FPS Drop after game capture hook

[zpammer]

DirectX 8 game UT2004 shows an instant massive FPS drop when hooking it.
I cannot believe this is a desired result, so I post it as feedback.

Compared to OBS, OBSM is making big progress for UT2004 on my system. In OBS I only get a black screen. See more info about that from an earlier post: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/black-screen-dx8-gamecapture-gamecrashing.24827/#post-124436

By hooking into UT2004 the ingame FPS drops by 50%. The FPS fluctates too much and it affects the playability of the game.

I can start streaming on pretty much any kind of setting as the encoding and uploading itself does not affect my FPS more than the hook already does. I am able to get high quality streams, but I can not get my game playable as much as I like.

I used Geforce Experience to stream my game the past 6 months which showed no single fps drop, but that program does not function anymore since I switched to Win10 beta.

 

[Lain]

DirectX 8 games might not capture well at a high resolution. I'm not entirely sure if there's a way to deal with it though, unfortunately. We have to use a slower capture with DirectX 8. You might want to try lowering the in-game resolution.

 

[zpammer]

Thank you for the suggestion.

I just ran a quick test on my tablet, a surfacepro running win 8.1.
I get the same result on my tablet as on my PC with OBSM; massive FPS drop directly when gamecapture gets ticked on.
FPS = 149 on 1920x1080 without game capture.
FPS = 30 on 1920x1080 as soon as I tick on game capture in OBSM.
FPS = 70 on 800x600 with game capture being ticked on.

Lowering the screenresolution improves the FPS when OBSM has a game capture hook, BUT:
FPS = 146 on 1920x1080 with game capture ticked on in OBS.

The difference the game capture makes in FPS between OBS and OBSM is massive. At least for DX8 games that is.
Ticking on the option 'limit framerate of capture' in OBSM improves the avarage FPS but lets the FPS fluctate between 30 and 120 x times per second while it is fairly stable without that option.

Then there is another thing.
The july 2015 version of OBS gives a black screen on capture on my tablet. An earlier version of OBS worked flawless on my tablet as described and logged: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/black-screen-dx8-gamecapture-gamecrashing.24827/#post-124436

 

[Lain]

Wait, you're saying original OBS is capturing DX8 fine with higher FPS? I misinterpreted and thought you said the origina version wasn't capturing at all. Then I'm guessing there's a discrepancy in the capture code that didn't get put in to the new version. I misunderstood. I'll check it out.

 

[zpammer]

Jim,

Yes I guess there is indeed a discrepancy in the capture code between versions. But non really works well across multiple devices for DX8 capture (at least for me).

I would like to make that more clear before things are getting mixed up. IF something stays unclear or you wish me to stream something to twitch or so, tell me.

I have two devices on which I tested OBS and OBSM on.
1. My game PC, Dual CPU Intel Xeon x5690 with GTX 750 Ti on Win 8.1 / 10 beta
2. My tablet, a SurfacePro with Intel HD4000 on Win 8.1

The issues that I experience are:
1. OBS black screen game captures for DX8 game UT2004.
2. OBSM FPS issues straight after ticking on 'game capture'.


Long story:

With the old version of OBS, january 2015, I get different results between the two devices.
- With DX8 game UT2004, I get a black screen capture on my PC. DX9+ game captures and streams run fine on it. The issue is isolated to the DX8 capture. I do not experience frame loss when ticking on 'game capture'. I tested DX9 capture with CSGO on high quality cpu and nvidia encoding.
- With DX8 game UT2004, I get a perfect game capture and stream on my tablet. No FPS drops at all, just 1 or 2% lower FPS overall. The game feels just as smooth as without any game capture running. DX9 games run fine as well.

With the new version of OBS, july 2015, I get a black screen capture for DX8 game UT2004 on both my PC and tablet. Ticking on 'game capture' has no measurable effects.
On my PC it is reaching the cap of 220 FPS online and the splashscreen goes up to 4000 FPS. On my tablet I stll get a 1 or 2% lower FPS just as with the january version of OBS when ticking on 'game capture'. My tablet can not reach the FPS cap of this game which explains the measurable lower FPS. The game itself feels smooth on both devices.

With OBSM I get the same result on both my devices. I can preview and stream the games, but the FPS drops alone for ticking on 'game capture' are massive and make the game unplayable. Streaming and high quality encoding on top of the game capture on my PC does not even have an effect on the FPS.