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Recording Requirements — how to record without problems

The single biggest source of "my recording didn't work / is black / is choppy" reports is a setup or game-settings issue on the player's machine, not a bug. Share this checklist with every tester/contributor before they record. Most problems are prevented by the 7 essentials below.

✅ Quick checklist (the 7 essentials)​

  1. NVIDIA GPU (GTX/RTX) with a recent driver (R570 or newer — latest Game Ready or Studio).
  2. Give the game a big widescreen window — at least 1920×1080, aspect 16:9 or 16:10 (a maximized window counts). Not 4:3 or ultrawide (21:9).
  3. Run the game in Borderless / Windowed mode — not Exclusive Fullscreen.
  4. Turn HDR OFF — both in Windows (Settings → Display → HDR) and in the game's graphics options.
  5. Keep the game on a single monitor; don't let the window span two displays.
  6. Have the game window in the foreground when you press F5 to start.
  7. Don't max out the GPU — if the recording is choppy/under 60 fps, lower in-game graphics settings (the recorder shows a "GPU maxed out" card when this is the cause).

Details & why​

1. GPU & driver​

  • NVIDIA only. Playroll records with NVIDIA NVENC. AMD and Intel GPUs are not supported — onboarding will block them.
  • Driver R570+. Older drivers fail at encoder init ("NVENC driver too old" / ENCODER_INIT_FAILED). Update via the NVIDIA app / GeForce Experience or nvidia.com/drivers.
  • Laptops with two GPUs (Optimus): make sure the game and Playroll run on the NVIDIA GPU, not the integrated Intel/AMD one. (Windows Graphics settings → set the game to "High performance".)

2. Resolution — big and widescreen​

  • Required (quest / event recordings). The game's window (client area) must be at least ~1920×1080 and 16:9 to 16:10 in shape (band 1.584–1.93, so a maximized window whose title bar eats some height still passes — EC-415). Too-small windows fail with "window too small" (WINDOW_TOO_SMALL); 4:3 and ultrawide (3440×1440) fail with "unsupported aspect ratio" (WINDOW_NOT_16_9). Pressing F5 shows the reason on the in-game overlay.
  • Free-play recordings are exempt (EC-543): the free-play lane records any sane window — square through 32:9 super-ultrawide, down to a 640×360 floor — at its native size and aspect. The strict shape/size rules above only apply when a quest/event needs them.
  • On a 1080p monitor a windowed game can never reach 1080p tall once the title bar is drawn — use the game's fullscreen/borderless mode there. On 1440p/4K monitors a maximized window records fine.
  • Recommended: 1920×1080 or 2560×1440.
  • 4K caveat: a 3840×2160 source can hit the NVENC H.264 level limit on some GPUs and fail to start — if 4K won't record, drop to 1440p.

3. Display mode — Borderless, not Exclusive Fullscreen​

  • Use Borderless Windowed (or Windowed). Most modern games default to this.
  • Exclusive Fullscreen can produce a black recording (the capture API can't reliably see exclusive-fullscreen surfaces). If your recording is black, switch the game to borderless.

4. HDR — turn it OFF​

  • Disable Windows HDR (Settings → Display → "Use HDR" off) and any in-game HDR option.
  • HDR content captured into the recorder's standard color path can come out near-black. If recordings are black despite borderless mode, HDR is the likely cause.

5. Single monitor & foreground​

  • Keep the game window entirely on one display. A window spanning two monitors won't record.
  • The F5 / F6 / F7 / F8 hotkeys only fire when the game is the foreground window. Click into the game before using them.

6. GPU load — sub-60 fps is usually the game, not the recorder​

  • If the game itself is maxing out the GPU (100% usage), the game renders below 60 fps, and the recording is therefore choppy / under 60 fps. This is the game, not Playroll — no recorder can capture frames the game never rendered.
  • Fix: lower in-game graphics settings (resolution, effects, shadows, view distance) and/or close other GPU-heavy apps. Playroll shows a "GPU maxed out — lower in-game settings" card when it detects this.

7. Environment — avoid cloud / remote gaming​

  • Cloud / remote-desktop setups (Shadow PC, GeForce NOW, Parsec, RDP) can break capture and produce black recordings — the virtual/remote display doesn't behave like a real one. Record on a local PC.
  • Close conflicting capture/overlay tools (OBS, NVIDIA ShadowPlay, MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner Statistics Server) if you hit problems. Playroll uses a non-injecting capture method, so it's usually tolerant, but conflicts can still happen.

Symptoms → fix (quick triage to share)​

What you seeMost likely causeFix
F5 does nothing, no recording startsGame window too small or not widescreen (or spanning monitors / minimized)Maximize the window or go fullscreen (≥1920×1080, 16:9/16:10); keep it on one display; the in-game overlay shows the reason
Recording is blackHDR on, OR exclusive fullscreen, OR cloud/remote displayTurn HDR off; use borderless windowed; record on a local PC
Recording is choppy / under 60 fpsThe game is maxing the GPU and itself running below 60Lower in-game graphics settings; close other GPU apps
"Encoder failed" / can't start recordingNVIDIA driver too old, OR a 4K sourceUpdate the driver (R570+); drop the game to 1440p
Hotkeys (F5/F6) don't respondGame not in foregroundClick into the game window first

Most of these are now surfaced in-game: errors appear as a centered red card, and a "GPU maxed" advisory appears when the GPU is the bottleneck — so testers get the reason without checking logs.