I've been dwelling with a question lately,

I can generate screenshots with my library, but i found that i would like to be able to record video from a game.

Since video is just(well-simply enough, yeah) a collection of images, i guess i could easily write "screenshots" into a single file.

I know that makes sense, but the end result won't be understood by any video application around. That's where the question pumps in,

What is the simplest file format that i can write to, that a video editing application will be able to understand and convert to a format of choice later?

As a bonus: What if i want to add the sound too? What do you think?

Thanks for the help.


Google "ffmpeg images to video", I believe that's what you're looking for. There's nothing wrong with using images to create the end video, like you said that's pretty much what a video is. I'd personally say go with MPEG-4 for these reasons:


Good reference here.

Hope it helps. I did the same type of project a little while ago, and it worked like a charm.

  • \$\begingroup\$ Really sounds good, and if i take the extra step, maybe i can use it too to play the video within the application! (Perhaps even with audio playback?) \$\endgroup\$ – Grimshaw Feb 22 '12 at 2:38
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    \$\begingroup\$ Be advised: you must pay for a player if you want MPEG-4 to be played by your game. Yes, even FFMpeg. Otherwise MPEG-LA could sue you. \$\endgroup\$ – Nicol Bolas Feb 22 '12 at 2:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ Good advice, but how would they REALLY know what format the video is in that's packed into YOUR application? \$\endgroup\$ – While-E Feb 22 '12 at 19:17

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