Why are my ArmA III gameplays so dark?

[fons 10]

Hi, i tested a few video recording softwares, and all of them records my gameplay so dark. I don't see the game like that, i even play with high in-game gamma and brightness because i like that looking of the game. But my gameplays, are soo damn dark...

Any clue on why? Thanks in advance. Regards.

Edited March 3, 2015 by fons

[sxp2high 23]

This is because of the codec/compression you use. MP4 tends to do that for example.

Best to record uncompressed MPEG-1, and render in WMV. That worked best for me, I know exactly what you mean.

What capture software? I recommend Bandicam.

[fons 10]

Hmm, thanks for the info. My main concern is having low imact on the game fps and the fact of having multiple audio channels being recorded, to edit them separatedly.

So well i tested fraps long time ago, can't remember the result, but it has a big impact in the game fps. I tried Dxtory, the best results i heard, but had the issue that when trying to record separate audio channels, they were not synced, and also the microphone file was not the same lenght as the game sound file. Diferent audio codecs tested, frequencies matching the peripheral ones... Tried to solve it a bunch of times... never make it work fine...

Now i am trying Mirillis Action! and as an AMD user, raptr. Both of them record with that dark tone, but at least action has the ability of recording both channels separatedly. Havent tested if when mixing everything, it's synced and with the same lenght. Also now that i remember, with Raptr, i record in .AVI file, not .MP4 and also gets that dark tone...

So yeah i will try bandicam, but this is my recording arma never ending nightmare :pet5:

Edited March 3, 2015 by fons

[sxp2high 23]

Yea, Fraps is no good. Big FPS drain and very little options.

Dxtory is decent, but I prefer Bandicam. Bandicam lets you record 2 audio lines and even separate .wav files if you wish. Never had any sync issues, and the image is crystal clear, uncompressed, high quality.

Performance wise Dxtory and Bandicam are pretty equal.

I tried Raptr/Gaming Evolved too but that sucks at the moment. It compresses on the fly, so the quality is not that good. No option to record uncompressed and no audio options at all. It's strange though because the colors were okay for me using Raptr.

I'm not saying it's MP4 in general. It's bad compression, or bad render settings (in my experience). Some people manage to get nice image with mp4. I had the best results with WMV9, the files are pretty large though.

I had this problem too, but only after rendering the video... The raw footage was alright with all programs. No idea what else the problem could be :(

[Nicholas 5]

Also, Fraps was last updated more than 2 years ago. I don't know if it's still being supported or not. Fraps works best when you record to a different hard drive than what the game is installed on.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Nicholas

[fons 10]

Yea, Fraps is no good. Big FPS drain and very little options.

Dxtory is decent, but I prefer Bandicam. Bandicam lets you record 2 audio lines and even separate .wav files if you wish. Never had any sync issues, and the image is crystal clear, uncompressed, high quality.

Performance wise Dxtory and Bandicam are pretty equal.

I tried Raptr/Gaming Evolved too but that sucks at the moment. It compresses on the fly, so the quality is not that good. No option to record uncompressed and no audio options at all. It's strange though because the colors were okay for me using Raptr.

I'm not saying it's MP4 in general. It's bad compression, or bad render settings (in my experience). Some people manage to get nice image with mp4. I had the best results with WMV9, the files are pretty large though.

I had this problem too, but only after rendering the video... The raw footage was alright with all programs. No idea what else the problem could be :(

I read yesterday that when the Dxtory audio record is not synced it's because of the load that your pc is experiencing... but weird because i have an i7 4790K at 4.0 GHz...

And as you say, it's very weird, because yesterday, i watched youtube videos typing "mirillis action arma 3" and the gameplays had the correct brightness, also a friend of mine records with that with no kind of problem. I am going to give bandicam a try because that features you say looks good.

[fons 10]

What codec and settings do you use for bandicam man? I am currently testing Bandicam 2.1.3, with MPEG-1 video codec, with that VBR box checked, full scale, and still, my videos doesn't have all that brightness and contrast i see in my game, so the dark and night videos i am recording looks soo dark. I have to say i have the gamma and brightness of the game a little bit up from default.

Also, i was going to show this comparing a Steam screenshot with a screenshot of the own recording but the steam screenshot also modifies the color so both results were also so close...

EDIT: Also, didn't said this, but i always had a problem with arma 3, that sometimes (like half of the times i alt+tab), when ALT+TAB'ing and back to the game, the color is darker, and the fps are worse, so if that happens i have to al+tab again and the color goes back to normal. Maybe this has something to do with all this? I don't know i am going mad with all this...

Edited March 5, 2015 by fons

[I give up 152]

For those who do not have a cpu compatible with Intel Quick Sync or a gpu compatible with NVENC (shadowplay) the best option for codec is H.264 (MPEG-4), imo.

