Add recording to memory instead of disk

[xPaw]

I'd prefer to avoid taking a hit on SSD endurance by not writing constantly to it, I have enough RAM available to keep the recordings in memory until saved.

[GE-0]

Originally posted by tyl0413:

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

Most people don't suffer power outage so maybe save to RAM is good option for them. I have 32GB of memory, doubt if it is enough for even 1-2 hr session on ultra. also many people i know don't have more than 16gb of Ram. also if you have more ram surely you can afford new SSDs.

Obviously no one is gonna record completely to RAM, thats stupid, its not for making 1hr recordings, its to save SSD life for small clips. OBS Replay Buffer estimates 13GB for 1hr btw, again you shouldn't ever save that much to RAM but it sounds reasonable to me considering how high my recording settings are.

The main purpose is for saving "instant replays" WHEN something interesting happens, without storing your entire sessions on disk.

[Scarebear]

Originally posted by xPaw:

I'd prefer to avoid taking a hit on SSD endurance by not writing constantly to it, I have enough RAM available to keep the recordings in memory until saved.

This post is so dumb.

A: sequential writing to an SSD is not going to hurt it, the fear you have is for using your SSD as swapstorage or having a pagefile write and rewrite data. This is not it.

B: in your ignorance you fail to see that the implementation is the way it is due to the installbase.

C: it would be nice to have but not an issure.

[tyl0413]

Originally posted by Scarebear:

Originally posted by xPaw:

I'd prefer to avoid taking a hit on SSD endurance by not writing constantly to it, I have enough RAM available to keep the recordings in memory until saved.

This post is so dumb.

A: sequential writing to an SSD is not going to hurt it, the fear you have is for using your SSD as swapstorage or having a pagefile write and rewrite data. This is not it.

B: in your ignorance you fail to see that the implementation is the way it is due to the installbase.

C: it would be nice to have but not an issure.

It is an major issue, I nearly killed an SSD before I realized I let ShadowPlay Instant Replay write hundreds of useless TBs to it for no good reason.

[erratic_gamer]

Originally posted by tyl0413:

Originally posted by Scarebear:

This post is so dumb.

A: sequential writing to an SSD is not going to hurt it, the fear you have is for using your SSD as swapstorage or having a pagefile write and rewrite data. This is not it.

B: in your ignorance you fail to see that the implementation is the way it is due to the installbase.

C: it would be nice to have but not an issure.

It is an major issue, I nearly killed an SSD before I realized I let ShadowPlay Instant Replay write hundreds of useless TBs to it for no good reason.

if you use RAM instead, won't RAM get hammered?

[tyl0413]

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

Originally posted by tyl0413:

It is an major issue, I nearly killed an SSD before I realized I let ShadowPlay Instant Replay write hundreds of useless TBs to it for no good reason.

if you use RAM instead, won't RAM get hammered?

RAM is basically infinitely rewritable unlike SSDs which have very limited rewrites, whole point of RAM is that you're constantly rewriting it, theres a reason why its way faster and more expensive than SSDs.

[erratic_gamer]

Originally posted by tyl0413:

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

if you use RAM instead, won't RAM get hammered?

RAM is basically infinitely rewritable unlike SSDs which have very limited rewrites, whole point of RAM is that you're constantly rewriting it, theres a reason why its way faster and more expensive than SSDs.

im pretty sure that RAM being volatile is not a good place to save video clips, that is just not how RAM works.

[tyl0413]

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

Originally posted by tyl0413:

RAM is basically infinitely rewritable unlike SSDs which have very limited rewrites, whole point of RAM is that you're constantly rewriting it, theres a reason why its way faster and more expensive than SSDs.

im pretty sure that RAM being volatile is not a good place to save video clips, that is just not how RAM works.

Its exactly meant for temporary storage, so recording constantly in the background to it instead of killing your SSD and saving the last however many seconds minutes you actually wanna keep to storage.

[Happyllama25]

Originally posted by ran:

YUP. Not to mention there's no HEVC support so encoding with AVC so there's more wasted space for not much performance benefit.

Isn't H.265 HEVC? They are both the same standard

[Gractus]

Originally posted by Happyllama25:

Originally posted by ran:

YUP. Not to mention there's no HEVC support so encoding with AVC so there's more wasted space for not much performance benefit.

Isn't H.265 HEVC? They are both the same standard

That comment was from 6 months ago when Steam Recording was still in beta. I'm not sure that HEVC was supported back then.

[Wreighn]

As someone coming from AMD ReLive, I think this is a must have. On my Linux setup, I've changed the dir to /tmp. Maybe something of sorts exists for Windows users too.
+1

[erratic_gamer]

Originally posted by Wreighn:

As someone coming from AMD ReLive, I think this is a must have.
+1

has AMD managed to implement this feature?

[Wreighn]

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

Originally posted by Wreighn:

As someone coming from AMD ReLive, I think this is a must have.
+1

has AMD managed to implement this feature?

Yes. They have an option to save the buffer to memory.

[erratic_gamer]

Originally posted by Wreighn:

Originally posted by erratic_gamer:

has AMD managed to implement this feature?

Yes. They have an option to save the buffer to memory.

Awesome. I haven't owned AMD GPU since 2017.

[dumbyoyo]

Originally posted by tyl0413:

I mean i could just use a HDD for temporary recording drive but I have all of them in NASes and only use leftover SSDs for that purpose instead as they're bad for actual long term storage, still it makes no sense to intentionally kill it, I'd say anyone who plans to use this a lot if it makes sense for your setup just buy a HDD instead for recording.

I've already killed one hard drive that I was using for the built in nvidia replay buffer. I'm now using the OBS RAM-based replay buffer.
+1 to OP, I would also love if steam implemented a similar option for a RAM-based replay buffer (i usually only do 5-10 minutes and have plenty of ram).

[dkid00]

I'm currently using a program on Windows called ImDisk Toolkit, which lets you create RAM disks; then you change Steam's video recording settings to save to those RAM disks (which Windows and other programs such as Steam just see as normal local storage drives).

I just let the Steam video recording going on the background when I'm playing, and if anything noteworthy happens ingame, I just use Steam overlay to make a clip and save the video.

Keep in mind that the data stored in RAM disks is cleared when the computer restarts or shuts down, so if you want to keep anything you've recorded, save it to physical local storage before restarting or shutting down your PC.