Direct3D: Recording to AVI files

Question

In follow up to my previous question, I am able to save the backbuffer of a Direct3DDevice to a surface.

I already found the D3DXSaveSurfaceToFile in the DirectX SDK and it works fine! However, I want to record the obtained surfaces to an AVI file.

I also found the AVIFile reference but they are obviously not straight up compatible with DirectX surfaces.

What would be the best way of approaching this problem? I've seen a number of GDI+/MVC based solutions of grabbing HDCs but those are out of the question. I'm also not sure what kind of data AVIFile expects and how to extract it from the D3DSurface.

Please advise! :)

edit:

Post-processing is also an option. I can capture the surface data in a number of formats, specified here, into memory with D3DXSaveSurfaceToFileInMemory. Afterwards, I could compress this data and then store to disk.

How should I be compressing my data? How should I be storing it? Do I store a timestamp along with it? After recording, how should I turn the generated data into an AVI file?

Answer 1

The source code at this link will show you how to do it:

http://gpalem.web.officelive.com/SimulationRecording.html

Edit: Well you don't have to do things exactly like that linked code. You have a D3DSurface so you can just lock it grab the bits and pass them into CAviFile::AppendFrameUsual ... If you want to change its format then use D3DXLoadSurfaceFromSurface. I didn't say the link was a perfect solution but it DOES show you how to write the frames into an AVi file.

Edit2: As I didn't answer your edit I should do. Firstly don't bother with compression until you have got uncompressed working. Compression is a significantly more complicated thing to get right and you won't be able to get proper compression by simply using the various D3DXSurface copying functions. They don't support the kinds of compression you are after. D3DX is for 3D rendering and NOT for video compression.

For video compression you are best off using DirectShow as you can, simply, add any compressors you wish. This will however mean you'll need to write a "source filter" that you can build your graph off. DirectShow is not an easy thing to use but its very powerful. As far as writing the "source filter" goes you can check out the "Push Source" example in the windows SDK. You will need to adapt it to take the data you are retrieving however.

As an aside, going further on my original edit you could use that code as is by intercepting more D3D9 calls. If you hook the SetRenderTarget calls then you can insert whatever render target you like in there and use the, previously, linked code directly ...