I’ve discovered one very interesting thing while recording Battlefield 3 gameplay. If I set “stereo conversion” option in PlayClaw audio settings then the final audio will not contain teamspeak 3 sounds!

Why? PlayClaw uses very simple conversion method – ripping multichannels. Or just removing all channels excepting front left and right. Before ts3 update (3.0.6) this operation did not remove teamspeak audio from final files because ts3 client rendered its sounds in these front left & right channels. Now it seems that ts3 client renders sounds to another channels (front center for example) and PlayClaw 3 just remove these sounds by ripping channels. Cheap and cheerful

But I cannot give you 100% guarantee that this will work on your system. Just try it…

I did my tests on: Battlefield 3 (2ch speaker ingame audio configuration), Windows 7 x64, USB Logitech G35 headset, Teamspeak 3 client 3.0.6 version.

Popular software for making machinima videos allows gamers to record amazing movies in 64-bit games and change capture settings without having to step out of the game.

TAMBOV, Russia – January 18, 2012 – Sytexis Software today announces Playclaw 3.0, a new version of the popular video capture software for DirectX and OpenGL games. The new release puts more power into the hands of gamers with support for 64-bit games and in-game overlay that lets users change capture settings while in game, rather than press Alt-Tab to quit the game and do the same in Windows.

“We do our best to create a tool that offers an incredible quality of video capture in games and powerful features for benchmarking a computer. Taking full advantage of multi-core processors and codecs, created especially for capturing games, our software lets you record virtual victories with minimal loss of frames and little impact on game performance. Also Playclaw makes it easier than ever to benchmark and configure your computer’s performance with a set of dedicated tests”, said Edward Kozadaev, author of Playclaw.

The latest update of Playclaw, available in its online store starting today, opens even more opportunities for players to capture video and screenshots in games. Following the requests of users and trends of the game market, the developers updated the program with support for 64-bit games, allowing players to capture the hottest moments of the game play on video and screenshots in memory intensive games

Also new version provides an overlay atop the game that allows users to change capture settings without having to quit the game. The overlay is very handy as gamers can see the results of their changes instantly. In earlier versions of Playclaw the player had to use Alt-Tab to quit the game, change settings and come back to proceed.

Other changes in Playclaw 3.0 include an ability to set custom font, size, shadow and color for any overlay (FPS counter, GPU/CPU overlay). Also it is possible to change the position of an overlay while in game.

Next updates will introduce more unique features for video capture.

Pricing & Availability

Playclaw 3.0 is available today for $29,95 from the online store on the product website.  Supported operating systems are Windows XP, Vista, Seven. Free trial version is available for evaluation. It is identical to the registered commercial version, except for an unremovable watermark at the top of every video. Full system requirements and more information on Playclaw can be found at http://www.playclaw.com

About Sytexis Software

Sytexis Software specializes in the development of software for capturing video and screenshots in Windows games since 2003. The company strives to meet all user needs and expectations with regard to quality of video capture and features that enhance the gaming experience. For more information, please visit www.sytexis.com.

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NOTE: Reviewer’s license is provided to magazine editors and bloggers who are willing to review Playclaw.

Press Contact:

Edward Kozadaev

Sytexis Software

Email: support@sytexis.com

Web: www.playclaw.com

The new version of the voice communication software Teamspeak 3 has undergone serious changes and the old method to enable overlays does not work any longer. You need to copy the plugin for Teamspeak to the plugin directory and then activate it.To begin, open the folder with the installation of PlayClaw. By default, it is C:\Program Files\Play Claw3\ts3plugins\. Or C:\Program Files(x86)\Play Claw3\ts3plugins\ on 64-bits systems. Here you will find the plugin file – ts3playclaw.dll that you need to copy to the plugin folder of the Teamspeak client.

By default, the Teamspeak client is located in this folder C:\Program Files\Teamspeak 3 client\. In the Teamspeak folder, you can find the folder with the plugins, where you need to copy this file – ts3playclaw.dll (or ts3playclaw64.dll for 64bit Teamspeak 3 client). If you use Windows Vista or Windows 7, the UAC system may ask you to confirm this operation.

Now you should run the Teamspeak client and in the Settings menu, select Plugins.

The only thing you need to do now is to put a tick next to the name if the plugin and close the Settings window. Now PlayClaw can get information from the Teamspeak client and display overlays with people, speaking at the moment.

The overlay capabilities for Teamspeak 3 will be expanded to provide players with more useful information. Download trial version of PlayClaw to get Teamspeak 3 overlays.

The new option that appeared in new version is a combination of buttons to activate PlayClaw in the game. You can specify a combination of two buttons on keyboard, mouse or joystick. What does it mean?

While running PlayClaw and the game, you can call the full interface of PlayClaw configurations right in the game (similar to Steam overlays). There you can make the configuration of video capture, audio capture, configuration of overlays and other.

