Question / Help Better quality during 60fps

[dramabomb]

http://www.twitch.tv/thedigitalbench/b/355789985

I streamed PoE for an hour or so, and while I feel the image quality is good, the motion could be smoother. Can I attain this by dropping the Quality down to 7, or is there another issue I am not seeing?

Log file:

Open Broadcaster Software v0.466a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
CPU Speed: 3300MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 4095MB Free
stepping id: 7, model 10, family 6, type 0, extmodel 1, extfamily 0, HTT 1, logical cores 4, total cores 4
Windows Version: 6.1 Build 7601 S
Aero is Disabled
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti  
  Video Adapter Dedicated Video Memory: 1025966080
  Video Adapter Shared System Memory: 3221106688
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1080
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 128
Using graphics capture
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 60
    width: 1280, height: 720
    preset: veryfast
    CBR: no
    max bitrate: 3500
    buffer size: 3500
    quality: 8
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 53, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1080
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 128
Using graphics capture
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 60
    width: 1280, height: 720
    preset: veryfast
    CBR: no
    max bitrate: 3500
    buffer size: 3500
    quality: 8
------------------------------------------
SharedTexCapture hooked
Total frames rendered: 175, number of frames that lagged: 6 (3.43%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1080
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 128
Using graphics capture
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 60
    width: 1280, height: 720
    preset: veryfast
    CBR: no
    max bitrate: 3500
    buffer size: 3500
    quality: 8
------------------------------------------
SharedTexCapture hooked
Using RTMP service: Twitch / Justin.tv
  Server selection: rtmp://live-iad.justin.tv/app
bufferTime: 1431, outputRateWindowTime: 1000, dropThreshold: 1931
Total frames rendered: 227212, number of frames that lagged: 54 (0.02%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
RTMPPublisher::SocketLoop: Aborting due to bStopping
Number of b-frames dropped: 0 (0%), Number of p-frames dropped: 0 (0%), Total 0 (0%)
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 2.133 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 83.4%] [unaccounted: 16.6%]
| scene->Preprocess - [0.188%] [avg time: 0.004 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [83.2%] [avg time: 1.774 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 41.9%] [unaccounted: 41.3%]
| | CopyResource - [0.703%] [avg time: 0.015 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.234%] [avg time: 0.005 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | call to encoder - [40.2%] [avg time: 0.857 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | sending stuff out - [0.75%] [avg time: 0.016 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

 

[Haliinen]

The quality balance has nothing to do with how smooth your stream is, but provides better image quality on static scenes the higher it is. You can try a quality balance of 10 since you're streaming at a pretty high bitrate, it should not by any circumstances be a pixelation city if you keep the quality balance high with a high bitrate, since you also seem to stream a game which isn't as motion heavy as shooters I'd say that upping the quality balance should be a safe enhancement while still retaining a good quality with that given bitrate. Is your game by any chance running at 60 fps constantly as well, or above? Anyway, you should not touch the preset since you're streaming at 60 fps, it doubles the CPU usage from 30 fps, so keep that in mind, leave the preset alone at very fast so your game has some CPU cycles to spare. Your stream looks pretty good already by the way, I had a look at the VOD and it looks pretty good.

 

[Lain]

You're actually good on all fronts as far as I can tell. What I think the problem is is that your FPS seems to drop a little bit during movement but that's about all I could really see. Could be more an issue with the game than the stream, not sure.

 

[dramabomb]

Yeah, that's my exact issue. In game I get absolutely 0 frame rate drop, thanks to how awesome OBS is. Are there any settings I could adjust to minimize the very minuscule amount of FPS drop I'm seeing?

You're probably right on it being an issue with the game. It's still in closed beta so I'm sure more optimization is coming.

 

[Haliinen]

Your settings look fine, there's probably little you can do to fix it to be honest. You could try to stream something else at 60 fps and see what the outcome is, just a suggestion.

 

[Bensam123]

Yeah, what Jim said... The little bit of jerkiness is probably caused by you simply overloading your system... More then likely you could lower the streaming FPS and that would fix this (depending on if this is CPU or GPU lag). If it's GPU lag, then turning down your graphical settings in game may help. Turning down graphical settings in game may help if it's CPU lag as well as it may lower the amount of action on the screen can consequently the amount of action you need to encode. Your stream looks pretty good regardless.

Monitoring your FPS and your CPU usage would be a good way to figure out what exactly is doing it. You can use something like resource monitor and fraps if the game doesn't have a built in monitor. I use dxtory which is quite helpful in that regard.