Can FRAPS record movies outside of games?

video recording fraps

12,079

Yes. Fraps can record movies outside of games. By default, fraps can record everything that is DirectX or OpenGL powered. Media Players can be set to play the movies through OpenGL or DirectX and when done, you can use Fraps native abilities to record the movie.

In addition, you can record the DWM (Areo desktop) which records everything on screen. Although this is much slower than native game recordings, it will work.

You cannot change the recording area from the DWM device. If you need that, there are other tools specifically for doing that. For instance, I bought Camtasia studio for this sole reason, and Fraps for game recordings.

12,079

pacoverflow

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Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

pacoverflow almost 2 years

Can FRAPS record movies outside of games? Their web site only talks about recording movies in games, so I'm not sure if it can record movies in other programs such as browsers. I installed it and pressed F9 while playing a video in a browser, and nothing happened. But I saw a few forum posts from people who claimed that they did get it to record their desktop.

If it is possible to record outside of a game, would it be possible to change the recording area, so that it doesn't record the entire screen?
- Wutnaut about 10 years
  
  There are many applications that already do this, like Camtasia
- LPChip about 10 years
  
  @Wutnaut Perhaps, but that was not what he asked.
pacoverflow about 10 years

So if I'm watching a Flash video in Firefox, and F9 doesn't do anything, does that mean Firefox or Flash isn't using OpenGL or DirectX?
Psycogeek about 10 years

You could try switching hardware acceleration in the flash settings, if you are not picking up the image of flash.
pacoverflow about 10 years

@Psycogeek My Firefox has "Use hardware acceleration when available" checked, but I see no such setting in the Flash settings in Control Panel.
pacoverflow about 10 years

@Psycogeek OK my Flash already has "Enable hardware acceleration" checked. Does this mean both Firefox and Flash are using overlays so FRAPS can't capture them? But then shouldn't FRAPS just record a blank video? FRAPS isn't doing any recording at all.
Psycogeek about 10 years

Yes, if it was due to overlay, it would record the blank hole (blackness). You could still try with all this hardware accelelerations turned OFF, so it is all "software" rendered.
pacoverflow about 10 years

Tried turning off hardware acceleration in Firefox and Flash and that didn't help. Also the Desktop Window Manager service (dwm.exe) is already running on the machine, and I switched to an Aero theme and FRAPS still doesn't record, I have no idea why.
LPChip about 10 years

Check the framerate counter so you can see it. When it shows up either on the plugin or on your desktop, Fraps can record it. For DWM to work, you need to check the option in fraps first. General tab->Monitor Aero desktop (DWM)