Setting Up ShadowPlay

Let's look at how to utilize the video and audio capture capabilities of Shadowplay, the requirements to get the program, and how to actually get it and use it.

Recommended Channel Size: Any

What You Need:

Windows 7 or higher
GeForce GTX 650 or higher GPU (must be GeForce)

Summary of Shadowplay

Shadowplay could possibly be the greatest free screen recording software. You can record up to 4K at 60fps.
While the files created by Shadowplay may be a little large, it doesn’t compare to the monstrous ones created by Fraps. I was able to record 1080p60 video for 3 hours and ended up with about 45 GB of video data (that’s really small for 3 hours).
It has a simple interface, unlike OBS and other complex programs. More on that later.
Finally, it works really well to not drop your fps when recording or using “Instant Replay.”
- The con is that only users that meet certain system requirements can use the software.

System Requirements

Go over the system requirements for getting Shadowplay to make sure that you are eligible for the application.

The application is only available for Windows users with a GPU of GeForce GTX 650 or higher.

Installing the program

There is a good chance that you already have GeForce Experience (comes with Shadowplay) already installed! If not, follow the directions below.

Go to any browser and search for GeForce Experience. The website you should be downloading this from is www.geforce.com.
Install the program just like any other program and launch it. You should now have Shadowplay

Settings and Interface

To get to the Shadowplay interface, press Alt+Z. You should see three large buttons in the middle saying Instant Replay, Record, and Broadcast, a button to the right saying Gallery, and three smaller buttons for customization and settings.
In this tutorial, we will only be going through basic recording functions.

Recording Video and Instant Replay

There are two ways of recording video with shadowplay: recording video normally and “Instant Replay.”

But, before you can start on your fantastic let’s plays (or whatever else), let's go over some of the settings and customizations.

To customize the quality of the video when recording normally, click on the “Record” button, then click customize.
From here, you can choose from quality pre-sets or create your own settings. Click save when you have chosen your settings.
Now, when you want to begin recording, you can click the “Record” button again, and then click “Start.”
Now to access the customizations for “Instant Replay,” just click on the “Instant Replay” button, and click customize.
You will notice that it looks very similar to the other customize page, but in this one, there is an extra setting for replay length.

What “Instant Replay” does is that, when turned on, it allows you to record the past few minutes. For example, you can keep it turned on while playing CS:GO so that when you get an Ace, you can create a clip that saves the events that happened.
You might want to play around with the replay length to your liking. I keep mine at about 2.5 minutes.
- I should also mention that if you have “Instant Replay” on and you decide to start recording, then ShadowPlay will start recording and include the replay length into one video!

Learn More

Final thoughts

I hope this tutorial wasn’t too long yet explained all the necessary information you need to be able to utilize ShadowPlay to its fullest potential. If you have any questions at all, feel free to contact me below.

Puer August 22nd, 2017