Finnish version here.

So here's a little tutorial about how to make an avi format video about your favourite game. I also included something about processing video and sound and how to compress them. I made this because my Vice City video brought up some questions and Skie asked me to do something like this =)

First I'm going to introduce you to some common programs and then we'll go through an example of converting an AQ2 demo to avi format with sound and editing.

Useful applications

Fraps

Fraps is a little program that has three tasks: benchmarking (shows the fps), taking screenshots and recording movies. And the benefit of this programs is that it can do all this in DirectX and OpenGL games (like Quake 2). At this time Fraps' version is 1.9D. Soon they're going to release version 2.0 which can, for example, record sounds (present version can't). Present version can only record in 640x480 mode (that's going to change also in next version). But be aware: recording video at the same time you're playing requires pretty much from your computer. And Fraps doesn't compress the video --> Updated: in fact, Fraps does compress the video but because it must be done real time, Fraps can't compress with any proper codec, like DivX so it's uncompressed and takes lots of space (you should have several gigabytes free). For example, I recorded 30 seconds of Vice City and it took 323 MB. So ensure that you have lots of free space on the drive where Fraps is installed (videos are recorded in Fraps' directory).

Update:
July 10th, the version 2.0.0 was released. It has some improvements, like capturing the sound and support for higher resolutions. But... there's a demo version available which is free but it has some limitations on video capturing. And if you want the full version, you'll have to purchase it.

Homepage of Fraps here.
Direct download link here (73 KB).
Fraps FAQ (I suggest you to read it) here.
Version 2.0.0 (demo!) here (192 kb).

Sonic Foundry Vegas

Sonic Foundry's Vegas is an easy-to-use video editing software. Sure you can use other programs too (like Adobe Premier, it's propably even better than Vegas) but I chose this (well, I haven't even tried Premiere, maybe I should) when Skie mentioned it. With Vegas you can add several effects and other stuff to your video. And you can also add music in it and compress the file. Demo version sets some limitations (you can't save your project in .veg and in there will be a Sonic Foundry's add in your video (very annoying) but... well, do what you do

Homepage of Vegas here.
Direct download link of demo version here (41,1 MB).

VirtualDub (NanDub)

VirtualDub is more like compressing and postprocessing a final video. That is you can't do as complicated editing as you could do with Vegas. And NanDub is a mod of VirtualDub; it enables adding, for example, MP3 music to video.

Homepage of VirtualDub here.
Direct download link here (version 1.5.4, 616 KB).
NanDub at SourceForge.net, link here.
Direct download link of NanDub here (version 1.0rc2, 804 KB).

An example of making an AQ2 video

Phase 1 (optional)
Generate a dm2 demo which you want to be in the final video. Here you could also use Keygrip to edit the demo but I don't have any experience on that. And this phase is optional because when using Fraps you don't really have to have a demo; you can record avi files directly when you're playing. But I think you mostly generate avi movies from demos

Phase 2
Now we'll generate an avi video file from that dm2 demo you made. Here you can use Fraps, BeefQuake orApr Q2. And there're propably some other programs too which you could use... Now I'm going to introduce you to Fraps because you can use it to make avi video files from other games too. And there's also another bonus with Fraps: it saves the messages on the screen in AQ2, BeefQuake (Apr Q2 also?) doesn't.

These instructions are for version 1.9D! So, start Fraps. A configuration window opens to you. There you can make some choices like defining the key what makes Fraps to take a screenshot etc. For capturing video, do these:

-enable video capture (tick it)
-define some key for it
-Movie framerate --> 25 fps should be fine

Now you can minimize Fraps (you don't have to). But take care that you don't close it. Next, start the game. In this phase, remember to set the resolution to 640x480 and ensure that you have lots of free space on your hard disk drive. And now, watch the demo (or play =) and in appropriate time hit the key you defined for capturing video - capturing begins. You can stop recording by hitting the same key again. You can see fps all the time on your screen but it won't be seen in the avi video file. And after this, there should be avi file(s) in your Fraps directory.

Phase 3
And now we're going to edit the video with Vegas. I only explain the outline, by studying the program yourself you'll perceive it pretty easily.

So, start Vegas and open a video file you made into it (File | Open...). Now you can see how one track has appeared - that's the video. You can also have several tracks, for example audio track. In track you can select areas and copy, move, paste and delete them. You can see one vertical line over all tracks - with that you can make all the selections. *Tip* By interlacing parts of video you'll hop to next part of video with style =)

Down and left, there you can see Explorer, Trimmer, Media Pool... Select Explorer. Now you can browse to some directory where you have video files (Fraps' directory) and then drag & drop those files to the video track. That's how you can combine video files.

And next, let's see how you can add an audio track. I suggest you to do this later with NanDub, if you have only one audio file to add. But here's how you could add audio. Choose Insert | Audio Track. Now, using the explorer, you can browse to the directory where the audio file you want is. Drag & drop it to the audio track you inserted. You can edit the audio track just like you did with the video track.

And here's how you can add some text to your video. Down and left you can see Media Generators - choose it. Then select Credit Roll and after that the type of text you want to add. Then drag & drop it somewhere to the video track. A configuration window appears. There you can type the text, edit it (like font and size) and add some effects.