Some of the available configurations in PlayClaw, can be done right here by clicking on basic settings of capture.

They are: selection of buttons of screenshots capture, start-stop of the video, codec format and FPS video file format, and also selection of sound sources and sound processing options.

PlayClaw supports an unlimited number of overlays.

The currently available overlays are: FPS display overlays, voice overlays (Teamspeak / Ventrilo), time overlay, the statistics of in AVI recording, performance of various GPU and CPU sensors (temperature, load, etc.). All of these overlays are built in and have text format. Future versions will expand opportunities due to external overlays (in the form of plug-ins that can write any programmer), and graphics overlays.

The global overlay enabling button allows you to instantly disable all overlays or turn them on again without exiting to PlayClaw settings.

All other settings are set separately for each overlay (overlay selection is in the list at left).Overlay can be turned on or off, also you can set the turned on overlay mapping in recorded video and screenshots.

When you click the “Set appearance” button PlayClaw switches to WYSIWYG mode (what you see is what you’ve got).

As an example we selected an FPS overlay, which is by default located in the upper left corner. When mouse is over the selected area of overlay, you can grab and drag it anywhere on the screen. You can also move all four boundaries of this area. In the central window you can select font, its size, and some of its parameters. You can also include the rendering of the overlay background by necessary color and transparency.

When you click the settings button a unique settings are opened for each overlay. They are all pretty simple and usually consist of a color selection or turning on / off any options. For example, for FPS display it is a selection of two colors of overlay symbols – the usual color and the color during the recording.

The current version of Playclaw supports two audio sources (theoretically, it is possible to have even more sources). On the Audio tab, you can enable one or both sources and select a device used as a source. Usually one of the sources is used for sounds from a game, and the other is for a microphone. In Windows XP, it is not quite convenient to deal with the sound mixer, and in most situations, there is only one audio source available. For game sounds, that should be something like “Stereo mixer” or “What U Hear”.

For each source, you can enable recording only when a hotkey is pressed. If you do not press that hotkey (or hotkeys), Playclaw records silence. Once the hotkey is pressed, the program starts recording sound from the source. The option is very convenient for recording from the microphone (as unwanted sounds are not captured).

The “Transform to Stereo” option removes all undesirable channels that are present when you capture sound in Windows Vista / Windows 7. In these systems, Playclaw records and saves sound to Extensible Wave Format. The format was introduced by Microsoft 11 years ago. Unfortunately, not all editors can recognize this format (why? address your questions to them). If this is the case, conversion to stereo can be a solution to the problem. However, you should bear in mind that games sometimes “like” playing sound not only in the main stereo channels, but in all available channels. Therefore some sounds may be lost.

The “Mix Sources In One Track” option allows you to mix sounds into one track. AVI allows for more than one audio track in a file. But, again, not all editors and players can play the second or both tracks simultaneously.

Recording all audio tracks to separate WAV files can help in situations when stereo conversion is not applicable and mixing is disabled. In such scenarios, Playclaw records video to AVI, while capturing sound to a separate WAV file (or files). Then you can merge these files together into a single one in the editor.

For example, Sony Vegas can read several audio tracks in an AVI file, so you do not have to use mixing. However, the editor cannot read multi-channel sound from an AVI file. You’ll either have to cut the sound in stereo, or record to separate WAV files. Sony Vegas reads multi-channel sound from WAV without any problems. So, what do we get? Just what we see in the screenshot above: no conversion to stereo, no mixing, recording to separate WAV files. The output will be an AVI file with video and two WAV files with audio tracks.

You can set two combinations of hotkeys to record video: “Start/Stop Shortcut” and “Stop and Delete Shortcut”. By pressing the first combination once, you can start recording video. Pressing that combination again stops recording. The second combination of hotkeys stops video recording and deletes a file. It may be necessary if you are not satisfied with the record and do not want to produce too many useless files.

The “Resize Frame to” option allows you to resize an output frame in real time before its compression. In most cases, it is used to reduce the workload on the codec. For example, 1920×1080 frame can be resized to 1280х720 and the workload on the codec can decrease by 1.5-2 times. Resizing takes much less time than compression.

The current version of Playclaw offers two encoding modes: uncompressed and MJPEG codec. The first option lets you retain original quality of a picture, without any considerable impact on the processor. However, the amount of data written to the hard drive is simply enormous. For example, if you have 1920х1080 frame size and FPS=30, the size of recorded data will be equal to 178 megabytes per second. As you can guess, the overwhelming majority of modern hard drives cannot provide this recording speed (you’ll have to use RAID array or SSD). And one minute of recording will take about 10 gigabytes of disk space, which is incredibly too much!

