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Table of Contents
Video Recording
New for Popper v1.5 watch this video to get familiar with how best to do your recordings today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN0xNbid-GY
PinUP Popper has an integrated recording feature to record screens with gameplay media up to 4k. Below is explained how you get this working. First a bit of differences.
For users with (a) regular monitor(s) and basic pc
PinUP Popper’s record option will by default use the ‘ffmpeg’ codec to record media when you install the frontend. This should work well for most people who have regular or full hd monitors.
For users with (a) 4k monitor(s) and a high end pc
If you have a 4k monitor you can change the record option to ‘gpu’. This will allow Nvidia video card owners to use ShadowPlay and AMD video card owners to use Relive to record 4k playfield media from PinUP Popper’s interface.
The usage of GPU accelerated recording is much more efficient than the default FFMPEG CPU recording method and is much more ideal for 4K videos.
This does require a more powerful pc and of course a more expensive video card.
There is also an option to use Open Broadcaster Software Studio to record you media.
You however need to install an external program for this, which you can get here: https://obsproject.com/ .
Exclusive Full-screen apps and Future Pinball. GPU or OBS recording method is required in ALL resolutions:
Note, that the DEFAULT FFMPEG Recording method CANNOT record any application running in exclusive fullscreen. For applications such as Future Pinball, you will need to use the GPU or OBS method (using GPU encoder) to try to record videos (in ALL resolutions). For example, you can choose NVENC as your encoder if you have an NVIDIA video card (this functions similar to GPU method, but without requiring Geforce Experience and Shadowplay to be installed). You need a newer video card that supports encoding for this feature to be available.
Newer FFMPEG now for GPU recording
=== No OBS Needed. ===
https://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=update_baller_2023&s[]=ffmpeg&s[]=exe#optionalffmpeg_4k_recording_in_popper
A. What you should first do:
Ensure you are updated to the latest version of Pinup System:
http://www.nailbuster.com/wikipinup/doku.php?id=release_notes
1. Make sure you set up your ‘Record Start/Stop’ button and the ‘Menu Select’ button if you haven’t done that in 2.C already :
A. Start PinUP Popper Config.
B. Click on the 'Popper Setup' tab.
C. Click on 'Controller Setup'.
D. Click on 'Record Start/Stop'.
E. Also click on the ‘Menu Select’ button.
F. Now exit PinUP Popper Config.
2. Make sure you have installed the latest update of PinUP Popper. Check step 12 from Chapter 1.D on how to do this.
For users with (a) regular monitor(s) and basic pc (and not recording Future Pinball videos)
You can skip to Chapter 5.C now.
For users with (a) 4k monitor(s) and a high end pc (or need to record Future Pinball videos)
You need to do a couple of extra steps described in Chapter 5.B below.
B. Extra steps required to record in 4K (or Future Pinball in all resolutions)
A. Editing the recordstart.bat
1. Edit the ‘recordstart.bat’ in your PinUPSystem\Recordings folder and look for the following line:
‘if %7% == 3 goto ffmpeg’
Change to ‘if %7% == 3 goto gpu’ if you want to use either Nvidia’s ShadowPlay or AMD’s Relive to record.
Change to ‘if %7% == 3 goto obs’ if you want to use the Open Broad Caster Software Studio to record.
Note You need to have Open Broadcaster Software Studio installed if you want to use the obs option.
C. Recording your game display(s)
1. Start PinUP Popper.
2. Choose and game and click the ‘Menu Select’ button, NOT the regular start button!.
3. In the options that appear click on ‘Record Display’.
From here you can choose several like: Record Topper, Record DMD, Record BackGlass, Record Playfield.
4. If you have found the display you want to record click on the ‘Menu Select’ button again.
*Now Visual Pinball will load your selected game 5. Once the game it’s loaded, click on the ‘Record Start/Stop’ button to start recording. You’’ll hear a message: “I’m now recording you playing with your balls”. 6. When you are done recording (max 60 seconds) you must click on the ‘Record Start/Stop’ again button to stop the recording. You’’ll hear a message: “Recording has stopped. Please wait for encoding. Do not touch system“. During the converting process you will hear the Jeopardy The me and the video will automatically be renamed and copied to the correct emulator and folder on your hard drive. After this is done you’ll hear our very own Nailbuster: “Conversion now done. Enjoy”. When you quit the game, your new video should be shown in the PinUP Popper Frontend when you browse that table again. Note The video file should now be in your PinUPSystem\POPMedia\Visual Pinball X\ — whatever you choose to record , like for instance the Playfield folder.
GPU Recording setup. NVidia Shadowplay or AMD Relive setup (for 4K Playfield or Future Pinball):
If you don't have a 4K playfield, (and you are not recording Future Pinball videos) then you don't need to set this up as the default ffmpeg is fine.
You need a newer video card that supports encoding for this feature to be available.
This is for Nvidia. The 'general' idea is the same as video, but you need to configure AMD Relive. There is a subfolder in recordings called AMD_RELIVE_SETUP. Has screen captures of how to setup amd relive.
Screen captures of configuration examples:
Nvidia: www.nailbuster.com/pinupdates/NVIDIA_ShadowPlay_Setup.zip
OBS recording setup (for 4K PlayField or Future Pinball):
If you don't have a 4K playfield, (and you are not recording Future Pinball videos) then you don't need to set this up as the default ffmpeg is fine.
