Question / Help Cannot make OBS work

[Muf]

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.

A 5 frames per second difference is not going to make a measurable performance impact on your CPU. It will however cause your stream to look more fluid. Why do you insist that settings are "just fine with XSplit" when you are streaming with OBS, not XSplit?

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).

1360x768 is a common "HD-ready" resolution. It should actually be 1366x768, but since 1366 isn't dividable by 16, it's rounded down to 1360. Your aspect ratio SHOULD be 16:9, but due to the rounding error it becomes 85:48. You can safely ignore the difference and downsize to 1280x720, as the distortion will be negligible (to put things into perspective, at 1280x720, a 255x255 pixel circle will become 256x255 pixels).

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.

I think you're missing the point of comparing to see which is better. I think your goals should be:
- As little in-game performance impact as possible
- Highest stream quality possible

To that end, you should be able to try different resolutions, framerates, and bitrates. Your attempts to hold on to your strange habits from XSplit are only preventing you from reaching your two goals.

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.

No. If you want to stream at 720p, just set your base resolution to 1280x720, click Edit Scene, and then hold shift while resizing your Software Capture Source to the size of your stream canvas. As I mentioned earlier, it will cause a teeny tiny amount of horizontal stretching, but that will be almost impossible to notice.

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...

If you need artificial benchmarks to tell you which of the two programs is better, then the difference is small enough for you not to notice, hence you may as well stick to what you know. Of course, what we're trying to do is getting a significant enough improvement that you don't need to peer at numbers to know that OBS is a better alternative for you. So give up the silly benchmarks, and work with us to get OBS working properly on your PC.

 

[Lain]

you're using very low CPU in the app, so that's all good, near zero "lagged frames", which indicated you should have no CPU issues or anything, and if you turned down the "send buffer size" you should be fine with multiplayer lag, but you're getting a lot of frames dropped..

just to let you know, there is a slight bug (or misdesign rather) with how dropped frames work at the moment, it drops more frames than it should. make sure you're connecting to the closest available server, and make sure you don't set your bitrate/buffersize too high. in the next version the dropped frame bug should hopefully be fixed.

 

[Belial88]

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.

A 5 frames per second difference is not going to make a measurable performance impact on your CPU. It will however cause your stream to look more fluid. Why do you insist that settings are "just fine with XSplit" when you are streaming with OBS, not XSplit?

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).

1360x768 is a common "HD-ready" resolution. It should actually be 1366x768, but since 1366 isn't dividable by 16, it's rounded down to 1360. Your aspect ratio SHOULD be 16:9, but due to the rounding error it becomes 85:48. You can safely ignore the difference and downsize to 1280x720, as the distortion will be negligible (to put things into perspective, at 1280x720, a 255x255 pixel circle will become 256x255 pixels).

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.

I think you're missing the point of comparing to see which is better. I think your goals should be:
- As little in-game performance impact as possible
- Highest stream quality possible

To that end, you should be able to try different resolutions, framerates, and bitrates. Your attempts to hold on to your strange habits from XSplit are only preventing you from reaching your two goals.

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.

No. If you want to stream at 720p, just set your base resolution to 1280x720, click Edit Scene, and then hold shift while resizing your Software Capture Source to the size of your stream canvas. As I mentioned earlier, it will cause a teeny tiny amount of horizontal stretching, but that will be almost impossible to notice.

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...

If you need artificial benchmarks to tell you which of the two programs is better, then the difference is small enough for you not to notice, hence you may as well stick to what you know. Of course, what we're trying to do is getting a significant enough improvement that you don't need to peer at numbers to know that OBS is a better alternative for you. So give up the silly benchmarks, and work with us to get OBS working properly on your PC.

I see your point. Raising my fps to 30 caused a noticeable performance cost in-game. Thanks for the tip about 720, I think I'll just stream in 1280x720 then. I'd like to make OBS work. The benchmarking was more for trying out all types of settings, not just xsplit vs obs, but superfast vs veryfast, how much of a performance cost it would be to change resolutions or fps, etc.

I can tell OBS is 'better', but there are stream issues, obviously. I'm willing to do help do whatever it takes to get obs to work. It may just be that my system is too weak though.

It looks like when I look at my logs, I get about 10% dropped frames compared to frames rendered? the b-frames or something. SOmetimes it's less, or more than that, not sure, it's just quickly looking I notice like 800 frames dropped, and my frames rendered would be ~8000.

