Question / Help Encoding Overload with Low CPU Usage

[Benanater15]

First and foremost, I am not the streamer who is having encoding issues. I am helping out a streamer I watch, who is not too familiar with how to troubleshoot the issue they are having. I'm not either, but I am a bit more tech savvy than they are.

Here is another thread they sent me. They said the issue described in this thread is similar to their own issue: Similar Issue with OBS Update

They have reported having Encoding Overload messages while streaming various games, including: DOOM Eternal, Slime Ranchers, and even Wild Arms 2. This issue has even occurred when their CPU usage was only around 4% in OBS. The message is not constant, but occurs at random times, causing their stream to lag - yet the game is running smoothly on their computer.

They have not changed any of their setup between the time their streams were running fine, to now where they are experiencing Encoding Overload errors. The only difference is that they updated OBS about a week ago.

Here are the programs they have running while streaming (here's a quote from them): "I run facerig, streamlabels, streamlabs chatbot in the background of my streams, and before I used SongRequest on the chatbot. I used to even have youtube running in the background of whatever game I was streaming. Never had any encoding problems until the update "

Here is their log for their last stream, which did encounter Encoding Overload errors: OBS Log

If you need any additional information, I will talk to the streamer. Thank you!

 

[carlmmii]

Just 2 things really
- Run OBS as administrator
- Turn off Psychovisual tuning

Windows is also in need of updating, which may or may not help as well.

 

[Benanater15]

Thank you! I've let them know of your response. They are streaming tomorrow again, so hopefully this will fix it for them. I'll be sure to let you guys know whether it worked or not (along with any other possible fixes that people share).

 

[Benanater15]

Their stream was problem-free today. They streamed for 3 hours. I'll post back if any issues come back on a later streaming session.

 

[carlmmii]

Great to hear!

 

[Benanater15]

Another OBS update, and along with it more issues. A viewer did offer some technical help, but didn't look at any of the streamer's OBS logs. The streamer even had issues while not even streaming a game (not sure if it was encoding overload or not, but they were losing frames). I'll post the 2 logs from today. I really appreciate any help offered. Thanks!

https://obsproject.com/logs/pG9xD8hGjKB6E2yM
https://obsproject.com/logs/BZPabBRKIYXISOY5

Even if no issues are found in those 2 logs, it still helps us fix the problem, from a troubleshooting perspective.

 

[carlmmii]

16:57:55.954: Output 'adv_stream': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 6 (0.0%)
16:57:55.954: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 14554 (7.6%)
16:57:55.954: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Freeing 207 remaining packets
16:57:55.954: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 4/192149 (0.0%)

18:11:49.719: Output 'adv_stream': stopping
18:11:49.719: Output 'adv_stream': Total frames output: 260205 (263519 attempted)
18:11:49.719: Output 'adv_stream': Total drawn frames: 263589
18:11:49.719: Output 'adv_stream': Number of dropped frames due to insufficient bandwidth/connection stalls: 3314 (1.3%)

The first log shows OBS wasn't run as administrator, so that may explain the very few frames lost to rendering. 2nd log OBS was run as administrator, rendering lag gone.

The main problem is network now. Both logs show significant dropped frames.

16:58:36.617: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] Interface: Realtek RTL8811AU Wireless LAN 802.11ac USB 2.0 Network Adapter (802.11, 433 mbps)

Wifi should be avoided. It does not have the reliability needed for the constant data transmission streaming needs.

A wired connection should always be used if possible.