Question / Help Cannot make OBS work

[Belial88]

Athlon ii X4 3.41 ghz
4GB RAM
Sanyo DP19640 18.5" monitor, 1360x768 resolution
GTX 460
~10-20 down/4+ up

Settings:
2500-3000 vbvmax/buffer (i usually am at 2500, but ive tried 3k too)
Tested multiple servers, used jtvping to know average/jitter on each server.
I usually stream at 1158x654 resolution (xsplit wont allow past 720, my monitor doesnt fit 720 well at all, so its a very minor step down of the same aspect ratio), but knowing that downscaling comes at a cost, I've also tested my default 1360x768.
AAC-LC 96000
Default veryfast, and superfast
Quality 10 (tried lower ones too)


I would really like to make OBS work - it seems like my fps is much higher than with xsplit (which works just fine for me, but always looking for more performance of course, especially given my low end system). But not very far into a game, I get a weird lag... it mostly presents itself as this sort of input lag, where when I press certain keyboard buttons, particularly ones I have to hold down or spam, the command either won't go through or won't respond. I've even had times where I simply couldn't type out a message. It only occurs in multiplayer, not in local recording, and not even when I play a custom game by myself to test out playing online.

I'm really not sure what the issue is, I've tweaked a ton of things.

Here's my stream, some examples vods of what's going on, and what my stream normally is. You can see in the top left I have stuff like fps, gpu load, etc up, that may be helpful.

Using Xsplit, working just fine: http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335147528
Using OBS, me talking about it failing and it actually failing, http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335485000 (watch the last minute or so) (2500/2500vbv, superfast, 1158x654)

You can see even when I'm getting lag, the stream looks okay, my fps is still very high...

Thanks.

 

[Lain]

turn down the "send buffer size" in advanced settings. it's actually a bit too high at 32k currently, I need to lower the default value. try 8196 or 4096, should solve the problem.

 

[Belial88]

Wow, how did you know that was the issue? What would happen if I just turned off 'send network buffer'? I set it to the lowest here:

http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335616575

And I still have some issues. Here's the exact settings I had this run:
2500/2500
AAC-LC 96000
10 Quality
1360x768 resolution (Stream resolution - 1158 x 654)
Veryfast
Send Buffer size reduced to lowest option, 8192

Everything was great on my end, but when I watched the vod of it, it looks like there's some delay. I'm not sure what the right word would be, but every 5 or so seconds it seems, the vod freezes for a split second and then jumps forward a bit (back to live to catch up i guess). Just every 5 seconds or so, a slight pause, regardless of what was going on in the game/stream.

I didn't notice it when I was streaming at all. All my system stats are displayed in the top left (cpu load, gpu load, etc), but if you want me to display something else, I can do that.

Here's a very recent stream vod of me on xsplit, for comparison. Same exact settings as described in this post:
http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335503210

Anyways, thanks a lot. I think I'll be an OBS convert!

 

[Lain]

did you set your FPS low or something? your FPS feels a bit unpleasantly low. or are you using monitor capture with aero on or something?

that being said, if you get weird time-related issues on the stream, try using the "sync fix" in advanced. although I call it "sync fix", it's designed to calculate time instead of use your CPU for timing. it can often fix strange time-related issues. just make sure that if you use it, that you set your FPS to at or below the FPS you get when capturing.

 

[Belial88]

- My theme is windows 7 basic. No aero, I know that aero takes a toll on the cpu and is bad for streaming programs in general. you can see a few times i am alt-tabbed out of the game in the vods, so it's clearly not aero.

- My fps is 25. I've always set my fps at 25. As in the setting in OBS video.

that you set your FPS to at or below the FPS you get when capturing.

Well the fps I get when capturing (you mean when streaming and playing in general i assume) is like around 50-60, with a minimum of 30's, maybe 28 or so as you can see in the big battles, the number drops (the fps is the unlabeled number at the bottom, below GPU something..). Which is lower than the fps setting. And I'm trying to increase my fps so I'll be sure to stay above 25fps.

Thanks. I'll let you know if that fixes it.

 

[Muf]

- My fps is 25. I've always set my fps at 25. As in the setting in OBS video.

Try setting it to 30. That way, OBS drops 1 frame every 2 frames, instead of dropping 7 frames every 12 frames, which will inevitably look juddery.