[fons 10]

For those who do not have a cpu compatible with Intel Quick Sync or a gpu compatible with NVENC (shadowplay) the best option for codec is H.264 (MPEG-4), imo.

I have an intel i7, what's that "quick sync"?

I was going to edit my previous one, but as i wanted to reply bratwurste i am going to say it here.

I think that my problem is that the recording softwares are not catching my in-game gamma setting, as i just set my game to fullscreen window and now i see the game exactly how it's being recorded as in fullscreen window gamma correction cannot be changed. I modify gamma to see the colors lighter as i like it...

Do anyone had problems with this?

[I give up 152]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/quick-sync-video/quick-sync-video-general.html

These are the cpus that have support for it.

http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?QuickSyncVideo=true&MarketSegment=DT

But if you have a Nvidia GPU ready fo NVENC (600, 700 and 900 series), will be the best option.

Other than that I would go for H.264, can be used with FRAPS, Dxtory and similar.

[654wak654 25]

Have you tried OBS? Since you can set settings about the video that I don't understand the half of, I'm sure you can get the brightness and the quality you want. Don't think it has the separate audio channels thing by default, but I'm sure you can get a plugin for it. It's kind of like ArmA in that aspect :). Also as far as I can tell (Also an i7 user, but have a Nvidia 680) it's not a heavy hitter on performance.

[I give up 152]

In short,

The application that we use for video capture is the less important (FRAPS, Dxtory, OBS, Afterburner, Mirillis or similar), what really matters for performance, quality and size is the encoding/container format that we chose for video capture.

These days the most common encoding format is MPEG-4 and can be used within numerous containers, (H.264, Intel Quick Sync, NVENC).

The advantage of Intel Quick Sync is that is able to provide a decent quality with "small" file size without having a huge impact in performance, the same for NVENC, since these formats are natively supported by the hardware and optimized for it.

Not having this option, H.264 is a excellent alternative (search in google for x.264 codec), it can also provide a reasonable output and offers wide options for performance vs quality.

There is another format widely used in the past, MJPG for AVI container, is not bad in matters of performance/quality but the color is not the best and in fact makes the video image a bit darker.

[fons 10]

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/quick-sync-video/quick-sync-video-general.html

These are the cpus that have support for it.

http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?QuickSyncVideo=true&MarketSegment=DT

But if you have a Nvidia GPU ready fo NVENC (600, 700 and 900 series), will be the best option.

Other than that I would go for H.264, can be used with FRAPS, Dxtory and similar.

I have an Intel i7 and an AMD HD7870. Thakns for the info i will give it a look.

But i can confirm that my problem lays in the fact that the recording softwares i tested don't catch my in-game gamma settings... So maybe i am just going mad and the problem lays in the game idk...

[fons 10]

Now i really don't care much about the softwares not catching my in-game gamma settings, because i kinda solve it applying gamma correction with the editor, but now, trying to record with the H.264 MPEG-4 codec, and the x264vfw recorded with bandicam, Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 won't play the recorded video, i hear the sound, but not the video. I am going mad man omg...:936:

[I give up 152]

In x.264 configuration type in box at bottom and save it, the following:

--keyint 1

For Vegas this command fix the issue, for Adobe I am not sure.

Edit:

I am not familiarized with Bandicam, but I assume that it use x.264 32 bit and if your Adobe is the 64 bit version you also need to have installed the x.264 64 bit.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Bratwurste

[fons 10]

Nah that line doesn't fix it for Premiere at least for my videos recorded in 1080p 60fps. I just saw a guy in youtbe importing x264vfw to Premiere but in 720p 30 fps with the AVC Intra preset for the secuence, and with that "--keyint" line, but i tried that and still, i just get in premiere the audio and not the video.

What i did is recording in x254vfw, converting to .mp4, edit in adobe and export in h264 for youtube. The mp4 conversion looks good, not noticeable quality loss, but when exporting with premiere it losses a bit of quality...

Pff i don't know i might kick Premiere, Vegas accepts h.264, but i don't want to switch because i like the Adobe's interfaces and never touched Vegas...

Edited March 15, 2015 by fons

[galzohar 31]

Increasing brightness/gamma in-game will not increase the brightness/gamma of your recorded video. It'll just increase the brightness/gamma of the displayed image.

If your monitor is excessively dark in a way that makes you need to increase brightness/gamma, you will need to do the same when viewing videos you or others have recorded (in your video player).

After all, those settings are meant to help you make up for excessively dark/bright monitors, recording that would make your videos too bright/dark for anyone else who would view them on an average-brightness monitor.

So, to make a long story short, it's not the game video being dark, it's your monitor being dark :) (or you really liking things to be extra-bright)

In any case, this is just the way you see your own videos. If you upload them (without tinkering with brightness in editing software), others would see them just fine. Go ahead and give it a try.