Making AC YouTube videos - which tools do you use?

[Whitestar]

I'm looking to get flawless (i.e. no stutter) 60fps videos from AC replays and then convert them to YouTube videos with some software.

I tested recording with MSI Afterburner yesterday. The resulting video was very smooth, but there were a couple of stutters here and there (even at 720p) which was a bit annoying, given that my framerate is always a lot higher than 60 (when testing with vsync off).

My rig: GTX 670 SLI (ballpark 970 performance), Intel Core i7-2700K, 8 GB RAM

It would be nice if you could list the tool you are using to record replays + the tool you use (if any) to convert the video to a YouTube-ready video. Please also list important settings, if any.

Thanks

 

[nitro20001106]

Hello!

In use(d) a Lenovo Ideapad y500 wich has a nvidia gt650m and a intel I5, I use Fraps to record, but I cant record in 60fps, becouse my pc is too ****** for that. I use Sony Vegas 12 to edit, and in Assetto Corsa, I use the standard setting, but I record in 0.5 time, so I can get that 60fps when I speed it up in sony vegas.
Here is my creation if you want to see some of my work:

I hope I could help you out

-Patrick

 

[Johnnypenso]

I use the basics...NVidia Shadowplay and Windoze Movie Maker, both free, and never noticed either one adding any stuttering. Does 1080/60 too:

 

[Harry6784]

This is how I do it:

1. Do some racing in 5980x1080 (triple monitors). Save replay.
2. Switch to 1920x1080. Record replay using Fraps. Note that for 1080p @ 60fps it will eat up over 10GB for a 2 min video. Make sure you have space available.
3. Import/edit/upload using Adobe Premiere

Enjoy your 1080P 60FPS video

 

[ALB123]

I do pretty much what Harry6784 does, except I don't have triple monitors. I play Assetto Corsa on my laptop, but thru the HDMI out to my 46" TV instead of the 18" laptop monitor. I save the replay file after doing lap(s) and then I record the replay playback via Fraps. I then import the replay file(s) that I recorded via Fraps into Adobe Premiere. I do some simple editing or whatever and I output the files into a format suitable for YouTube.

 

[JR98]

I don't record AC much anymore but I did use Bandicam (& still do for all my PC recordings) and edited with WMM. Ended with extremely small video sizes (18MB Per Minute) while still outputting at 720P

 

[RTR]

I use Shadowplay for capture. Currently using something called Filmora Wondershare as I got it free and it has some nice features built-in - but it's still limited. I began with Windows Movie Maker - it's great for basic editing - and it's free!! Start with that and if you get the video bug and want more advanced features, then invest in better software.

I capture raw footage at 30,000 Kb/s with Shadowplay and edit it down to 1080p 60fps at 15,000 or 20,000 Kb/s for upload. That's as much as my low-end (i5-4440/GTX960ITX) system can realistically manage - but I know people with hi-end PCs who capture at 100,000 and upload at 50,000!!

If you want to make the best quality vids, it's good to understand how YouTube works. This article isn't that recent but still relevant and does a good job of putting into laymans terms:

http://www.videomaker.com/article/17034-encoding-youtube-videos-at-the-highest-quality

Unless you're uploading raw footage, you'll need to compress your video. Then it's about the bit rate. The higher the bit rate - the less artifacts and pixelation you'll get. Use Variable bit rate if your software allows (for smallest file size). There's a huge difference between 1080/60fps at 8,000 Kb/s compared to 1080/60fps at 20,000 or 30,000 Kb/s.

re. Stuttering. Shadowplay captures what's on screen, did those stutters happen in the game itself, or only on the video?

 

[Whitestar]

Thanks for contributing, everyone. First of all I should mention that I found this to be at least partially true: https://gopro.com/support/articles/how-to-correct-choppy-broken-up-playback. VLC Player actually gives much smoother playback of my replay videos! But the annoying thing is that VLC Player doesn't seem to support the videos that Shadowplay outputs (maybe I'm just missing a codec). So I could not test if there's a problem with Shadowplay's video output on my PC, or if it's just WMP. But evidence points to the former, since there is stutter on my Shadowplay-recorded, encoded and uploaded video.

I have now tested Afterburner, Shadowplay, DXTory (with Utvideo codec) and Fraps.

For both DXTory and Fraps the playback is stutter-free in VLC Player. That is, Fraps was totally smooth, while I did get the occasional "jitter"/stutter with DXTory. WMP displays some sort of "jitter"/stutter which is quite noticeable and very distracting. Not sure what is the best English word for it. I'll see if I can upload a video illustrating it. But, you may wonder, if it's only in WMP then surely the encoded YT video will not have jitters? Well, yes, when using Shadowplay it did. But not when using Fraps.