 

[Belial88]

Hm well the problem wasn't fixed with the sync fix setting:

http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335712843

In this game I also had some weird issues. Towards the end of the game, I was starting to get that issue of keyboard not responding quickly. it wasn't nearly as bad as buffer with 32k send network buffer, but towards the end you can see when I try to mass units (not sure if you are familiar with sc2, and even if you were, if you could really tell).

here's an interesting comparison though. I was running fraps benchmarks to see my results in OBS vs xsplit. You can see the obs version is sort of weird.

OBS: http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335703740
Check at 1:03, when the 'scene' sort of switches from moving left to right, to a new one from bottom right to top left (it makes sense if you see the video). This is WITH the sync setting you recommended. It's harder to tell in this video, but the sort of screen-freeze I'm having an issue with, is in this video too.

I did get higher FPS with OBS than xsplit, though. About 5 fps average more, 1 fps higher minimum, same max. Could very well be because of when I hit start benchmark though... I'm not really sure hwo to benchmark which is better, i just feel like i get higher fps with OBS. I think I have to just run like a 30 minute replay and compare the two with a fraps test to get an objective answer.

Anyways, here's that same 'benchmark' test run in Xsplit:
http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335704806
(video runs on, just first minute is all)

And I'm not mixing up xsplit or obs here, when Im alt-tabbed you can see if xsplit or obs is running because of the icons on the w7 system tray obviously. Just to rule out any stupid mistakes ^^

I clearly have "disable aero theme" option ticked on OBS. And xsplit. And I don't use aero too.

My screen source is software capture source for screen region, and video capture device for the webcam.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of the above was done on 25 fps. I'll turn off sync since it seemed to introduce problems when I was playing-streaming, and raise my fps to 30 (or are you saying that I need sync+30fps?). I'll get back to you on the results of it, 30fps may be a bit demanding on my system though? we'll see.

 

[Belial88]

Okay, summary of my settings just to make it clear, rule out any stupid mistakes on my end, and where I'm at.

Athlon ii X4 3.41 ghz
4GB RAM
Sanyo DP19640 18.5" monitor, 1360x768 resolution
GTX 460
~10-20 down/4+ up

Settings:
2500 vbv max/buffer
Tested multiple servers, used jtvping to know average/jitter on each server. (about 55ms avg, ~5 jitter)
1158x654 streaming resolution (slight downsize, it's the same aspect ratio of like 17:9.6)
AAC-LC 96000
Default veryfast
Quality 10

Auto-Reconnect, 10 seconds Auto-Reconnect Time-out (not sure what these settings really do, just default)

30 FPS, like you asked to do, instead of 25 like I always have before (which is what I use on xsplit too btw)

Use Send Buffer 8192 (wouldnt turning this off allow for even more performance? I mean i dont have much of that keyboard input lag stuff anymore except when I turned on 'Use Video/Audio Sync Fix' but if i turned this off wouldnt it make it even better? or maybe a combination of the sync fix + turn off use send buffer, since when i turned on sync fix that keyboard lag came back again a bit)

Software Capture Source (screen region)
Video Capture Service (webcam)
Speakers for sound (this is why my sound sometimes is weird and the bass gets crazy bad quality ish, dont worry about that im aware i should just use headphones or put the mic further away, which is what i did in this video)
Headphone microphone

Aero Disabled on start-up (i use w7 basic theme anyways, so no aero going on)

~7 down, 4.2 up

Anyways. As you can see in the video, that choppyness stuff came back even worse. It also seemed performance was worse in game, i guess 30 fps is a bit demanding on my system. At the very end of the video, you can see a bunch of graphs showing each core's usage, they all were at 80-90% throughout that game basically.

As for in-game performance, this choppyness doesn't happen to me, it's just on the stream video. It did seem like in-game towards the end i was sort of having like performance issues, probably due to using 30fps.






http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335715873

 

[Muf]

To me it looks similar to what I'm having with my laptop when I stream at HD resolution. Your CPU is simply too slow, and taking too long to encode frames.

Try either of the following, or both:

- Stream at 850x480
- Change your x264 preset to ultrafast.

 

[Lain]

Yea, check your CPU usage in task manager, if the usage is very high, set the preset in advanced to superfast/ultrafast as muf suggested. Also, do not watch your stream channel while streaming, that has more of an effect on CPU/GPU than people realize. Another option is turning on v-sync in your video game as well to lower CPU/GPU usage so you can make room for streaming.

