What capture tools for Linux?

I'm thinking of making a video in SL ... what capture tools can I use?

The client's capture doesn't seem to be working.

I've used 'xvidcap' with reasonable results for video game tutorials.

Nothing else I tried worked at all, let me know if you find something better.

nef, you might try running FRAPS under Wine(windows emulator for Linux.)

NO idea if it will work though, but it might.

Also search thru Sourceforget http://www.sourceforge.net for Linux video capture, you might find something.

As QuickTime isn't compatible for Linux users, do you also use a XP emulator to run sl and watch ingame movies? Or is there a codex for QuickTime that could run Linux movie compatible format? Ermm, what would be Linux movie formats? I'd like to be able to offer cross platform movies.

It is not exactly true that quicktime isn't compatible with Linux. There are a number of Linux viewers that can play some Quicktime movies, although the Quicktime client itself does not run on Linux. The problem is that Quicktime isn't really a streaming format, it's a wrapper file format. Different encodings ('codecs') are used, and many of those are patented and so cannot be implemented by anyone other than Apple. The older codecs can play just fine, and sometimes newer codecs can be played by copying parts of the software from other systems (which may or may not be legal... )


Anyhow, MPEG and AVI are both fairly common, although I believe AVI is also a wrapper format.

RealPlayer also does run on Linux.

Also there's a spinoff from the Ogg Vorbis sound format project to make a video format.

Anyway, for the best cross-platform experience I'd go with MPEG-2 (That's MPEG version 2, not MPEG layer 2 which is a sound layer.) There are again patent issues, but they aren't - at this time - affecting players, only encoders, to the best of my knowledge.


Oh, also, Linux users don't - by default anyway - have in-game movies.

It might be easiest to have in-game movies by simply using older non-patented quicktime codecs. Somebody is working on that, I think. 'mplayer' is probably the software that would be used.

AVI wouldn't be viable for internet based streaming/progressive download media, simply due to the lack of real compression making the movie creators reduce the resolution down to such a degreee it would resemble a postage stamp to maintain a reasonable bitrate stream.
MPEG is ok.... but again not prefered.
The adoption of Mp4 and H.264 codex has allowed many SL machinima creators bring resaonable streams into SL. Drawbacks include pixelation and greater effort from the SL client and OS to render them.
Sorenson codex is a useful tool, only draw back is it can require additional masking at rendering/editing stage, and has less compressions. On the plus side, it doesn't require so much effort on behalf of the OS or client to render the movies and you can reduce the colour depth to save on bandwidth.

I have been watching with interest the developement of the Ogg Vorbis sound format project to make a video format. I found some information here that I will be tracking.
It seems a shame that Apple only create their products for the Windows and Mac OS's.