How to save the last 30 seconds of gameplay on Windows, with one key

How clipping works

Normal recording starts when you press a button. Clipping works the other way round: Timeline keeps the last few minutes ready on your disk, all the time, and when you press the clip key it saves that stretch straight away. This is often called a replay buffer or instant replay.

The buffer is stored on disk in short pieces, so it uses almost no memory. Clips are saved instantly, without re-encoding, so the file is ready the moment you press the key.

Turn it on

1. Open Timeline and switch to the Recorder tab.
2. Turn on the Clip buffer switch next to the Save clip button. The buffer starts filling, and the bar under Save clip shows how full it is.
3. Optional: in Settings, General, turn on Auto start Timeline and in the Recorder's More tab Start clipping when Timeline starts, so you always have the last seconds ready.

Choose how long a clip is

In the Recorder's Clips tab, pick the Clip length: 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes or 5 minutes. For something in between, use the Custom length slider, from 5 seconds up to 10 minutes. Under the slider Timeline tells you roughly how big a clip will be at your current quality.

A longer buffer costs more disk space while it runs, not memory. The Recorder shows how much room clips and recordings will take.

Save a clip

Press AltF10. You hear a short sound and a small pop-up appears with Open clip and Show in folder. That is all: no editing step, and no recording had to be running.

• Change the key in the Recorder's Keys tab. If another program has already taken it, see fixing a hotkey conflict.
• Clips go in the folder set under Save clips to in the More tab.
• Open a clip in the player and trim it, or upload and share the link.

Clipping and recording at the same time

They are independent. You can record a whole session with AltF11 (stop with AltF12) and still press AltF10 to cut out the highlights as they happen.