 

[Belial88]

I don't watch my stream channel while streaming. I am aware of how demanding it is.

Yes, my usage is very high. In all of the recently linked videos, you can see when I'm alt-tabbed, a series of 5 graphs, showing my CPU usage on each core and total cpu usage.

On Xsplit, I tend to get very very high on my 2nd core, with it hovering at about 85-95% entirely when Im in a game, with my first core around 70-80 and the last two around 40-60, and on OBS, it seems like all cores are more fully used.

.

So I guess now I should test on ultrafast (i dont know if I notice anything in superfast). I do just fine in xsplit with default-veryfast though. Vsync seemed to make issues worse, on it's own.

* I don't watch my stream while streaming
* aand... i guess I'll just make my preset superfast/ultrafast.
* i tried your vsync suggestion earlier and it exacerbated the problem.. are you saying use it in conjunction with this new advice or something different?

 

[Aelfric]

Try to resize the obs vertically as small as possible. Make the preview screen look as small as possible. Disabling preview doesn't really disable it as long as you keep the size of preview screen big it'll eat your cpu. Try to do it with 25 fps arround 2500 kbps with very fast or super fast setting. Ultra fast disables too many filters and it makes the stream look very bad.

 

[Warchamp7]

25 fps will look more jittery than 30 fps generally, so don't do that.

Is there a reason you're using such an odd resolution to stream? (If you're still using 1158x654) I don't know if that would contribute to anything but there's certainly no reason to be outputting at that size.

 

[Belial88]

25 fps will look more jittery than 30 fps generally, so don't do that.

30 fps is a little bit too demanding on my system, and 25fps looks just fine on xsplit (as you can see). The stream looks fine(?) on OBS aside for this weird every-5-seconds-freeze/stutter, i mean the fps seems to look good enough.

Okay, so why don't I just use xsplit? Well, because I think I'm getting better FPS than with xsplit, so I think if I can tinker the settings, I can have a better streaming client with OBS.

Is there a reason you're using such an odd resolution to stream? (If you're still using 1158x654) I don't know if that would contribute to anything but there's certainly no reason to be outputting at that size.

It's the same aspect ratio, 17:9.6, as my screen and native resolution, 1360x768. It's an odd aspect ratio and native resolution because I'm using an LCD-TV as my monitor (it's marketed as an LCD-tv, but it has all the ports and support for use as a computer monitor, such as an HDMI port which I use for output).

I know that downsizing costs a little bit of CPU power, but xsplit won't allow you to use anything above 720 unless you get the pay version, unfortunately. So, in xsplit, I stream at 1158x654 because that's in the same aspect ratio as 1360, but is below the 720 max resolution for free version.

I am using this same restricted resolution in OBS, so I can objectively compare the 2 programs, to see which one is better for me. I could stream OBS at my standard 1360x768, maybe even with very little performance cost if any at all since it's not much larger than the downsized resolution I'm streaming at and the CPU would no longer have to work to downsize the stream, but then I couldn't really get an objective way to see which program is better for me to use.

Right now, xsplit works for me (if it isn't broke, why fix it, i know, but i want more performance and trying out every program, havent tried ffsplit yet), but OBS seems like it could be better because I 'feel' like my fps in-game is better when with OBS, despite the issues I'm having, so I'm really trying to make it work.

If I can't make OBS work without significant costs (like having to change my preset, or worse, lower my resolution), then I'll just go with xsplit (since I can just change my preset or lower my resolution on xsplit, although xsplit doesn't have 'superfast').

Because I'm using an LCD-TV so the native resolution is weird (something to do with tv's are slightly off the advertised resolution because of tv broadcasters slightly fudging their resolution, ie '1080 NBC' is not actually 1080 NBC, it's slightly less with like bad quality around the edges to make up for it', because broadcasters have to pay extra money for the more information they send out on 'the cable', whereas computer to monitor doesnt exactly have to pay any sort of premium to some company to send out the data so the resolution is truer, and what this means for me is that my LCD-tv is meant for 720p TV, but if you hook it up to a computer you get a slightly larger 1360x768 native resolution... its complicated, i dont fully understand it either, just get that using a tv = odd resolution).

TLDR: I'm using a 19" LCD-TV as my monitor, and because of that, I have an odd native resolution with 1360x768, and xsplit doesnt allow you to go past 720, so i have to downsize it to 1158x654 in xsplit, and in order to objectively compare xsplit vs obs, I'm using the same resolution in both of them. Plus, i dont exactly have the strongest CPU.

