Gameplay recording not smooth

Hi there everyone,
I have a new PC with an nvidia RTX2070 video card. I can record games at 1440p/60fps without any issues and the footage is smooth when played. The same can’t be said for Beamng recordings. When watching a recording it seems to either drop in frame rate or frame times fluctuate. Not sure exactly what the issue is but the footage will be smooth then not so smooth. I tried increasing the Windows process priority for the NVidia recording process as suggested by someone on YouTube but that didn’t fix it. I’ve also tried different bitrates.
Has anyone had this problem and managed to fix it?
Thank you,
JoshOz.

 

The recording system isnt the most thourogh, if you want replays to be smooth you need to record in slo mo.

 

the framerate of the replay is based on your current FPS. if it dips down below 60, so will the replay. Recording replays in slow-mo like P_enta said will remedy this, but I suggest looking into lower settings

 

He did say he had a 2070 and can play 1440p 60 so.

 

Thanks for the reply, P_enta. I was actually talking about recording live gameplay and not replays but I see your point. Maybe replays are the best way to go. I will do some tests.
--- Post updated ---
Thanks everyone for the replies. Just to confirm - I can indeed play Beamng at above 60fps comfortably. It never dips below 60fps unless I have a lot of AI (not using AI though for recording). I decided to test capping the frame rate at 60 using the in game setting because I can't use the Nvidia control panel to do this for Beamng as I would have to use the global setting. The in game FPS limiter causes a lot of variation in frame time which I know can create an inconsistent appearance to the smoothness of gameplay. I then tried the MSI Afterburner limiter which works much better by creating a rock solid frame time. I watched a video about using different methods for frame limiting and the Nvidia control panel was best for reducing lag then MSI Afterburner next, but lag is not a concern in this game. I created an 8min recording and while it seems better there seems to be slight variations in smoothness. Strange as it doesn't seem to happen in other games. Have any of you done any Beamng recordings while playing (not using replays)?

 

What software are you using to capture?
What CPU do you have?
What are you using as an encoder?

All of these things can affect the performance of your recordings. If your encoder gets overloaded, you will lose frames, and/or quality.

 

My CPU is an AMD Ryzen 3700X.
I am using the Nvidia game capture software built into the Geforce Experience software.
I am just playing the raw captured video, not re-encoding it.

 

Appreciate the response. I do suspect it's nothing to do with CPU/GPU speed as all other games seems to record well. Also it's not a video file playback issue as I can play videos created in other games perfectly fine. I just downloaded OBS and did a few test recordings using that software. I tried it once before without much luck but this time it seems to have worked quite well. Just going to do some tests with different bitrates.
Nadeox1, you mentioned you record at quite high bitrates. Is there a point at which you don't think it improves recording quality?

 

Thanks for the info Nadeox1. I know what you mean about all the fine details in Beamng. I have done some recordings with OBS and it seems to be giving me a smoother video than Nvidia recorder. I’m quite certain it also it produces a better looking video than the Nvidia software. So, it seems from my experience that Nvidia recorder doesn’t work well for Beamng, for whatever reason. Strange. Hopefully if anyone else has a problem with Nvidia recording software, they read this and give OBS a try.

 

What GPU do you have? I know beamNG isn't particularly friendly with GPUs and can be quite heavy.

If you're using the Nvidia geforce experience recording, then your GPU would be selected as the encoder and if the GPU's resources are being used for Beam, you will see a reduction in recording quality.

 

Bluehawk360, I have an RTX 2070 Super OC 8GB graphics card. I have capped the frame rate at 60 and according to the MSI Afterburner on-screen stats the GPU still has plenty of processing power free for screen recording. At least that's how I see it. Don't you think it's interesting the OBS software seems to do a better job recording Beamng? (on my system, that is).

 

Typically, OBS is better for recording and streaming. I believe it's currently the #1 selection among streamers and videographers. Many people with lower-end PCs prefer NVIDIA GeForce overlay because it's just easier to get the right settings for your build, but for higher ends, it's not nearly as good.

 

I had the same problem. Game runs well above 60 but recordings stutter. My solution was to turn on VSync. Frame limiter causes more stuttering in my case so I turn that off. Also note that that you have to enable VSync in game rather than in nvidia control panel because for some reason the game doesn't acknowledge that.

Also VSync doesn't work in borderless mode for me, you have to use fullscreen.

 

saikat0511, thanks for your comment about v-sync. I recently bought a g-sync monitor and noticed in BeamNG that I was experiencing screen tearing at the bottom of the screen while using g-sync. I engaged v-sync which fixed it but I've been using the Nvidia control panel to achieve this. I noticed that changing the program settings for BeamNG in the Nvidia control panel does nothing, only the global setting works. Is that what you are referring to. Also in regards to frame limiting - when I bought my monitor I thought it was great because I could get really high frame rates but I have recently decided to cap the frame rate to reduce the GPU load. I'm hoping that the screen recording will work better if there is some head room with the GPU processing. Does all that make sense? Happy for people to share their setting for recording BeamNG gameplay. Thanks everyone.

 

In game frame limiter introduces some stuttering, limit fps from NVCP.

I am assuming you want to record in 60 fps. First of all set the graphics settings such a way that your fps never or rarely drops below your target fps (in this case 60). Also make sure you are in a 60hz resolution and in FULLSCREEN MODE. Now set fps limit in NVCP to 70. Ingame set fps limiter to OFF and VSYNC to ON

Also make sure you are recording in 60 fps. This should hopefully produce a smooth video.

If you are using nvidia shadowplay or obs with nvenc to record, it needs a bit of gpu power to record smoothly. FPS limiting certainly will help with video recording if your gpu is constantly at 100% usage while playing the game.

 

That's a great reply saikat0511. I pretty much have done all that except for the 60hz. I have a 144hz monitor and I leave it at that setting. And I agree with you in regards to the GPU load. After I frame limited to 70fps, my GPU usage was quite a bit lower, which should be good for gameplay recording.

 

The fact that you have a 144hz monitor doesn't matter if you are limiting your fps to 70. Vsync will not work as expected if you don't set your ingame resolution to 60hz.

 

Thanks for that saikat0511. I’ve been doing some recordings with OBS using 75M/bits bitrate and it seems to be producing pretty good results. I don’t think Nvidia Share works as well with BeamNG for whatever reason.