Let's sum it up like this:

Shadowplay: Stutter in WMP, slight stutter in VLC unable to open raw footage in VLC, but stutter in encoded file.
Fraps: Stutter in WMP, totally smooth in VLC. Totally smooth in encoded file.

There is a reported issue with Shadowplay on the Geforce forums. But the Shadowplay-recorded videos I've seen from you guys and others show no such stutter, so this must be an issue that affects only some PCs. Maybe I'm just one of the unlucky ones.


I found Windows Movie Maker to be great for just getting the job done. Can select bit rate too, so that's good. So for now Fraps + Windows Movie Maker seems to be the best solution for my particular PC.

@RTR: Thanks for the tip on bitrate. I'll test to see where the limit is to avoid pixelation. And to answer your question: All games are butter-smooth on my system, including AC replays. My two 670 in SLI should produce slightly higher fps than a 970 in most cases, although admittedly a tiny bit of microstutter in AC. Not enough to be annoying thankfully, but it's there.

Unfortunately my eyes are very observant when it comes to stutters and such. Always have been. Oh well, 1st world problems...

 

[Johnnypenso]

Thanks for contributing, everyone. First of all I should mention that I found this to be at least partially true: https://gopro.com/support/articles/how-to-correct-choppy-broken-up-playback. VLC Player actually gives much smoother playback of my replay videos! But the annoying thing is that VLC Player doesn't seem to support the videos that Shadowplay outputs (maybe I'm just missing a codec). So I could not test if there's a problem with Shadowplay's video output on my PC, or if it's just WMP. But evidence points to the former, since there is stutter on my Shadowplay-recorded, encoded and uploaded video.

I have now tested Afterburner, Shadowplay, DXTory (with Utvideo codec) and Fraps.

For both DXTory and Fraps the playback is stutter-free in VLC Player. That is, Fraps was totally smooth, while I did get the occasional "jitter"/stutter with DXTory. WMP displays some sort of "jitter"/stutter which is quite noticeable and very distracting. Not sure what is the best English word for it. I'll see if I can upload a video illustrating it. But, you may wonder, if it's only in WMP then surely the encoded YT video will not have jitters? Well, yes, when using Shadowplay it did. But not when using Fraps.

Let's sum it up like this:

Shadowplay: Stutter in WMP, slight stutter in VLC. Stutter in encoded, uploaded file.
Fraps: Stutter in WMP, totally smooth in VLC. Totally smooth in encoded, uploaded file.

There is a reported issue with Shadowplay on the Geforce forums. But the Shadowplay-recorded videos I've seen from you guys and others show no such stutter, so this must be an issue that affects only some PCs. Maybe I'm just one of the unlucky ones.


I found Windows Movie Maker to be great for just getting the job done. Can select bit rate too, so that's good. So for now Fraps + Windows Movie Maker seems to be the best solution for my particular PC.

@RTR: Thanks for the tip on bitrate. I'll test to see where the limit is to avoid pixelation. And to answer your question: All games are butter-smooth on my system, including AC replays. My two 670 in SLI should produce slightly higher fps than a 970 in most cases, although admittedly a tiny bit of microstutter in AC. Not enough to be annoying thankfully, but it's there.

Unfortunately my eyes are very observant when it comes to stutters and such. Always have been. Oh well, 1st world problems...

I think the bitrate and save quality affects Shadowplay videos tremendously. I had stuttering issues and quality issues until I turned the quality up to max in Shadowplay and began saving the videos in WMM at a 20k bitrate, which was also necessary to achieve 1080p/60. Once I did that...voila...I can play all the shadowplay videos on VLC without issue and they upload nice and smooth for YT.

 

[RTR]

Thanks for contributing, everyone. First of all I should mention that I found this to be at least partially true: https://gopro.com/support/articles/how-to-correct-choppy-broken-up-playback. VLC Player actually gives much smoother playback of my replay videos! But the annoying thing is that VLC Player doesn't seem to support the videos that Shadowplay outputs (maybe I'm just missing a codec). So I could not test if there's a problem with Shadowplay's video output on my PC, or if it's just WMP. But evidence points to the former, since there is stutter on my Shadowplay-recorded, encoded and uploaded video.

I have now tested Afterburner, Shadowplay, DXTory (with Utvideo codec) and Fraps.

For both DXTory and Fraps the playback is stutter-free in VLC Player. That is, Fraps was totally smooth, while I did get the occasional "jitter"/stutter with DXTory. WMP displays some sort of "jitter"/stutter which is quite noticeable and very distracting. Not sure what is the best English word for it. I'll see if I can upload a video illustrating it. But, you may wonder, if it's only in WMP then surely the encoded YT video will not have jitters? Well, yes, when using Shadowplay it did. But not when using Fraps.

