How to: Capture Replays of Your Netplay Matches

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 [THIS GUIDE IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED. THIS MESSAGE WILL BE REMOVED WHEN IT IS COMPLETE.]

Hello everyone!  

We've all had that struggle. You land that juicy combo and want to preserve it for eternity, but your internet isn't good enough to stream or you don't have a capture card.  Well, if you have a discrete GPU, I can help you out!  In order to capture replays, you will use either OBS or the ShadowPlay feature of NVIDIA's GeForce Experience. 

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INDEX  (Use Ctrl + F to Navigate)

[0.1]     What is a Replay?

[0.2]     Why Should I Do This?

[0.3]     My Rig & Settings

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[0.1] What is a Replay?

When using the normal recording feature of capturing software such as OBS, all frames rendered are recorded and encoded then packaged into a single file that is usually extremely long compared to the single moments one would want to highlight during a match.

This guide will cover Replays. In terms of OBS and Shadowplay, a replay is a short video that can be captured after the highlight occurs. This is achieved by the software dumping all the rendered frames into a buffer zone. When the hotkey to capture the replay is activated, the software takes the preset number of seconds of videos and packages them into a file. 

For example:

You have been playing a game for 25 minutes. You have set your replays to be 5 minutes long. Your highlight occurs 5 minutes later, at the 30 minute mark of your session. You press the Replay hotkey. At this moment, all frames rendered from 25:00 to 30:00 are in the buffer, and get saved. Therefore, pressing it at 35 minutes captures 30:00 - 35:00, pressing at 40 captures 35:00 - 40:00, etc. 

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[0.2] Why Should I Do This?

PROS:

1. Replays are generally shorter videos than entire matches which saves space on your computer

2. The short videos make them easy to upload & share

3. You don't have to sift through hours of video to find 15-30 second moments

4. Replays are significantly less demanding to capture compared to always-on recording

5. Both methods are free and do not require a capture card

8. You can capture highlights after they happen

Cons:

1. Monitor/Desktop capture can be problematic in certain situations for laptop users*

2. Audio isolation** can be difficult and is unavoidable in some situations

3. This requires a discrete graphics card.

4. Integrated Graphics will NOT work. 

5. Integrated Graphics will NOT work.

6. Integrated Graphics will NOT work.

* If you have a laptop with dual graphics like I do, it is impossible to do Desktop Capture or Monitor Capture in many cases because on laptops, the desktop is rendered via the Integrated Graphics. Because OBS/Shadowplay are recording via the discrete GPU, it is impossible to record any elements rendered by the integrated GPU. 

** For example, not capturing discord/Skype audio while capturing game audio)

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[0.3] My Rig & Settings

For reference, here are my specs & Dolphin settings:

Specs

OS: Windows 10

CPU: i7-4700HQ

GPU: GTX 860m (750Ti is roughly the desktop equivalent)

RAM: 12 GB DDR3

Dolphin 4.0-7840 Settings:

General Tab

-Backend: Direct3D

-Fullscreen Resolution: Auto

-Aspect Ratio: Auto

Enhancements Tab

-Internal Resolution: 2x Native (1280x1056) for 720p

-Anti-Aliasing: 2x MSAA

-Anisotropic Filtering: 16x

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[1.0] HOW-TO: Method 1 - Open Broadcaster Software

(Compatible with any brand GPU)

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[2.0] HOW-TO: Method 2 - Nvidia Shadowplay 

(Compatible with Nvidia GPU series 600+)

Download and Install NVIDIA's GeForce Experience & Shadowplay, found here. 

Run GeForce Experience (May require Run as Administrator). 

Navigate to the "Preferences" tab.

On the left sidebar, click on "ShadowPlay".

In the Overlay section, you will see three options: "Camera", "Status Indicator", and "FPS Counter".

Click on the "Status Indicator" button. In the box to the right labeled "Position:", There are four squares, each corresponding to a corner of your display. The status indicator's job is to tell you when ShadowPlay is caching rendered frames, saving your "Shadows" (aka our pseudo-Oddshots), or recording the entire window. Choose a corner of your monitor to place the indicator. 

4. Scroll to the bottom of the window to the "Recordings" section. Here you will assign a folder for the videos to save. Click the grey button to the right of the "Save Location:" line. Choose where you want to save your videos, and create a folder called "ShadowPlay". 

The location and name of this folder does not matter. I suggest putting the folder on a mass storage HDD (as long as it's internal) rather than an SSD because these video files can become very large space wasters. There is no measurable performance difference in the saving of the video because the program is constantly cycling the files through a temp folder that you are about to make. Hitting the "Save" key simply tells the program what frames to encode and save.  

