The question comes up asking "Which Emulator should I use' when wanting to record a particular game. So I will attempt to list the emulators we use and any specific settings that may be required for best quality. You can use any emulator you are familiar with but it must support support 1:1 pixel mapping and avi dumping forperfect recordings when combined with lossless codecs such as Lagarith or Techsmith. No filters allowed including bilinier, scanlines or any exotic pixelshaders.
As an example, Kega fusion is a good Genesis emulator, but it doesn't support avi recording in 1:1 pixel mode which results in a stretched image (or aspect corrected) even for games that don't require it, so this emu isn't good for what we want. Even if you select the raw image filter, it doesn't record it.
Amiga
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. Latest dev builds support emulation of this system.
Arcade
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. MAMEHawk is included in builds from 2.9.1 onward and supports most Arcade machines, since its compatibility is on par with latest MAME revisions.
Master-System / Game-Gear
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later.
Only setting to consider is the FM Audio addon for Master-System which is enabled by default if the game supports it. Choose which you think provides the best audio. You cant record once and render both audio versions.
Sega Mega-Drive / Genesis / Sega-CD / 32X
Bizhawk: For Sega Mega-Drive / Genesis, Bizhawk offers the best emulation (via GenPlus GX core) and movie recording. Far superior audio quality to Gens-RR that we have been using in the past. It can also record Sega-CD games, but that aspect of the emu isn't completely stable yet and may cause desync to occur in the recorded movie. Its still the best emu to use if your willing to address the desync issues when recording. Note: The new 64bit version seems to have fixed this issue.
VERY IMPORTANT: In the genesis options menu make sure PAD320 is enabled. This will add borders to the low res modes instead of stretching.
NES / SNES / Game-boy / Gameboy Color / GBA/ Nintendo 64
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later.
Only setting to consider for Gameboy is the palette. It is advised to just use the Black and White option, although I like to use the Yellow-Green for the resemblance of the original hardware. No rainbow colour combinations allowed.
For NES, check NES -> Graphic settings and ensure auto cropping is disabled. You can decide when editing/encoding if the overscan area should be kept or not.
For the N64 emulation, you
MUST use the Ares64 core that is included in builds from 2.9 onward. Settings should be left at their defaults. Note that this core requires a very powerful PC in order to get decent speeds; in other words, your CPU's single core score on tools such as Geekbench has to be above 2,000 for better results.
However some games still require Mupen64 core in order to be run. In that core, the important settings are in the N64 menu. You should set 320x240 resolution, use Interpreter/Pure Interpreter and enable the Angrylion plugin (the latter is present in the latest dev builds and 2.9 onwards, and requires a really fast CPU since it's a software rendered gfx plugin, a CPU that can get at least 2,000 points in single core score on Geekbench is recommended). There may be some game specific settings required for the plugin, but its up to you to know if the emulation is displaying game as expected and change the options as necessary.
As for Game Boy Advance emulation, it uses the mGBA core for the best compatibility on GBA games.
Nintendo DS
Bizhawk: Can run DS games as of version 2.7. This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. Much easier to use than DeSmuMe, and has the ability to dump video with the Lagarith codec, making the process 2-3x faster than with the TechSmith codec.
DeSmuME (DEPRECATED): This emu support movie and avi recording for the Nintendo DS. Its very stable and fairly easy to set up. Just note that you may need to splt the screens before your final encoding (the emu wont do this during avi recording). I recommend using the techsmith codec as it appears Lagarith isn't supported. You can use the below avs file to add the Split if the game required it. You may also need to adjust the gap size 16,32,64 to fit the game, use best judgement.
####configuration####
gap = 32
color = $000000
##################
A = AviSource("i:\Space Invaders Extreme2.avi", pixel_type="RGB24")
B = AviSource("i:\Space Invaders Extreme2.avi", pixel_type="RGB24")
C = blankclip(fps=A.FrameRate, width=256, height=192+gap+192, color=color, length=A.FrameCount)
A = A.crop(0,0,256,192)
B = B.crop(0,192,256,192)
D = overlay(C,A)
D = overlay(D,B,0,192+gap)
return AudioDub(D,A)
: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later.
PC
This will likely require tools such as OBS, Fraps or DxTory to capture your game.
For old DOS games, use
DOSBox. DOSBox-X is recommended as it offers savestates and avi output as well as support for various soundcards and even the MT-32 synth.
Sega Saturn
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. Milage will vary greatly as to if the game is supported. It uses the Saturnus core and contains the same limits of that emu.
