Help streaming/gaming

[Aylee]

Ok so just built a new pc and i'm trying to stream in starcraft in 720p with max graphics. My fps is running around 25 when I'm trying to stream and the game is very jumpy. cpu usage hovers around 68-74%. Any ideas on what I can to to keep the game from being laggy while trying to stream?

Specs:

intil i5-4670 @ 3.40 GHz
8 GB memory
EVGA GTX 770

[tancients]

Stream at a lower resolution (downscale).

What are you using to stream? Different ones have different cpu usage as well.

[Aylee]

im using xsplit. The next lowest setting from 720p is 480p and I really don't wanna drop that low :/ although I haven't really played with the configurations much so there might be other options that's just what is available in the menus.

[tancients]

Try it that low and see. Not really familiar with cpu load on xsplit or Starcraft 2, but I do believe SC2 is CPU heavy, and streaming in general usually is. You could also see if there is an option to stream based on bandwidth or have the stream output be at a certain framerate, reducing the cpu load xsplit takes.

[Callisto]

You should also be able to do 768x432 which is what I use in low-bandwidth situations, it looks reasonably decent. What are your other settings in XSplit? The compression settings will also have an effect. When I was trying to stream PC games even when my CPU was more than capable of playing and streaming at the same time it would still force my in-game FPS down to whatever the capture FPS in XSplit was(30 max).

[tancients]

When I was trying to stream PC games even when my CPU was more than capable of playing and streaming at the same time it would still force my in-game FPS down to whatever the capture FPS in XSplit was(30 max).

Ouch. I thought they had done away with coding like that by now?

[Sonomaa]

I stream SC2 at 720p without issues. I have a 2600k, 16gb ram, and a 660TI. I use OBS instead of xsplit but I havent had any issues at all with quality or frame drops, even at max or close to max settings

[Callisto]

Ouch. I thought they had done away with coding like that by now?

They very well might have, I haven't tried to stream PC games in several months(usually stream from console) and I have a mediocre GPU at the moment so that also led to some of the bottlenecking I believe.

Also @ OP do you have the free version of XSplit? I have a premium license so I'm not sure what options are available in that which aren't in the free one, but if you turn down the compression a bit(that's what the 'Quality' setting is) it'll probably ease things up a tad.

[Aylee]

i have the full version atm. where do i go to find the quality setting and would lowering the fps improve or hurt it? i had it set to 30 fps and while streaming sc2 was running 25-30 fps.. when i quit around 125 fps. What is OBS also? and is it easy to use like xsplit with just selecting regions and using different scenes?

[Callisto]

OBS is free, not quite as robust as XSplit just yet. If you already have a premium license just stick with XSplit in most cases, but you can check it out at http://obsproject.org if you want to try it out and see if it plays nicer with SC2.

As far as XSplit options, I'll be home from work in about 2 hours if you don't get it figured out by then and can hop on BG Chat to help walk you through the settings real quick if you'd like.

[Aylee]

OBS is free, not quite as robust as XSplit just yet. If you already have a premium license just stick with XSplit in most cases, but you can check it out at http://obsproject.org if you want to try it out and see if it plays nicer with SC2.

As far as XSplit options, I'll be home from work in about 2 hours if you don't get it figured out by then and can hop on BG Chat to help walk you through the settings real quick if you'd like.

it is a cracked version so not that big of a deal I just really want to stream in 720p I tried the lower settings and didn't notice the lag just really bothers me having low quality are there amybsettings I can tweek?

[Aylee]

Trying to use OBS as suggested. Is there a way to switch between scenes without having to actually go into obs and click the other scene? Like with xsplit I can set hot keys. to do it

after trying to stream with obs im having a 70% frame rate drop guess its not ment to be

[Alderaan]

Is your actual game jumpy or is the stream?

[SamanosukeShiva]

a lot of the serious streamers actually got a separate card for streaming if that helps. Don't know what card they are talking about though.

[Callisto]

Capture cards are for streaming from an external video source, they're unnecessary for streaming PC games.

[Aylee]

Is your actual game jumpy or is the stream?

The stream was jumpy as hell but the game play was fine :/ with xsplit its the exact opposite. Although u was getting around 100 fps with obs 30 with xsplit

[Callisto]

There's a shitload of factors that go into making the stream jumpy, that can be anything from the actual CPU encoding things or the connection itself. On the encoding end there's basically three factors: the resolution, the capture FPS, and the compression. Lower resolution at lower compression can tend to be a bit more CPU friendly than higher resolution at higher compression and end up looking the same.

There's also the connection end, making sure that you are picking the optimal server to stream to, many times the default will be one located across the country from where you are, or even a closer one that's just busier(i.e. I live in the Chicago suburbs, but there's a ton of traffic to that server so usually I get much better results using Ashburn, VA or one of the Texas servers. Also if it helps at all I wrote this up a while back: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/108...-and-Justin.tv, while I've learned a bit more about some of the settings since then a lot of it is the same, though the actual way to change the settings is slightly different(in the channel settings there's a little gear symbol you click to access the preset options now).

Also, are you adding the game as a GameSource, or are you region capturing the game's window?

[Aylee]

There's a shitload of factors that go into making the stream jumpy, that can be anything from the actual CPU encoding things or the connection itself. On the encoding end there's basically three factors: the resolution, the capture FPS, and the compression. Lower resolution at lower compression can tend to be a bit more CPU friendly than higher resolution at higher compression and end up looking the same.

There's also the connection end, making sure that you are picking the optimal server to stream to, many times the default will be one located across the country from where you are, or even a closer one that's just busier(i.e. I live in the Chicago suburbs, but there's a ton of traffic to that server so usually I get much better results using Ashburn, VA or one of the Texas servers. Also if it helps at all I wrote this up a while back: http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/108...-and-Justin.tv, while I've learned a bit more about some of the settings since then a lot of it is the same, though the actual way to change the settings is slightly different(in the channel settings there's a little gear symbol you click to access the preset options now).

Also, are you adding the game as a GameSource, or are you region capturing the game's window?

I'm capturing each object its self, (messing around with adding picutres, layouts, and webcams, ext). I'll try the settings you mentioned and see if anything helps. One thing I did notice though is that every servery i try and test the bandwidth with comes back red. I have 5down .5 up. Is that the problem you think? everything else my internet company provides has a bandwidth cap of 50-100gb on and I easily break that between myself and my room mate.

edit: we have used 152GB in 24 days (without me streaming more than say a hour total)

[Callisto]

Yeah that's more likely the issue, bare minimum for a decent stream is yellow. .5 up is not a whole lot of space, 720 is probably pushing it on that.

[Gryffes]

I'm capturing each object its self, (messing around with adding picutres, layouts, and webcams, ext). I'll try the settings you mentioned and see if anything helps. One thing I did notice though is that every servery i try and test the bandwidth with comes back red. I have 5down .5 up. Is that the problem you think? everything else my internet company provides has a bandwidth cap of 50-100gb on and I easily break that between myself and my room mate.

edit: we have used 152GB in 24 days (without me streaming more than say a hour total)

You cannot even stream on .5 up at 720p
This is 100% one of the problems.
eg, when i had 1400kbs up, I could just about stream 720p if I dropped the quality/birate.

You need around 1700kbs+ for 720p and 3000kbs+ for 1080p.


Additionally you need to post what stream settings your attempting to use, in terms of: FPS, bitrate, res, encoding preset etc. ( You can probably stream in 480p at a slower preset on that cpu/upload combination ).