OT help, minecraft video capture stuff?

[jimcav]

My kids are all enthralled with making videos of themselves playing minecraft. When they aren't playing, they seem to be watching videos of others playing on youtube. Both have upcoming b-days, so can anyone tell me if there is a simple (ie elementary school age friendly--although they are better at computers than I), somewhat affordable capture card or whatever (that is what they tell me they need) that can record them playing (i think just screen action and their voices). Right now they just drain their mom's phone by setting it behind them to record over their shoulder--I don't know how many falls to the floor it will survive.

thanks for any help on what works.
jim

[Ozz]

I can't help you with the video capture stuff...but you just described my kids too..."Mine-crack"....they can't get enough of it...playing, watching videos, talking about it, planning their worlds....ugh.

[AngryScientist]

i literally have no idea what you're talking about Jim, i say buy them some shiney new bikes for their birthdays and encourage them to "unplug" and go outside.

edit: i certainly am not being critical of your children, just a suggestion:)

[Wilkinson4]

My youngest nephew needs some sort of intervention. He actually spends hours just watching others play minecraft on youtube. I don't get it. Ssssssss boom.

mIKE

[thegunner]

http://www.fraps.com/

minecraft is driven by openGL so this should work (no need for a capture card at all :))

[William]

Conan O'brien's Clueless Gamer review of Minecraft....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwJnk6QRZ8Q


At least the kids can be somewhat creative with this game.







William

[MRB]

You need a video capture device of some sort. My son is into minecraft, but is also an active kid. Minecraft is his downtime. We had to take a family vacation to Idaho, so that he could experience a gold mine. Or maybe it was the nearby water slide that he really wanted to see. :confused:

[Matt-H]

Totally don't get it with bad graphics and all, but my kids were also into it. Until, that is, Minecraft became so July and August brought Clash of Clans!

Truly, it is all about a balance and my kids are very active young individuals outside of the 3rd World with iron, fire and gunpowder or whatever.

Sorry to hijack, Jim, I don't have any tech advice for you. I think we are in the same boat!

[jimcav]

http://www.fraps.com/

minecraft is driven by openGL so this should work (no need for a capture card at all :))

I'll run that by my wife and see if she is ok with installing on the PC

[retrofit]

Our son and his friends are obsessed with Minecraft as well. Recently we even setup a "Minecraft Cafe" in which he and his friends played Capture the Flag on his private server with some kids at the house and others at their homes communicating via chat box and FaceTime.:)
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5513/9795611904_f9ab2947f5_n.jpg

Anyway, to your question--

Since you mentioned "PC" I'll assume you're not on a Mac. But if you were, you could use the QuickTime Player app that comes with OSX Mountain Lion to capture screen action and voice and save your movie in a number of formats.

[ojingoh]

I second the Fraps suggestion.

[jmoore]

I can't help you with the video capture stuff...but you just described my kids too..."Mine-crack"....they can't get enough of it...playing, watching videos, talking about it, planning their worlds....ugh.

ditto this.

I have no idea what the appeal is but they are all completely enthralled.

[CaliFly]

Is this where I sign up for the Fathers of Mine-crack Addicts support group? :)

I had to throw them onto their bike seats this past weekend to taste some dirt and remove the zombie stare of doom.

Having said that, I will check out fraps as well. Great thread.

[staggerwing]

Wow, my almost 18YO son is there too.

Somewhat creative, buy I wish he would morph over into the real world a bit. Would love to get his creative juices flowing on a good solid modeling package.

However, I really don't understand how he can watch videos of others play; often for hours.

[thegunner]

if you need help with the fraps thing, feel free to PM me :)

[jimcav]

my wife has concerns about putting anything else on the PC--she only did minecraft because they kept taking her phone to play pocket edition. our last PC died and she is convinced it was games and stuff added to it--i think it was just a 5 yr old piece of crap.

anyway, I can't access google search info on what minimum system is needed for minecraft--all "gaming" content sites are blocked.

anyone know what the minimum graphics card and processor required is (ie can i get my kids a $400 laptop and let them fight over it)

Alternately i have a 2009 macbook, so maybe i can give that to them for minecraft and upgrade myself???

[ojingoh]

Alternately i have a 2009 macbook, so maybe i can give that to them for minecraft and upgrade myself???

Minecraft is pretty sensitive to screen resolution, moreso than most Java games IMO.
If it's a unibody macbook (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.26-white-13-polycarbonate-unibody-late-2009-specs.html) it has a separate graphics processor. Screen resolution on your macbook is very small by today's standards -- 1280x800, so you may be OK as the GPU doesn't need to be particularly strong to drive that amount of pixels. If the macbook is a polycarbonate macbook (http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook/specs/macbook-core-2-duo-2.4-black-13-early-2008-penryn-specs.html), the GPU is from intel and will likely struggle at full screen.

You can download the binary and just try it, it's pretty self contained. However, it might need to update your Java Runtime Environment.