VICEInstant replay
for Linux.

The key overlay in this clip is illustrative. It was added for this page, not recorded with the clip.

Press a key and the last 20 seconds become a clip. Trim it, edit it, or send it as a link that plays in Discord.

yay -S vice-clipper

git clone https://github.com/splitshotz/Vice && cd Vice && ./install.sh

inputs.vice.url = "github:splitshotz/Vice";

Free and open source, GPL-3.0
X11 and Wayland, NVIDIA, AMD and Intel
Version 2.15, what's new

The Vice window: quick settings for the microphone, desktop audio, public link and Game Capture, above a row of recent clips

Show your keys.

A keyboard overlay for streams and clips, drawn over your game in your Vice colour. Pick a corner or drag it anywhere. Vice can also keep the keys with each clip, to show in the viewer or burn into an editor export.

WASDShiftSpace Go on, press them.

Or try a colour

Only the panel's own keys are read, and it is off until you turn it on. Needs X11, or KDE Plasma, Hyprland, Sway or Niri on Wayland.

A frame from The Finals with the Vice keyboard overlay in the lower left

Cut the montage without leaving Vice.

Drop clips on a timeline, trim and arrange them, add titles and transitions, then export an MP4. One switch makes it fit Discord's upload limit.

Crossfade
Fade to black
Fade to white
Dip to accent
Blur dissolve
Slide

The Vice editor with five clips on a timeline, transitions between them and a title over the preview

Your game keeps its frame rate.

Recording runs on the part of your graphics card made for video, not on the cores your game needs, so leaving Vice on costs you less than 1% of your frame rate. NVIDIA, AMD and Intel all work.

<1%off your frame rate

144fps, if your game runs it

AV1smaller files, same quality

Set it up your way

Every sound on its own track. Game, voice chat and mic recorded separately, each with its own volume.
The game window or the whole screen. One tile on Home switches between them, so Discord and notifications can stay out.
Any key, any length. Your own combos, and extra keys that each save a different length.
Quality where you want it. Frame rate, resolution, codec and 10-bit colour, or leave it on Auto.

Every clip, filed under the game it came from.

Vice knows hundreds of games and files each clip into a playlist for the one you were playing. Make your own playlists too, rename anything, and find any clip from the sidebar.

All Clips in Vice: a grid of thumbnails from Counter-Strike 2, Minecraft and The Finals, with game playlists in the sidebar

The trim window, with Save as new clip as the main button

Trim keeps the original. Your selection saves as a new clip.
Your own playlists, with an emoji and a colour. Drag clips onto them.
Copy video puts the file itself on your clipboard, to paste anywhere.
Rich Presence shows the game you are clipping on Discord, with its icon.

A clip open in the Vice viewer, with the keys pressed shown over the video and a highlight marked on the timeline

Not only for games.

Vice records whatever is on your screen. Double-tap your clip key to record until you press it again, for a tutorial, a bug report or a call you need to keep, and mark the moments that matter as you go.

Streaming

Run Vice beside OBS. The overlay puts your keys on stream, Game Capture keeps Discord off it, and one key catches the moment you want to post later.

Everything else

Whole-screen sessions in one file, a screenshot key with a pen for marking things up, and Follow my mouse to record the monitor you are working on.

Press the key after it happens.

Vice holds the last two minutes in memory, so you never have to remember to start recording before the good part. Press your clip key and the last 20 seconds become a clip. The key, the length and the buffer are all yours to set. Until you press it, nothing is written to disk.

Kept

Play or work. Vice keeps the last two minutes in memory. Your frame rate drops by less than 1%.
Press your key. F9 unless you pick another. The last 20 seconds save as a clip, and a double-tap records a whole match.
Keep it or send it. Trim it, edit it, file it in a playlist, or copy its link.

And the rest of it.

For tinkerers

Hotkeys read from the keyboard itself, so they work in fullscreen games and on every Wayland desktop.
Clip presets: extra keys that each save their own length.
A blocklist for games that need the same keys.
Your own recorder flags, and a vice command for scripts.

For streamers

Your keys on stream, in your colour, anywhere on screen.
Only the game in the shot, with Discord and notifications left out.
Mic, game and chat on separate tracks, each with its own volume.
Sounds that tell you a clip saved or failed, without looking.

For everyone

Five colour schemes, the ones from the top of this page.
Four languages, translated by people who use Vice.
Older NVIDIA cards still record without slowing the game.
Nothing phones home. No account, no telemetry, and GPL-3.0 source.

Where it runs.

Recording works on NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics, on X11 and on Wayland. Game detection and the overlay depend on what your desktop lets Vice see.

Desktop	Recording	Game detection	Keyboard overlay
Hyprland	Yes	Yes	Yes
KDE Plasma, Wayland	Yes	With kdotool	Yes
Sway	Yes	Yes	Yes
Niri	Yes	Yes	Yes
GNOME, Wayland	Yes	XWayland games	No
Any X11 desktop	Yes	Yes	Yes

Install it.
Pick a key.

Arch and derivatives

From the AUR. Updates arrive with the rest of your system.