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Hello everyone, I've seen on /newb recently and had people approach me regarding how to 'Screenshot' or 'Video Capture' their SAMP gameplay, so today I'm going to be creating a simple yet effective tutorial; that's simply how to record in-game footage of San Andreas Multiplayer (SAMP) and capture screenshots of your game play for uses such as: Game Related Requests, evidence for Forum Complaints or just general images for IC threads etc.
Alternatively you can use F8 to take pictures with the built-in SAMP function, however these methods will work for those having issues with SAMPs buil-in function on Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 10. You can find your default SAMP screenshot gallery here: C:\Users\USER\Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files\SAMP
Screenshots.
Taking screenshots should be a common thing to do, players should be taking screenshots of their Account Details such as: /stats - /fsafe - /house check - /trunk and any other storage mediums or relevant account details
in case an unfortunate event happens where some of this information is lost or corrupted - an example of this: logging onto your account one day to discover 50% of your money has vanished (giving that it's not an Administrator fine) you will be able to make a Game Related Request with evidence (such as a screenshot) and the Administrator reviewing the Game Related Request who has logs access, will then review the players logs and if there's no malicious or untruthful activity, the player will receive a refund.
Administrators can do little to nothing to help you without evidence.
Video Footage.
Video footage on the other hand, is more uncommonly used by Screenshotting; this is for a few simple reasons. The space of the video footage can become rather large, when recording there can be a massive FPS drop for the player (depending on their PC specifications) and it simply may cause issues sometiems.
However, video footage has saved myself and players countless amounts of times when posting relevant evidence towards Player Related Complaints; with the simple tap of a button, you can begin recording your game footage and capturing evidence if needed.
Now, video footage is not only used for evidence purposes, it can also be use for Video Editing purposes, a player of the server may want to create a project, whether it be an OOC or IC video; in this tutorial, I'll show you how to do just that.
I will be using two types of software within this tutorial as I recommend these the most, these softwares are:
*Fraps
*Bandicam
You have probably heard of both of these softwares if not one; that's simply because they're probably the best functioning ones out there currently, they hold simplicity and performance at the same time.
You can purchase or download a free trial of Fraps here: http://www.fraps.com/download.php
You can purchase or download a free trial of Bandicam here: http://www.bandicam.com/downloads/
Fraps
Now Fraps, is a piece of 'real-time video capture' software, with the added feature of 'benchmarking' too, I won't go into that however. It is compatiable with all recent versions of Windows such as: 7/8.1/10 so do not fret.
You are able to record up to a maximum resolution of 7680x4800 and up to 120 frames per second; you can also capture game audio too. Fraps also involves a VERY beneficial feature called 'Screen Capture', I will be going into this below.
Installing Fraps
A) Navigate to the official Fraps website here: http://www.fraps.com/download.php - Where you will be able to download the most recent and previous version of Fraps, free of charge.
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B) Once you have downloaded Fraps, use 'CTRL+J' (depending on your Browser) to navigate to your downloads directory and Double Click the file 'setup.exe' where you will be presented with a GUI installer; if it asks for Administrator privlages, grant it.
Bi) Read through the Software License Agreement and once you are content, select 'I Agree' > Select your destination folder, the default will be: C:\Programs Files\Fraps, however if you'd like to change this you are free to do so.
Bii) If you would like to add an shortcut, simply input the shortcuts name to whatever you want, leave it blank if you do not want one, 'Fraps' will be the default name > Click 'Install', this should take no longer than 5 minutes, after that simply click 'Close'.
Congratulations, you now have Fraps installed! - Now use your 'Windows Key ÿ' and select your address bar and type 'Fraps'. (Simply type it if you are on Windows 10) and Right Click it > Run as Administrator.
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You will now be presented with this dialogue.
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We will not be focusing on the 'FPS' tab so much, however you are able to change 'Overlay' settings in this tab, if you find seeign your FPS constantly, annoying, you may disable it via the 'FPS' tab.
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The 'Movies' tab is quite important and these are some basic settings that should be used for maximized performance, you can leave your FPS on 20 if you think your PC specifications aren't 'high' enough to handle 60, if you'd like more than 60, select the box with '20' and change it to 1-29fps or 61-120fps.
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Folder to save movies in > the destination you want your movie files to be saved in.
Video Capture key > the key you will press to begin and end recordings.
Record Win 7/8/10 sound > This will record all audio happening on your PC, whether it be background audio or GTA.
Record external input > This will record your microphone if you are recording, I prefer to have this unchecked unless I am performing a tutorial.
Every other setting is personal, fiddle around and see what you like.