Let's sum it up like this:

Shadowplay: Stutter in WMP, slight stutter in VLC. Stutter in encoded, uploaded file.
Fraps: Stutter in WMP, totally smooth in VLC. Totally smooth in encoded, uploaded file.

There is a reported issue with Shadowplay on the Geforce forums. But the Shadowplay-recorded videos I've seen from you guys and others show no such stutter, so this must be an issue that affects only some PCs. Maybe I'm just one of the unlucky ones.


I found Windows Movie Maker to be great for just getting the job done. Can select bit rate too, so that's good. So for now Fraps + Windows Movie Maker seems to be the best solution for my particular PC.

@RTR: Thanks for the tip on bitrate. I'll test to see where the limit is to avoid pixelation. And to answer your question: All games are butter-smooth on my system, including AC replays. My two 670 in SLI should produce slightly higher fps than a 970 in most cases, although admittedly a tiny bit of microstutter in AC. Not enough to be annoying thankfully, but it's there.

Unfortunately my eyes are very observant when it comes to stutters and such. Always have been. Oh well, 1st world problems...

Interesting. Is the stutter on the raw capture footage from Shadowplay? That would explain it being in WMP and VLC playback and your uploaded file.

The stutter obviously isn't on your FRAPS capture - so why does it stutter during WMP playback, I wonder?

 

[Whitestar]

I think the bitrate and save quality affects Shadowplay videos tremendously. I had stuttering issues and quality issues until I turned the quality up to max in Shadowplay and began saving the videos in WMM at a 20k bitrate, which was also necessary to achieve 1080p/60. Once I did that...voila...I can play all the shadowplay videos on VLC without issue and they upload nice and smooth for YT.

Good tip about the bitrate in WMM. Looks like it fixes most of the pixelation. 👍 I'll have to stick to Fraps though, as Shadowplay still gives stutters, even at max settings.

I finally got around to producing some footage, so that you know what I'm talking about.

Recorded with Fraps:


Recorded with Shadowplay:


In the Shadowplay footage it shouldn't be too hard to spot the stutter in the Village corner and especially The Loop. A bit harder to spot from the onboard camera. Meanwhile, the Fraps recorded footage is butter smooth. Now I just hope that it looks like this in your browsers as well.

Interesting. Is the stutter on the raw capture footage from Shadowplay? That would explain it being in WMP and VLC playback and your uploaded file. The stutter obviously isn't on your FRAPS capture - so why does it stutter during WMP playback, I wonder?

It is strange indeed. Either there is a bug in WMP that only occurs on some systems, or this is the sort of issue that can probably only be fixed by re-installing Windows. Which for obvious reasons I'm a bit reluctant to do. Maybe it's time to update to Windows 10.

 

[Lewis_Hamilton_]

VLC does play Shadowplay files, are you sure you're selecting the right files? You get two, a shadowplay temporary file and the actual video itself in another, the latter is the one you can watch and upload directly to youtube without having to edit.

That's what I do for hotlaps or quick videos, simply hit the start/stop record hotkey for shadowplay, give it a quick check in VLC player and upload that file. Whole process including upload takes a matter of minutes. Recently started to record at 4k, 60fps, 40mbps.

Like you mentioned though, sometimes my recordings will get stutter, screen tearing or some high pitch whining sound, this fixes and breaks itself every other Geforce Experience update for me. Recently tried recording in windowed mode as opposed to full screen and that seemed to fix my issue for now.

I use Magix Movie Maker for any editing that I do for longer videos or different scenes. I encode at 30mbps in either .WMV or h.264 MPEG.

Edit: While on the subject, I wonder if anyone knows why my videos on YouTube only reach 1440p/60 and not 4k, I set both my screen resolution and recordings to 4k, they also read as being 4k when I look at the file properties or put them in a movie editor, but they won't upload like that.

This video I uploaded a while ago was when I still had my 970, I used 1440p/60 for both gameplay and recording, at 35mbps. Directly uploaded the file without editing in any programs, so this should give you an idea of the quality you can get. I see you're pretty much getting this already though.

I recommend Shadowplay over Fraps purely for performance reasons, Shadowplay has very little impact on your gaming performance/frame rate.

 

[Whitestar]

VLC does play Shadowplay files, are you sure you're selecting the right files? You get two, a shadowplay temporary file and the actual video itself in another, the latter is the one you can watch and upload directly to youtube without having to edit.

For someone who's been working with Windows for many years it's pretty basic knowledge that an .mp4 file is a video and a .tmp file (if that's the file extension they get) is a temporary file, but I understand that you had to ask.
No, I have those temp files in a separate folder, so I haven't even looked at them. But double-clicking a .tmp/temp file would - because it has no file association to a program - only produce a Windows dialog saying that it can't open the file. What I got was a message in VLC player saying it can't open the .mp4 file, after right-clicking it and selecting Open with -> VLC media player.