Update:
Many people have asked me how to add some slow motion to video. So here's it: choose the part of the video you want the slow motion to be added. Then click it with your mouse's second button and choose Properties. A window appears. Somewhere in that window you can see "Playback Rate". It should be 1,000. When you decrease this number, slow motion will be added. Try it out. For example 0,400 should be nice.

And finally we'll save the final video. You could compress video and audio already in this phase but I suggest you to do it later with VirtualDub (and NanDub). So here're instructions how to save the video uncompressed. That means that saving it will take lots of hard disk space. Choose File | Render As... Then click the Custom button and browse to the Video page. In Video Format, choose Uncompressed and in Frame size, choose whatever you like (640x480 is fine). Click OK, give it a name and click Save. Saving begins. This might take some time and hard disk space will be used "efficiently" For example, 29 seconds of video (no sound) took 771 MB.

Phase 4
And now we're going to edit the video with VirtualDub. Start VirtualDub and open the video file you saved with Vegas (File | Open video file...).

Update:
Some people have told me that Vegas splits their video to several parts. I don't know why it is like that but here's how to fix it: Open the first part in VirtualDub (File | Open video file...). Then, open the second part (File | Append AVI Segment...). Continue appending the segment until you're done. After that, continue processing the file normally. Finally, when you're about to save the file, choose File | Save segmented AVI... instead of File | Save as AVI...!

After doing that, choose Video | Full processing mode. Next thing to do is deinterlacing. Choose Video | Filters... Click Add and choose "deinterlace", click OK and one more time OK.

This is the time when you should do the cropping if there's need to do that (there might be some black margin spaces on edges - it's a good idea to remove them). So, in Filters window, click Cropping button and do the adjustments. But remember: when compressing the video file with DivX (that's what we're going to do), the resolution must be divisable with 8 (like 640 / 8 = 80 and 480 / 8 = 60 etc) --> Update: in fact, "officially" it should be divisable with 16 (like 640 / 16 = 40 and 480 / 16 = 30). 8 seems to work though... So keep that in mind when cropping the video. After cropping properly, click OK and one more time OK.

Now we're going to define the compression method of the video. DivX is a good choice so let's use it. If you haven't done so already, I suggest you to grab the newest DivX codec. Here's a direct download link for that (version 5.05, original version, 3,2 MB). Back to VirtualDub... Choose Video | Compression... Choose DivX 5.05 (if you have that version) from left and then click the Configure button. What we're going to do now is a two-phased compression. It'll make good quality. Choose "Multipass, 1st pass" in Variable bitrate mode. You can find Encoding bitrate under that. Set the value for example to 1000, that already guarantees good enough quality. The higher the value, the better the quality will be but also the size of the file will increase. And now click OK and one more time OK. Now we're going to save the video. If you have several parts segmented, choose File | Save segmented AVI...! Choose File | Save as AVI... Define a name for the file and click Save. Saving begins and it's going to take some time.

When it's ready, don't close VirtualDub. Again, choose Video | Compression... Click directly Configure button and now choose "Multipass, nth pass" in Variable bitrate mode. Let the encoding bitrate be the same what it is. Click OK couple of times and choose File | Save as AVI... Now define another name for the file and save the file. It's going to take some time again.

After saving we're done with VirtualDub and you can close it. Our "target" file is the file you saved on the second time with VirtualDub, so don't delete it. And now we can see that the size of the example file I used (771 MB) dropped to 8,85 MB. Pretty nice, isn't it? And yes, that's the final file if you're not going to add any music in it. But if you are, read forward...

Phase 5 (optional)
Now we'll add some MP3 music to our video file using NanDub. Start NanDub and open the video file we just created in it. After that, choose Video | Direct stream copy and Audio | Direct stream copy. Then choose Audio | (VBR) MP3 audio... and browse to the MP3 file you want and click Open. Now, make sure that Direct stream copy is really selected in Video menu. After that, choose File | Save as AVI... and define a name for the file and click Save.

That's it. MP3 music is compressed with the video file and everything is ready for the publishing of your video. And again, the size of my example dropped to 4,64 MB. Excellent.

-----------------------------

With these instructions I hope you can really get something done. And I think you will And get yourself familiar with Vegas or some other video editing software, you'll uncover some great possibilities.

If something's unclear, you can contact me. Post in this thread or message me at IRC (Woce @ IRCnet & QuakeNet).

You've been a great audience, thank you, bye bye...

Update 15.7.2003:
-Added some information about Fraps version 2.0.0
-More information about limitations set by Vegas' demo version
-Changed the description of the compression method of Fraps
-Added how to use slow motion with Vegas
-Added how to combine several parts with VirtualDub
-Fixed the information about what number should be used when cropping the picture (DivX compression)

GG Woce!

Minen tajunnu..

And if someone haven't noticed the Finnish version of this tutorial so be sure to read it here.

Hehe. Nice job Woce! Now everyone can make own videos and entertain the lazy ones in the scene. Including me ;)

Someone should sticky this

Update, July 15th. Here's some information about the updates:

-Added some information about Fraps version 2.0.0
-More information about limitations set by Vegas' demo version
-Changed the description of the compression method of Fraps
-Added how to use slow motion with Vegas
-Added how to combine several parts with VirtualDub
-Fixed the information about what number should be used when cropping the picture (DivX compression)