Many gamers enjoy recording video footage from the games that they play. Some even turn it into careers and start to produce content that they distribute online such as game demonstrations, guides, walkthroughs, speedruns, and let’s play videos.
The one thing that any gamer who is recording videos from a game wants is for the video to look good. That is often easier said than done, however, but and there are several different areas you’ll need to look at if you want to record high quality and impressive-looking videos from a game.
Set Up the Recording Parameters to Record High-Quality Videos
The recording parameters that you use to record videos from a game are the first place that you should look at. Seeing as they will determine the specifications of your video, it goes without saying that they need to be set to record in high quality.
To be more specific there are two recording parameters that you need to focus on:
Resolution
The resolution that you record in will affect how clear and defined the video looks and a higher resolution will look sharper. That is why it is important to record at the highest resolution that you can.
Keep in mind that because you’re recording a game, the resolution can only really be as high as the resolution of the game. If it is higher than the game’s resolution it won’t make much difference, and will just inflate your video file size.
Frame rate
The frame rate that you record in will affect how smooth any motion in the video appears. Seeing as videos from games typically contain a lot of motion – it has a big part to play.
A higher frame rate will make your video look much more fluid, but as with the resolution if it is higher than the frame rate the game is running at – it won’t really help. That being said the game’s frame rate will vary, so the frame rate that you set should ideally be a bit higher than the maximum frame rate of the game.
It is important that the software you use allows you to control the parameters listed above. For example, an HD screen recorder such as Movavi Screen Recorder Studio would, but the basic screen recorder in Windows 10 may not.
Just keep in mind that recording videos from your games at a high resolution and frame rate will use up quite a bit of system resources – which ties into the next area that you need to look at.
Optimize the Game Performance
At the end of the day, the video that you record of any game is only going to look as impressive as the game does while you’re playing it. However, the fact that you’re recording a video can affect that, as it will strain your system resources and could affect the game performance.
To ensure that the video of your game looks impressive, you need to optimize its performance. Ultimately your goal should be to avoid any issues that could affect how the game looks, cause it to stutter, or affect the game frame rate too significantly.
Some of the steps that you can take to optimize the game performance while recording is to:
- Close any unwanted apps and background processes
The last thing you want is for other apps or background processes to be taking up system resources – so you should close anything that you aren’t using. The more resources you’re able to free up, the better.
- Balance the graphics settings
If you notice that the game frame rate is too low or that its performance is affected – try lowering the graphics settings to find a balance. It may take a bit of experimentation, but you should focus on areas that are likely to require the CPU, such as supersampling and the draw distance. As a last resort, you could try running the game in a lower resolution as well.
- Update your hardware drivers
It is always a good idea to update your hardware drivers as they’ll frequently contain fixes and performance improvements. That could make a lot of difference, especially when you need every bit of juice that you can muster.
- Upgrade your hardware
If all else fails, the final option left to you is to upgrade your hardware. When you do you should focus on the areas that will have the most impact, both on your game performance and the video recording – such as swapping your conventional HDD for a Solid State Drive (SSD) and upgrading the graphics card and RAM.
Make no mistake this is one of the hardest parts of recording impressive videos from games, and it may require trial and error before you are able to figure out what works in your case.
Other Improvements
Aside from the steps listed above, there are other improvements that you can make that may help the quality of the videos that you record:
- Use a high-quality microphone if you’re recording audio commentary. The audio quality will affect how impressive your video appears, so you should also try to make sure you record in a relatively quiet environment.
- Take steps to improve the webcam video quality if you are recording webcam footage and adding it in a frame to your gameplay video – as is often the case for video game content.
- Encode the video using the right settings after you’re done, ideally with the same resolution and frame rate that it was recorded in, and a high enough bitrate.
Final Words
If one thing is clear by this point it should be that there is a lot involved in recording high quality and impressive videos from games. That is why you should approach it methodically – and take the necessary steps to improve the areas required along the way.