"Every screen deserves to be recorded."
Built by MaxRBLX1

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What is RetroRec?

RetroRec is a free, portable, and invisible screen recorder for Windows. It captures your desktop (or game) at a smooth 60 fps with system audio, then converts the recording into a compact, high‑quality file — all without slowing down your computer.

No GPU? No problem. Old laptop? It works. RetroRec is designed to run on any Windows 10/11 PC, from a dual‑core budget machine to a high‑end workstation.

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Quick Start

1. Download and extract the RetroRec.zip package.
2. Make sure ffmpeg.exe is in the same folder as RetroRec.exe.
3. Double‑click RetroRec.exe – a small always‑on‑top window appears.
4. Press your configured hotkey (default F10) to start recording.
5. Press the same hotkey again to stop.
6. Wait a few seconds for the post‑processing, and your video opens automatically in Explorer.

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The Ghost Philosophy

RetroRec works differently from other recorders. Instead of encoding everything in real time, it utilizes a two-stage pipeline to ensure no lag while recording, even on weak hardware:

1. Captures the screen using Windows Graphics Capture — zero‑copy GPU texture access, no performance hit.
2. Encodes to MPEG‑4 Part 2 — a lightweight codec that uses minimal CPU and produces small files during capture.
3. Skips duplicate frames when your screen is static — saving disk space and CPU cycles.
4. Converts to x264 after you press stop — creating a compact, high‑quality file when your system is idle.

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🎮 A Note on PC Gaming & The Road to v2.0

While RetroRec v1.3 is the ultimate master of desktop, browser, window, and emulator recording, it is not optimized for heavy PC gaming yet. Here is the technical reality:

• The Exclusive Fullscreen Bottleneck: RetroRec v1.3 captures frames via Windows Graphics Capture (gfxcapture), which hooks into the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). When a high-performance PC game runs in Exclusive Fullscreen mode, it completely bypasses the DWM to talk to your graphics card directly. Because the game hides from the Windows desktop compositor, v1.3 will often record a black screen or a frozen frame.
• The Frame-Rate Tug-of-War: If a game is maxing out your GPU to output ultra-high frame rates, it leaves zero processing queues open for standard Windows OS capture APIs, causing micro-stutters.

🚀 Coming in RetroRec v2.0: True Game Capture

To bypass this limitation entirely, RetroRec v2.0 will introduce a dedicated Graphics API Injection Engine. Instead of asking Windows for the desktop, v2.0 will safely inject a lightweight hook into Direct3D 11/12 and Vulkan runtimes. This will capture frames directly from the game's internal swap chain before it hits the screen—delivering flawless, zero-lag 60 FPS recording for full-screen games, completely immune to hardware boundaries.

Until v2.0 drops, you can record games in v1.3 by switching your game's video settings from "Exclusive Fullscreen" to "Borderless Windowed" mode!

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Features

• 60 fps smooth capture using Windows Graphics Capture (gfxcapture).
• System audio recording via WASAPI loopback with hardware QPC timestamps — perfect sync, no extra drivers.
• MPEG‑4 Part 2 live encoding — 76% smaller files than MJPEG, same CPU usage.
• Variable Frame Rate (VFR) — only encodes frames when the screen changes.
• Zero‑config auto‑tuning — RetroRec detects your CPU cores and adjusts quality automatically.
• Live INI reload — change hotkeys or settings while RetroRec is running.
• Settings button — opens the config file in Notepad.
• Orphaned temp file cleanup — removes leftover files from crashed recordings.
• Portable — runs from a USB stick, no installation.
• Configurable hotkeys (F1‑F12 or Ctrl+Letter).
• Open‑source — you can read, modify, and share the code.

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System Requirements

Component	Minimum Requirement
Operating System	Windows 10 version 1803 or later / Windows 11
CPU	Any dual‑core x86_64 processor
RAM	4 GB
GPU	Any graphics adapter that displays Windows
Storage	Any HDD or SSD

*No dedicated GPU or GPU hardware encoding required.

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Configuration

All settings are stored in the RetroRec.ini file next to the executable. You can edit it while RetroRec is running — changes take effect immediately.

[Settings]
; Hotkey to start/stop recording (F1-F12, or a single letter for Ctrl+Letter)
Hotkey=F10

; Hotkey to pause/resume (same format as Hotkey)
; NOTE: Pause is currently disabled in v1.3 and will be implemented in v1.4
PauseHotkey=P

; Convert to a compact x264 file after recording (yes/no)
ConvertAfterRecording=yes

; x264 preset (fast = quicker, medium = slightly better quality)
ConvertPreset=fast

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Recording Output

Recordings are saved in your Videos\RetroRec folder by default. After stopping, you'll find:

• RetroRec_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mkv — The final video.
• The intermediate temporary file (_temp.mkv) is automatically deleted after conversion.
• Orphaned temp files from crashes are cleaned up on the next launch.

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Troubleshooting

"ffmpeg.exe not found!"

Make sure ffmpeg.exe is in the exact same folder as RetroRec.exe.

No audio in the recording?

• Check that your system sound is not muted.
• RetroRec uses the default playback device — make sure it’s set correctly in Windows Sound settings.

Recording is lagging or stuttering?

• RetroRec auto‑tunes for your CPU. On dual‑core systems, it intentionally uses 1 encoding thread — this is normal and should still maintain 55+ FPS.
• Close other CPU‑intensive applications while recording.

The yellow border doesn’t appear?

This may happen on older Windows 10 builds. The recording still works — the border is a visual indicator only.

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Building from Source

If you want to compile RetroRec yourself:

Requirements

• GCC (MinGW‑w64 UCRT64) or MSVC
• Windows SDK

Linker Libraries

avrt.lib, ole32.lib, comctl32.lib, ksuser.lib

Compile Command

g++ -std=c++17 -O2 -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 \
    -o RetroRec.exe src/RetroRec.cpp \
    -lcomctl32 -lshell32 -luser32 -lgdi32 -lkernel32 \
    -ladvapi32 -lole32 -luuid -lksuser -lavrt

	cl /std:c++17 /O2 /D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 /EHsc /Fe:RetroRec.exe src\RetroRec.cpp /link /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS comctl32.lib shell32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib kernel32.lib advapi32.lib ole32.lib uuid.lib ksuser.lib avrt.lib windowsapp.lib

⚠️ Important: The -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 flag is strictly required. Without it, the binary targets Windows XP compatibility, causing the recording pipeline to fail with 0 FPS.

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Technical Details

• Capture: Windows Graphics Capture (gfxcapture) with D3D11 hardware download.
• Live Codec: MPEG‑4 Part 2 (mpeg4), quality value 5, VFR mode.
• Audio: WASAPI loopback, event‑driven, MMCSS real‑time priority.
• Post‑Convert: x264 ultrafast preset, CRF auto‑tuned by CPU cores.
• Container: Matroska (.mkv) — crash‑safe.

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License & Credits

• RetroRec is free software. Use it, modify it, and share it.
• Built by MaxRBLX1.
• Powered by FFmpeg. Audio capture based on Microsoft WASAPI sample code.