Question / Help Help - was encoding fine - now it's trash

[Big_Swilla]

I'm playing Ghost Recon Wildlands. I was recording fine for weeks on high setting on the game. I just changed my graphic settings to ultra and OBS won't record correctly anymore. It runs smooth as butter on the game but lags on the local recording. I tried turning everything back down and it still won't encode correctly. It constantly says encoding overloaded. I've tried multiple settings but I can't get anything to work. I've even turned the graphics all the way down and it won't capture it without major lag. I think I have the OBS settings screwed up now. If I turn it the game to high I can get solid 60 plus frames but it still is overloaded.

I'm attaching a short log. I can make a longer one if needed. I'm still new at this. Any help is greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

System specs
i5-6600k overclocked to 4.10
32gb ram
GTX 1060 6gb
obs 64 bit


[20:08:39.989: CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz
20:08:39.989: CPU Speed: 3504MHz
20:08:39.989: Physical Cores: 4, Logical Cores: 4
20:08:39.989: Physical Memory: 32730MB Total, 30054MB Free
20:08:39.989: Windows Version: 10.0 Build 10586 (revision: 589; 64-bit)
20:08:39.989: Running as administrator: false
20:08:39.989: Aero is Enabled (Aero is always on for windows 8 and above)
20:08:39.989: Portable mode: false
20:08:39.995: OBS 18.0.1 (64bit, windows)
20:08:39.995: ---------------------------------
20:08:39.996: ---------------------------------
20:08:39.996: audio settings reset:
20:08:39.996: samples per sec: 48000
20:08:39.996: speakers: 2
20:08:40.005: ---------------------------------
20:08:40.005: Initializing D3D11..
20:08:40.005: Available Video Adapters:
20:08:40.006: Adapter 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
20:08:40.006: Dedicated VRAM: 2093940736
20:08:40.006: Shared VRAM: 4275470336
20:08:40.006: output 1: pos={0, 0}, size={1920, 1080}, attached=true
20:08:40.008: Loading up D3D11 on adapter NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB (0)
20:08:40.396: D3D11 loaded sucessfully, feature level used: 45056
20:08:40.914: ---------------------------------
20:08:40.914: video settings reset:
20:08:40.914: base resolution: 1920x1080
20:08:40.914: output resolution: 1920x1080
20:08:40.914: downscale filter: Lanczos
20:08:40.914: fps: 60/1
20:08:40.914: format: NV12
20:08:40.915: Audio monitoring device:
20:08:40.915: name: Default
20:08:40.915: id: default
20:08:40.915: ---------------------------------
20:08:40.948: Required module function 'obs_module_load' in module '../../obs-plugins/64bit/chrome_elf.dll' not found, loading of module failed
20:08:40.966: [CoreAudio encoder]: Adding CoreAudio AAC encoder
20:08:40.988: [AMF Encoder] Unable to load 'amfrt64.dll', error code 126.
20:08:41.101: Required module function 'obs_module_load' in module '../../obs-plugins/64bit/libcef.dll' not found, loading of module failed
20:08:41.129: Required module function 'obs_module_load' in module '../../obs-plugins/64bit/libEGL.dll' not found, loading of module failed
20:08:41.160: Required module function 'obs_module_load' in module '../../obs-plugins/64bit/libGLESv2.dll' not found, loading of module failed
20:08:41.175: Failed to load 'en-US' text for module: 'obs-browser.dll'
20:08:41.175: [browser_source: 'Version: 1.29.0']
20:08:41.209: NVENC supported
20:08:41.382: Failed to load 'en-US' text for module: 'OBSInfoWriter.dll'
20:08:41.446: Couldn't find VLC installation, VLC video source disabled
20:08:41.469: No blackmagic support
20:08:41.704: ---------------------------------
20:08:41.704: Loaded Modules:
20:08:41.704: win-wasapi.dll
20:08:41.704: win-mf.dll
20:08:41.704: win-dshow.dll
20:08:41.704: win-decklink.dll
20:08:41.704: win-capture.dll
20:08:41.704: vlc-video.dll
20:08:41.704: text-freetype2.dll
20:08:41.704: rtmp-services.dll
20:08:41.704: OBSInfoWriter.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-x264.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-vst.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-transitions.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-text.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-qsv11.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-outputs.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-filters.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-ffmpeg.dll
20:08:41.704: obs-browser.dll
20:08:41.704: image-source.dll
20:08:41.704: frontend-tools.dll
20:08:41.704: enc-amf.dll
20:08:41.704: coreaudio-encoder.dll
20:08:41.704: ==== Startup complete ===============================================
20:08:41.711: All scene data cleared
20:08:41.711: ------------------------------------------------
20:08:41.729: WASAPI: Device 'Speakers (4- USB Audio Device)' initialized
20:08:41.735: WASAPI: Device 'Microphone (4- USB Audio Device)' initialized
20:08:41.738: Switched to scene 'Scene'
20:08:41.738: ------------------------------------------------
20:08:41.738: Loaded scenes:
20:08:41.738: - scene 'Scene':
20:08:41.738: - source: 'infowriter' (infowriter)
20:08:41.738: - source: 'Display Capture' (monitor_capture)
20:08:41.738: ------------------------------------------------
