Question / Help H1Z1: KotK Streaming - How to Set-up properly?

[VIERcntHOLZ]

Hey guys,

I'm quiet new to streaming but want to get my stream on a good level from the beginning on.

My Rig is quiet powerful:
i7 7700k @ 4,5ghz (don't know why the Log says otherwise)
Asus Maximus IX Hero
16gb G.Skill Trident Z @ 3000mhz
M.2 PCIe SSD (Samsung Evo 250gb as System Partition) + two other SSDs (on which my Games/OBS are)
MSI GTX 970

I'm planning to stream H1z1 primarily, my ingame Settings are:
Full HD
low Settings (because the game is smoother with lower graphics)

My OBS Settings right now (best i can record, whitout any encoder stuttering) are in the logs.



My questions are:
1. Streaming on Twitch (non Partner, right now, of course) => 720p is the max resolution I can stream, right? thought of 1080p, but have to use 30fps then and a faster encoder Setting. - Should I be streaming in 720p or 1080p?
2. recording on 720p, my on Screen Text (Last Follower Note etc.) is in a bad quality, is this normal? in 1080p it looks more crisp. See Example in 3.
3. Despite having a quiet good rig - my stream/recording video quality to be a bit muddy? not as crisp as my ingame view - any recommendations? Check this https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7ns611u66j6jqi/2017-02-19%2020-57-04.flv?dl=0 Example (using the same Settings as in the logs)

4. Any other recommendations to get the best possible quality for my Stream? :)


Cheers, and thank you in advance!

 

[EBrito]

You are streaming at 1280x720x60 FPS 3500 Kbps Preset Fast
***With Lanczos rescaling filter you get less pixelation


You can switch to 1920x1080x30 FPS 3500 Kbps Preset Fast with same CPU/GPU load from OBS, but better image as you do not rescale.

 

[VIERcntHOLZ]

Okay, and should I use lanczoss @ full HD too? :)

Is this Pixelation just due to h1z1? Because I was able to stream resident evil 7 on full HD without pixelation at all:(

 

[EBrito]

At 1080p rescaling filter is not used because it´s not needed

 

[VIERcntHOLZ]

Thank you :)

So at 1080p simply no filter?
But what causes this Pixelation Effekt?
Did not happen on Resident evil, for example

And is it better (performance wise) to go 'Full screen capture' or Game/Window Capture? :)

 

[EBrito]

H1Z1: as any other FPS, rapid turns cause pixelation.
Use 3500 Kbps bitrate

Game capture is far more better than display / full screen capture

 

[wallrik]

Those custom encoder settings seem really wacky to me. I would remove all of them.

H1Z1 has a lot of detail with all that grass and foliage which is super taxing on the encoder. You're going to want to keep it at 720p to get any sort of quality at 3500 kbps. (That has nothing to do with being partnered or not)

As you can see in your sample clip, when you stand still the text overlay is crisp, but as soon as you move it goes blurry. This is called compression artifacts, and you're making them even worse with your custom settings.

As suggested you could also try a better downscale filter which may produce a slightly better picture when downscaling to 720p but won't help with the high motion issue.

Going back to 30 fps will give you a boost to quality as well, but will obviously not be as smooth. You could try both to see if you like the trade-off in quality compared to smoothness.

 

[VIERcntHOLZ]

I already use 3500kbps bitrate - and Game Capture - I will leave this then

@wallrik:
At first, thank you for your reply and your in depth knowledge :)
@ 30fps I can stream 1080p (without the need of any Filter), I guess, or am I mistaken?
Do the compression artifacts (thanks for clearing the wording :) ) come as a result of (faster) encoder settings?

For example Stormen (a popular h1z1 Streamer) streams with an one PC Setup (and his machine is less powerful than mine), and produces a very crisp picture - so I guess I got the Settings wrong.

if i go down to 30fps, i'd prefer 1080p (because of the sharpness of my on screen texts (like recent follower etc.)) - what encoder setting would you recommend? still faster? or fast?

PS: I read about those custom encoder settings in a guide this evening, but you said they're thrash? I literally have no Idea, to be honest, just copied them out of this particular guide :D So, I should throw them all out?
and talking of those compression artifacts - how do I get rid of them? (or is it possible to get rid of them without a 2 PC Setup?)

 

[wallrik]

Those are a lot of questions, hehe. But I will try to clear up some of it :)

@ 30fps I can stream 1080p (without the need of any Filter), I guess, or am I mistaken?

You definitely can if you want to. But I don't think you will find that it looks better, because a higher resolution, more pixels, means that it will require more bandwidth. You can try both but I think you will find that 720p looks better. And in regards to viewing it, remember that you probably won't see that it's in 1080p unless you view it in fullscreen or otherwise have a high resolution monitor.

