How To Create Screenshots Using Fraps
Overview
If you enjoy taking screenshots and making videos of your games, then FRAPS is a utility that I (Tessera) highly recommend.
In this short tutorial, I'll cover the various features of this small (but excellent) little screen capture utility. FRAPS is easy to install, easy to use and the superb quality of the videos and screenshots that you can create with FRAPS make it well worth owning.
Created by: Tessera
Date Last Modified: 19:19, 27 July 2007 (EDT)
Last Modified by: lhammonds
Prerequisite
Please read Screenshots: A Basic Guideline as a prerequisite to this tutorial.
What is FRAPS?
FRAPS is a universal screen capture utility for Windows. Once activated, FRAPS sits quietly in your system tray and can be activated at any time, via hotkeys that you can configure yourself. FRAPS will record the action in your games (including the sound) and it will generate a very high-quality AVI video file. You can later edit or do whatever you'd like to do with your game video. FRAPS will also take high-resolution screen shots that are generally of higher quality than those produced by most other methods.
Does FRAPS cost anything?
Yes, FRAPS is "try before you buy" software. The trial version is crippled... meaning it isn't fully functional and is just intended to give you an idea of what FRAPS can do. This tutorial will deal exclusively with the full, purchased version of the program. At the time of this writing, the purchase price of FRAPS is $37.00 (USD) and in my opinion, it's well worth it.
If I use FRAPS, will it cause any lag in my game?
It might. This very much depends on the overall power and speed of your computer hardware. If you're running a dual-core CPU system with a lot of fast RAM and a juicy video card, then you probably won't notice any appreciable loss of framerates when FRAPS is loaded and recording. On the other hand, if you have a slower system that is already running close to its limits, then using ANY video capture program (FRAPS included) may cause a noticeable loss of framerates, depending on the scene. When FRAPS is not being used and is simply idle, it has very little (if any) effect on system performance.
Where can I get FRAPS?
You can download and buy FRAPS from their own website:
www.fraps.com
You'll find lots of useful information there about FRAPS, as well as an option to purchase the program if you'd like to. You can also download the free trial version from there, if you'd just like to take a look at it.
How does FRAPS work?
Well, first you need to install and configure it, just as you would with any other software. For most users, the default configuration is perfectly fine and you'll be up and running in no time.
The most important things to pay attention to are the hotkey settings. FRAPS will allow you to assign any key (or combination of keys) as hotkeys, which you can then activate during gameplay when you wish to take a screen shot, or record a video. It's important, therefore, to setup those hotkeys so that they don't conflict with any keys that the game is already using. This is easy to do and shouldn't be a problem for most users.
Where will my FRAPS videos and screenshots be located?
FRAPS defaults to saving those files in sub-folders within its own main folder. You can, however, change the default to any folders that exist on your hard drive. In the settings for FRAPS, you'll see that it's very easy to change these settings, so that you can save your work to any location that you specify.
What kinds of screenshots can I take?
Anything and everything. If you can see it on your screen, then FRAPS can capture it and save it as a high-resolution graphic. Currently, FRAPS allows you to save your screenshots in three commonly used formats: 24-bit Windows bitmaps (BMP), compressed J-PEG (JPG), or Portable Network Graphic (PNG) files that use a lossless compression algorythm. All three are good choices, assuming that you have the graphics software to handle each type. For most users, bitmaps (BMP) or J-PEG's (JPG) will be good choices. I personally save my screenshots as uncompressed bitmaps (BMP) and then edit or convert them later on, in a program such as PaintShoip Pro or GIMP. Just about any common graphics program can handle these file types. Remember to save the final result as JPG before uploading to TESSource.net to ensure that the thumbnails work properly.
Is it true that FRAPS can be used as a benchmark program too?
Yes, you can use FRAPS to show your FPS on the screen as you play your game. This can be very handy, especially if you're trying to "tweak" your performance in a demanding game such as Oblivion or F.E.A.R. Additionally, FRAPS can generate a detailed report on your framerate performance while you play and then save that information to a text file. These features can be activated with a hotkey, or they can be disabled altogether if you don't plan to use them. The FRAPS default is to show a little yellow FPS counter in one of the four corners of your screen as you play. You can choose which corner you want it to appear in, so that it doesn't get in the way of your game's UI or whatever. If you do not want this FPS counter on your screen, it can be easily turned off (or disabled altogether) in the settings menu.
Will the FPS counter that I see show up in my videos?
No, nor will it show up in your screenshots... not unless you want it to. The default is NOT to show the FPS counter in your saved screenshots and videos, even when you can see it on your screen. If you'd like the counter to appear in your shots for some reason, then there's a checkbox that you can activate that will allow this to happen. Most users won't wish to activate this feature.
Is there anything else that I need to know about FRAPS?
Just a couple of things. When you create a video with FRAPS, the size of the resulting AVI video file will be very large in some cases. This is due to several factors. For one thing, AVI files are raw, uncompressed video and as such, they are much bigger than compressed MPEG's or most other video file formats. Another factor that will determine the size of your FRAPS videos has to do with the settings in the FRAPS "Movies" menu. If you set it up to use high FPS (best quality) and to take full-screen captures, then you'll create gorgeous but BIG video files as a result. Make sure that you save your videos to a hard drive that has plenty of free space. I've personally created FRAPS videos that ended up being several GIGABYTES in size, so keep that in mind when you decide where to tell FRAPS to save your video files.
Raw, uncompressed AVI files are superb quality, especially if they were created with all of the settings maxed-out in FRAPS... but they're also far too large for most users to share on the web. Also, some computers may simply bog down when they try to playback a big, fat AVI file. My recommendation is to use a movie making program (such as Windows Movie Maker or NeroVision) to convert the raw AVI videos into a smaller, compressed format (such as MPEG-2 or WMV). You'll have to experiment a little with your favorite movie maker software, until you find a happy medium between video quality and overall file size.
So, that pretty much wraps up this FRAPS tutorial. I use this program quite a bit and I love it. The videos on my site were all taken with FRAPS, for example... although most were later compressed down into WMV format (so that they'd load faster over the web) and the video quality was understandably degraded a bit. The original, raw AVI versions look every bit as detailed as the actual game did when I was playing it. This is a great little screen capture utility and if you enjoy taking screenshots or making movies, then FRAPS is definitely for you.
If anyone has any further questions about FRAPS, then please do not hesitate to ask. I've been working with this program for a long time, so hopefully I'll be able to assist you.
- Tessera -
www.tessmage.com
Disclaimer
I (Tessera) am not affiliated in any ways whatsoever with the people who created FRAPS. This tutorial is not intended to be any sort of "sales pitch" for FRAPS and I have no connections with that company...this is simply an introduction to FRAPS for those who may wish to use it.
Reference
Source: Tessmage.com