Noob alert!

Hi,

I am having very basic problems with saving movies to disk.

The first time I log on I can choose the menu option (file -> start/stop movie...) or the hot key and a windows file save box will pop up where I can set the file name and save location. I do this, then do my filming, then file -> start/stop again, but no file is saved. Hitting file -> start/stop subsequently doesn't seem to do anything (I never get the file save dialog again)

I understood that the first thing I should get on file -> start/stop is a dialog to set the capture resolution, but this never appears.

I feel I'm probably just doing something very basic wrong. Can anyone help?

tia

This is a common problem with the native SL vid capture system. If you are using a PC, I suggest Fraps. Here is a link on how to get it and start making vids:
http://www.thinkerer.org/Studios/StuCamEd.htm
There are also suggestions for Mac users in the linked pages there.
TM

Sorted, thanks!

I know a lot of machinima creators love Fraps, but you may also like to try my personal favourite HyperCam.

I also had several problems with "Start/Stop Movie to Disk". First of all you have to select a directory where the movie should be saved. It seams that not all directories work. Especially "my documents" does not work for me. But if I choose "C:\SLMovies\" it works fine.
If this step was successful you have to select a video compression. If no such window appears, restart Second Life and select another directory.
Now as you start to record again, you can only select a compression. You need to restart Second Life to save them to another directory.

As you can see how wonderfully simple.. this task is?
Use Fraps or HyperCam.

I can't hear it any more. I don't want to spend money for Fraps or something like that. In every such thread you can read about 1000 times that this and that proprietary software can be used. Please just stop such useless comments.

So 1,000 times you have read about using specific software and you think they are all useless comments?
Here.. have a fresh bucket of sand to bury your head in.. if you post that you are having a problem.. expect people to offer a solution.. not educate you when you do not want to be..
YOUR problem is exactly that. Spending the equivilent of a Happy meal on very useful software to cure your issue is the way of computing.

If I read once per thread that Fraps is an alternative, that is absolutely sufficient. That's all I wanted to say.

I didn't see your name (Csteph Submariner) as the post creator making the enquiry.. so rather than wasting yet more of your time making random comments about things you dont want to hear, why not simply close the post and move on?

Fraps costs like $40... lol

Thanks to Stan Binder for the odd solution, creating a folder in C:\, it worked.

I do have the shareware version of Fraps though (limited to capturing 30 seconds), and it captured about 4 frames per second. The video capture built into the Second Life viewer captured like... 0.25 frames per second. It *was* awful.

The capturing performance mainly depends on the encoder. The encoder of Fraps is absolutely fantastic, but actually not free and can not be used by other capturing software.
Has someone of you a good, fast and free encoder?

I have used the OpenGL capture open source programmes/software, providing you don't mind using comand line switches, it does a fair job. You do have to apply a codex after the capture and there is no screen zoom capture facility.

Which software do you mean? The only one I found was Taksi and I do not use it any more as I had more trouble with it than with the built in video capturing (unbelievable but true .

you can try here.. [url=http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=opengl+grabber&fr=yfp-t-501&ei=UTF-8&meta=vc%3D

Try HyperCam it uses the same codex as Fraps, except its native one which isn't compatible with some editing programmes.

I already said, that I am not interested in paying for such an application.

The C:\\SLMovies thing worked for me, too. The SL capture thing wouldn't work otherwise. I've tried the "trial version" Frap and compared to the SL version. Both GREATLY reduce the fps you can record in -- but the Frap films seem to play back in real time, whereas the SL version would always play back at a super-rapid speed, and never seemed to capture sound.

Is there anything that records in the fps that one can view SL in? Or is this not possible unless I go drop 2400 USD on a suped up double-processor PC?

The only possible way, apart from getting a super dooper PC, is to use a 'Zoom' window (selected region) in the likes of Fraps/HyperCam, this will reduce the amount of work the system has to do over an above running the game, when saving that data to your hard disc.

Obviously a whole screens worth is going to be a huge amount of data, unless you reduce your resolution to say 800x600, move your SL cache to a different hard disc (not partition) on a different IDE/Sata controller, will help.

Using a codex when capturing is ok for the final files size that lands on the HD, but consider that the system will have to apply the computations to do that on the fly, over and above running the client etc.