While recording a regular video game is fairly straightforward, it’s still fairly awkward to record VR.
You may run into a slew of technical issues that can be confusing and, often, highly frustrating.
That’s why we decided to compile some of the best approaches to take when you want to record virtual reality gameplay.
Quick Summary
This post explains:
- How to record VR with OBS?
- How to record VR with VRCapture?
- How to record VR with the Meta Quest 2?
So without further ado, let’s get into it.
How to Record VR with OBS?
One of the easiest ways to record any type of gameplay or even a recording of your screen is to do so with OBS.
OBS is open-source and completely free software that can be used to both records as well as stream gameplay. This can be regular video games or VR games.
You can download OBS from their website and install it to get started right now.
To record VR gameplay using OBS, follow these steps:
Step 1: Launch the VR game that you’d like to record gameplay of.
Step 2: Launch OBS.
Step 3: In the Scene on the bottom-left side of the OBS window, click the Plus symbol so you can “Add a Source”.
Step 4: A drop-down list will be presented to you; select “Game Capture”.
Step 5: A new window will open that will contain many options for you to choose what game you want to capture with OBS.
From the first drop-down list, choose “Capture Specific Window”. As you can imagine, this option will ensure that only the particular window for your VR game gets captured and nothing else.
Step 6: In the second drop-down list, you can choose the VR game that you’d like to capture.
Since you already have the VR game running, it will be visible in the drop-down list. Go ahead and select the VR game that you’d like to record gameplay of.
Step 8: Before you actually start recording, take a look inside the OBS preview window to see if everything is in order.
Make sure that the VR game window is centered and fitted properly in the OBS capture window. If it’s not, you can easily reshape and resize it to ensure it fits appropriately.
Step 9: Lastly, you must ensure that the sound is properly picked up by OBS as well.
You can check this by looking at the audio levels at the bottom of the OBS window. If you see the audio levels going up and down along with the music or sound effects of your VR game, that means the audio is being captured.
Step 10: After you ensure that the sound and video are being properly captured, go ahead and click on “Start Recording” to begin your recording.
Important note: If you don’t know where your recorded videos are being saved, they’ll be saved in your “Videos” folder by default. This is the default folder that is present within the user folder in your C:\ drive.
So, the default path (assuming that you have Windows installed in your C:\ drive) would be:
C:\users\[your username]\videos
If you wish to change the directory where your recordings get saved with OBS, it’s very easy to do so.
All you have to do is go to OBS settings and then go to the Output tab.
In that tab, simply change the recording path to whatever directory you want it to be.
How to Record VR with VRCapture?
If you don’t want to use OBS, you can also utilize an application called VRCapture that is easily available for free on Steam.
The app is entirely designed to record VR gameplay, and all of its menus are simple and easy to navigate. This makes it the perfect app for beginners and people that don’t know a whole lot about recording gameplay effectively.
This is in stark contrast to something like OBS, which does have a slight learning curve if you’re someone that has not delved into gameplay recording in the past.
Furthermore, another great thing about VRCapture is the fact that it offers all of its great features to users completely for free.
To record VR gameplay with VRCapture, follow these steps:
Step 1: Download and install VRCapture from the Steam Store.
Step 2: Run VRCapture.
Step 3: Turn your VR headset on, pair it, and run the VR game that you’d like to record gameplay of.
Step 4: Navigate to the VRCapture application, and in the top-right corner of the app, click on the Record button.
Step 5: Play the game and once you’re done getting all of the footage you need, navigate back to the VRCapture application and click on the Stop button.
Step 6: You’ll be able to see the video thumbnail after you hit the Stop button. You can click on the thumbnail to begin playback of the VR footage that you just captured.
You can also right-click on the thumbnail for different options. It includes the option to go to the particular location where the gameplay footage is saved on your PC as well.
This can be useful if you’d like to move the file elsewhere or would like to modify it in some other way.
VRCapture also allows you to share your videos online by clicking the Share button.
Important note: Make sure that your PC has the system requirements recommended to run VRCapture properly.
You’ll need an Intel i5-4590 processor or higher and at least 8 GB of RAM.
How to Record VR with the Meta Quest 2?
It’s actually super easy to record VR gameplay with the Meta Quest 2 as you don’t need any third-party app for it.
Follow these steps to record VR footage with the Meta Quest 2:
Step 1: Tap the Oculus button on your Touch controller to access the Oculus menu.
Step 2: From the lower menu that appears, choose the Pink-colored icon that says “Sharing”.
Step 3: The Sharing window will open, where you can see thumbnails that preview all the previous screenshots and videos that you made of your past gameplay.
In the top-right part of the window, click on the “Record Video” button.
Step 4: A window will appear that asks you if you want to include microphone audio in the recording as well.
Depending on the type of footage that you’d like to record, you can either turn this option on or off.
Once that’s done, click on “Start Recording”.
Wrapping Things Up…
As you can see, there are plenty of different ways through which you can record VR gameplay no matter what type of headset you have.
It’s a great way to get footage to share with your friends or for gaming clips that you could share on TikTok and Youtube.
How do you record your virtual reality gameplay? Let us know in the comments section below.