I set my bitrate to 2500/2500. Should I try a drastic turn down, like 1500/1500 or 2000/2000 or something? I did some momentary testing of that and I think it came out much worse when i did that, but i can test for sure.

I also don't connect to my closest server, I connect to texas because the jitter is much lower there (i heard pick lowest jitter is most important, but avg after that or something). My closest server will have 30-50 avg, but 10+ jitter, 10-15. Texas will have about 40-60, really dependson the time of day, but jitter there will always be around 5. So basically, texas always has better jitter, but the avg difference between the two varies from ~10, usually, although sometimes as high as 25 (so it will go yellow avg, like 70-80). I tested around with closest server too, but I'll test again, since all of the tests I've been doing so far have been texas, not closest server.

Anyways, I'll test out:
- closest server (pretty sure i used closest server when first started using obs, i only recently went tx)
- 30 fps, 720p instead of 25 fps, 654p
-

 

[Warchamp7]

I stream 720p, 60 fps at 1200/1000 so the high bit rate isn't necessary, it just improves the quality a bit, so you can definitely try with it lower :)

 

[Belial88]

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 2260MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1280x720
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 1280, height: 720
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 1706, number of frames that lagged: 6 (0.35%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 0, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1280x720
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 1280, height: 720
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 266, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1280x720
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 1280, height: 720
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 23331, number of frames that lagged: 46 (0.20%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 170, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 15.182 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.4%] [unaccounted: 1.57%]
| scene->Preprocess - [41.9%] [avg time: 6.361 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [56.5%] [avg time: 8.582 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 46.2%] [unaccounted: 10.3%]
| | CopyResource - [35%] [avg time: 5.315 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [11.2%] [avg time: 1.702 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

1280x720
25 fps
2000/2000 vbv/vbv

http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335933970

Same issues, I don't know. I mean the resolution thing I dont think is why my stream is weird, I get i should adjust my stream to optimal settings but...

anyways im going to to stream a video of just extremely downsized stream, see if maybe my PC just can't handle OBS with ~720p resolution. See if it's a cpu load thing.

EdiT*************************************************************

So I set "Base Resolution" to 852x480, just to test it out.

Here's the results:

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 1496MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 624, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 55, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 1200x800
  Output resolution: 1200x800
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 1200, height: 800
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 144, number of frames that lagged: 1 (0.69%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 363, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====Stream End=======================================================================
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 1604, number of frames that lagged: 15 (0.94%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 62, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 19915, number of frames that lagged: 3 (0.02%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 0, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 13.967 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.3%] [unaccounted: 1.73%]
| scene->Preprocess - [53.7%] [avg time: 7.502 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [44.6%] [avg time: 6.223 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 38.6%] [unaccounted: 5.94%]
| | CopyResource - [33%] [avg time: 4.616 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [5.56%] [avg time: 0.777 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335935871

I guess the stream connecting/reconnecting with minor disconnects on my end, but same problem, same dropped frames.

Well, in the video, there's none of that every-5-seconds-screen-freeze thing going on, so I guess partly, my system can't handle OBS. But, it's got some terrible black flashing.

I'm going to try to stream again, but with sync fix on, see if that makes it better. So I guess the problem here is my cpu can't handle OBS ( not sure why it cant handle xsplit though) at the same level as xsplit can, and there's some black flashing, which maybe sync fix will fix.

 

[Belial88]

http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/335938000

Yea with sync fix problem still exists, and the stream video looks laggy as shit... I mean I'm gettin ~33 fps, that's the same FPS as when i was streaming 1158x654. Here's the code

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 1017MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
Send Buffer Size: 8192
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Base resolution: 852x480
  Output resolution: 852x480
------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------
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
------------------------------------------
  Using audio/video sync fix
------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 25
    width: 852, height: 480
    quality: 10
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2000
    buffer size: 2000
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 28776, number of frames that lagged: 16 (0.06%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 6158, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 14.271 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 97.5%] [unaccounted: 2.45%]
| scene->Preprocess - [52.8%] [avg time: 7.536 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [44.7%] [avg time: 6.385 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 39.1%] [unaccounted: 5.61%]
| | CopyResource - [33.8%] [avg time: 4.825 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [5.32%] [avg time: 0.759 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

On a side note, I hope this isn't like an issue on my end. I mean, is anyone looking at any of the links/videos I'm throwing up? What I'm describing is happening when you watch those videos too right?

