In-Game Video Capture

Okay, I have 2 questions about, well, the subject explains it all!

Anyway, does anyone know how to make video capture available in games made with 3dgs A7 Pro, like in 'The Sims 2', where you just hit the camera icon button, and it captures your sims, and any camera movements you make while not showing the GUI?

Also, in doing the video capture code, could you make the video have different sizes, and amounts of quality, depending on the user's options selected in the game?

Thanks
- Twink

I'm not aware of any built-in video capture tools, but then again, I don't have the pro edition.

You'd probably need to create a system that stored a list of all the user's actions(such as camera movement and rotation, button clicks, etc) while the "record" action was taking place. Then when the video was played in-game, you'd simply reproduce those actions that were saved. This would allow you to adjust the resolution, texture quality, etc during replay since they would not be part of the stored information.

The difficulty of such a system is of course dependent on the complexity of the actions the user can perform. If they're simply moving a character and rotation a camera, it would be pretty easy. If there's a lot of GUI interaction that needs to be reproduced, it would be fairly difficult.

Couple of code snippets/example in later AUM editions, awesome resource magazine found in the links above.

I don't see any links to code snippets. And besides, I don't have the pro version yet either. I'm planning on getting it this summer, that is, if I can save up enough money at a summer job this year.

Now I've got a new question reguarding this topic:
What if I were to capture a screenshot, maybe every 3 to 5 frames automatically when the user presses the button once. Then, when the user presses that button again, the screenshot taking will stop. Then, while the user is still playing the game, I could have some code to make all the screenshots into one .avi video! (now I might need some help on this please, i'm new) .

Please tell me your opinion on this, and also tell me if you think that would work well or not.

Thankyou for the nice replies!
- Twink

I doubt you could produce screenshots that fast, and filesize would very quickly become a big problem. Maybe it's possible - I don't want to be a buzzkill - but I really don't think that's the method you want to pursue. You'd probably end up with low picture quality, low frame-rate video.

If you can just implement a system that stores the user's actions during the recording phase (as I mentioned above) you get a small, portable text file that can easily be shared between people and played at different levels of graphic quality, etc.

i also would do it like zelek said and if you want to save avis from that recorded movements later, then you would have to create a video encoding plugin (which uses ffmpeg for example).

Maybe users of my game, when it's complete, could use an already made video capture tool like one I have. It's called Webinaria, and I got it off of www.download.com for free!

Sorry for double-posting, but I thought this was necessary because the Webinaria download is no longer free, but a new version has come out and is only available as a trial for 14 days.

Try this download:
http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/0,239030384,10628707s,00.htm
(its a totally free video capture utility called Mediachase Screen Capture 4.5.39)