MJPEG codec allows you to configure compression quality (the higher, the closer to the original). Also you can configure RGB to YUV compression. Although compression may have a slight effect on image quality, it considerably reduces the size of compressed data (almost by two times), which is good for performance.

The “Video File FPS” option lets you select the desired recoding speed. Playclaw does not bind game FPS to FPS of video capture, trying to provide maximum performance in a game, without frame loss. If you do not need 60 frames per second in video, you won’t have to set 60 FPS to keep it high in a game (as some competing applications require you to do). Just select standard 30 FPS for video and play a game with 60-90-120 FPS.

From the first version, Playclaw has been developed as a program that takes advantage of multi-core processors. You can select the number of threads (processor cores) that will be used for video compression. In theory, if you increase the number of threads by two times, it’ll boost the performance of a codec by two times as well. In practice, this correlation is not quite linear, and everything depends on hardware configuration, games and other things. For most games, it’ll be enough to set the number of threads to be half of the number of physical cores of the processor. For example, you need to select two threads for quad processors. Bear in mind that processors with HyperThreading have twice as many logical cores than physical ones. “Extra” cores for video compression give almost no effect.

The “Capture Cursor” option speaks for itself. It allows you to capture the cursor, which may help people to understand the actions of the player in some games.

The “Smooth Frame Rate” option forces Playclaw to average time for one frame when recording video, while slightly increasing the load on the graphic card driver. This means that under standard conditions, when game FPS is much higher than FPS of recoding, Playclaw spends 1,5-2 times more time on a frame than for an intermediate frame when the program does not require new data for a codec. This effect looks like “jerking” when scenes in a frame change quickly. So, Playclaw tries to smooth all frames, which leads to a small loss of FPS in a game and automatically reduces the load on the graphic card and delivers smoother game play.

Gamers who ever wished they had a time machine to take them back before that perfect moment of the game they failed to record are in for luck. Playclaw 2.0 introduces pre-recording, as well as three other new features.

October 4, 2010

Sytexis Software, the developer of video recording tools, today announces the immediate availability of Playclaw 2.0, the newest version of its Windows application for capturing HD-quality video and screenshots in games. New features that make game video recording more enjoyable include video pre-recording, multisource audio recording, auto-screenshot taking and 32/64-bit video codecs.

Designed for DirectX and OpenGL games, Playclaw is perfect for players who need to capture video and screenshots of the game play, view frames per second (FPS) in a game for performance benchmarking, or see nicknames of who is speaking on Ventrillo or Teamspeak in multiplayer games. Featuring support for multi-core CPU and lean coding, Playclaw records outstanding HD-quality video with custom frame rates from 15 to 60 frames per second, without noticeable slowdowns, lags or reduced frame rate, even at full resolution.

“Over the past two weeks, I’ve taken full advantage of PlayClaw’s recording feature, and as it stands, I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who needs a reliable tool for that purpose. As I mentioned earlier, the process of recording with PlayClaw is 98% of the time not even noticeable,” said Rob Williams of Techgage.

What’s New in Playclaw 2.0?

Version 2.0 boasts 6 new features that enhance game recording options. The new features include:

• Pre-Recording - Gamers will never miss that perfect game capture as new Playclaw can pre-record video. The program creates a special “cache” buffer that will contain last N seconds of the game play. When the “Start record” hotkey is pressed, PlayClaw begins to capture video and audio and saves it to free process memory. When there is a cool game moment, the player presses the “Start record” hotkey again, and PlayClaw begins flushing cached data to hard drive, while continuing to capture new data. When the gamer presses the “Stop record” hotkey, PlayClaw stops capturing data and saves non-saved data to disk.
• Multisource Audio Recording - Now gamers can capture multiple audio devices in Windows 7 and Vista. For example, Ventrilo and Teamspeak users can record their microphone and speakers into one audio stream.
• Auto-Screenshot - Version 2.0 allows gamers to enable auto-screenshot option to take screenshots in a game over a predefined period of time automatically.
• 32 and 64-bit Video Codecs - Now players can open captured video in native 64-bit applications.
• CPU indicator - Users can see temperature and workload of the processor in a game.
• Ingame benchmark - Now it is possible to check FPS and temperatures and save statistics to disk.

Sample video captured with PlayClaw can be viewed here:http://www.youtube.com/Sytexis

Review “PlayClaw – Has FRAPS’ Killer Arrived?” on Techgage

Pricing and Availability

PlayClaw is available through the PlayClaw Store (www.playclaw.com) for the price of $29.95. Current users of the program can upgrade to the new version at no cost. The trial version will watermark screen shots and videos. PlayClaw requires Windows XP, 2003, Vista, Seven (including x64 editions).

New PlayClaw runs more than twice faster, offers updated plug-ins for Teamspeak 3 and fast video encoding.