It'd be really goofy if everything was working fine on my end but I was being stupid lol...

 

[R1CH]

You're dropping a lot of frames which means your connection isn't able to sustain the bitrate to the streaming provider. Do some speed tests to the same areas in which the ingest is located in to figure out your maximum upload, then drop your bitrate to ~500kbps lower than that.

 

[Muf]

=====Stream Start=====================================================================
Base resolution: 1280x720
Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 23331, number of frames that lagged: 46 (0.20%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 170, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 15.182 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.4%] [unaccounted: 1.57%]
| scene->Preprocess - [41.9%] [avg time: 6.361 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [56.5%] [avg time: 8.582 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 46.2%] [unaccounted: 10.3%]
| | CopyResource - [35%] [avg time: 5.315 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [11.2%] [avg time: 1.702 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================[/code]

15.182ms. That means, your theoretical maximum framerate when streaming at 1280x720 with your current settings, is 65.8fps. That's not "my system can't handle it", your system can handle it just fine. You are just streaming at a far too high bitrate for your internet connection. Like R1CH says, do some realistic speedtests and try lowering your bitrate.

 

[Belial88]

im starting to think something else is wrong, because xsplit is doing it now with no changes to it's settings. maybe it has to do with some program i downloaded to monitor my pc, i dont know. it only seems to happen when it's in-game, not during the menu or at the loading screens. maybe it's a source/scene issue?

i was streaming fine a week ago :X

 

[Belial88]

You know, the black flashing problem - it doesn't happen on my webcam. Like my webcam picture is clearly fine. it's just the game that's flashing.

i did a system restore. i have no idea what's going on, suddenly any streaming client I'm using is having black flashes on the game source.

I play in fullscreen mode. i've never had a problem with fullscreen before. Suddenly, I'm getting this black flashing. Others have said this was an issue? I mean I was streaming obs fine before on windowed. i'll try streaming on windowed, see if that changes things.

 

[Belial88]

Ah, so I fixed it in xsplit.

I changed sc2 to windowed-fullscreen mode instead of fullscreen.

I have no idea what the hell happened. Like, I played on fullscreen mode just fine on xsplit for a couple months now. Then, I use obs, and besides the initial input lag, the stream looked fine (even then, the stream looked fine, no issues). Then, after fixing that, I started to get stuttering on the stream. Then, black flashes.

I'll test out again on OBS with windowed-fullscreen, but i think i figured out what was wrong, i guess... im not sure why fullscreen mode suddenly started being a problem though. And i never played windowed because it caused huge performance costs, like major fps drops, but when i tried windowed mode just now... no performance cost and i could play-stream even.

so really weird...

yea i know, not obs, but i think it is the fix, and ill edit in a couple mins with obs.

edit: ******************************************************

Okay well... back to square 2.

http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335957457

The flashing is done. It's just the weird every-5seconds-stutter.

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 1694MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
=====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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2500
    buffer size: 2500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 1242, number of frames that lagged: 1 (0.08%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 2500
    buffer size: 2500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 7380, number of frames that lagged: 4 (0.05%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 2091, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 14.169 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 97.6%] [unaccounted: 2.37%]
| scene->Preprocess - [48.5%] [avg time: 6.877 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [49.1%] [avg time: 6.956 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 39.1%] [unaccounted: 10%]
| | CopyResource - [29.3%] [avg time: 4.153 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [9.78%] [avg time: 1.386 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

Anyways, about my bitrate and connection.

I have 2 servers to choose,
San Antonio, 50-80 avg/1-8 jitter always green green
Ashburn, VA, 30-50 avg/10+ jitter always in yellow

I go with San Antonio, despite Ashburn being closest server, because i heard that jitter is the biggest concern. Right now, it's Texas:59avg/3jitter vs VA:35avg/10jitter

It changes on the time of day, but texas is almost always in green average, somtimes yellow but almost always green, and then VA *NEVER* has green jitter. So that's why I go with texas. I've done tests with both va and texas.

Speedtest.net does not have san antonio server listed. My speedtest results from
ashburn server: 20ms ping/5down/4.12up

Using http://www.thespeedtest.com/speedtestlinks.php
which lists 'san antonio speedtest' here: http://www.bandwidthplace.com/
shows: 45ms ping/5down/4.61 up

So both are okay right? And texas is better?

The 2500/2500 I choose, is much much lower than the 4+ mb/s upload that both ashburn and san antonio say.

