Best quality, free recording software?

[Techwright]

Right up front let me state I have no intention of streaming or posting videos online.  I understand that's a Homecoming no-no and I'll abide by that.

 

What I'm seeking is a game video recording software for recording my characters, storing the videos for memory's sake should Homecoming and I ever have to part ways.  Looking for clear, high quality results; easy to use; preferably not a resource hog; capable of working with older rigs; and of course, free.    

 

Suggestions?

[GastlyGibus]

GeForce Experience is the program I use for game recording, but good luck trying to get modern recording software to work with a game made over a decade ago. When I've tried to use GeForce for City of Heroes, I've found it only works when it feels like it.

[Riverdusk]

I had pretty good results from ShareX, it is free, and has really good reviews.  I used it to capture video from websites, not gameplay though, so not sure if it will do what you want, but can always give it a try.

 

You can get it through Steam or direct. 

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/400040/ShareX/

 

https://getsharex.com/

[Twisted Toon]

Could try using the Demorecord that CoH has.

 

Just a thought.

[roleki]

Hands-down, it's OBS.

 

obsproject.com

[Bonkleberry]

1 hour ago, roleki said:

Hands-down, it's OBS.

 

obsproject.com

Quoted for truth. It is open source and offers many settings to control video quality and file size.

[nihilii]

1 hour ago, Bonkleberry said:

Quoted for truth. It is open source and offers many settings to control video quality and file size.

I use OBS, but "easy to use" and "older rig friendly" is not how I'd describe it. A few years in, I still haven't found a way to get clear footage with a 1680x1050 resolution, and performance struggles on an i5. Not for lack of looking for guides or tweaking with the settings either.

 

Closed source and paid for programs tend to be much more limited in their options and output, but many of them allowed for 1 hotkey recording out of the box on that same rig.

 

Would still recommend OBS - because it might work for you, and if it does, why look anywhere else?

[MunkiLord]

22 hours ago, Riverdusk said:

I had pretty good results from ShareX, it is free, and has really good reviews.  I used it to capture video from websites, not gameplay though, so not sure if it will do what you want, but can always give it a try.

 

You can get it through Steam or direct. 

 

https://store.steampowered.com/app/400040/ShareX/

 

https://getsharex.com/

Interesting, I did not know it was on Steam as well. I've never used it for screen recording, but I really like it for taking screenshots.

[Sir Myshkin]

Entirely dependent on being on a Win10 OS, but WinKey+G is a built-in function that has game recording. It auto-recognizes the game being run and only records that specific window and nothing else, regardless of what you may flip/tab/open while it runs. Up until the full-on media restriction this is what I used to record any of the test footage I had uploaded to YouTube after crunching/editing the files down in Premier (simply convenience). The "App" that is attached to that hotkey is called "Xbox Game Bar" and is baked into Windows 10 as of... 1803 update I think, it was there but looked/functioned a bit differently before that patch and runs much better since then.

 

Fair warning it's going to capture at native resolution with no artifacts (as is my experience anyway), which translates into potentially hefty file sizes. You'll easily get into the multi-gig territory after 30-45 minutes. Saves all the files as MP4.