In regards to downscale filtering, there is no option in OBS to not set a filter, but if you are not downscaling (ie base 1080p and output 1080p) the choice will not make a difference, so you can leave it as Lanczos.

Do the compression artifacts (thanks for clearing the wording :) ) come as a result of (faster) encoder settings?

The encoder preset is just a bunch of settings that basically determine how much work the encoder will put in to compress the image. faster will give a better end result than veryfast. You can try setting it to fast to get an even better result, but keep an eye on your CPU usage because it will require a lot more work.

If your CPU can't keep up you will drop frames and the viewers will notice buffering issues.

Here is a good reference for what the different presets do, but don't worry about changing any of the settings manually.

For example Stormen (a popular h1z1 Streamer) streams with an one PC Setup (and his machine is less powerful than mine), and produces a very crisp picture - so I guess I got the Settings wrong.

Is that "Stormentv" ? I had a quick look now. He is using 720p 60fps @ 4500 kbps. The bump in bitrate will do a lot for picture quality, but may not work for all viewers. He is also using a high encoding profile which enables slightly better compression with the trade-off of compatibility of older devices. (You need to use the advanced output in OBS to see that setting)

if i go down to 30fps, i'd prefer 1080p (because of the sharpness of my on screen texts (like recent follower etc.)) - what encoder setting would you recommend? still faster? or fast?

PS: I read about those custom encoder settings in a guide this evening, but you said they're thrash? I literally have no Idea, to be honest, just copied them out of this particular guide :D So, I should throw them all out?
and talking of those compression artifacts - how do I get rid of them? (or is it possible to get rid of them without a 2 PC Setup?)

Your custom settings are not bad per say, they just do different things. I say you should try without any of them. I think you will get a better result with the default settings.

In regards to a 2 PC setup - No, it will not automatically help. The thing it's good for is that you may be able to set a slower preset because the PC is doing only encoding and nothing else. But having a few compression artifacts is normal and won't make viewers leave, I'm pretty sure :)

Here is a good video on video compression.

 

[VIERcntHOLZ]

First of all - @wallrik, you are the best! :-)

Is that "Stormentv" ? I had a quick look now. He is using 720p 60fps @ 4500 kbps. The bump in bitrate will do a lot for picture quality, but may not work for all viewers. He is also using a high encoding profile which enables slightly better compression with the trade-off of compatibility of older devices. (You need to use the advanced output in OBS to see that setting)

Good to hear - where did you get that information? just curious, because his stream is very crisp - and as you stated: i thought it was 1080p :D
Do you know what encoder speed he uses?

By any means, i can go up to 4500 bitrate, too - my ISP is the Telekom @ 50Mbit down/8Mbit upstream
and Stormentv has a ****load of viewers, so the settings should be fine for a lot of people, i guess

Your custom settings are not bad per say, they just do different things. I say you should try without any of them. I think you will get a better result with the default settings.

Just deleted them :-)

In regards to a 2 PC setup - No, it will not automatically help. The thing it's good for is that you may be able to set a slower preset because the PC is doing only encoding and nothing else. But having a few compression artifacts is normal and won't make viewers leave, I'm pretty sure :)

Good to hear that - in this manner I'm kind of a "perfectionist" and seeing this bad video quality brings "leaving viewers" to my mind :D

PS: if i stream @720p, I get compression artifacts on the edges of my "Newest Follower" Text, too.
Any advice to get this on a good level?
Because if this doesnt look good, I don't think it makes a good overall impression

PPS: Do you guys recommend any "Tune" Setting? Seems like I get quiet good results on ssim or film..

 

[wallrik]

By any means, i can go up to 4500 bitrate, too - my ISP is the Telekom @ 50Mbit down/8Mbit upstream and Stormentv has a ****load of viewers, so the settings should be fine for a lot of people, i guess

Well, max bitrate is a debated topic. You are free to try anything you want, but I would recommend keeping it at 3500 or lower, even if it won't look as good. We were discussing this yesterday in this topic. But it's being discussed almost every day :P

PS: if i stream @720p, I get compression artifacts on the edges of my "Newest Follower" Text, too.
Any advice to get this on a good level?
Because if this doesnt look good, I don't think it makes a good overall impression

Did it not get better after adjustments?
But there's no other magic fix for it unfortunately. You can try putting something behind the text, like a solid color or a static image. That could help keeping it readable when there's a lot of action on screen.

PPS: Do you guys recommend any "Tune" Setting? Seems like I get quiet good results on ssim or film..

Tuning for specific jobs is generally not needed unless you stream something very specific.
You can try the Film setting and see if you like it. You may notice that some details are kept better with this. It's meant for real life footage, but may work with action games as well :)

But again, generally you don't need to set any tuning.
(quick reference)