Cursor becomes black in Fraps

Oh boy, lots to learn when you are learning to make movies in SL. I'm sorry, but I'll be asking a lot of questions here.

I'm using Fraps, which gives me the smoothest capture. I need my mouse cursor to be visible, but it becomes black on bright backgrounds. Is there any way to avoid this?

It's also a little bit off: the mouse pointer is not exactly at the same position in the movie as where it is in-world.

My specs:

Vista 32 Home
Intel Core2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80 Ghz
Nvidia Geforce 8600GT
3 Gb RAM

Hm, I've googled a lot to resolve this issue, but no luck. Anyone please?
I've read something about hardware accelleration for the mouse on or off, but I can't find that and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with the problem.

What version of Fraps? Release notes for one old version talks about "Fixed mouse cursor offset in some windowed applications."

When I tried Fraps sometime ago, this was an issue then, screen capture programmes treat the window as a kiosk, unless you actually select the window itself.

Personally I use HyperCam, which doesn't have this problem. You can also set a 'halo' effect size/colour, to the cursor, to show when you have clicked something/menu or whatever.

Oh boy, I've experimented a lot with lots of programs and options. In the end, on my pc Fraps is the only way to go. It offers by FAR the smoothest capture. But the cursor problem isn't solved yet.

What I've found out is:

- I have tried both fullscreen (NOT windowed) and windowed. Same result.
- Hiding UI doesn't make a difference.
- Searched for a a hardware or software cursor option in SL, but SL doesn't seem to have such an option.
- I've tried the newest Nvidia driver 182.08 (released 3-3-2009). The game runs okay, a bit laggier maybe, but it's alright. However: the cursor result is exactly the same. No difference at all.
- I've searched a way to remove alpha effects in the UI entirely, but there is no way to do that, at least not that I know of.
- I've also tried all mouse cursors that Vista offers: classic etcetera, with and without cursor shadow, disabling Aero. Unfortunately also this doesn't work.
- Just to make sure, I've also disabled VBO (OpenGL Vertex Buffer Options). No change.

This seems to be really a problem, connected with Fraps only (and my pc specs of course). I've tried CamStudio and Hypercam. In both programs the cursor behaviour is as it should be. But both programs are also not an option for me. Fraps gives me by FAR a much much smoother capture. But the fact that both programs record the cursor well, might offer an idea about the solution.

I have made a test video with Fraps on YouTube two days ago. It's my first attempt, bad quality and was only to see if I could put it on YouTube, using Fraps > Vegas Studio > Quicktime > YouTube. But you can see the strange cursor behaviour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DKRjofdr0o

You have hovertips on and somehow the cursor is able to overlap them. Is your UI set to a different size than default? Do you need hovertips?

Hi Osprey. Ohh, good suggestion with the hover tips. Didnt think about that. I've tried it immediately, but unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem. Cursor still becomes black on very bright backgrounds and gray on less bright backgrounds. Btw, my UI is set to default. But thanks!

From my recolection Fraps doesnt handle multiple alphas too well. Use nVidia Ntune and set all the defaults/settings, where possible to 'let application decide'.

Hi AWM. I've installed nTune and ran the control panel annex configuration screen. I've checked the individual topics in that screen, but couldn't find unusual things. In the topic at the top of the screen, called 3D-configuration (I have the Dutch nTune version), it already said that the application should decide. Under the tab Performance I ran the Tune System test, but that only goes for nForce2 cards or higher. My performance boost was logically +0%.

Is there any other option in nTune that I should check? Btw, after doing another test (after nTune) nothing's changed.

In the configuration page you should have a whole list of things relating to your graphics card. Turning things off, or where possible, let application decide, should let SL's client do the work. I use a pair of 8800GTX's in Sli config... I don't have this problem, otherwise I could perhaps be more specific for you.