Question / Help Captured Video Is Distorted, Image Capture Is Not

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fox5150

New Member
Hi Guys,

I started using OBS recently to capture some World of Warcraft footage for upload to YouTube. Previously I was capturing at 2560x1400@60FPS with a GTX970 using OBSv17 and everything was working fine. Not perfect capture, but certainly good enough for my purposes. I've now changed out my graphics card to a GTX1080 and am capturing in 3440x1400@60FPS (I also upgraded the monitor) and also using OBSv18.

The captured video is distorted so that it looks like the odd vertical line of pixels is missing - it probably isn't, but that how it looks to the uneducated :) I've captured a screenshot as well and that appears as it should.

My log file is here: https://gist.github.com/e2d479e85e77ad3617c8071ccbd515ec
A link to the sample video (on YouTube) is here: https://youtu.be/wbQUwRV9FwU
A link to the screenshot is here: http://i.imgur.com/cccPWhc.jpg

Other than the size of the capture, the settings are the same as I was previously using.

Would appreciate some thoughts on how I correct this.

Thanks,
Simon
 
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fox5150

New Member
I ran some tests using Shadowplay to capture the footage and that works exactly as expected, so it's got to be something to do with OBS.

Any ideas on what I should be looking at?
 
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BornDownUnder

Member
Try the following settings, taken from the guide @Jack0r posted, found here:
https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...lity-recording-and-multiple-audio-tracks.221/

NVENC
  • Rate Control: CQP
  • CQP: 15-25
  • Preset: High-Quality
  • Profile: high
You shouldn't use CBR for recording, it is really designed for providing a stable bitrate for streaming. CQP will guarantee a consistent quality throughput, adjusting bitrate when it needs to.

To note: When you upload logfiles for troubleshooting purposes, it is best to do a several minute recording/streaming attempt with normal game play. This gives more frames in the recording/streaming attempt which allows for better understanding of potential performance issues.
 
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fox5150

New Member
Thanks for the reply BornDownUnder. I'll try those out later today and see what's what.

Thanks also for the guidance on the log file. I'll record something a bit longer next time if I run into a problem again.

Cheers!
 
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fox5150

New Member
Right. I've changed my settings around as per the link above and the text and icons are still looking distorted. I captured a few minutes of footage but the problem present in the original link isstill the same in this one, so I haven't posted a revised video.

The logfile to go with this latest attempt is here: https://gist.github.com/760d68e4453b4346ac15be7b7bec91b6

If relevant, the specification of my system is:

i7700K @4.20GHz
16GB
EVGA GTX1080 FTW2

I'm capturing the video to SSD too, so drive speed shouldn't be an issue either.
 
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fox5150

New Member
I appreciate that, ii was more to give an indication of what was showing on the screen for comparison's sake. I certainly don't expect it to be as crisp and clear as a screenshot. When I was taking footage using v17 and my GTX970 / 27" monitor combo, everything was fine. I'm now using a GTX1080 34"UW and the icons and text are distorted in the captured footage. It's weird because in the preview screen everything's spot on, it's just that the output is a bit weird and I can't find a way to describe it, hence the captured footage above. I produced a longer log file this time in the hope that it may show what the cause of the problem is. The same setup is capturing without distortion in Shadowplay, I just prefer working with OBS and the quality of the footage that it captures was far superior to Shadowplay before this upgrade of components.

Cheers.
 
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BornDownUnder

Member
12:05:11.656: [NVENC encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
12:05:11.656: rate_control: CQP
12:05:11.656: bitrate: 0
12:05:11.656: cqp: 15
12:05:11.656: keyint: 250
12:05:11.656: preset: hq
12:05:11.656: profile: high
12:05:11.656: level: auto
12:05:11.656: width: 3440
12:05:11.656: height: 1440
12:05:11.656: 2-pass: true
12:05:11.656: b-frames: 2
12:05:11.656: GPU: 0
Frame Analysis:
12:09:18.465: Output 'adv_file_output': Total encoded frames: 14789
12:09:18.465: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 14790
12:09:18.465: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 509 (3.4%)

Not entirely sure how WoW is today, you have a very nice PC though (If texture pop-in is still an issue, can't do anything about that) and the best sign is it is not impacting your GPU encoder chip recording at 3440x1440, just having a little trouble rendering the frames.

