Question / Help Help building a stream setup for live tt gaming

[rootuser]

Hi all,

Great project here. I am new to this scene, but I have decided that OBS is the way to go because I currently write a lot of open source software for other projects and I always stay community driven where possible.

What I want to do: Record+Stream (to Twitch most likely) live TableTop games and old school roleplaying games as they happen in my local game store

What I require: At least two input devices if not 3. One would be backed up from the table showing everyone, one might focus on the game master, and one would be focused straight down from above on the game table where the players would be moving pieces, rolling dice etc.

Video quality is paramount. I can hook up external sound. I have a professional mixing board, and broadcast quality microphones with all appropriate stands, booms etc.

I was thinking of using at least one camcorder of some kind, maybe one webcam and the third option I am kind of open.

I can feed all of this back into multiple Dell XPS i7 laptops with 256GB Sata III drives, USB 3, etc.

What i need help with: What camcorder is a good choice, that will take an external mic if possible (not required), can record while it is plugged in (game sessions run hours and hours) will do 1080p, and will be small and simple to use? For a simple capture device would the ELGATO be recommended or something else?

I see the logitech 930 mentioned a lot for a webcam, would that be good for what I am looking at doing?

I can feed sound into the laptop via a usb sound card processed through a mixing board. It takes almost 0 resources to do so, and includes full channel left and right which is good enough. I am worried about lag however and the sound not matching. Is there compensation for this in the OBS software?

Is there a way to get all the laptops working together? Should each laptop handle 1 camera or can I get 2 or more on a single laptop?

Currently upload bandwidth is not a concern. I am really focused on getting the rigs up and running without breaking the bank totally on an experiment. Cameras around $200 each and adding a capture card around the same would be realistic.


Thank you for helping a noob.

 

[dping]

Hi all,

Great project here. I am new to this scene, but I have decided that OBS is the way to go because I currently write a lot of open source software for other projects and I always stay community driven where possible.

What I want to do: Record+Stream (to Twitch most likely) live TableTop games and old school roleplaying games as they happen in my local game store

What I require: At least two input devices if not 3. One would be backed up from the table showing everyone, one might focus on the game master, and one would be focused straight down from above on the game table where the players would be moving pieces, rolling dice etc.

Video quality is paramount. I can hook up external sound. I have a professional mixing board, and broadcast quality microphones with all appropriate stands, booms etc.

I was thinking of using at least one camcorder of some kind, maybe one webcam and the third option I am kind of open.

I can feed all of this back into multiple Dell XPS i7 laptops with 256GB Sata III drives, USB 3, etc.

What i need help with: What camcorder is a good choice, that will take an external mic if possible (not required), can record while it is plugged in (game sessions run hours and hours) will do 1080p, and will be small and simple to use? For a simple capture device would the ELGATO be recommended or something else?

I see the logitech 930 mentioned a lot for a webcam, would that be good for what I am looking at doing?

I can feed sound into the laptop via a usb sound card processed through a mixing board. It takes almost 0 resources to do so, and includes full channel left and right which is good enough. I am worried about lag however and the sound not matching. Is there compensation for this in the OBS software?

Is there a way to get all the laptops working together? Should each laptop handle 1 camera or can I get 2 or more on a single laptop?

Currently upload bandwidth is not a concern. I am really focused on getting the rigs up and running without breaking the bank totally on an experiment. Cameras around $200 each and adding a capture card around the same would be realistic.


Thank you for helping a noob.

could you explain your setup again? you have multiple laptops streaming with cams each through a capture card to which is going to what computer to combine and stream it? I'm assuming you have all of these laptops on the same network etc.

 

[rootuser]

All laptops can be on the same network no problem. I would like to aggregate streams, BUT this is not needed. IF a single laptop can handle 2-3 cameras I can do this all with 1 laptop.

I am thinking 1 webcam (no capture card), at least 1 camcorder (Elgato or something to capture) and maybe 1 more camcorder or the like.

The angles are what is important, one of the GM, one of the players and one of the board facing down. If this can all be accomplished through one right that would be awesome, I just didn't think it was possible.

 

[dping]

All laptops can be on the same network no problem. I would like to aggregate streams, BUT this is not needed. IF a single laptop can handle 2-3 cameras I can do this all with 1 laptop.

I am thinking 1 webcam (no capture card), at least 1 camcorder (Elgato or something to capture) and maybe 1 more camcorder or the like.

The angles are what is important, one of the GM, one of the players and one of the board facing down. If this can all be accomplished through one right that would be awesome, I just didn't think it was possible.

Others can correct me if I'm wrong, but one laptop can capture multiple cams. but encoding might be a different issue. most laptops just dont have the HP to encode decent enough unless the picture is somewhat static And i'm talking about 720p 30fps. if you want something more fluent then you'll need to do a dual PC setup.

 

[rootuser]

If I am using an external device like ElGato won't that take some of the load off of the laptop itself? Still not sure a single laptop can handle multiple streams, but.....

 

[dping]

If I am using an external device like ElGato won't that take some of the load off of the laptop itself? Still not sure a single laptop can handle multiple streams, but.....

with capture card, all you have to setup is a "virtual screen" cloned or whatever, then full screen the preview of the cameras the way you want them setup then the streaming PC will do all the work. I dont know, maybe you dont even need the laptop/capture card if you do it that way

 

[PCBot]

I currently have a Logitech C930 Mounted to my ceiling capturing the table from a straight down perspective. I also have a C615 mounted at an angle that shows the players and what is kind of going on in the room. The dual webcam setup on one computer works, but the logitech software doesn't like it very much.

I haven't broadcasted in a while, but I can give you some footage of what I have recorded if you want it. I'm meh about it though... I'd really like some camera's on the table where you can see people's faces as they play and have the ability to swap stuff around. Also, wouldn't mind a custom overlay to get rid of pointless areas.

I am also using a laptop for the stream and it is not hardwired. It works over wifi, but I wouldn't recommend doing this to multiple streams and then aggregating them using the streaming service. If you can, get it all setup on your local device in OBS so that you don't have to worry too much about bandwidth consumption.