Heya,

I tried to record Fallout 1 footage using Fraps. The resolution was 1280×720 at 30fps. The problem is this made the game slow down a great deal to almost being unplayable. I know recording takes a toll on your system but Fallout 1 shouldn't be that heavy? :D My specs are 2500k, HD 6950, 8gb of ram and a 7200rpm HD. Is this normal behaviour?

Hello.

I just tested recording with Bandicam 1366x768 @ 30 fps and it was recording fine, so I don't think the performance hit should be that bad.

I did notice one thing. I had to unset the frame limiter while capturing. Cannot remember if FRAPS had this setting.

Fraps just won't work no matter what you do.
Personally I recommend Dxtory, that's what I use, although ZD Soft Screen Recorder (also for games, don't let the name fool you) works fine but has less options.

I also don't recommend forcing a 720p resolution on a 480p game, that might cause problems with DirectDraw.

Sorry for resurrecting this ancient thread, but I just had the same problem as the questioneer. I can confirm that this performance issue with Fraps+Fallout still exists in 2015, and that using DXTory is still *a* solution to that problem. The framerate with Fraps was ridiculous (beyond painful, almost unplayable), with DXTory there didn't seem to be any performance impact whatsoever, even while using a lossless codec (lagarith).

Yeah, don't use Fraps to record Fallout (unless it's 3, New Vegas or Tactics), you'll have a nice headache.
I had to download an old version (I contacted support), just to be able to record the game, and the file created was useless. I don't want videos in sloooooow motion. It's not my computer, I can record the new Tomb Raider without problems in the frame rate.
I used Bandicam to capture Fallout, without problems.

I downloaded Fallout 1. But I can't to find any screen settings as in some other old games from GOG. This is just a generic Fallout running at 640x480 px.

Fraps shows about 750-800 fps without recording and 350-400 fps while recording at 60 fps.

Here the result:

If you want to run Fallout at higher resolutions, you need the hires patch (for instance included in the "Fixt" patch, availabe here.

2003 called, they want their FRAPS back.

With the plethora of 100% free options today, it's mind boggling why anyone is still trying to use that resource hogging, watermarking program.

Could you give some examples then please? When I was looking for a screen recording software two years ago, I actually didn't find too many options, let alone valid ones. Most "free" programs I found was only trialware, with restrictions like 10 min time limits and watermarking. Fraps is actually not so bad, apart from the fact that it impacts performance for *some* games.

The most convenient place to start is Shadowplay if you have an Nvidia. Beyond that, OBS, Raptr, Evolve, Razer Cortex, MSI Afterburner... etc. etc. All 100% free with no trials, no watermarks or other problems.

Mmmh, I just checked out Shadowplay. The marketing blurb says "records the last 20 minutes of your gameplay". Also DXtory is not free. I had to buy a license in order to get rid of the watermark. I haven't checked out the other resources you mentioned, but I doubt someone would invest his/her time into developing and maintaining a screen recording software, and then just give it away for free, unless he/she is a hacker.

Edit: I misunderstood regarding Shadowplay. The "20 minutes" referred to a certain mode (background recording), and so in particular there does not seem to be any time limit for recording in normal mode.

MSI Afterburner (what uses Encoder Server as part of RTSS) has bad capturing time regardless of settings and video frame size.

In modern games I'll get drop of FPS even when recording the half size video at fast encoding settings.

At the same time, Fraps can record almost imperceptibly full size 30 fps or half size 60 fps. Even if game almost fully utilizes CPU. But large files as result.

Sweet. You cherry picked one example out of a list that doesn't work for you personally. Therefore FRAPS must be better. /facepalm No doubt you are using a cracked version too so you don't have watermarked videos, something which none of the other recorders listed do anyway.

@FT33etc. Good to know about DXtory, it's the only one on the list I haven't used personally and is in my "old junk not worth bothering with list", but people keep talking about it for some reason too. It's no surprise then that that old program also watermarks. I have tried every single other one listed in my above post and all are free and no watermarks. It's not early-post Y2K anymore. There is a ton of free software available to do just about anything on a PC for some time now.

You says that ALL listed apps are free of any problems.
I discribed problem of MSI Afterburner.

This information can be usefull for someone. If not - just ignere it.
Your *facepams* are worthless both for me and for you.