Pyxels is simply just a python script (and optional barebones PHP script) utilizing powers of ffmpeg on Linux systems.
It is capable of three things:
- screenshots
- recording
- watching (like Nvidia's Shadow-Play - no longer current name but mostly recognizable)
- screenshot
- recording video
- buffer last minutes (aka shadow-play)
- custom framerate
- custom buffer time (for watch mode)
- possibility to save buffered video in parts or as single file
- auto-upload via http (with authorization)
- region selection
- setable encoder (defaults to h264_nvenc, so if you don't like it or have no GPU support - change it)
- if set correctly - many instances can be run at once
- easy to enable audio capture (with both: Alsa and PulseAudio)
- simple web editor for screenshots (part of PHP script)
Script is written in Python 3 with use of modules that you may most likely need to install such as:
- pexpect
- Xlib
- requests
To enable auto-upload and web-editor features you need:
- HTTP server with PHP
You may lack something else, I am not really sure what there is by default and what is not, python is not even my language.
The core feature - screen capture is done thanks to ffmpeg, so you need this installed. By default video codec h264_nvenc is used, which may or may not be available in your ffmpeg version. If you do not have ffmpeg with that codec enabled and your graphics card supports it (gtx 660 and up) then I recommend to compile ffmpeg yourself with support for it (useful if you want to capture some of your games without impact on performance). Colors quality with h264_nvenc is not best, however should be fine if it's for simple, home use.
Any way to execute shell commands with keybinds is highly recommended as pyxels does not come with built-in hot-keys support, it is controlled with signals instead (read installation for details).
Once you have dependencies installed there should be nothing left to do, but launch pyxels in terminal. You may want to make symbolic link inside bin directory for easy access. If you are planning to use watch mode you should consider having your /tmp mounted in RAM - most distributions nowadays do it by default, however it might be good for your disk life to check it. On the other hand you may have limited RAM, then you have two options: override default buffer location or mount /tmp on disk.
Finally, run it once (without arguments) to see if requirmenets are met.
Then,
use your window mananager or some sort of program to bind commands controlling video capture:
- pkill -RTMIN+5 pyxels
- pkill -RTMIN+6 pyxels
The first one is used to save video buffered in watch mode, the other stops both: recording and watch mode. These are signals set by default, it is possible to overwrite them (--ss and --ws accordingly) to make running multiple instances possible (for example when you run watch mode all the time in background and trying to use video capture as standalone function).
Test all three actions to ensure they work fine then proceed to binding screenshot / video capture etc. as you like.
Very basic PHP script included along is optional and used just in case you need auto-upload. Simply put it on your http(s) server, then (you should, but not have to) setup htaccess to require basic HTTP authorization to this script and create uploads directory (or different, edit pyxels.php as you wish).
There is --help included, however some things are left undocumented and also I know some people are a bit scared of command-line tools, so I will cover some basic things here:
The most simple way to make use of pyxels is:
pyxels screenshot /path/to/output.png
or
pyxels record /path/to/output.mp4
or
pyxels watch /path/to/whatever.mp4
In case of watch: files are stored in different manner. Saved video is stored as series of 1-minute long clips (no worries, there are no frames lost between) in directory specified as output, filename is not used - you have to specify it anyway. Clips are named with date, time and order number. You can however set --merge flag to save result as one file. I did not test it with any format but mp4, so it most likely does not work in every scenario yet.
You can also automatically name files in other modes, instead of filename use word auto. File extension is still required as output format is based on this - and that brings us to choosing format - that is determined automatically by extension. So if you need quality screenshots save them for example as png, otherwise use jpg.
Any action can be used along with selecting captured screen area, to enable picker add -r flag before action. Example:
pyxels -r screenshot area.jpg
Right-click or any keyboard input causes exit.
Auto-upload requires some server-side acceptor program, you can write your own, adapt existing or just use that simple php script included. Let's assume you have your server setup, to upload captured file use:
pyxels -s https://yourserver.addr/pyxels.php -u authName -p authPass record auto.mp4
If everything went okay, pyxels opens web browser with uploaded resource. HTTP auth is not required but you really should set it up, or eventually use your custom auth implementation. Leaving it unprotected would let someone to upload whatever he likes to your server - one may upload some executable there which would be terrible - I think I don't have to say it, but better waste some letters than sorry.
Feel free to suggest features, changes or even make your own pull request!
per session signals (so you can run watch and video recording without collision)optional audio recording- easy to setup VAAPI/VDPAU encoding as default option (good performance on wider range of hardware)
- better web-editor