If you don't, cap your fps in-game via MSI AfterBurner/EVGA Precision, an in-game frame limit option (If present) or use V-Sync as a last resort as it will induce input latency. This will help will lowering the load on your GPU whilst recording.

You could try lowering settings in-game (AA is the worst offender for all games, not inclusive of post-processing AA such as FXAA/MSAA/TXAA (Again, not sure what settings are for WoW these days) followed by ambient occlusion/shadows/grass then texture quality (Generally)

If the above doesn't work and you still see the lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls line in your current logfile (After you stop the recording attempt) to have more than (0.0%) then:

Try dialing back the CQP rate of the above settings to 18, then after a several minute recording attempt if you see the lagged frames line in your current logfile (After you stop the recording attempt) to have more than (0.0%) then try a CQP rate of 21.

As @Osiris stated, you won't get same quality as a screenshot, especially if use the .png format as it is on the fly encoding/rendering.

Any setting under 15 for CQP is really a placebo that will show virtually no quality improvements at all unless it is a static image with lots of contrast (Shadow areas, for example) and will increase your file output size needlessly as well as put extra load on your GPU and CPU.

Can you upload another logfile with a several minute recording (Making sure you have stopped the recording prior) again please, so can try and troubleshoot issues again if needed.
 
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fox5150

New Member
My apologies, I thought I'd logged in and thanked you for the guidance here and I obviously hadn't!

I'm going to try these settings over the weekend and see how that turns out. I really would like to return to capturing my gameplay - just need to find the time to do so.

Cheers.
 
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fox5150

New Member
Okay, so I've gone through the various settings suggested whilst flying around in game and I've uploaded the log that captures all of these options here:

https://gist.github.com/ea1ae627f37e1435cd2eb0e633c0c64d

The only time I see the lagged frames is when I have everything turned up to the max and FPS not limited. However, even with FPS limited, graphics settings in game turned down to the absolute minimum and a CQP of 18, the outputted video is still distorted, but without any mention of lagged frames, which I find intriguing.

Cheers.
 
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BornDownUnder

Member
Your logfile shows several recording attempts, some display rendering lag, others do not. Can you upload a raw video output file via:
https://www.mediafire.com/
And copy-paste a link in a reply here so can see what the output is like (When you have your fps capped in-game, at the very least)

A CQP of 18 is pretty much exactly the same as 15, just very minor detail loss (Almost impossible to discern the difference)
 
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fox5150

New Member
Thanks for the reply (again!)

I captured 8min of game footage with the settings as how I would have them normally whilst playing. I limited my fps to 60 using the EVGA tool and set OBS up with a CQP of 18.

The logfile from the capture is here: https://gist.github.com/e8bdd38aaee7192e7d7b95361c96ed90
The link to the raw footage is here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/93ea5lkgtrx8leo/2017-03-25_23-28-12-1.mp4

The big giveaway to me from watching the footage is the text and the icons are all messed up. This happens with the capture even if I drop the game settings to the lowest that they will go, which implies something else is going on.

Really hope there's some clues in this little lot as I'd love to get back to capturing!

Cheers.
 
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BornDownUnder

Member
Seeing as you have an 3440x1440 (UWQHD) monitor:
If you really desire to record @60fps, can you try stepping down your recording (Output) resolution a notch to 2560x1080 (UWHD) to see if that helps with your GPU performance.
If you are fine with 30fps recordings, It think you should be able to record at 3440x1440 resolution (Will need a logfile to confirm, looking for the line Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: to have (0.0%) at most for really smooth recordings at most, preferably not seeing that line at all in your logfile)

It might just be your GPU cannot handle recording at UWQHD@60fps resolution.
 
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