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[tieTYT]

There's a screen capture to GIF thread, but what are some good tools for creating videos of your gameplay?  My game is windowed so I don't want a full screen grab, just a section.  I'm using Windows. 

[MorleyDev]

Fraps is the go-to-app for 99% of game footage, but does cost money. Dxtory is another paid alternative, and for both recording to file and streaming Open Broadcast Software is a pretty good free and open source solution (Windows and OSX only atm, Linux port coming).

All of these can handle windowed programs.

Ignoring the windowed programs, on a hardware level there's always capture cards. There's also USB devices that can handle this, such the Hauppauge HD PVR 2 and the Elgato Game Capture HD.

Though a capture card slotted into your computer is the ideal for hardware. But since USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt devices are entering the market now, such as the BlackMagic Intensity, that's becoming less of an issue (assuming you have a USB 3.0-supporting computer).

[s-spooky g-g-ghosts]

I remember it was possible to do exactly what you want with QuickTime on OSX, but I don't know if Windows' version of it is capable of the same.

[glintycreative]

You can use Fraps, the free version only allow your video 30s long, but you there is a capturing hotkey so you just need to press that key every 30s. After that you need to combine all 30s videos into one.
Or you can set up your smart phone to recording the screen. Get some sticking tape, stick your phone to one place, and record.

[tieTYT]

You can use Fraps, the free version only allow your video 30s long, but you there is a capturing hotkey so you just need to press that key every 30s. After that you need to combine all 30s videos into one.
Or you can set up your smart phone to recording the screen. Get some sticking tape, stick your phone to one place, and record.

That works for my needs right now.  I guess I should have specified why I'm looking to capture footage: I want to upload it to gfycat and put the gifs on my devlog.  I think the quality will be better than if I use a gif capture program. 

[Derity]

Hey,

I used FRAPS to record a video, it will export in .avi as default, the file size will probably be pretty large but it will have near perfect quality.

Then I used virtualDub(freeware) to export as GIF, I've found this to have the lowest quality loss over using some other programs, I tried Adobe Media Encoder, but seems like with any settings converting to GIF's results in too much quality loss.

Finally I used Photoshop CS6 to crop the images and trim the animations to what I needed, then just Save for Web > GIF.

However you do this, You're most likely always going to lose a little quality when exporting to GIF as, afaik, they're limited to 256 colours. However,  I found this method to be the least destructive for me.

[DevWithoutACrew]

Although most use fraps, OBS is the perfect software to capture top quality video, it has tons of capabilities and is pretty easy to use, you can also select what you can capture, from monitor capture to game capture to window capture, everything you'll ever need, not to mention lots of sound recording capabilities also. Just be sure to watch some tutorials to understand the settings first.
Did I mention that is free and with no watermarks or anything?

[anthnich]

Try MSI Afterburner. I always thought it was pretty good at video capture.

[loudo]

@glintycreative Pressing hotkey every 30 sec... I didn't think about it. Thanks for the tip.
I didn't try Fraps, I hope it doesn't take to much memory.

[kurismakku]

Although most use fraps, OBS is the perfect software to capture top quality video, it has tons of capabilities and is pretty easy to use, you can also select what you can capture, from monitor capture to game capture to window capture, everything you'll ever need, not to mention lots of sound recording capabilities also. Just be sure to watch some tutorials to understand the settings first.
Did I mention that is free and with no watermarks or anything?

Can you please recommend good settings for OBS ? I tried using it, but I am not really happy with resulting video.
I also upload it to YouTube that always totally screws quality. Screen resolution of my game is 720x580

[loudo]

I tried Fraps, the hotkey doesn't work properly so I need to record all over again.

[KerFerius]

Microsoft Expression screen capture is free and very accurate for all tasks.

For trailers, gameplay videos and co, you can get the first offer of Pinnacle Studio, which does the job also to prepare the videos you made with Expression.

You can do everything with that for a low price.

[scaffa]

Another recommendation for OBS from me. I use it for recording and some live streaming once in a while and my experience with it is very positive. 

[Moth]

in line with the OBS suggestions, I actually use livestream procaster in the same way. There's a caveat here that procaster is pretty horrible and excessively system intensive, but if you're like me and you have the processing power to spare and have procaster lying around, it works for a quick fix.

I'd say it's really worth it to learn to use OBS instead of procaster though, it is far superior

[loudo]

I just tried Screen Recorder by IceCream app. It seems very good at the first try. You can have a countdown before recording and you can even draw on your screen. Check it out!