FRAPS and DirectX7

[Raptisoft]

Hi all,

Okay, I d/l'd fraps today. It works fine with anything written in DirectX8, but with a DirectX7 program (i.e. all Popcap games, Chuzzle, and an upcoming release of mine that I'm trying to get movies of) it won't even put the framerate on there.

I went and updated all my everythings... so does anyone know if this is a known Fraps issue?

Thanks,
John

[MFS]

I use PTK with DX 7/OpenGL and FRAPS doesn't work for me in DX mode, but only in windowed mode. If I start the app with DX fullscreen it works fine, and works with OpenGL in both cases.

I am not sure the exact reason (how the app process window events?), but have the seen the same thing with some other games as well, that weren't Fraps compliant.

So if you need to take a video/screenshot or something, try full screen mode. I am curious to hear if that will work for you.

[Raptisoft]

Ah, man, you gave me hope, but it didn't work. No FPS counter, doesn't record, no nothing. Alas!

I see some hints on some online loonie forums that FRAPS doesn't do DirectX7-- but the Fraps page says it specifically does.

[MFS]

Hmm. Sorry to hear. I wonder why it works for me in FS and not you. How do you process windows messages?

A year ago or so I had an app where my windows message loop wasn't set up very well, and that contributed to Fraps not working in that application. I can't remember how it was set up, but eventually it ended up as:

if(PeekMessage(stuff)
{
TranslateMessage();
DispatchMessage();
}
else
{
//handle game stuff
}

And that seemed to fix the problem in that instance, although it wasn't a DX7 app, but a GDI/Win32 app.

Hope it helps :o

[Tertsi]

I recall that it works with my DX 7 engine which is based on the popcap framework. So I guess it is just about how the rendering is programmed. VSync and sleep while waiting for VSync settings might effect it for one..

EDIT: Or actually the above is more likely to be the reason.

[cliffski]

works in FS for me with dx7. You really *must* have a sleep() call in your main loop in general AFAIK.

[Raptisoft]

Well, I have the sleeps. I can only thing this must be specific to my video card or something. Frustrating, because DX8 apps work fine. But anythign DX7 does-- all Popcap releases, and my own DX7 framework.

[Pyabo]

What really makes a DirectX 7 app vs. DirectX 8? Can't you just link your code against DX8, if only for the purpose of recording the video? Or is the specific APIs you are using that seem to be incompatible?

[PoV]

Allegro is built on DX7, and exhibits the same problems for me. I never found a solution, short of using a different capture app (Mr. Captor can do Windowed capture not bad), or switching API's.