20:08:41.831: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 21 milliseconds
20:08:54.510: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 42 milliseconds
20:12:17.117: adding 21 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 64 milliseconds
20:15:57.011: ---------------------------------
20:15:57.011: [NVENC encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
20:15:57.011: rate_control: CBR
20:15:57.011: bitrate: 8000
20:15:57.011: cqp: 0
20:15:57.011: keyint: 250
20:15:57.011: preset: default
20:15:57.011: profile: main
20:15:57.011: level: auto
20:15:57.011: width: 1920
20:15:57.011: height: 1080
20:15:57.011: 2-pass: true
20:15:57.011: b-frames: 2
20:15:57.011: GPU: 0
20:15:57.011:
20:15:57.498: [CoreAudio AAC: 'Full Mix']: settings:
20:15:57.498: mode: AAC
20:15:57.498: bitrate: 320
20:15:57.498: sample rate: 48000
20:15:57.498: cbr: on
20:15:57.498: output buffer: 1536
20:15:57.814: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:15:57.814: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-15-57.mp4'...
20:16:32.692: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-15-57.mp4' stopped
20:16:32.693: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:16:32.693: Output 'adv_file_output': Total encoded frames: 1821
20:16:32.693: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 2093
20:16:32.694: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 2004 (110.0%)
20:16:32.694: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 14 (0.7%)
20:16:32.694: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
20:16:53.201: Settings changed (outputs)
20:16:53.201: ------------------------------------------------
20:16:56.138: ---------------------------------
20:16:56.138: [NVENC encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
20:16:56.138: rate_control: CBR
20:16:56.138: bitrate: 4000
20:16:56.138: cqp: 0
20:16:56.138: keyint: 250
20:16:56.138: preset: default
20:16:56.138: profile: main
20:16:56.138: level: auto
20:16:56.138: width: 1920
20:16:56.138: height: 1080
20:16:56.138: 2-pass: true
20:16:56.138: b-frames: 2
20:16:56.138: GPU: 0
20:16:56.138:
20:16:56.430: [CoreAudio AAC: 'Full Mix']: settings:
20:16:56.430: mode: AAC
20:16:56.430: bitrate: 320
20:16:56.430: sample rate: 48000
20:16:56.430: cbr: on
20:16:56.430: output buffer: 1536
20:16:56.463: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:16:56.463: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-16-56.mp4'...
20:18:35.952: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-16-56.mp4' stopped
20:18:35.954: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:18:35.954: Output 'adv_file_output': Total encoded frames: 4931
20:18:35.954: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 5970
20:18:35.954: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1971 (40.0%)
20:18:35.954: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 239 (4.0%)
20:18:35.954: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
20:19:00.498: ---------------------------------
20:19:00.500: [NVENC encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
20:19:00.500: rate_control: CBR
20:19:00.500: bitrate: 4000
20:19:00.500: cqp: 0
20:19:00.500: keyint: 250
20:19:00.500: preset: default
20:19:00.500: profile: main
20:19:00.500: level: auto
20:19:00.500: width: 1920
20:19:00.500: height: 1080
20:19:00.500: 2-pass: true
20:19:00.500: b-frames: 2
20:19:00.500: GPU: 0
20:19:00.500:
20:19:00.789: [CoreAudio AAC: 'Full Mix']: settings:
20:19:00.789: mode: AAC
20:19:00.789: bitrate: 320
20:19:00.789: sample rate: 48000
20:19:00.789: cbr: on
20:19:00.789: output buffer: 1536
20:19:00.863: ==== Recording Start ===============================================
20:19:00.864: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Writing file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-19-00.mp4'...
20:19:58.494: [ffmpeg muxer: 'adv_file_output'] Output of file 'D:/Multimedia/Game Recordings/OBS Recording/2017-04-12 20-19-00.mp4' stopped
20:19:58.494: Output 'adv_file_output': stopping
20:19:58.494: Output 'adv_file_output': Total encoded frames: 3388
20:19:58.494: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 3458
20:19:58.494: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 746 (22.0%)
20:19:58.494: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 91 (2.6%)
20:19:58.495: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
20:20:26.856: adding 42 milliseconds of audio buffering, total audio buffering is now 106 milliseconds]

 

[C-Dude]

Your CPU can't keep up. If you don't have vsync on make sure to turn that on. Wildlands is a terribly optimized game. You probably are going to have to lower the resolution of your stream.

 

[wessla]

I really wish i could help you, i have the same problem you have. I sometimes get it to work fine, but then it just wont. reformatted computer and everything... Something in the program is just broken or something. This has nothing to do with hardware not keeping up to par..

 

[Boildown]

For one thing your bitrate is tragically low for trying to record 1080p60 with NVEnc. Raise it to 30000.

Also change your Preset to HQ (high quality) or HP (high performance), and the Profile to High instead of Main.