I dont' know what you mean by 'there's no reason to output at that size'. If I streamed at like standard 720, I believe some of the edges would get chopped off or something because my screen resolution is 1360, right? I always understood it that you want to stream at the same aspect ratio as your screen.

Try to resize the obs vertically as small as possible. Make the preview screen look as small as possible. Disabling preview doesn't really disable it as long as you keep the size of preview screen big it'll eat your cpu. Try to do it with 25 fps arround 2500 kbps with very fast or super fast setting. Ultra fast disables too many filters and it makes the stream look very bad.

You think that it being up is what's eating the resources? I try to have it minimized, and I used to disable preview for performance reasons but haven't the last few times, but okay, I'll try to make OBS really small, disable preview, and see if that helps.

- Disable preview, make the OBS screen really small, try superfast preset (with xsplit I didnt notice any difference when i used superfast). see if that works...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'd like to compare which of the 2 programs are better for me, I'm not too sure how to benchmark either to test it. I was thinking of like running a fraps test (60 seconds, a couple minutes, whatever) while running like 3dmark or kombostor or OCCT, but those are all GPU intensive programs and streaming isn't necessarily hardest on the GPU, but the CPU. But I think like running prime95 or superpi would be like way too much cpu usage...

And then it's imperfect I think to use starcraft replay, because like when the game ends and the 'end game' screen comes up, the fps will just shoot up to 100+, enough so that I think whichever one I end a few milliseconds later, would end up winning by far.

I was thinking the best way to test it would be like... just run kombostor, while streaming with xslpit, then with OBS, and see which one gets better fps during kombostor.

Does this sound right? How would you suggest I figure out which one actually is better? There's also other complications - sc2 is a dx9 game - shoudl I use 3dmark06 dx9 tests (these stress the cpu a lot because basically anything stronger than like a 9800 old ass gpu will max out and have the same scores as today's best gpu's because it was made so long ago and thus basically nowadays 3dmark06 is basically a cpu benchmark since the gpu will easily handle it), or 3dmarkvantage because i want to stress the gpu, should i use a cpu tester like linpack, or should i just use furmark and hey, it's about comparing the fps scores not what the fps socres are....

 

[Lain]

I honestly don't know quite what's up. My rendering engine is a bit different in that it's actually more reliant on the GPU than CPU -- so I don't know exactly what's going on here. I would have to have access your computer directly to get a good sense of what's going on precisely. Could I ask you to upload a log file from streaming? Would be greatly appreciated for further research at least.

Here's how to post a log: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

 

[Belial88]

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 2580MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1158x654
  Output resolution: 1156x652
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
  Video Adapeter Dedicated Video Memory: 1025966080
  Video Adapeter Shared System Memory: 1878683648
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Using auxilary audio input: Headset Microphone (2- Logitech USB Headset)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 96
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 1156, height: 652
    quality: 10
    preset: superfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2500
    buffer size: 2500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 31533, number of frames that lagged: 88 (0.28%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 10118, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1158x654
  Output resolution: 1156x652
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
  Video Adapeter Dedicated Video Memory: 1025966080
  Video Adapeter Shared System Memory: 1878683648
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Using auxilary audio input: Headset Microphone (2- Logitech USB Headset)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 96
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 1156, height: 652
    quality: 10
    preset: superfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2500
    buffer size: 2500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 12635, number of frames that lagged: 6 (0.05%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 4732, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 16.201 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.2%] [unaccounted: 1.78%]
| scene->Preprocess - [44.5%] [avg time: 7.21 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [53.7%] [avg time: 8.702 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 45.6%] [unaccounted: 8.07%]
| | CopyResource - [37.1%] [avg time: 6.008 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [8.56%] [avg time: 1.387 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

Recap of settings, I changed a few. In-game, everything felt fine, even in big battles (which has been the case since the 'send buffer to 8192' change).

Athlon ii x4 3.41ghz/2gb NB
4GB 7-7-7 timings
GTX 460 1gb 905mhz
Sanyo DP19640 LCD-TV 1360x768mb
Using Windows Basic Theme
1360x768 screen resolution

SC2.exe Priority: High
OBS.exe Priority: Above Normal
note: i didn't do this priority stuff in the past OBS vids simply because i kept forgetting to, i normally do that with xsplit though. i know xsplit has a 2nd executive that comes up when you start streaming, i just learned about that though. not sure if OBS is like that too, if there was, i forgot to check for it.