 

[Belial88]

Okay, fixed!

http://www.twitch.tv/belial88/b/335960079

My bitrate was too high. lol.

i think it was that when using 2500/2500, and 2000/2000, like it was wayyy more bitrate than needed to stream 1158x654. I always thought there was no harm in maxing bitrate, and 'more is better, but isn't always an improvement' kind of thing. I know I was still way below my upload limit. I think the issue wasn't that i couldnt support the bandwidth, but just.. i don tknow, it was too high and it affected obs adversely. Because with xsplit 2500/2500 and 3k/3k runs just fine.

there's no audio in the stream, i think because I changed "microphone/auxiliary device" to headphone or something. not sure, whatever, not worried about it.

but yea, my bitrate was just too extreme and i guess it was bad for obs. that and windowed mode and send buffer packs.

now to see which streaming program is best ^^

Open Broadcaster Software v0.411a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 B50 Processor
CPU Speed: 3415MHz
Physical Memory:  4095MB Total, 1753MB Free
stepping id: 3, model 5, family 15, type 0, extmodel 8, extfamily 0
=====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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1500
    buffer size: 1500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 53, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
=====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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1500
    buffer size: 1500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 25776, number of frames that lagged: 15 (0.06%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 1195, 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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1500
    buffer size: 1500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 5141, number of frames that lagged: 1 (0.02%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 273, 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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1500
    buffer size: 1500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 3300, number of frames that lagged: 0 (0.00%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 43, 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: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1500
    buffer size: 1500
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 4875, number of frames that lagged: 9 (0.18%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 10, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 15.3 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 97.8%] [unaccounted: 2.21%]
| scene->Preprocess - [44.3%] [avg time: 6.783 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [53.5%] [avg time: 8.179 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 44.2%] [unaccounted: 9.29%]
| | CopyResource - [35%] [avg time: 5.355 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [9.16%] [avg time: 1.402 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

even in the code, very few frames dropped.

 

[Warchamp7]

Yeeeaahhh, OBS doesn't really have any support for fullscreen games. It's odd it was even working haha

 

[Belial88]

well, it was odd that fullscreen 'worked' for me for so long. then suddenly, it stopped working.

i guess i should try out dxtory again. when i first used it, it just killed my fps, but now that everything is different...

 

[Muf]

i guess i should try out dxtory again. when i first used it, it just killed my fps, but now that everything is different...

I'd just hold out a week or so for Jim's home-cooked Game Capture source. It's right around the corner, he's working on it right now.

 

[Belial88]

Okay, so how do I pick my bitrate exactly? I mean, I see 1500/1500 works whereas 2500/2500 didn't on OBS (but it did for xsplit, although 1500/1500 works for 720p on xsplit too)... but wouldn't it be that the more bitrate I use, the better quality the stream is? Is my in-game fps or performance affected at all by my bitrate? It's just a matter of either have enough bitrate or you don't? Or is there a benefit to higher and higher bitrate up to a point (obviously 3k/3k on a 240 stream would be ridiculous, but according to the problems ive had here, 2k/2k is overkill for 720p even though most people recommend 1500-3k for 720p).

Anyways, zero bframes and pframes dropped on 1500/1500. I did some benchmarking - ran a replay from a player's POV in lategame in sc2, recording 300 seconds in fraps.

here were my results, min/max/avg fps

xsplit veryfast - 11/48/25.64
xsplit superfast - 12/46/26.09 (just to test veryfast vs superfast) despite 1 fps gain, the stream looked like shit actually, not worth it

OBS - 12/54/28.0833

FFSplit - not sure, but the stream looked wayyyy smoother and i think my fps may have been higher. Unfortunately, My connection seems to have slight timeouts a lot for a split second, and xsplit and OBS will automatically reconnect while FFsplit has no feature so I can't sure it.

So I'll be using OBS.

edit: oddly enough, dxtory doesnt shit on my fps anymore. i dont know wtf happened where suddenly fullscreen mode didnt work and dxtory is okay and windowed mode doesnt absolutely killll my fps (still looks to drop it like 3-5 though), but im going to test xsplit/ffsplit/obs again but with dxtory, see if it's an improvement.

edit 2: yea dxtory causes too much fps drain. and it caused dropped frames (maybe bitrate was too low because it requires more bitrate when using dxtory? dont care).

 

[Belial88]

i guess i should try out dxtory again. when i first used it, it just killed my fps, but now that everything is different...