20:19:00.500: [NVENC encoder: 'recording_h264'] settings:
20:19:00.500: rate_control: CBR
20:19:00.500: bitrate: 4000
20:19:00.500: cqp: 0
20:19:00.500: keyint: 250
20:19:00.500: preset: default
20:19:00.500: profile: main
20:19:00.500: level: auto
20:19:00.500: width: 1920
20:19:00.500: height: 1080
20:19:00.500: 2-pass: true
20:19:00.500: b-frames: 2

 

[Big_Swilla]

Thanks for the responses. I'll try these options out, although it seems nothing works. I was even trying to record some N64 emulation and it's not capturing right. My bitrate was low on the log just from experimentation. I was running it at 50k when it was working correctly. I tried 50k last night to no avail.

And to clarify, I'm not trying to stream. I'm just using OBS for local recordings.

Def weird that it ran like a champ for weeks. Now all of a sudden I can't encode shit. I can't think of anything that changed.

Thanks

 

[Boildown]

That bitrate is definitely too low for 1080p60. 20000 is the minimum (imo) but I've moved my recordings up to 30000 for more quality. If you've been streaming fine for a long time, find the oldest OBS log file you have and if that recording was fine, upload it so we can see it, and maybe we can tell you what changed.

 

[Big_Swilla]

I just looked. I deleted my app data trying to reset everything to default. I don't have an older log to reference unfortunately. I just watched a video I made back in March. It's over six hours long and it looks perfect. Very frustrating. I'm going to keep tweaking and see what I can come up with.

I set my bitrate to 30k. Hopefully that will help.

 

[wessla]

What you can try is to disable Xbox Game-DVR and disable Shadowplay from Geforce experience.

 

[wessla]

I see you are using Display capture (20:08:41.738: - source: 'Display Capture' (monitor_capture)
Try using Game Source.

 

[Big_Swilla]

I've set the bitrate to 30K, turned off Shadowplay and the Xbox Game DVR. Changed presets to high, etc. I even reinstalled Ghost Recon and OBS just to try everything. Set my source to Game Capture. Nothing works. My GPU is only at 80 percent. I don't understand how there isn't enough juice to encode left over on NVENC. I've got the graphics turned way down. I don't understand what the issue could be. I guess I'll try For Honor and see if it's still overloaded.

 

[Boildown]

New logs look good, you changed everything like I asked but...

14:34:11.222: Output 'adv_file_output': Total encoded frames: 2402
14:34:11.222: Output 'adv_file_output': Total drawn frames: 2406
14:34:11.222: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1123 (46.8%)
14:34:11.222: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 49 (2.0%)

That is really bad :( .

I'm at a loss here. Anyone else?

Can you use Simple Mode - NVEnc as described here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...ality-recording-and-multiple-audio-tracks.221 ?

 

[Big_Swilla]

I just switched it to simple mode. Same problems. I ran For Honor and it only skipped 3 frames. It was running fine. It must be an issue with Ghost Recon somehow. I've literally turned the graphics down to potato on Ghost Recon and it still won't encode. I've got 50 percent usage on my GPU and still no encoding. What the hell. I don't get why it was capturing totally fine and now it's jacked up. Looks like my recording days on GRW are over.

 

[Boildown]

Did a forum search and found a couple threads of people complaining that GR:W works fine but Mass Effect Andromeda wouldn't, lol. Anyways, is your Nvidia driver at this version or later: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-wildlands-game-ready-driver ? If not try updating it.

As a test, try x264 instead of NVEnc and see if it also has problems. Use UltraFast preset for the purposes of the test, run it for 5 minutes of high action content and post the log file.

 

[Big_Swilla]

My drivers are up to date. I just downloaded one a few days ago. I'm at a loss. I've tried 85 plus different combinations of everything I can think of. Nothing runs smooth. I ran Payday 2 for a bit earlier at 30 frames 720p and it was still dipping here and there. It looked okay but this is ridiculous. I was perfectly recording GRW in 1080p 60 frames. If I capture it with Shadowplay it looks gorgeous and doesn't lag in the slightest. Why OBS? Why?

Here's the log from the x264 run.

I appreciate all the help! Thank you.

 

[Steeled_Pick]

Don't use over 160bit for audio. I bet that will fix it.

from log
mode: AAC
bitrate: 320

 

[Big_Swilla]

I tried lowering the audio to 160. No difference. Encoding issues galore. I was enjoying the customization and ease of OBS. I guess I'll go back to Shadowplay for now and use handbrake to get constant frame rate for editing. I can record in Ultra settings with zero issues on Shadowplay. I thought both programs used the same kind of encoding from the GPU. I don't get why OBS can't handle the load anymore.

If I find out the issue I'll post it here. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Boildown]

20:39:58.105: - source: 'Display Capture' (monitor_capture)

You still have a monitor capture in that last log. Avoid that.

Try monitoring your CPU temperatures. UltraFast shouldn't have over 36% skipped frames on an i5-6600k. Maybe your CPU is overheating and throttling.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

I had this problem and I found that my virtual webcam splitter was the problem. I had KVYcam installed and it was pre-processing frames to send to OBS but it has a problem it seems, and the video processing interfered with smooth playback.