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Fraps

 
Fraps

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Fraps



 
 
Fraps (derived from Frames per second
Frame rate

Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called Film frames....
) is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX
DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms....
 and OpenGL
OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform Application programming interface for writing applications that produce 2D computer graphics and 3D computer graphics....
 applications. It is commonly used to determine a computer's performance with a game, as well as record gaming footage. The program is very popular in the making of amateur machinima
Machinima

In filmmaking, machinima refers to the use of real-time 3D computer graphics graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation, or to films that incorporate such animation....
 films.

The visually lossless Fraps codec
Codec

A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoder and/or Decoding methods a digital data stream or signal . The word codec is a portmanteau of 'compressor-decompressor' or, most commonly, 'coder-decoder'....
 allows decoding of Fraps-encoded videos (using a media player capable of decoding the AVI
Audio Video Interleave

Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology....
 container format) or transcoding to other video formats (with the use of the right software).






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Fraps (derived from Frames per second
Frame rate

Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the measurement of the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called Film frames....
) is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX
DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms....
 and OpenGL
OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform Application programming interface for writing applications that produce 2D computer graphics and 3D computer graphics....
 applications. It is commonly used to determine a computer's performance with a game, as well as record gaming footage. The program is very popular in the making of amateur machinima
Machinima

In filmmaking, machinima refers to the use of real-time 3D computer graphics graphics rendering engines to generate computer animation, or to films that incorporate such animation....
 films.

The visually lossless Fraps codec
Codec

A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoder and/or Decoding methods a digital data stream or signal . The word codec is a portmanteau of 'compressor-decompressor' or, most commonly, 'coder-decoder'....
 allows decoding of Fraps-encoded videos (using a media player capable of decoding the AVI
Audio Video Interleave

Audio Video Interleave, known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology....
 container format) or transcoding to other video formats (with the use of the right software). The Fraps video codec manages to capture videos with minimal impact on game performance, as it has been optimized to achieve compression higher than uncompressed RGB, resulting in smaller filesizes, though the visually lossless format is considerably less space-efficient than more heavily compressed lossy video formats such as DivX
DivX

DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to video compression lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality....
. This is because encoding on-the-fly to a high-compression format such as DivX
DivX

DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to video compression lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality....
 would have a large negative impact on game performance (as of 2007) and only a very fast hard drive could record the immense amount of data produced in using uncompressed
Video compression

Video compression refers to reducing the quantity of data used to represent digital video images, and is a straightforward combination of and motion compensation....
 video. The Fraps format is a compromise of the two.

The freeware
Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee. Freeware is different from shareware; the latter obliges the user to pay ....
 version of Fraps is identical to the registered version of Fraps but places an unremovable Fraps watermark
Digital watermarking

Digital watermarking is the process of possibly irreversibly embedding information into a digital signal. The signal may be audio, pictures or video, for example....
 at the top of every video, and each recorded video is limited to 30 seconds in length. Screenshots are not watermarked in the free version but can only be taken in the BMP format.

Fraps can be used to record video at resolutions up to 2560x1600 in size. Custom recording speeds can be specified anywhere from 10 fps up to 100 fps, although at higher resolutions a reduced frame rate should be used to ensure the video can be played back in realtime. While the game is being recorded the frame rate of the game will be limited to the speed of the movie. Fraps is designed to be able to record video at HD resolutions on modern computers, including 720p (1280x720 @ 60 fps) and 1080p (1920x1080 @ 30 fps).

Fraps can take screenshots in various formats: BMP, TGA
Truevision TGA

Truevision's TGA File Format, often referred to as TARGA File Format, is a raster graphics Graphics file format summary. It was the native format of Truevision's TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first Graphics processing units for IBM PC compatible to support Highcolor/truecolor display....
, JPEG
JPEG

In computing, JPEG is a commonly used method of for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality....
, and PNG.

In order for Fraps to take pictures or capture videos onto their system, users must first be using a program that uses DirectX
DirectX

Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms....
 or OpenGL
OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language cross-platform Application programming interface for writing applications that produce 2D computer graphics and 3D computer graphics....
 as a core runtime system. Programs that run in Windows
Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....
 without DirectX or OpenGL are not supported, and therefore Fraps cannot capture desktop applications under Windows 2000 and XP. In Windows Vista
Windows Vista

Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs....
 the Aero
Windows Aero

Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista, an operating system released by Microsoft on 31 January 2007....
 desktop runs through DirectX and can be captured by Fraps.

Unless disabled by the user, Fraps displays a frame/s count in the corner of the screen while it is active. This number display does not show up in the recorded video (but for videos captured while fraps is running, a yellow number display showing the framerate of the video reappears when the video is paused in certain video players, such as windows media player classic), and shows as yellow when not recording and red when recording. It also flashes to black text-on-white background for screen captures for the single frame that was captured. Fraps runs in the background, recording is activated by a user-defined key combination, and can be similarly interrupted. The frame/s count can be disabled within the control panel or be used with a keyboard shortcut
Keyboard shortcut

In computing, a keyboard shortcut is a finite set of one or more Computer keyboards that invoke a software or operating system operation when triggered by the user....
.

Starting from version 2.9.0, Fraps supports DirectX 10, and generally is significantly more compatible with Windows Vista
Windows Vista

Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs....
 than previous versions.

See also

  • Taksi
    Taksi (software)

    Taksi is a screencasting program that can take screenshots and record video clips of game sessions and other similar 3D-graphics applications. Originally inspired by Fraps, Taksi aims to provide an open source alternative for video capture ....
    , a free/Open Source alternative
  • Video capture
    Video capture

    Video capture is the process of converting an analog video signal?such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player?to digital form. The resulting digital data are referred to as a digital video stream, or more often, simply video stream....
  • Screencast
    Screencast

    A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term screencast dates from 2004, products such as Lotus Software ScreenCam were used as early as 1994....
    ing
  • List of screencasting software
    List of screencasting software

    The following lists some notable screencasting software programs, i.e. software used to record what things you have on up your computer screen...
  • Comparison of screencasting software
    Comparison of screencasting software

    Sorry, no overview for this topic
  • Screen capturing
    Screenshot

    A screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the Computer display or another visual output device....
  • Real-time computing
    Real-time computing

    In computer science, real-time computing is the study of Computer hardware and computer software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"?i.e., operational deadlines from event to system response....
  • Logitech G15
    Logitech G15

    The Logitech G15 is a Computer keyboard produced by Logitech designed specifically for gamers. The original version of this keyboard included 18 Macro keys and a blue backlit monochrome LCD ....
    -capable; displays a graph and frame/s count on the built-in LCD


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