WeGame (Fraps + Game + Host)

[Venkman]

Anyone seen WeGame yet? Read about it at TechCrunch.

It seems like GameTrailers but with a tool they provide to let you record movies and compress them without losing all the quality. However, I don't know if this total package is unique to WeGame or they're just making their own money grab (ad sales likely or some tiered/premium service thing).

[Sky]

That's pretty nifty. We should do something like that.

[schild]

I wonder if their software watermarks the shit or does anything else. And I wonder what format it records in. Might be worth it to just use it here.

[schild]

Looks like it records in FLV. If I don't forget, I'll check when I get home to see if it's wrapped. I don't have flash installed here at work, can someone tell me if there's a watermark?

[Krakrok]

I don't get why it's limited to only the 16 games they made it support.

[Samwise]

Hm.  That makes it pretty useless for doing reviews of new games or anything like that.

[Venkman]

I don't get why it's limited to only the 16 games they made it support.

I think it's like Fraps. Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're talkng about chimes in. But if I understand it correct, Fraps can't do everything that goes on screen (like something like Quick Screen Recorder can). Rather, it focuses just on what DirectX is rendering in a full-screen mode environment. This also secondarily requires less processing power, which means higher fps when playing a game you're recording.

So the WeGame tool might be doing the same thing.

[Trippy]

and compress them without losing all the quality.

Not possible if they are using Flash or any standard lossy compression codec. Uncompressed game video takes hundreds of megabytes of disk space per minute of gameplay.

[Trippy]

I don't get why it's limited to only the 16 games they made it support.

Probably cause their DirectX integration is flaky so they have to tweak their code for each different game. Or it could just be their Web programming skills is so bad they can't create new game entries "on-the-fly".

[Venkman]

and compress them without losing all the quality.

Not possible if they are using Flash or any standard lossy compression codec. Uncompressed game video takes hundreds of megabytes of disk space per minute of gameplay.

Absolutely. My note was more about their level of compression, and the style (whether it's appropriate for computer game videos vs, say, movies, something I've been dealing with a lot lately as I try to get more stuff on the Touch).

On the game support though, this seems like a download program rather than a web one. If this program launches first and then a game launches, is it possible to get that program to automatically recognize a subsequent new process without incurring the processor or overhead of constantly pinging whatever tells the computer programs are running? Damn, I don't even know how to ask the question the right way, so I won't be surprised by whatever answer I get Seems like it'd be something pinging the events manager or something. I know programs can do that, I just don't know if something that captures realtime fullscreen video can do that without slowing the game down even more.

[Trippy]

WeGame can't find my X-Fi sound card. FAIL.

[Venkman]

Ouch. That ended it for me right there too. Ah well, they'll just say it's (why-GM-anything-anymore) "beta" 

[Trippy]

It's using MJPEG (Motion JPEG) as its compression codec. Quality is good but the file sizes are large at ~45 MB per minute of video at the "Web resolution" of 640 x 480, doubled for their "HD resolution" of 1024 x 768. There's a little red square in the upper left corner as a form of watermark on the videos. In game it's an indication that WeGame is running and whether or not it's recording (green not recording, red recording) and they leave that in the frames that they capture. You can see it on some of the videos that have been uploaded.