I’m not a computer wizard, I don’t know how these things work, but I am wanting to save like a ten second clip of me being awesome in WoW, what’s the best, easiest, most free-est way to do this?
Does anyone have experience recording in-game footage? I am not talking about streaming.
What kind of video card do you have? Running Windows?
If you’re running up to date Windows 10 or 11, you can record the screen with the key shortcut Win-Shift-S. Similarly on macOS, Command-Shift-5 offers a video recording HUD.
If you’re using an Nvidia graphics card, you can use Shadowplay which is included in the GeForce Experience software package. If you’re using an AMD graphics card, their Adrenaline software package offers that.
Most streamers use obs studio. Super easy to use.
Mine is Nvidia and I’m running Windows
Just use Nvidia Shadowplay then. Open Geforce Experience, go to settings and enable the overlay. Press ALT + Z to open it and change everything how you want it.
Hmm. When I do the button that I think would be the Win button + shift + S it brings up a “snip” tool, does that sound right?
Check out what Chroesire said regarding Shadowplay. It’s what I was going to say and its what I use. I’ve also used the built-in Windows recording via Xbox Game Bar or whatever they call it now.
10 seconds of being awesome sounds like the hard part.
I would have to record for 24 hours and then edit it down to the 10 awesome seconds.
I feel like any more than 10 seconds is more than most people can handle if I were to share, so yeah, it’s a lot of editing! 
I’m not sitting at my windows machine right now so I can’t check, you may be running an older build of Windows or something. Looks like Xbox Game Bar which is also built in might work, try hitting Win-G or Win-Alt-R.
Didnt know about Snipping tool. Thanks. It could be handy to me.
I have Nvidia and I am happy with its Shadowplay although I havent recorded something with WoW recently. I recorded an AoE4 game and D2R game though.
When I reach M+15 or KSM, I would start recording some. Which dungeon to record? DoS+15, HoA+15, ToP+15, PF+15 or NW+15… all mouse clicks… complete with Damage Meters and ElitismHelper in the end. ROFL.
Yeah, you nailed it, it pulled up the Xbox Game Bar. In any case, I am gonna just try the Nvidia thing since it’s also on my computer. (Before I made this thread I had no idea what either of these things were so tyvm for the info)
So you’ve used it before? How’s the quality? I’m hoping it just looks the same as it does when I’m playing.
Shadowplay quality is pretty decent. It uses the H.264 encoding accelerator built into Nvidia GPUs which is efficient, fast, and pretty good quality. Something using software based encoding might look a bit better but it’ll come at the cost of much heavier CPU usage, which may not mix well with games depending on your CPU (e.g. a CPU with 8+ cores from the past 3-4 generations probably wouldn’t have trouble, whereas a quad core from a few years ago will likely choke).
Nvidias Nvenc encoder is going to give you better quality than anything else you have available to you unless you have a CPU with a stupid amount of cores or a dedicated second computer. You can setup OBS Studio to use Nvenc if you want which accomplishes the exact same thing but unless you know what you’re doing with the majority of settings it’s probably better off for you to just use Shadowplay given the description of what you want to do.
I use OBS for stream and record, fairly intuitive and plenty of help getting it set up if you do get stuck.
I personally really prefer Adobe, but if you’re needing a cost free option for video editing I had good experiences with HitFilm Express before I migrated over to Adobe.
For free video editors another option is Davinci Resolve, which is ridiculously capable.
I used it for D2R. Below is reduced quality so the video file size wont be that much.
Also used it for AoE4. Also reduced quality to lower the video file size.
Thanks for making this post, i’ve often wondered the same myself. I shall bookmark it for future use.
Oh nice, that’s not bad at all! I am just trying to record a clip of my monk dancing in a fruit hat.
Also MrCute 