Whats your opinion of this software?

[Chris]

I was wondering since I own pretty much every single other recording software thats out what makes playclaw better, I hate the way the UI looks in the steam page. It just looks like a cheap copy of OBS. I honestly went and looked at playclaw 5 Ui and it was so much better.

Ive used bandicam,Mirillis Action,Dxtory, Fraps,D3dGEar, you name it, every single software, and thus far have found that out of all of those Action had the best quality, but the MP4 files arent compatible with a ton of software. D3D Gear provided the least amount of lag, out of any software ive ever used but the quality can sometimes be meh.

So whats different about playclaw, and is it worth buying considering i own everything else, dont want to drop 30 if its nothing special.

[CyberDemon]

Originally posted by 501st AC/DC:

It just looks like a cheap copy of OBS

So, just for example, the Photoshop just looks like a not cheap copy of OBS, right? ;) Or 3DSMax, or XSplit, or a lots of other tools.

So whats different about playclaw, and is it worth buying considering i own everything else, dont want to drop 30 if its nothing special.

One of core features available in PlayClaw and almost not available in other tools is rendering overlays right in game. Get a free demo from our web site https://playclaw.com and try it.

[hogaN.]

I own PlayClaw 5 and PlayClaw 6 and the program mostly does not work, and CyberDemon the Developer responds to 1 out of every 5 support requests, I used to support and promote PlayClaw but after these experiences I am on the lo0k out for another Developer that is humble and willing to offer support at every turn, and Software that will work with all my games on STEAM =]

You will see in this PlayClaw 6 Forum, numerous requests from me for support on different apps / games that have gone unanswered and ignored. :(

[Koosemose]

I will note, first off, I still primarily use Playclaw 5, as I am waiting on feature parity between 5 & 6 (I make heavy use of custom plugins), however, the features that make it superior to other options (for me at least) are the same between the two.

First off, to address the "cheap copy of OBS" comment. While it does share many similarities in UI with OBS, that is because they both make use of overlays (though Playclaw's are superior, for reasons I will get into momentarily), and that style of UI is perhaps one of the better ways to manage overlays (Playclaw 6's more OBS-like interface being superior to what Playclaw 5 used). Two pieces of software that share the same purpose with similar features will tend towards similar UIs.

Now, as to what makes PC's (Playclaw) overlays superior to OBS; being able to control the display of the overlays in game is huge, and it should be noted that it can be changed to if it shows in game and in recording (or instream if streaming) individually, so an overlay can be shown only in recording, similar to how OBS does, or it can be shown in both or only ingame. Overlays in game opens up a whole slew of useful overlays, primarily status overlays, by default you can get things like recording time (so you can easily keep track of episode length, for example), or various performance information, either FPS (to know if something is causing bad performance), or various things relating to computer performance (potentially useful if you are nearing full utilization of system resources and may need to pause and do something before it affects your recording). Or once the API is opened up (already available in PC5, and reported to be coming for PC6), you can have things like rather or not your mic is muted (So often I have seen people have issues, particularly in collabs, where they muted and didn't realize, or even recorded an entire episode muted in my own case), or just an icon for rather or not you are recording (if you are dense like me and fail to notice other obvious signs like recording time and color coding of things).

Or for streamers, if you don't have a second monitor, you could show chat in-game, (and either instream or not), so that you can keep track of what is going on in chat (though it may be harder to place things in a way that doesn't affect the visibility of gameplay elements.)

There are a multitude of potential uses for ingame overlays, I've only covered the obvious ones or ones I use myself, almost anything is possible (though sadly I've yet to figure out a way to monitor audio levels in a way that doesn't interfere with recording).

One other feature I find very useful (that is shared by other recording software, but not OBS as of the last time I checked, so is of note since OBS is one of the few other recording programs that does overlays), is the ability to save audio tracks separate from the video and each other. So you end up with separate game audio and mic audio, so they can be edited and cleaned individually as needed, if doing multiplayer with voice chat (through an program separate from the game), you can even have the voice chat as a third separate audio file (though it does take some trickery and an outside program to be able to hear both game audio and voice chat and still play them to separate audio devices so they can be recorded separately), allowing you to edit voice chat separate from game audio (very useful if you're recording with someone that is exceptionally loud or quiet.)

