software, but it just doesn't even detect old games like warcraft 2 or starcraft broodwar or ZDoom, neither in game capture or window capture. I tried monitor capturing warcraft 2, it seemed it works at the first glance, but when I finish recording, the outcoming video is very laggy even though it was not while I was playing on my screen.

[mousEtopher]

OBS will work and is my preferred option, you just need to download and use a specific video capture device called Uscreencapture to capture Warcraft 2 -- there's a complete step by step guide at http://en.war2.ru/stream, it's very easy.

OBS will record video, game audio, and mic audio so you can commentate directly while you play, and it can either live stream to Twitch.tv or record locally and will save as a standard video file. If you stream to Twitch you can save your past broadcasts, then highlight to save them permanently on Twitch and/or export them to your YouTube account.

Re Warvid, correct, it doesn't capture audio. The .dk2 file extension can only be opened with Warvid, so to upload it online you have to play it back in Warvid and record the playback with a separate screen capture software like Hypercam2, Camtasia, OBS, etc. so obviously involves more work.

[Erenussocrates]

Thank you very much, if it weren't for you, I was thinking of wasting money for bandicamp. Btw, can I use the same way for recording starcraft broodwar as well? Because I know there is something called chaoslauncher to make the game windowed mode, but the normal windowed mode is too tiny for me to play in, and the 2x mode is too large that the top and bottom of the screen doesn't even fit. I hope I could use this method to record starcraft and any other retro games as well.

Btw, there was this written in the link that you've sent:
"Select “Video” and enter 640×480 as the resolution. Note that your stream will be cut off when streaming the desktop, but when streaming Warcraft 2 it’ll be perfect. (For Windows 8 & 10 do NOT change the resolution – use the default in OBS.)"
Even though I use windows 8.1, I had to set the resolution as 640x480, or else there were white bars at right and below edges of the screen when I played my finished record. Weird.

[Erenussocrates]

Though I have a little bit of a problem. The recorded videos look unfortunately a bit choppy, they are like, running less than 30 fps even though that was not the case on my screen.

[mousEtopher]

You're welcome! I haven't tested this setup for SC but I would be surprised if it doesn't work for that too.

Even though I use windows 8.1, I had to set the resolution as 640x480, or else there were white bars at right and below edges of the screen when I played my finished record. Weird.

Oh okay, that note about resolution probably only applies when using monitor capture which is what the guide tells Win8 users to do, so that makes sense. The choppiness probably comes from your CPU getting stressed which it will if your pc has a dual core. Have you checked cpu usage in task manager while recording? You probably need to optimize obs settings more aggressively than what the guide says. Try:

- Lowering bitrate and/or unchecking CBR under Encoding
- Changing x264 preset to superfast or ultrafast under Advanced
- Lowering FPS to 25 or 20 under Video (this should be plenty for War2, Yamon streams at 20 FPS and it looks fine, e.g. https://www.twitch.tv/masteryamon121/v/66360431?t=38m)

Also if you see in task manager that Warcraft 2 itself is hogging a lot of cpu try downloading the cpu_savior app from http://en.war2.ru/downloads & running it while you play.

[Erenussocrates]

I just checked the tast manager now, while warcraft II is running and obs is recording at the same time. Warcraft is using around 40% CPU while OBS is using around 10%. Is that normal? Is obs using too much or too little? And is warcraft itself using too much? I'm gonna do the steps you said according to your opinion.

Btw, I just wanna make it clear, that the game itself is not laggy/choppy when I'm playing, it's pretty normal, but the resulting recorded video is the one that looks choppy for some reason. Just wanted to say it again in case if there was misunderstanding lol


Edit: I forgot mentioning, I tested running SC with the exact setup, and it works :'3 But, the same choppy video problem appears to be existent while watching the starcraft video as well.

[mousEtopher]

That's odd, usually OBS CPU use is much higher, but maybe that's for streaming vs recording. All my experience is in streaming and I'm definitely no expert, just a lot of trial and error. c: Can you upload a sample of the choppy video? If it were me I'd try running the CPU savior + aggressively reducing the video/encoding settings to see if it has any effect at all; if it does then gradually increase them to find the highest possible settings that give a smooth result; if not then it's a good indication that the problem is somewhere else, and you can try posting the problem + a log on the OBS forum to get advice from the real experts!

[Erenussocrates]

Here, ignore the different language, I'm just doing the let's play in my own language lol. I posted this one since it's the shortest one, and it consists of an ogre running through the map blazing, so it should be easier to see if there is choppiness Actually I spot the choppiness of the video even from the mission briefing at the start, looking at the scrolling down texts, lol.

[Delete mine too]

If you have windows 10 just use the built in recording software.. now back to my casket.

[EviL~Ryu]

...now back to my casket.

[emoji54]

[Erenussocrates]

Nah I have windows 8.1, but I've already found a way to record the game anyways :p

[EviL~Ryu]

Nah I have windows 8.1, but I've already found a way to record the game anyways :p

Lol why? Upgrade..to 10.

[shesycompany]

why have anything after 7 

[Erenussocrates]

Why have 7 or 10? Why not have 8.1 instead? I don't see the point to that argument lmao.

[mousEtopher]

Because of those options 7 is the only one that isn't shit.