PlayStation 1
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. Bizhawk uses the Octoshock core (based on Mednafen) for PS1 games. You need the Playstation firmware but this is a fast and fairly accurate playstation emulator. No fancy filtering or upscaling. Just good old original playstation graphics in all its pixalated 3d glory.
IMPORTANT NOTE: In versions of Bizhawk from 2.8 onwards, NymaShock is selected by default. Please DO NOT use that core for recordings. Reason is the image output being forced to use 4:3 ratio (which causes some games to look wrong), and when that option is disabled via PSX > Settings > Correct Aspect Ratio, the game is outputted at different resolutions/aspect ratio. Always use the Octoshock core that is selectable by going to Config > Cores > PSX.
To make it much easier to edit your dumped video, please use the Pixel Pro setting for video output:
PlayStation 2
PCSX2:
It has re-recording tools implemented into the recent dev builds. Make sure to use development builds from v1.7.5260 onward as the tools in such builds are highly stable compared to past builds. As for the emulator itself, it is about as accurate as you will get unless hardware capturing from a ps2/ps3. It is important to make sure you use the correct settings to accurately display the ps2 graphics without any fancy filtering or upscaling. When setting up the emulator select Graphics > Display and set renderer to Software. Make Sure Deinterlace is set to Automatic and bilinear filtering to Sharp. Configure the aspect ratio to Auto Standard as well.
Also most importantly, in the Emulation tab, these settings must be used, as well as disabling Fast Boot in BIOS settings:
To start a new input recording, after booting the game, go to Tools > Input Recording > New and choose the location where your input recording will be stored. Choose to record from savestate, I suggest pausing the emulator right after the PS2 BIOS part and click on Ok. To playback it follow the same first step but select Play this time and choose the .p2m2 file. To dump the needed .avi file containing both audio and video combined, you must configure the codecs in Graphics > Recording, making sure the container is AVI, choosing UTVideo as video codec and AAC for audio codec (you first need the DLL files from ffmpeg to enable this). Recommended bitrates are over 60000kbps for video and 320kbps for audio. As for the video resolution, Auto must be ticked for a pixel perfect output.
PlayStation Portable
PPSSPP: This emulator doesn't support re-recording yet but it can output .avi on latest versions. Make sure to use the graphics backend that gives the best compatibility for the game (Vulkan or OpenGL is recommended), set the internal resolution to 1xPSP and disable all speedhacks.
GameCube/Wii
Dolphin: As of recent dev builds, it supports the Vulkan backend for graphics, which ensures no glitches appear during gameplay (in case your GPU doesn't support Vulkan, select either OpenGL or DirectX 11 depending on the game). Use 1x Native resolution and leave default settings for everything else except in the Advanced settings, where 'Dump at Internal Resolution' and 'Use FFV1 Lossless codec' must be enabled. Select the game without running it and then select Movie > Start Recording Input. The re-recording process here is the same as in bizhawk, utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later.
To playback your .dtm movie while dumping the needed .avi and .wav files, run the game again if it's needed, close it, then check both Dump Frames and Dump Audio in Movie GUI menu and finally select Playback Recorded Inputs. Follow this tutorial for more info:
https://longplays.org/infusions/forum...post_16792. We highly suggest to close and re-open the emulator first before this step, or else there will be risks of audio desync.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. To avoid desync issues between playbacks, disable the memory card (this only applies for GameCube games though) and, if possible, enable custom RTC. This helps a lot in party games since they make an intensive use of RNG seeds. As for Wii games, remove any save data files or copy your own save files that were backed up prior to the recording.
2. Some games make use of the system's font, and this output is different if emulated. To avoid this, use the original GC BIOS and follow the instructions (there are many tutorials on YouTube) so Dolphin can recognize it.
Nintendo 3DS
Bizhawk: This emu offers re-recording to make longplays easier by utilising multiple savestates and recording your inputs for rendering to avi later. Latest dev builds support emulation of this system. Only issue is that the emulated NAND isn't stored in savestates, which can cause save corruption unless you playback the recording from the beginning (a fix will come in the future but no ETA).
Modern systems (PS3/4/5, XBox family, PSVita, etc.)
For systems where no decent emulator exists (or an emulator exists but no re-recording nor avidumping tools), then it falls to using an external capture device. It falls on you to work out the best setting for providing the highest quality output.
For 480p systems the Retrotink 5X Pro is highly recommended. Reason is because it gives a very nicer picture quality, something that is noticeable in PS2 games.