5. Click the grey button next to the "Temporary files location:" line. Navigate to the recently created "ShadowPlay" folder and click on it. Inside of the ShadowPlay folder, create another folder named "Temp", and click on it once, and hit "OK". This is where the program will temporarily store the video.  

If you are not streaming, you can ignore the camera tab

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VIDEO CUSTOMIZATION: 

1. In the Top - Right corner of the NVIDIA GeForce Experience window,  click the ShadowPlay button. A smaller window will pop up.  This is where you will configure the quality and configuration of the video. 

2. The big switch on the left is the On/Off switch. When you want to initiate the program, simply ensure that the button is pressed and illuminated GREEN. 

3. Click on the "Mode" button. A drop-down menu will appear with four options. Do not worry about the fourth, that is for streaming purposes. 

MODES

 - Shadow Mode: Shadow mode allows you to press a preset key on your keyboard to save the PREVIOUS X amount of time. Yes. You can save video, AFTER it happens, without recording traditionally the entire time. That is why this is our Pseudo-Oddshot. The advantage to this mode is that you can set how long each Shadow is. I personally have mine set to 2 minutes. This means you do not have to dig through an hour of recordings to find that one Sacred Combo. Since it record retroactively, a combo that has a 30 second duration will start at the last 30 seconds of the video. Neat, huh? Also, you only have 2 minutes (or however long you want) of video stored, cutting down on wasted space on your drives. 

(If you're clever and use a mixture of input recognition programs, you can bind your D-Pad to a keyboard preset that will perform these oddshots, allowing hitch-less saves without removing your hands from the controller in the heat of the battle. I may do a guide on this later.)

- Manual Mode: It's pretty simple. You turn it on using the hotkey, and it records for as long as you like. See the paragraph above as to why I do not recommend this mode if not streaming or uploading full videos to YouTube. 

- Manual + Shadow Mode: This records everything being displayed, and any Shadows are simply created in a separate file. This is the setting for you if you like to record/upload entire matches but also want the ease of having those  savory moments in a prepackaged, small file. 

4. If you are using the Shadow or Manual + Shadow mode, click on the second button, Shadow Time. Use the slider to determine how long each Shadow lasts. If you like oddshots, put the slide on either 1-2 minutes. If you want to use the shadow feature to record specific matches, put it closer to 5-8 minutes so you capture entire matches at a time. 

5. Click on the third button, "Quality". Here you will choose how your videos will turn out. Pick from either presets of Low, Medium, High, or Custom. I recommend starting with high and lowering your video quality until you can smoothly capture. 

- Low: Uses In-game resolution, 60FPS, Bitrate of 15 Mbps, using the H.264 encoder

- Medium: Uses In-game resolution, 60FPS, Bitrate of 22 Mbps, using the H.264 encoder

- High: Uses In-game resolution, 60FPS, Bitrate of 50 Mbps, using the H.264 encoder

- Custom: Allows choice of resolution from 360p - 1440p or In-game resolution (whichever is higher), Framerate of 30 or 60 FPS, and a bitrate of 10-50 Mbps. 

6. Click on the fourth button, "Audio". If you want to capture any commentary, skype chat, teamspeak, mumble, etc., select "In-game & microphone". If you want just normal audio, select "In-game audio" or "None" if you want silent clips for a combo video. 

If you are using a microphone, you will need to configure it in the main GeForce Experience Window. 

In-Game Audio DOES NOT selectively record audio from the game window. It records whatever audio is being produced by the computer and rejects any external input audio. If you are playing a stream, music, or any other sounds, it WILL be recorded. 

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HOTKEYS:

In the main GeForce Experience window, find the box labeled "Keyboard Shotcuts". Simply Highlight the contents of each box and then press the desired hotkey. If using Alt or Ctrl or another modifier, press the keys one at a time. 

IMPORTANT: IF YOU ARE USING THIS WHILE IN DOLPHIN, YOU MUST CHANGE THE HOTKEYS. Dolphin will pause when using Alt+F10 and the other preset keys. Change it to a non function key. I have mine set to Alt + 9 so that the Alt key prohibits any accidental dolphin input. 

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DOLPHIN: 

In dolphin, make sure the window is set to "Exclusive Fullscreen". For lots of reasons, this is a must otherwise the program will not recognize the window on laptops. (integrated vs. discrete graphics cards interactions.) Simply make sure the status indicator is shown  in the selected corner. If you Alt-Tab or select another window, the program will lose focus on the game. To fix this, just click on the window again and the status indicator should reappear. 

YOUR GRAPHICS BACKEND MUST BE DIRECT3D.

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FINISH!

Now go have fun, and record your matches.