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Screenshots
Videos
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General

This section is constantly updated with answers to the questions you ask us. If you haven't found an answer to your question here, please contact us at: support@sytexis.com

Screenshots

Use this tab to specify the path to the folder the screenshots will be saved to or to open this folder. By default, PlayClaw saves screenshots to the standard images folder for the current user. Depending on the Windows version and the system language, the name of this folder may vary.

You can choose virtually any available key for making screenshots. Click the hotkey field and press the key you want to use - its name will appear in the field.

PlayClaw can save images in 4 formats: BMP, TGA, JPEG, PNG. The trial version works with BMP only. You can also specify the image quality parameter for JPEG screenshots. The lower the quality, the smaller the output file will be.

Videos

Similarly to the Screenshots tab, the Video tab enables you to specify the location for captured videos. By default, the standard video folder is used.

Two hotkeys are used for capturing videos - the start/stop key and the pause key. You can skip defining the pause button if you don't need it. The pause key sometimes comes handy for recording a gameplay sequence into a single file. For instance, you start recording the video, capture a certain fragment and then press the pause key. If you need to resume recording after some time, just press the pause key again and PlayClaw will automatically continue recording to the same file by appending new frames to existing ones.

You can adjust the video quality using three parameters: Compression (No compression, Low compression, High compression), Frame size (Full size, Half size), Frame rate (1 to 100).

Here are some recommendations on choosing the optimal settings depending on your computer's configuration:

The bottom line is that you need a fast CPU for the high compression mode and a fast hard drive for low compression or uncompressed capturing. Please note that compressed videos are smaller in size, but their quality is lower as well.

PlayClaw can give you a "hint" about the right choice of the capturing mode. Once video recording has started, you will see a line on the screen that will look like aviFPS xx yy. The first parameter shows the current number of frames per second that have been actually compressed and saved to the hard drive. The second parameter is the number of frames skipped due to insufficient system performance. If the first parameter is close to your target FPS, then this set of options is optimal and you may even try improving them - what if your computer is capable of doing an even better job? However, if the first number is much lower than your target FPS setting and the second one is significantly higher than 0, you should try lowering the video quality settings - for instance, setting the frame size to "half size", or decreasing the FPS value, or changing the video compression quality.

If you have a multi-core CPU, you will be able to specify the number of cores to be used for video compression. The fewer cores your CPU has, the lower the codec's performance will be. However, bear in mind that using the highest number of processor cores (extreme mode) may impact the game performance.

PlayClaw allows you to record sound along with video. Just select the sound source and the necessary input. Most often, players want to record the sound they hear from their speakers/headphones. In this case, you should select "Stereo Mixer" or "Mono Mixer" as your input option. Modern sound cards from Creative Labs have a special option called "What U Hear" for this purpose.