If you don't know OBS you need to learn first how to use it via youtube. Make sure you have the latest version:
Install OBS to default location on c:\
Configure OBS with a new profile DISPLAY3 (it must be DISPLAY3 no space…it MUST be called that :)
This profile needs to be setup to record entire playfield…. if you don't know how to use OBS, watch some tutorials on youtube about OBS.
Configure profile like these screen shots exactly. www.nailbuster.com/pinupdates/OBSSetup.zip
Make sure your OBS Settings: Video - “Base (Canvas) Resolution”, and “Output (Scaled) Resolution” are the correct resolution for your playfield screen. (the screen shots show a 4K resolution) Using your Video Card for encoding in OBS (may be required for Future Pinball):
Within OBS settings: “Output - Streaming - Encoder”… you can also choose to use your GPU as the encoder, instead of x264. (This may be required for recording Future Pinball videos, depending on your system). This should actually give better results than using OBS's encoder.
You need a newer video card that supports encoding for this feature to be available.
NDIVIA: You can choose NVENC as your encoder if you have an NVIDIA video card. This is similar to GPU method, but without requiring Geforce Experience to be installed.
AMD video card users “may” also have an option to use their GPU as an encoder. (I don't have one to confirm) Confirm OBS is recording your Games correctly!
To check if your OBS is setup correctly. while OBS is open, press the start recording button, it should create a file output.mkv inside pinupsystem\recordings and then press f6 to stop… play the output.mkv file, it should be 4k video of playfield.
Auto-Record All tables/Games:
Awesome utility that can scan/find missing media and batch all recordings for you while you sit back on the couch… Fully automated with launch each game, recode each/any display as needed and close game and more onto next game.
You should ONLY run this after you have tested and recorded each display manually in Popper to make sure your recording is setup correctly.
Exit Popper Menu and launch the PopperAutoRecord.exe. Should be straightforward, you select which displays to you want to record and how. and then select the emulator, and then press SCAN.
The list will show you all games/tables and which displays it will record.
You can hilight a table and press the delete button. you can hold-shift down and arrow move to select many. or ctrl-click to select many to delete.
IMPORTANT: with the new vpx versions, tables take a bit longer to load up, and some large tables can take more than 30 seconds to loadup. You should set your startup delay to 40 seconds in AutoRecord or more depending on your PC speed.
while its running you may wish to cancel the batch recording. go to your desktop and browse to your pinupsystem\recordings folder and you will find a StopAutoRecording.bat. Run it and the batch will stop after it finished the current table/game.
TroubleShooting
DO not try auto-recording until you can do all 3-4 PuP-Screens manually. that way you know your Popper config is working correctly.
You may notice things like a bg recording on your playfield or vice versa. This is just an indication that Popper was unable to record the screen and used the last known good recording.
Most common errors are having PuP-Displays with negative windows positions, or PuP-Displays that are larger than a windows screen. FFMPEG will fail with an error like 'record window outside windows screen'…. (OBS/GPU do not have this issue as they are configured differently).
to troubleshoot:
Do a manual recording of a bg/topper and look at the 3 log files in pinupsystem/recording subfolder. you should be able to determine what causing it. most likely you have invalid pupdisplay screen co-ordinates (like negative, or width wider than screen…ffmpeg doens’t like that).
NB: very common if you forget to put exception in your anti-virus for PinUpSystem(and subfolders) that some of the background exes during recording get removed….check the log files for messages like 'file not found'
other items to try:
- in recordings subfolder, delete the file “recording.txt” if it exists.
- in recordings subfolder, remove any output.mp4, output.mkv files if they exist
- to test secruity issues, test running pinupmenu.exe as admin and see if there's any difference to know if its a windows security reason.
- ensure you have a pupcloser.exe file in the recording folder, if not they its your anti-virus that 'ate' it… common
- again. if you need to ask for support, include the LOG files from recording sub-folder. It solves 99% of issues.
“my BG/Topper records fine, its just my playfiled that records wrong screen/no screen…I use Nvidia Shadowplay/AMD Relive”
Shadowplay recording is a very 'basic' interface that is used just for playfield recording. Popper will simulate Alt-F9 keypress on start and Alt-F9 on stop. Then Popper will grab any .mp4 that shadowplay outputs from the 'video' subfolder of your recordings folder…thats it. So to test shadowplay, exit Popper and grab a keyboard. Press Alt-F9, wait 10 seconds and press Alt-F9 again, then make sure ShadowPlay made a new .mp4 in the 'video' subfolder…if nothing is there then your Shadowplay is not setup correctly. Also, if ShadowPlay records the wrong display # then there's nothing Popper can do, as that is not something Popper can control/send to Shadowplay…it only presses the hotkeys.
if you have just a BLACK screen from recording like with Future Pinball: This is a normal limitation as ffmpeg and even sometimes OBS may not be able to record some games that run exclusive full-screen. You will need to try OBS or GPU recording, or set your emulator to run non-exclusive when recording. (NOTE: Popper will put vpx in non-exclusive when you enter recording mode).
Record and Use Playfield Audio during Popper recording.
If you are using GPU or OBS and setup those to also record your playfield audio, and want to keep the audio in the mp4s. You must edit recrodstop.bat and find ffmpeg lines and remove the ”-an“ parameter from those.