Fraps' effect on framerates

[Ferrous]

Hi, all...

As some of you may or may not know for almost a year I have dabbled in creating Trainz videos, using Fraps to film the actual shots. I recently moved up to the full version of Fraps, and it initially worked fine (as can be attested to by my most recent upload, "Orange Blossom Special...Western Style"; note the lack of watermark on the footage). However, when I went to fire it up just Saturday, I found that it had suddenly developed a disastrous impact on my framerates. For instance, on a give route, with a given scenario, locos, cars, speed, etc., I can get 85 fps without filming. However, if I try filming the exact same route with the exact same parameters, my fps hover around 5. I'm recording full-screen at 30 fps, with sound and without cursor. I have 51.8 of 177 gigs free, so lack of free space is not a problem. I'm running Vista, by the way.

Has anyone else experienced this slowdown?

By the way, I tried zdsoft's GameRecorder, but it, quite literally, failed to film anything save a black screen. Apparently, it's not compatible with Vista...

EDIT: on a lighter note, this is my 2,000th post. Yay me.

 

[BLueNeon]

Hi, all...
I have 51.8 of 177 gigs free, so lack of memory is not a problem.

That's not memory , that's the amount of free space on your drive... if you need to check your free ram open up taskmanager

LoL

 

[lornyk5]

You know lately I have had trouble with fraps too Ferrous, I have it load at startup, but when I start a game it doesn't work.

It's not in the top corner, I have been forced to re-install the program several times, this is the last build doing this!

Never had a problem with it until recently, weird....

Lorin

 

[trainmetal]

Try defragging the hardrive, fraps relies heavenly on good disk throughput so a fragmented drive could cause stuttering.

 

[Ferrous]

That's not memory , that's the amount of free space on your drive... if you need to check your free ram open up taskmanager

LoL

Haha, Adam just informed me, thanks for the heads up on the memory dealie.

I'll try defragging, it's all a matter of how much spare time I can get in one go. :wave:

 

[ex-railwayman]

Hello chaps, are you using the new version of FRAPS, the most up to date version 2.9.6, 'cos I didn't bother getting that, I still use the old version, build 2.9.5 I think it is. Why don't you try the older version and see if you have the same problems, it's never given me any trouble at all.

Cheerz. ex-railwayman.

 

[Ferrous]

Okay, well, defragginig the HD helped...marginally. In the same scenario as before, I now get ~9 fps. I'm still open for suggestions, by the way.

@Ex-railwayman: I'll see about finding older versions, thanks for the tip! :wave:

 

[BLueNeon]

Hi, all...
I'm recording full-screen at 30 fps, with sound and without cursor.

What happens when you record at half size at 25fps .. Do things improve ? . It could be a combinaton factors ,, lack of physical ram , vista not releasing cached ram quickly enough , the indexer read/write could be also be problem . what route are you using .. or better yet give me the name of a builtin route and I'll see what happens here .. List your specs and I'll put something similar together.

.

 

[Ferrous]

I'm running an HP dv6575us.

Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GHz
2048 Megs RAM
200 gig HD
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, 128 Megs
Vista Home Premium

I've been using a route that I was beta-ing for a friend, I'll try it on something builtin and see what happens when I run it half-size and 25 fps...

 

[JCitron]

I'm running an HP dv6575us.

Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GHz
2048 Megs RAM
200 gig HD
NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, 128 Megs
Vista Home Premium

I've been using a route that I was beta-ing for a friend, I'll try it on something builtin and see what happens when I run it half-size and 25 fps...

This might be a good idea. Your friend may have used a lot of very poly-intensive components which will cause Trainz to slow down. I know I found out the hard way.

You might want to boost the RAM on this computer to 3.0 GB. This will make a big difference with Vista particularly when you use Trainz with it.

John

 

[Ferrous]

Well, my framerates while filming have improved to what I deem an acceptable level (read--no stuttering, yay!) . Thanks for the suggestion, BLueNeon! :wave:

 

[BLueNeon]

Well, my framerates while filming have improved to what I deem an acceptable level (read--no stuttering, yay!) .

If you are happy that's good news then ... one less job for me next week .. you could probably improve things slightly by playing with running tasks/services and gfx card settings.

BN

 

[Ferrous]

Now that I think about it...my Fraps slowdown might have something to do with my resizing Trainz to run at 1200x800 instead of 1024x768. I should look into this... :hehe: