What can I do to improve the insanely low frame rate from the capture_frames command?
When I run around in the GameSDK levels, I have a nice high frame rate of 45-60 FPS. The problem is when I start capture_frames, my FPS drops to 12 or 7 FPS. I am hoping to use CRYENGINE for making a video, and this is just not acceptable. I read the documentation on capturing video, and it looks like I need to set a CVar called fixed_time_step to indicate the frame rate, but when I do, it says that it is an unknown command. Has this CVar been renamed? What should I do instead?
Is my computer not fast enough? I would assume the disk access would take the most time (writing each frame to disk). I'm getting an SSD soon, so that should help.
Is there anything else I can do? Are there any CVars that would help? Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it.
Best Answer
Try to use Fraps, the frame drops might not be that big (you can use the free version and see how it works out before having to buy anything, the max record time will be 30 secs I think).
Professional studios will use something like this to capture the video footage directly and have a second PC/HDD that will make the footage visible while recording it, most of the times the video editor is checking it live when being recorded:
Hello,
are you referring to this documentation?
http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC4/Capturing+Video+and+Audio
Have you tried the config file setup so that you don't have to type it in manually?
How powerful is your PC, please keep in mind that recording video takes an extra toll on the Hardware and it's not uncommon for fps to drop, happens with Fraps too.
Another option that might help you is to use sys_spec 2 or 3 instead of 4, 4 will require powerful hardware.
@Cry-DGP-1
Thanks for the answer.
I am referring to that documentation, and I do have a config file set up.
I have Intel i7 4790k quad-core @4.0 ghz, STRIX NVidia Geforce GTX 950 with 4gb video ram, and 16gb ram.
I did try sys_spec = 2, and on an empty level, I got 120fps when not capturing frames, but when I started recording it dropped to 15fps.
I'll install the ssd (just got it yesterday, samsung 850 evo) and see if that helps. If not, I am open to another solution for capturing the video. Should I use the trackview capture track? Should I use the built-in windows screencapture?
I'm curious: What do professional game studios do to boost their rendering performance?
Thanks a lot!
@Cry-DGP-1
It works great, thanks a ton. This is just what I need.