But no more!!! Apparently now I can suddenly open those Shadowplay .mp4 files in VLC player! This happened after I installed Windows Live Movie Maker, so the only explanation I can think of is that WMM has installed some system files - probably a codec or other files relating to video playback - that VLC player also utilizes. It wasn't long ago that I reinstalled Windows, so those files must simply have been missing. So then that problem is solved.

Like you mentioned though, sometimes my recordings will get stutter, screen tearing or some high pitch whining sound, this fixes and breaks itself every other Geforce Experience update for me. Recently tried recording in windowed mode as opposed to full screen and that seemed to fix my issue for now.

Yes, it seems a bit arbitrary with those updates to be honest. I remember recording Just Cause 2 footage in Shadowplay last year. Butter smooth! And now, stutter. Good idea about the windowed mode. 💡 Will test. 👍

 

[ECGadget]

I actually have a capture device for my footage, but it only does 30fps. I used Shadowplay for the first time today recording DiRT Rally. Only downside for me on it is the stupid 4gb limit that NVidia cannot be bothered to find a workaround for. As for Assetto Corsa, since I have a laptop (and there is no Desktop capture mode) it refuses to record that footage. But I was highly impressed with what I managed to record, and for short clips it is fantastic.

 

[ALB123]

@ECGadget - what device are you using that limits you to 30fps? If you're using a hardware capture device, may I suggest you try a software capture solution, like Fraps. I'm 99.9% certain that it will do 60fps... 👍

I have a question about Assetto Corsa replays. Let's say that I run 6 laps in my practice session and I go into Replay Mode. Perhaps I only had three clean, valid laps - #s 3, 4 and 5. The remaining laps, I completely stunk. If I hit the Save Replay button it is going to save all 6 laps. Is there a way to only save what I want to save? Can I set In & Out points for the video replay file, so when I hit "Save.." it only saves the video that falls within the portion of my In & Out points?

 

[RTR]

It is strange indeed. Either there is a bug in WMP that only occurs on some systems, or this is the sort of issue that can probably only be fixed by re-installing Windows. Which for obvious reasons I'm a bit reluctant to do. Maybe it's time to update to Windows 10.

Those stutters look like compression artifacting. I'm thinking same lines as Johhnypenso in that maybe your bit rate was too low on Shadowplay capture? Compared to the bit rate used on FRAPS. If not - I have no idea! Good news about VLC playing your files tho'!

 

[Johnnypenso]

@ECGadget - what device are you using that limits you to 30fps? If you're using a hardware capture device, may I suggest you try a software capture solution, like Fraps. I'm 99.9% certain that it will do 60fps... 👍

I have a question about Assetto Corsa replays. Let's say that I run 6 laps in my practice session and I go into Replay Mode. Perhaps I only had three clean, valid laps - #s 3, 4 and 5. The remaining laps, I completely stunk. If I hit the Save Replay button it is going to save all 6 laps. Is there a way to only save what I want to save? Can I set In & Out points for the video replay file, so when I hit "Save.." it only saves the video that falls within the portion of my In & Out points?

Replay saves all the laps of a "session" and as far as I know, all you can do is change the size of the replay files from the main menu. Going in and out of the pits to tune continues the session, but if you hit, "restart session", then it reboots the replay save to the start of that new session. When I'm running laps and know I'm going to record I always use the restart session feature to keep the size of the files small.

 

[RTR]

@ECGadget - what device are you using that limits you to 30fps? If you're using a hardware capture device, may I suggest you try a software capture solution, like Fraps. I'm 99.9% certain that it will do 60fps... 👍

I have a question about Assetto Corsa replays. Let's say that I run 6 laps in my practice session and I go into Replay Mode. Perhaps I only had three clean, valid laps - #s 3, 4 and 5. The remaining laps, I completely stunk. If I hit the Save Replay button it is going to save all 6 laps. Is there a way to only save what I want to save? Can I set In & Out points for the video replay file, so when I hit "Save.." it only saves the video that falls within the portion of my In & Out points?

Try this: http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Video-Dub.htm#.VjAFE7fhA6Q

You can crop and join your original video in seconds. It doesn't re-encode so no quality loss. And it's FREE!! I use it when I forget to live record so I use Shadowplay to capture the last 20 mins and crop out the parts I want to use for editing.

 

[ECGadget]

@ECGadget - what device are you using that limits you to 30fps? If you're using a hardware capture device, may I suggest you try a software capture solution, like Fraps. I'm 99.9% certain that it will do 60fps... 👍

Hauppage HD PVR2 GE+

I would try Fraps but I am massively limited on HDD Space, plus the frame hit for me is just too much at times. Shadowplay for me will be the way forward for most videos I think, and perhaps in the future something like Dxtory or something ^^