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So the topic of "how do we put a video recorder in our game!" came up in a #gamedev Discord, and if you don't know:
1.) DO NOT use any of the Marketplace plugins. They almost all have ffmpeg quietly built in. Which leaves your ass hanging in the wind for litigation.
2.) This is crux of the problem. Well there's two. One is that ffmpeg the program is GPL so <sounds of your lawyers screaming>, the other is that the mp4 codec you probably want is itself being sat on by a fuckin patent troll: https://jina-liu.medium.com/settle-your-questions-about-h-264-license-cost-once-and-for-all-hopefully-a058c2149256
So just, seriously, do not. There's a reason almost nobody who isn't a software platform does in-game video recorders anymore, not even AAA.
If your boss asks for this feature, send them the documentation, and let them run it by their lawyers. Even odds that feature will quietly die, no matter how crucial it was.
@glassbottommeg the only "recorder features" I know of are in-engine event recorders that don't record the screen output but re-render it.
Kinda like #GMod, #SUPERHOT, #Trackmania Nations Forever and every other game that has a #replay / #sharing feature integrated.
This also reduces the amount of data, since it's just rendering directions and coordinates over time and not a videostream.
@glassbottommeg
BUT if you REALLY NEED IT:
Consider using #AV1 (#VP9 + #Opus) or #WebM (#VP8 + #Vorbis) since there are #BSD- & #MPL-licensed reference implementations for those AND they are #RoyalityFree & #PatentFree...
@kkarhan@mstdn.social@glassbottommeg even #SourceFilmMaker - AFAIK - doesn't spit out any #H264 / #MPEG4 stream but just plays the settings...