Quality 10
2500/2500 vbv/vbv
AACLC 9600
Auto Reconnect, 10 seconds timeout (default, not sure what these do)
Custom 1158x654 resolution (17:9.6 aspect ratio, like my standard resolution, just a slight downsize)
25 fps
Disable Aero on start-up
Headset Microphone
2 stereo speakers
Superfast Preset
Send Buffer 8192
No Sync Fix



Stream Video:
http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335820031
http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335820757
(a single game, i think my internet connection sometimes has momentary disconnects so that may be why twitch split up the videos as if it's 2 sessions, I dont notice it in-game except at the menu when a 'disconnect/reconnect' pop-up comes up real quick... maybe my opponents notice it, i dont know)

OBS resized to be as small as possible both vertically and horizontally, then disabled view, and then minimized.

**********************************************************************************************************************

Wow the stream vod looks really screwed up this time. I didn't really do anything different with the settings, except Superfast preset (which I believe I've done before, and never noticed any difference with), and setting SC2 and OBS priorities to High/Above Normal respectively.

Performance wise, it seemed the same as always, I mean I don't notice anything in-game when I'm streaming, and I almost feel like it's smoother (although not quite sure on that, it's very close to xsplit or may not even be better, not sure). But clearly, when I changed the priorities as I did, it really hurt OBS - you can see at the end, 4 graphs of each of my core's usage, and when I did this priority change, my 4th core was maxed out. I think OBS was taking resources away from sc2, and when I changed the priority it really screwed up the stream.

I'll add another video shortly where I just leave the priorities as they are, but changing the priorities as I did seemed to exacerbate my issue of stuttering/flashing stream, and I guess that makes it clear that my CPU is deficient here. At 16:40 on the first video, my stream is flashing black like a lot.

 

[Belial88]

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 951MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1158x654
  Output resolution: 1156x652
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
  Video Adapeter Dedicated Video Memory: 1025966080
  Video Adapeter Shared System Memory: 1878683648
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Using auxilary audio input: Headset Microphone (2- Logitech USB Headset)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: AAC
    bitrate: 96
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 1156, height: 652
    quality: 10
    preset: superfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2500
    buffer size: 2500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 27775, number of frames that lagged: 21 (0.08%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 8043, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 14.918 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 97.9%] [unaccounted: 2.05%]
| scene->Preprocess - [43.4%] [avg time: 6.476 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [54.5%] [avg time: 8.136 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 46%] [unaccounted: 8.54%]
| | CopyResource - [36.7%] [avg time: 5.481 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [9.26%] [avg time: 1.381 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335824158

Apparently it isn't because I set priorities.

I played another game, here, another stream session. In-game, felt fine, like before.

But you can see the stream vod shows it's just as screwed up as before. I don't know why that is. I noticed for a brief second that the 'box' on the bottom of obs was red... it's always green. this isn't an upload issue is it? maybe the logs reveal that issue? i mean my bitrate is way below my max upload :X

 

[Belial88]

On a side note, I'm trying to benchmark Xsplit/OBS, try to see what the best settings are for me and such (veryfast vs super fast, different bitrates, resolutions, xsplit vs obs, etc).

So... when I ran kombostor (furmark basically), the fps didn't change at ALL even compared with streaming vs not streaming (with sc2 idle and minimized, which takes a considerable gpu/cpu load, im aware, intentionally left on).

So I figured I needed to stress the CPU a bit to mimic SC2 (since the game is basically limited by my CPU, not GPU).

I did the tests again, but by running OCCT CPU-Linpack (basically stresses to 100% load on all cores) and then running kombostor. I ended up with the same fps min/max/avg when I wasn't streaming though (actually LESS when not streaming, i guess so linpack could do cpu work instead of some it done by streaming program).

So I have no idea how to benchmark streaming programs reliably.... i'm thinking of downloading 3dmark06, which from what I understand all modern GPUs can handle easily and is basically a cpu test. plus its on dx9, just like sc2... not sure if that is better or not, just looking for a cpu intensive program i guess. not sure how to compare streaming clients.

 

[Lain]

Hey, thank you for the logs, and all the testing you've been doing. Yea, if you have dropped frames, and your indicator is not green, that's caused by insufficient bandwidth typically. When yellow, it starts dropping disposable frames, and when red, drops important frames, and you get more noticable lag spikes on the stream output.