[nine]

Originally posted by Koosemose:

I will note, first off, I still primarily use Playclaw 5, as I am waiting on feature parity between 5 & 6 (I make heavy use of custom plugins), however, the features that make it superior to other options (for me at least) are the same between the two.

First off, to address the "cheap copy of OBS" comment. While it does share many similarities in UI with OBS, that is because they both make use of overlays (though Playclaw's are superior, for reasons I will get into momentarily), and that style of UI is perhaps one of the better ways to manage overlays (Playclaw 6's more OBS-like interface being superior to what Playclaw 5 used). Two pieces of software that share the same purpose with similar features will tend towards similar UIs.

Now, as to what makes PC's (Playclaw) overlays superior to OBS; being able to control the display of the overlays in game is huge, and it should be noted that it can be changed to if it shows in game and in recording (or instream if streaming) individually, so an overlay can be shown only in recording, similar to how OBS does, or it can be shown in both or only ingame. Overlays in game opens up a whole slew of useful overlays, primarily status overlays, by default you can get things like recording time (so you can easily keep track of episode length, for example), or various performance information, either FPS (to know if something is causing bad performance), or various things relating to computer performance (potentially useful if you are nearing full utilization of system resources and may need to pause and do something before it affects your recording). Or once the API is opened up (already available in PC5, and reported to be coming for PC6), you can have things like rather or not your mic is muted (So often I have seen people have issues, particularly in collabs, where they muted and didn't realize, or even recorded an entire episode muted in my own case), or just an icon for rather or not you are recording (if you are dense like me and fail to notice other obvious signs like recording time and color coding of things).

Or for streamers, if you don't have a second monitor, you could show chat in-game, (and either instream or not), so that you can keep track of what is going on in chat (though it may be harder to place things in a way that doesn't affect the visibility of gameplay elements.)

There are a multitude of potential uses for ingame overlays, I've only covered the obvious ones or ones I use myself, almost anything is possible (though sadly I've yet to figure out a way to monitor audio levels in a way that doesn't interfere with recording).

One other feature I find very useful (that is shared by other recording software, but not OBS as of the last time I checked, so is of note since OBS is one of the few other recording programs that does overlays), is the ability to save audio tracks separate from the video and each other. So you end up with separate game audio and mic audio, so they can be edited and cleaned individually as needed, if doing multiplayer with voice chat (through an program separate from the game), you can even have the voice chat as a third separate audio file (though it does take some trickery and an outside program to be able to hear both game audio and voice chat and still play them to separate audio devices so they can be recorded separately), allowing you to edit voice chat separate from game audio (very useful if you're recording with someone that is exceptionally loud or quiet.)

When did OBS start having in game overlays? I have never seen that, but i don’t know everything so you may be right. If so, can you show where it is? (seriously not being a jerk, genuine question).


edit-Then again, may be I misunderstood what you are saying and you mean that OBS doesnt do in game overlays. Now that I read what you posted, again, I think you mean that. I think when you say overlay you mean that OBS supports layered sources, not in game overlay. In that case I kind of agree, but if you dont need in game overlays really there is no reason for anything but OBS(or xsplit or gameshow), since they all do everything else much better..

AFAIK, I am pretty sure the only recording and/or streaming programs that have any kind of actual in game rendered overlatys are Playclaw, Action (very limited), Dxtory(very limited), Gamecaster (somewhat limited), Afterburner (very limited), Bandicam (very limited) and D3Dgear (also very limited).

On the other hand, as far as I know OBS and Xsplit Broadcaster, and Gameshow all will not render a single overlay on your screen in game.

Playclaw 5 is kind of unique in it allows a wide variety of things to be rendered in game, and while Playclaw6 is currently behind in that area, it is planned to get better.
As far as the other streaming features... OBS and Xsplit, and even gamecaster (to a degree) are quite a bit better currently.