I'd just hold out a week or so for Jim's home-cooked Game Capture source. It's right around the corner, he's working on it right now.

Okay, so I decided to not test with dxtory. Dxtory+Xsplit is lower fps than plain xsplit, so I can imagine dxtory+obs is worse than plain obs.

So why do people use Dxtory, or game source, at all? I don't get it. Is it just a 'hey sometimes you might do better with dxtory sometimes not' kind of thing? I really don't understand what the hype about dxtory is.

I mean, I can do some more testing if it's really that great and maybe I'm just not using it right or something... but everytime I've tried dxtory it resulted in an fps reduction. Is it like for people with really low uploads or something, that is maybe why it adversely affects me?

Anyways, did my solution sound right? That streaming 720p on 1500/1500 is enough bandwidth and there's no reason to use more? I've seen some people say you need 2500+/2500+ to get a 720p stream out. But I mean I'm looking at videos and of the stream of myself, at 1500/1500 it seems to look just fine. I haven't compared it to higher bitrate settings, I've just stuck with 1500/1500 but would it look better or anything with more than 1500/1500? or is it just, as long as im not getting major pixelation/issues of some sort, that I'm fine. Whereas like, say, superfast preset, it causes a noticeable decrease in the stream video quality, but it's not really a huge difference (just not worth the only 1 fps gain is all).

 

[Warchamp7]

People use Dxtory for hooking into games running in fullscreen. Because of the way fullscreen works, there's no other way to capture games in fullscreen properly, hence why Jim is working on such a thing for OBS.

The reason bit rate settings are different in Xsplit and OBS is because, I believe, Xsplit let's you set your max bitrate. OBS on the other hand, you're setting your max AVERAGE bitrate, so it may sometimes go above that value. I'm wrong ignore me

 

[Lain]

no, xsplit and obs function pretty much fairly identically in that regard. it's standard x264 encoder settings.

 

[Belial88]

=====Stream Start=====================================================================
Base resolution: 1280x720
Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 23331, number of frames that lagged: 46 (0.20%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 170, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 15.182 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.4%] [unaccounted: 1.57%]
| scene->Preprocess - [41.9%] [avg time: 6.361 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [56.5%] [avg time: 8.582 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 46.2%] [unaccounted: 10.3%]
| | CopyResource - [35%] [avg time: 5.315 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [11.2%] [avg time: 1.702 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================[/code]

15.182ms. That means, your theoretical maximum framerate when streaming at 1280x720 with your current settings, is 65.8fps. That's not "my system can't handle it", your system can handle it just fine. You are just streaming at a far too high bitrate for your internet connection. Like R1CH says, do some realistic speedtests and try lowering your bitrate.

So I understand this to mean that the FPS is not a cpu intensive task, but rather, that Upload x Avg Time = Maximum possible fps?

I've settled on 1750/1750 as my streaming settings, I think it looks better than 1500/1500. With both of those settings I get much less bframes dropped, but I still get some dropped. Sometimes 0. Usually around 400 for 30 minutes (yea, i know, its kind of useless wihout the perspective of how many frames were rendered, just saying its around that much). I'm going to assume that ~300-400 dropped bframes is not really a big deal?

I did a ton of testing where I tried out 1500/1500, 1750/1750, 2000/2000. I think 2000 the animations weren't as smooth, i mean it was okay, but 1750/1750 was best (which in turn looked better than 1500/1500, just like a slight, but noticeable, better looking stream, like stuff wasn't as blurred for a split second when moving screen around... looks a bit sharper i guess, shit moved much smoother).

I'm thinking of doing things to make my stream look better, since I think I got my performance down. Like, since my cpu is crap, but my gpu is fucking awesome, raise my graphics settings in-game really high so the stream artificially looks way better. The streaming client sees not extra load since it doesnt care about graphics settings, it's encoding an image it doesn't matter how complex that image is (for the most part, but its more like moving the screen around is harder than a more detailed still image).

And if that equation is true, fps = upload x avg time, I could increase my fps right?

But I tried 50 fps and it just looked oddly super smooth but then would like... not exactly stutter, but the screen looked weird. If you change your fps does that mean you bitrate settings might need to be different? And why is it that 2k/2k bitrate manages worse on my system when my upload is 4.3mb/s+?

http://www.twitch.tv/belialtester88/b/336325049

Anyways, thanks a lot of all of your help guys - R1CH, Muf, Jim. I'm definitely an OBS user now.