As for benchmarking, tthe best way to benchmark them would probably be to monitor their individual CPU usage, and monitor what kind of affect they have on your games.

I wish I could help more, but I'm just one guy, and I don't have access to everybody's computer directly to really mess around with it. The best I often can do is theorize at certain issues. I mean I could just say "hey, you should really get a better CPU/GPU" or something, but I just don't know enough about your CPU/GPU to say that for certain.

 

[Belial88]

Hmm well I'm pretty 100% certain that a better cpu would go a long way for me, but that's not realistic for me at the moment.

I mean, i can do everything I want, perfectly fine. I can stream xsplit in basically HD at 1158x654 (i could go for the pay version to get 1360x768 or go with chopped borders at 720 or im sure i can change my sc2 resolution to 720 with a bit of stretching then stream 720) that's completely playable at a competitive level (30 fps minimum, but 30fps minimum really is the minimum so i'm really trying to squeeze a bit more performance) with my athlon ii x4.

I was hoping to make OBS work as an alternative to xsplit that performs better.

You know, I could maybe raise my bitrate.... but I would think that 2500/2500 would be way more than enough to stream at slightly-less-than-720 on veryfast/superfast (people say 1500-3000 for 720 and tests ive seen show 2k is more than enough to make it work fine). The reason I have 2500/2500, is because on xsplit, they have a sort of bandwidth tester, and even though my upload is 4.3mb/s, the xsplit bandwidth tester only is green (and sometimes yellow, usually green though) at 2500/2500 at the most. Either the xsplit bandwidth tester is crap (which many people say), or that's a more accurate read based on the server I'm connecting to (what xsplit says about it).

So am I dropping a lot of frames here? In xsplit, as you probably know, when you stream, at the top of the program, and if you hover above the icon when it's minimized on the w7 task bar, it shows you a bunch of statistics (viewers, encoded frames, dropped frames), and my 'dropped frames' number has ALWAYS been zero after every stream session ever since I got better upload internet. Maybe it's not accounting for 'b-frames', or maybe it's just working better and thus that's why maybe it seems OBS is better for me (because it's not really working).

CPU usage with both OBS and Xsplit tend to max out one of my cores the entire time, and then very high load on the rest of them, maybe nearing max on one other core. OBS tends to max out the 4th core (core#3, since it starts at 0) and xsplit, my 2nd core (Core#1), but the usage statistics look a bit different for each.

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I tried benchmarking by trying to use the Physx test in kombostor (extremely cpu intensive, and gpu intensive). And it was just goofy. You want a program i guess that's cpu intensive, but not like 100% strain cpu intensive or else fps either doesnt change or when it does change, it's based on how intense the work of the load is (so running a gpu test + cpu test will have higher fps than just the cpu test because the cpu test will strain the 100% harder than 80% of the cpu load being stressed by the crazy cpu test, and 20% of the cpu load is stressed by the less-stressful-on-the-cpu-gpu-test, despite both tests having a 100% cpu load). Basically, games that have built-in benchmarks provide the ideal test environment for your context, but sc2 doesnt have a benchmark program. I guess you could custom make one but there'd be no standard of comparison and that isn't as reliable or consistent i think (i suppose just stare at a blank, unmoving 1 hundred units, you might be at 100 fps, but you can see if you are +/- that as you change settings, change streaming suites, etc).

It would be hard to monitor the affect in-game, because during most of the game, my fps is above 60-100+. It's only during some major battle that it dips, or late in the game, when you are too busy to really notice what your fps is, or what the difference between 21 fps in a big battle and 23 fps. I think I'm just going to load up 100 units in a custom map, do nothing, and just see the differences between the two, ie 100 or 105 kind of thing... maybe do a fraps 60 second test on each.

Anyways, what I'm going to do next is try raising my bitrate to 3000/3000 if I'm having dropped frames (right? my bitrate isnt high enough thats why I get dropped frames right?) and see if that fixes things. But I'm about pooped out on figuring out how to make OBS work for me, maybe it's just more CPU intensive than xsplit and I can't handle it.

And I was so happy when you gave me that quick zing of advice and obs 'worked' perfectly. i dont think i had stream issues when i was at 32k send buffer size... actually that makes me think, maybe i should try the 16k buffer size, see if that'd fix everything.