I need Dxtory help!

[sirjoshuaj1]

I need some advice regarding recording games with Dxtory, namely Battlefield 4. I am running Windows 10 64 bit on an i7 4770 stock, reference r9 290, 8gb ram. I am trying to record at 1080p 60fps, however I NEED to get 144 fps ingame minimum. When not recording I get 150-200 fps ingame (DX11, all graphics settings low, except mesh quality ultra, resolution scale 100%, 1080p@144hz).

I have tried lagarith lossless codec; it drops my ingame framerate to around 120ish and it will record between 50-55 fps resulting in choppy video. When I try the MagicYUV lossless v1.2 codec, it records at a solid 60 fps, however my ingame fps fluctuates greatly, in some areas I get 150+, in others <100. The result is the same if I try to record in 720p@60fps.

Other recording software is not an option, as fraps does not let you record at 60 fps and play at a higher frame rate, and raptr is utter garbage. Is there anything that I can do in Dxtory so that I will be able to play at 144+ fps and record at 1080p 60 fps? Or is a capture card on a secondary PC the only option?

Screenshots of my Dxtory settings:

http://puu.sh/jNJai/3c328dc52e.png
http://puu.sh/jNJbS/72d00ac851.png
http://puu.sh/jNJcC/3608d9c557.png
http://puu.sh/jNJd8/fba957f927.png
http://puu.sh/jNJdN/145e25aa08.png

 

[Frag Maniac]

If you have more than one drive, use it's Distribution Writing feature. You need to set output to RawCap instead of AVI on the Movie Setting page (5th tab), and designate the separate drives on the Folder Setting page (3rd tab).

Then you need to select the DxTory codec, again on the Movie Setting page. Higher modes will yield extremely large files, so you may want to start out with Low mode, which still looks pretty good compared to ShadowPlay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqsTa_HpM

 

[sirjoshuaj1]

If you have more than one drive, use it's Distribution Writing feature. You need to set output to RawCap instead of AVI on the Movie Setting page (5th tab), and designate the separate drives on the Folder Setting page (3rd tab).

Then you need to select the DxTory codec, again on the Movie Setting page. Higher modes will yield extremely large files, so you may want to start out with Low mode, which still looks pretty good compared to ShadowPlay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqsTa_HpM

I have a 250 GB samsung evo 850, and a secondary HDD which I record to. What does distribution writing do? I have never heard of it before. And why do I want to set the output to rawcap? All the other places where I found information about Dxtory said to use Avi.

 

[James Mason]

Give OBS a shot.
https://obsproject.com/
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/
The CRF=X affects the quality and size of the video, you'll have to play with it somewhat.

 

[Frag Maniac]

If you have more than one drive, use it's Distribution Writing feature. You need to set output to RawCap instead of AVI on the Movie Setting page (5th tab), and designate the separate drives on the Folder Setting page (3rd tab).

Then you need to select the DxTory codec, again on the Movie Setting page. Higher modes will yield extremely large files, so you may want to start out with Low mode, which still looks pretty good compared to ShadowPlay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqsTa_HpM

I have a 250 GB samsung evo 850, and a secondary HDD which I record to. What does distribution writing do? I have never heard of it before. And why do I want to set the output to rawcap? All the other places where I found information about Dxtory said to use Avi.

"All the places", seriously? You so much as Google DxTory and the very first link takes you to the DxTory site's list of features page, which shows the Distribution Writing feature and explains what it is, what it does, and actually SHOWS a pic of what tab to use to set it up with.

It uses more than one drive to write the capture file to simultaneously, sorta like virtual RAID. You need RawCap mode for it because it writes RawCap files to do this. You then later convert them to AVI with RawCap convert.

If you'd so much as taken the time to watch the tutorial video I posted, which is also the first guide that comes up when you Google "DxTory Guide", you'd have seen what RawCap is and how to use it.

 

[sirjoshuaj1]

Give OBS a shot.
https://obsproject.com/
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/how-to-make-high-quality-local-recordings.16/
The CRF=X affects the quality and size of the video, you'll have to play with it somewhat.

Ok I'll give it a shot.

 

[sirjoshuaj1]

If you have more than one drive, use it's Distribution Writing feature. You need to set output to RawCap instead of AVI on the Movie Setting page (5th tab), and designate the separate drives on the Folder Setting page (3rd tab).

Then you need to select the DxTory codec, again on the Movie Setting page. Higher modes will yield extremely large files, so you may want to start out with Low mode, which still looks pretty good compared to ShadowPlay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0KqsTa_HpM

I have a 250 GB samsung evo 850, and a secondary HDD which I record to. What does distribution writing do? I have never heard of it before. And why do I want to set the output to rawcap? All the other places where I found information about Dxtory said to use Avi.