June 16, 2010

Sytexis Software today announces PlayClaw 1.9 that delivers up to twice the performance of the previous version. Other new features that make recording game video more enjoyable include updated plug-ins for Teamspeak 3 and optimized video encoding that provides overall performance boost with CPU-highloaded games and large video frame sizes (HD, FullHD). PlayClaw is available today at http://www.playclaw.com.

PlayClaw enables gamers to take screenshots and capture HD-quality video along with audio as they play a computer game to replay their most exciting gaming moment later, share them on YouTube, or post to a blog. Taking full advantage of modern multi-core processors and lean coding, PlayClaw ensures the highest quality video recording, without slowdowns and reduction of frames in the output. Another important specialty of the program is support for Teamspeak and Ventrilo overlays, allowing gamers to see who’s speaking at the moment, which is rather useful in multiplayer games. Overlays are compatible with the newest versions of Windows and graphic engines, letting gamers, for example, see overlays on computers driven by Microsoft Windows 7 with modern DirectX 11 graphics. To perform benchmarks, PlayClaw can also display the frames per second and overlay the FPS value onto screen shots. The placement of the FPS counter can be customized or disabled altogether.

Before recording the game with PlayClaw, the user needs to check if default settings are fine and change them if necessary. There are many options to set up. For example, the gamer can choose how many cores to dedicate to PlayClaw if the system is multi-core, select frame rate to be 15, 30, 60 frames per second, enable compression and set it to low or high level , and choose to capture full or half of the frame size. Captured video is saved to AVI using the dedicated codec that has been optimized for capturing game video. To save screenshots, PlayClaw allows choosing from several popular formats, such as BMP, TGA, PNG, and JPG.

To record game video, the user needs to run the game and press the predefined key to start recording. Video recording can be paused and resumed at any moment, letting the gamer capture only what he wants. Hot keys are fully configurable, so the user can bind whatever key he wants for capturing video and screen shots.

Sample video captured with PlayClaw can be viewed here:http://www.youtube.com/Sytexis

Pricing and Availability

PlayClaw is available through the PlayClaw Store (www.playclaw.com) for the price of $29.95. Current users of the program can upgrade to the new version at no cost. The program has a 15-day demo that will watermark screen shots and videos. PlayClaw requires Windows XP, 2003, Vista, Seven (including x64 editions).

Note for editors

A free serial number for PlayClaw is provided to magazine editors, internet columnists, bloggers and webmasters, who will write a review of the program on their website, blog or column.

Now players can use PlayClaw to record a video proof of their amazing gaming skills in DirectX 10 games.

October 19, 2009

Sytexis Software today announces PlayClaw 1.6, a game recorder tool to let players record full-motion video (with audio) in the background while they are playing a computer game. The new release brings full compatibility with DirectX 10, which enables PlayClaw to capture video in new great-looking DirectX 10 games. The PlayClaw application is available as a free demo at http://www.playclaw.com

PlayClaw is the best option for recording video in games. Firstly, PlayClaw makes full use of multi-core processors, letting the gamer record video at HD resolutions without disruption of the gameplay during video recording, which often occurs with other game recorder applications. Smooth video capture is also achieved due to lean coding, which enables PlayClaw to record video in brilliant quality even when playing resource-hungry computer games. Secondly, PlayClaw records video using its own ad-hoc codecs, which have been specially optimized for recording realtime video. Thirdly, PlayClaw displays and records Teamspeak and Ventrillo overlays with the names of the players who are speaking at the moment. These exciting features are compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The video recorder has been designed in close collaboration with real gamers whose practical feedback manifests itself in its ease of use and gamer-oriented feature set. After installation, the player only needs to set hotkeys to start, pause, stop video recording and choose the output folder. Video recording can be started with a single touch of a button at any moment during the gameplay, paused and then resumed, letting the gamer record only the most exciting scenes. The captured video can then be played in any media player, or uploaded to a website like YouTube to show interesting exploits to other gamers, or just to share the excitement of the game.

PlayClaw is fully configurable to the gamer personal preferences. One can select low or high compression to reduce the size of the video, choose full or half frame size and specify recording speed, which can be anywhere from 15 to 60 frames per second. The latter option is especially helpful for slow computers. If the gameplay gets disrupted, the gamer may select a lower frame rate to achieve smoother recording. PlayClaw settings also allow the gamer to select the number of CPU cores, sound source. In addition, the program can display FPS counter overlaid on the screen, which is good for performing benchmarks and tuning the graphics system.

PlayClaw runs on Microsoft Windows XP / 2003 / Vista / 7 and sells for 29.95 USD.

Watch the sample videos of Need For Speed Shift and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising at YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/Sytexis

Get free license

A free serial number for PlayClaw is provided to magazine editors, internet columnists, bloggers and webmasters, who will write a review of the program on their website, blog or column.