Capturing videos

In order to capture videos there are at least two options which differ significantly.

Frame output system + ffmpeg

This method consists on outputting an image to a file every frame using the Frame output of Gaia Sky to later gather them to create a video using a video encoder software such as ffmpeg, which works on Windows, Linux and OS X.

Note

Use F6 to activate the frame output mode and start saving each frame as an image. Use F6 again to deactivate it.

When the frame output system is active, each frame is saved as a JPEG image to disk. Refer to the Frame output section to learn how to configure the frame output system.

Once you have the image frames you can convert them into a video using the following command:

$ ffmpeg -start_number [start_img_num] -i [prefix]%05d.png -vframes [num_images] -s 1280x720 -c:v libx264 -r 25 -preset [slower|veryslow|placebo] -pix_fmt + [out_video_filename].mp4

You need to obviously change the prefix and start number, choose the right resolution, frame rate and preset and modify the output format if you need to.

OpenGL context recorder

There are several available options to record OpenGL rendering to videos, in all systems. Below are some of these listed. These methods, however, will only record the OpenGL scene as it is displayed in the screen and are limited to its resolution.

Linux

  • glc/glcs - Command-line interface applications. The documentation and user guides can be found in this wiki.

  • Gamecaster - Front end to glc.

  • Soul Capture - Front end to glc.

Windows