"All the places", seriously? You so much as Google DxTory and the very first link takes you to the DxTory site's list of features page, which shows the Distribution Writing feature and explains what it is, what it does, and actually SHOWS a pic of what tab to use to set it up with.

It uses more than one drive to write the capture file to simultaneously, sorta like virtual RAID. You need RawCap mode for it because it writes RawCap files to do this. You then later convert them to AVI with RawCap convert.

If you'd so much as taken the time to watch the tutorial video I posted, which is also the first guide that comes up when you Google "DxTory Guide", you'd have seen what RawCap is and how to use it.

Ok, I understand what they do now, but as I only have one drive that I want to record to, that doesn't help me. Thanks though.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Ok, I understand what they do now, but as I only have one drive that I want to record to, that doesn't help me. Thanks though.

If you have adequate space for one off clips on a SSD (say 80 GB or so), that can also boost performance, provided it's a pretty fast one. The only thing is, you need to make sure you transfer each large file to your HDD when you're done recording, to keep it from filling up.

IMO though, since the WD Black 1TB HDDs are regularly seen for $70 USD or less, it pays to have at least a couple drives like that. They also write at 180Mb/s speed on the edge of the platter (verified by DxTory's HDD bench), so you can make a large partition on the edge of the platter dedicated to capture.

 

[sirjoshuaj1]

Ok, I understand what they do now, but as I only have one drive that I want to record to, that doesn't help me. Thanks though.

If you have adequate space for one off clips on a SSD (say 80 GB or so), that can also boost performance, provided it's a pretty fast one. The only thing is, you need to make sure you transfer each large file to your HDD when you're done recording, to keep it from filling up.

IMO though, since the WD Black 1TB HDDs are regularly seen for $70 USD or less, it pays to have at least a couple drives like that. They also write at 180Mb/s speed on the edge of the platter (verified by DxTory's HDD bench), so you can make a large partition on the edge of the platter dedicated to capture.

That makes sense, and I would do that, but do you think that is what is causing my frame rate drops? My current HDD can record at 166 Mb/s or so, as checked by Dxtory, so I highly doubt that that is the problem.

 

[Frag Maniac]

That makes sense, and I would do that, but do you think that is what is causing my frame rate drops? My current HDD can record at 166 Mb/s or so, as checked by Dxtory, so I highly doubt that that is the problem.

What model of HDD do you have? It might write even faster than that if you make a partition dedicated for capture on the edge of the platter, which moves at faster speed. Any partitioning tool that has a slider bar can do that with ease.

Your speed is good now, but if you don't make a partition on the edge of platter the actual write speed for the capture will get slower and slower as the drive fills up, because you're not specifying a high rate of speed portion of the drive.

As for how much of a boost, it's pretty significant. I was using just a 65 Mb/s Seagate along with a WD that had dropped to 90Mb/s after becoming over half full with data and I was able to use those two when I captured Metro 2033 (original, not Redux) at 720p on a mere GTS250, and that as you know isn't a very well optimized game. With Fraps I couldn't even get playable frame rates.

These Metro clips are recorded at max texture res but without DoF blur via a simple file edit to tweak settings.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UdrcqEIayU"][/video]

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84RxdXY8LQ"][/video]

Dead Island at over 100 FPS while recording on same system.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIrxaZNZXHs"][/video]

If you so much as add one WD Black to that sys, you could significantly improve performance. Eventually you'll probably need more HD space anyway.

 

[sirjoshuaj1]

That makes sense, and I would do that, but do you think that is what is causing my frame rate drops? My current HDD can record at 166 Mb/s or so, as checked by Dxtory, so I highly doubt that that is the problem.

What model of HDD do you have? It might write even faster than that if you make a partition dedicated for capture on the edge of the platter, which moves at faster speed. Any partitioning tool that has a slider bar can do that with ease.

Your speed is good now, but if you don't make a partition on the edge of platter the actual write speed for the capture will get slower and slower as the drive fills up, because you're not specifying a high rate of speed portion of the drive.

As for how much of a boost, it's pretty significant. I was using just a 65 Mb/s Seagate along with a WD that had dropped to 90Mb/s after becoming over half full with data and I was able to use those two when I captured Metro 2033 (original, not Redux) at 720p on a mere GTS250, and that as you know isn't a very well optimized game. With Fraps I couldn't even get playable frame rates.

These Metro clips are recorded at max texture res but without DoF blur via a simple file edit to tweak settings.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UdrcqEIayU"][/video]

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l84RxdXY8LQ"][/video]

Dead Island at over 100 FPS while recording on same system.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIrxaZNZXHs"][/video]

If you so much as add one WD Black to that sys, you could significantly improve performance. Eventually you'll probably need more HD space anyway.

Ok I'll look into that. Thank you for your help.