So, it really depends if you want in game rendered overlays IMO. If you do, there really is no substitute for an all in one solution like playclaw imo. On the other hand, if you don't, I'd just use OBS studio.

And if all you need is in game twitch chat on your screen that you can read while playing, well you can do that with restream io together with OBS.
But when you start wanting to see things like your camera, twitch stream, GPU usage, etc.. all in game, well playclaw shines as really the only game in town that does that as an all in one solution.

[Chris]

Originally posted by nine:

Originally posted by Koosemose:

I will note, first off, I still primarily use Playclaw 5, as I am waiting on feature parity between 5 & 6 (I make heavy use of custom plugins), however, the features that make it superior to other options (for me at least) are the same between the two.

First off, to address the "cheap copy of OBS" comment. While it does share many similarities in UI with OBS, that is because they both make use of overlays (though Playclaw's are superior, for reasons I will get into momentarily), and that style of UI is perhaps one of the better ways to manage overlays (Playclaw 6's more OBS-like interface being superior to what Playclaw 5 used). Two pieces of software that share the same purpose with similar features will tend towards similar UIs.

Now, as to what makes PC's (Playclaw) overlays superior to OBS; being able to control the display of the overlays in game is huge, and it should be noted that it can be changed to if it shows in game and in recording (or instream if streaming) individually, so an overlay can be shown only in recording, similar to how OBS does, or it can be shown in both or only ingame. Overlays in game opens up a whole slew of useful overlays, primarily status overlays, by default you can get things like recording time (so you can easily keep track of episode length, for example), or various performance information, either FPS (to know if something is causing bad performance), or various things relating to computer performance (potentially useful if you are nearing full utilization of system resources and may need to pause and do something before it affects your recording). Or once the API is opened up (already available in PC5, and reported to be coming for PC6), you can have things like rather or not your mic is muted (So often I have seen people have issues, particularly in collabs, where they muted and didn't realize, or even recorded an entire episode muted in my own case), or just an icon for rather or not you are recording (if you are dense like me and fail to notice other obvious signs like recording time and color coding of things).

Or for streamers, if you don't have a second monitor, you could show chat in-game, (and either instream or not), so that you can keep track of what is going on in chat (though it may be harder to place things in a way that doesn't affect the visibility of gameplay elements.)

There are a multitude of potential uses for ingame overlays, I've only covered the obvious ones or ones I use myself, almost anything is possible (though sadly I've yet to figure out a way to monitor audio levels in a way that doesn't interfere with recording).

One other feature I find very useful (that is shared by other recording software, but not OBS as of the last time I checked, so is of note since OBS is one of the few other recording programs that does overlays), is the ability to save audio tracks separate from the video and each other. So you end up with separate game audio and mic audio, so they can be edited and cleaned individually as needed, if doing multiplayer with voice chat (through an program separate from the game), you can even have the voice chat as a third separate audio file (though it does take some trickery and an outside program to be able to hear both game audio and voice chat and still play them to separate audio devices so they can be recorded separately), allowing you to edit voice chat separate from game audio (very useful if you're recording with someone that is exceptionally loud or quiet.)

When did OBS start having in game overlays? I have never seen that, but i don’t know everything so you may be right. If so, can you show where it is? (seriously not being a jerk, genuine question).


edit-Then again, may be I misunderstood what you are saying and you mean that OBS doesnt do in game overlays. Now that I read what you posted, again, I think you mean that. I think when you say overlay you mean that OBS supports layered sources, not in game overlay. In that case I kind of agree, but if you dont need in game overlays really there is no reason for anything but OBS(or xsplit or gameshow), since they all do everything else much better..

AFAIK, I am pretty sure the only recording and/or streaming programs that have any kind of actual in game rendered overlatys are Playclaw, Action (very limited), Dxtory(very limited), Gamecaster (somewhat limited), Afterburner (very limited), Bandicam (very limited) and D3Dgear (also very limited).

On the other hand, as far as I know OBS and Xsplit Broadcaster, and Gameshow all will not render a single overlay on your screen in game.

Playclaw 5 is kind of unique in it allows a wide variety of things to be rendered in game, and while Playclaw6 is currently behind in that area, it is planned to get better.
As far as the other streaming features... OBS and Xsplit, and even gamecaster (to a degree) are quite a bit better currently.

