 | |
 Fraps on Windows 8.1 | |
| Developer(s) | Beepa Pty Ltd |
|---|---|
| Initial release | August 25, 1999 |
| Final release | |
| Operating system | Windows 98 and later |
| Type | Benchmarking, screencasting |
| License | Proprietary software |
| Website | fraps |
Fraps (derived from Frames per second) is a benchmarking, screen capture and screen recording utility for Windows developed by Beepa. It can capture from software that uses DirectX and OpenGL, such as PC games.
Fraps is proprietary and commercial software, but it is free to use for frame rate display and benchmarking, and free to use with limitations for video capture (30 second time limit, watermark) and screen capture (BMP format only).
The frametimes benchmark feature (logging of individual frame render times) gained attention in 2013 on computer review sites in debate about micro stuttering in games. [2]
On Windows Vista and Windows 7, the desktop can be captured if Windows Aero is enabled. Windows 8 game capture works, but not desktop capture as of version 3.5.99. [3]
Fraps records video at high resolution if the computer is sufficiently powerful. The maximum supported resolution is 7680×4800. [4]
Fraps uses a proprietary codec. Therefore, playing Fraps video output requires Fraps or ffdshow to be installed. Compression is relatively low and the resulting file sizes are relatively large: A two-minutes-long screencast of a full HD screen (1920×1080) may take up 3.95 GiB on disk. [5] There is an option to encode the RGB value of every pixel, but the default is to use a YUV scheme for better compression. [6] The color space used is Rec. 709, full range. [7]
Since version 3.5.0, Fraps has the ability to store the entire session in one video file. Prior to this update, all Fraps footage was split at 4GB and the split files would have to be joined at the transcoding stage. However, for backwards compatibility and limiting damage in case of a crash, there is still an option which allows users to use the old recording method of splitting videos. [8] Since version 3.0, Fraps supports DirectX 11 and Windows 7. Since version 3.5.0, the minimum system requirements has changed. Fraps requires a CPU with SSE2 instructions (Pentium 4 and later) and Windows XP or later. Fraps has not been updated since February 26, 2013, and the trademark on Fraps expired on May 19, 2017. [9]
In 2012, Jim Norris from pcadvisor.co.uk praised Fraps for its featureset and usability, by stating: "Video capture is similarly option-generous with hot key functions, capture rates and sound settings that are all easy to understand and set". He also criticized the lack of customer support: "Beepa's customer support seems nonexistent. Several queries via their provided web forms (...) remained unanswered, and I was never able to contact anyone from the company despite repeated attempts to do so". But this, according to Jim Norris, seems in stark contrast to "the quality of the software and the speedy pace of its development." He concluded by praising the featureset of the free version: "the free version is quite feature generous and will suit the needs of almost every user." and gave the software 3.5 out of 5 stars. [10]
Qt is cross-platform application development framework for creating graphical user interfaces as well as cross-platform applications that run on various software and hardware platforms such as Linux, Windows, macOS, Android or embedded systems with little or no change in the underlying codebase while still being a native application with native capabilities and speed.
Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: The original video compression technology known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other compression technologies, WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater for specialized content. After standardization by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), WMV version 9 was adapted for physical-delivery formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc and became known as VC-1. Microsoft also developed a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format to store video encoded by Windows Media Video.
VLC media player is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for desktop operating systems and mobile platforms, such as Android, iOS and iPadOS. VLC is also available on digital distribution platforms such as Apple's App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Store.
TightVNC is a free and open-source remote desktop software server and client application for Linux and Windows. A server for macOS is available under a commercial source code license only, without SDK or binary version provided. Constantin Kaplinsky developed TightVNC, using and extending the RFB protocol of Virtual Network Computing (VNC) to allow end-users to control another computer's screen remotely.
NX technology, commonly known as NX or NoMachine, is a remote access and remote control computer software, allowing remote desktop access and maintenance of computers. It is developed by the Luxembourg-based company NoMachine S.à r.l.. NoMachine is proprietary software and is free-of-charge for non-commercial use.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file archivers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. They are neither all-inclusive nor are some entries necessarily up to date. Unless otherwise specified in the footnotes section, comparisons are based on the stable versions—without add-ons, extensions or external programs.
A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture or a screen recording, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot; whereas screenshot generates a single picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, that can be enhanced with audio narration and captions.
HyperCam is a screencasting program made and created by Hyperionics and Solveig Multimedia. It captures the action from a Microsoft Windows screen and saves it to an AVI or WMV or ASF movie file. HyperCam will also record all sound output, and sound from the system microphone can also be recorded.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation. VirtualBox was originally created by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.
This page provides a comparison of notable screencasting software, used to record activities on the computer screen. This software is commonly used for desktop recording, gameplay recording and video editing. Screencasting software is typically limited to streaming and recording desktop activity alone, in contrast with a software vision mixer, which has the capacity to mix and switch the output between various input streams.
ScreenCam is a screencast tool for Microsoft Windows that is used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and tutorials in .swf format. ScreenCam was primarily targeted at users who need to create video-oriented instructional materials who were not multimedia authors or video capture technicians. It was very easy to use, having a 'VCR-like' interface and requiring no knowledge of digital video editing, or the concept of 'frames' of a movie, because it used a different paradigm for creating the screen movies. It can also be used for creation of screencasts and conversion of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to the Adobe Flash format.
BB FlashBack is a Windows-based screen recording program, distributed by Blueberry Software. It allows the user to add text effects, cut and paste movie footage and edit mouse movements. Recordings are initially saved in a proprietary format which can be opened and edited in the associated editor. Once editing is complete they can be exported to Flash, AVI, and a variety of other formats. A PowerPoint plug-in is also deployed with the program's installer. A freeware version of this program was released in April 2009.
Bandicam is a closed-source screen capture and screen recording software originally developed by Bandisoft and later by Bandicam Company that can take screenshots or record screen changes.
SimpleScreenRecorder is a Qt-based free and open source multithreaded screencast software made for Linux and Unix-like operating systems which can handle similar tasks FFmpeg/avconv and VLC does.
Adobe Presenter is eLearning software released by Adobe Systems available on the Microsoft Windows platform as a Microsoft PowerPoint plug-in, and on both Windows and OS X as the screencasting and video editing tool Adobe Presenter Video Express. It is mainly targeted towards learning professionals and trainers. In addition to recording one's computer desktop and speech, it also provides the option to add quizzes and track performance by integrating with learning management systems. Adobe Presenter was designed to replace the now discontinued Adobe Ovation software, which had similar functions.
ShareX is a free and open-source screenshot and screencast software for Windows. It is published under the GNU General Public License. The project's source code is hosted on GitHub. It is also available on the Microsoft Store and Steam.
Adobe Presenter Video Express is screencasting and video editing software developed by Adobe Systems.
Debut is a video capture and a screencast program from NCH Software, available for both Windows and Mac.
Parsec is a proprietary remote desktop application primarily used for playing games through video streaming. Using Parsec, a user can stream video game footage through an Internet connection, allowing one to run a game on one computer but play it remotely through another device. Although its main focus is gaming, Parsec can also be used as low-latency desktop sharing software. The Parsec client is available on most modern operating systems including Windows, macOS, Android, Raspberry Pi 3 and Linux.
Remote Utilities is a remote desktop software that allows a user to remotely control another computer through a proprietary protocol and see the remote computer's desktop, operate its keyboard and mouse.
