Question / Help Frame skips without dropping frames

[Edge419]

So my stream has been looking great lately but today I noticed a lot of frame "skips". I'm not dropping frames and my connection is very stable, I'm using an NDI setup with a streaming and gaming pc and this has been a new issue. Not sure if you need the post from the streaming pc or the gaming pc's OBS so i'll provide both.

Gaming PC NDI- https://obsproject.com/logs/4IvXR7VaggjF0aqt

Streaming PC NDI- https://obsproject.com/logs/KWMdIFd64Pwjh3Wo


I'd appreciate any help you can give.

Thanks.

 

[carlmmii]

I don't have a single answer for you, but here's what I can tell you based on your logs...

Your encoding pc is encountering no issues. No rendering/encoding lag, no dropped frames. That side is fine.

Your gaming pc is encountering 30% rendered frame loss based on the quick test the logs show. You're using a 3840x2160 canvas size, which is ridiculously huge to deal with, especially if you're sending that over NDI. You also have a lot of broken links to media sources, as well as video sources that are on loop and are not set to unload when not visible.

 

[Edge419]

I don't have a single answer for you, but here's what I can tell you based on your logs...

Your encoding pc is encountering no issues. No rendering/encoding lag, no dropped frames. That side is fine.

Your gaming pc is encountering 30% rendered frame loss based on the quick test the logs show. You're using a 3840x2160 canvas size, which is ridiculously huge to deal with, especially if you're sending that over NDI. You also have a lot of broken links to media sources, as well as video sources that are on loop and are not set to unload when not visible.

This has me really confused. The only things I have on loop are my stream starting/ending screens and when I check the properties the box that says "Hide Source When Playback ends" is checked.

As far as canvas size what would you recommend? Also where would I change that.

Thanks Carlmmii I really appreciate you taking the time.

 

[Edge419]

From what I've read about base canvas resolution on the forums i'm finding "Always set base resolution to your source (screen) resolution. " to be the predominant answer. 3840x2160 (4k) is the size of my gaming monitor so would I not be correct in selecting that for my base canvas resolution?

 

[carlmmii]

If I remember right, you have to scroll the options down on the media source to get to the checkbox for unloading the source when not in visible.

The general guide for canvas size being your monitor resolution is more of just that -- a general guideline. It's easier to throw your monitor capture onto the canvas and have it matched, but that's asking a lot of operations to be handled at a high resolution. It's also asking NDI to deal with a lot to transfer over your network, if I'm understanding how that works.

In your situation, unless you need 4k for recording purposes, you would be much better served working on a 1920x1080 canvas. You can set this option in the Video tab of your settings. It's the top option.

Edit: also keep in mind, doing these might not even actually fix your situation. You're experiencing rendering lag, which is GPU related, so you could be running into a situation where your game is getting prioritized for all GPU operations, and what's left over that OBS gets afterward isn't enough to keep up with the rendering task. This is a common thing, especially when you have near-100% GPU usage... which would definitely be the case if you're doing 4k gaming.