So, it really depends if you want in game rendered overlays IMO. If you do, there really is no substitute for an all in one solution like playclaw imo. On the other hand, if you don't, I'd just use OBS studio.

And if all you need is in game twitch chat on your screen that you can read while playing, well you can do that with restream io together with OBS.
But when you start wanting to see things like your camera, twitch stream, GPU usage, etc.. all in game, well playclaw shines as really the only game in town that does that as an all in one solution.

Yeah I can see that, I was asking as you can't find anything at all about playclaw online it's literally void of any reviews or anything I was tempted to get it to test it out compared to other software and I hate the UI of playclaw 6 so much it's making me consider not buying it I really do like the layout of playclaw 5 more.

I've got every single game recording software and easily the sleekest interface is action it's also the easiest to use. The program that affects gameplay performance the least is D3DGear by far.

I just wanted to know if playclaw was worth it considering all the other software I have and what it does uniquely that night be better than the others.

How is the performance when recording does it tank your performance much? I've got a high end system and it irritates me when I lose performance when I shouldn't have any issues whatsoever

[Koosemose]

@nine
Just to confirm, yes that's what I meant, I refer to both as overlays, in the case of OBS non-ingame overlays.

@[501st] AC/DC
To reiterate, I can't speak of Playclaw 6 specifically, as I primarily use PC5 for now (I rely heavily on my custom overlays). But with PC5 I have had little to no issues with performance effects from Playclaw on a mid-tier system (was high-end 4-5 years ago, but I haven't upgraded the hardware to keep up). The few times I've had any perceivable performance issues it is almost always a game that has issues with any recording (showing similar recording issues with other recording software, at least out of Bandicam and OBS, my two fallback programs), with only one game (I can't recall which anymore) that suffered performance wise with Playclaw that recorded fine in another program.

I have had a time or two where I've had an issue with some bug or another, but if reported, Edward (the dev) is usually pretty quick on getting a fix out, and typically the problem can be solved by rolling back the version (though I'm not sure if this is possible with the Steam version)... It's also possible some of those issues were in a beta version (I can't remember explicitly), so that should be drastically less of an issue if you stick to a release version.

I know this doesn't help much in choosing between PC5 and PC6, but as to the UI, most of the time you only have to work with the UI when setting up your recording settings, and otherwise will only be dealing with things in-game. I will note one major feature that PC6 has over PC5, and that's the ability to easily have duplicates of a specific overlay (i.e. two image overlays or two text overlays), in PC5 if you want to have duplicates, you have to go into the folder and manually create a copy of the plugin .dll, which can be a pain, particularly if you're not computer savvy.

[Chris]

I don't use overlays like at all so I don't think I care about what playclaw 6 has that 5 doesn't

[Koosemose]

Well, as much as I hate not directing someone towards my recording software of choice, if you don't use overlays, Playclaw may well not be the choice for you, that is it's "Killer" feature. Other than that it is on the same general level as most everything else that is out there, I find it performs nominally better than Bandicam, and its ability to put your audio into separate files puts it above OBS for me (but other software can do the same, so it is only pertinent if your choice was between OBS and PC).

One note is that the plugin system is capable of doing more than just overlays (however the default plugins are only overlays at this time, so it only matters to PC5 and PC6 after the API is added, as anything to make use of this would require someone to make a custom plugin). For example, one I use is to be able to mute my microphone with a hotkey, as my mic doesn't have a hardware mute button, and the main way to mute via software with a hotkey is unreliable for me (MicMute). Not to say that a mute hotkey is a decisive feature (I assume some other software can do the same), I only say that as an example of things that can be done with a plugin beyond overlays, but that also requires either being able to code it yourself, or finding someone willing and capable of coding a plugin capable of what you want.

[Chris]

I want to buy it but i think that i would just buy 5 cause i dont care about 6 and what it brings, d3dgear is all i need for separate audio files. And if i use my webcam i use action since its easy as dirt ti setup compared to what ive seen of playclaw.