The 'Screenshots' tab is now just as important as the 'Movies' tab, this is what we'll be using to create Screenshots within SAMP, simply press the screenshots tab and you'll be presented with the following dialogue.
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The unregistered version only allows saving in .BMP format unfortunately, however you are free to use converters if you wish. You may choose to also include your frame rate within screenshots as this can be beneficial to know sometimes.
You can change the folder where your Screenshots are stored and also your capture key, I have made mine the same as the default SAMPs as sometimes SAMP messes up with saving screenshots sometimes therefore I have a fallback plan with Fraps, you can change yours to your liking however.
To capture your videos, simply use the capture key(s) you have chosen, the default keys are: Alt+F10.
To view your captured views, the default location is: C:\Programs Files\Fraps\Movies - it's good practice to regularly clear your 'Movies' folder as the space can rack up quite quickly, as you can see below, within recording roughly 8 clips in the space of 3 days, I have accumulated 22GB in video files.
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To capture your screenshots, simply use the screenshot capture key(s) you have chosen, the default key is: F12.
You can view your captured screenshots upon the selected location you had chosen, the default is: D:\Programs Files\Fraps\Screenshots
Again, it's good practice to regularly clean your Screenshots folder roughly ever 2months or more to ensure the folder does not reach its limit.
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And that's pretty much it for Fraps, a good piece of software that can do both video capturing and also screenshot capturing, you may purchase the full version here:
Bandicam
http://www.bandicam.com/downloads/bandicam_eng_new.gif
Onto Bandicam, Bandicam is another piece of video capturing software just like Fraps, the GUI is much cleaner and appears more professional since their last update and personally I think performance wise, Bandicam wins. However it can be slightly buggy with older games and for that reason I only use it if Fraps is causing problems.
Nevertheless, it's a very useful and effective piece of software; Bandicam just like Fraps is freeware however it has it's paid advantages too.
The paid version is known as the 'registered' version, compared to Fraps, Bandicam allows a 10 minute capture limit unlike Fraps which others only 30 seconds; Bandicam does watermark recording though.
Bandicams screenshotting features offer.bmp, .png and .jpg compared to Fraps which only offers .bmp, so all in all, Bandicam just about outweighs Fraps in terms of pros and cons.
Installing Bandicam
A) Navigate to the official website here: http://www.bandicam.com/downloads/ for the latest version, and select 'Download 2 - Bandisoft', once your download has completed and saved, use CTRL+J (depending on your browser) to open your downloads pannel and run the file 'bdcamsetup.exe'.
B) Select your correct language and then click 'Ok' > 'Next' > Read the license agreement and click 'I Agree', untick everything but 'Desktop Icon' (if you do not want an icon, uncheck it too) > Select the destination folder you want to install Bandicam into, then click 'Install'.
C) After you have successfully installed Bandicam, check 'Run Bandicam' and click 'Finish'.
As you can see already Bandicams new update features a more 'professional' and gaming GUI in comparison to Fraps, in the 'General' tab you can set the settings however you like but the main thing you should be concerned about is your 'Output Folder'. This is where all your videos and screenshots will be saved. In the 'FPS' tab you are able to choose where you want your overlay and also assign a key to change/hide the overlay when you are in game, you can also change it from 1-xxx, it's your choice!
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In the 'Video' tab, this is where you can set your capture/stop-capture key, pause key and also general settings to do with your video; however it does get rather complicated in this section so I suggest only using it to change your Pause and Start/Stop hotkeys unless you're familiar with what you're doing.
'Image' tab is pretty much the same, you can change your Hotkey(s) to capture images and also set Bandicam to repeatedly Capture images even after you've captured one, you can also add the 'shutter' sound!
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And the final tab, 'output' will display the folders in which your raw footage is outputted to, you can change this for both Video and Image capturing. The defaults are as follows:
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IMG:C:\Users\USERDocuments\Bandicam
VID:C:\Users\USER\Documents\Bandicam
And there you have it, two pieces of powerful software to capture and upload images and video footage to your relevant Forum Complaints, Game related requests or just general footage that will be beneficial.
How do I upload Video footage?
You may create a Youtube account on the following link and simply upload the .avi files from your 'Movies' folder.
Create a Youtube account here: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Youtube+Account+Creation - You will need a Google account before proceeding to create a Youtube channel.
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How do I upload my Image captures?
Simply, use a website such as Tinypic or Imgur and navigate to your folder where you have saved your images and simply download click them to upload.
http://imgur.com/
http://tinypic.com/
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Thank you for reading this Guide, I hope it has been somewhat beneficial to many of you wondering how to record in-game video footage or capture images.
Credits
Jerrelle
