Question / Help Need help improving my stream

[suicidetree]

Sup OBS Community

I'm streaming since 7 or 8 month now and my community is growing. Most of the time I'm streaming MMO gameplay (Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer). Since Age of Conan is very sophisticated on hardware ressources, it's a challenge to provide a fluid and attractive stream.

I found out some decent settings but as an enthusiast, I'm looking for the best possible configurations. I'm sure you guys can help me to push my streaming quality to better spot. Ideas and suggestions are welcome!

So these are my current settings:

• Video Encoding: Use CBR | Max Bitrate: 3400 | Enable CBR padding | Use Custom Buffer Size: 3900
  Audio Encoding: Codec: AAC | Bitrate: 128 | Format: 48khz stereo
  
  Video: Base Resolution: 1920x1080 | Resolution Downscale: 1.50 (1280x720) | Filer: Lanczos | FPS: 60
  
  Advanced: x264 CPU Preset: faster | x264 Encoding Profile: main | Keyframe Interval: 2 | Use CFR | Custom x264 Encoder Settings: keyint=120

My internet speed is (testmy.net):

• 
  Down: 80mb/s
  Up: 7.5 mb/s

Here you can see some ingame action with the settings above: http://de.twitch.tv/suicidetree/b/497126134

I noticed that my stream looks a bit blurry / pixelated when I'm moving very fast (even with that high Custom Buffer Size). How can I avoid that?

Thank you for your support!

suicidetree

 

[Lain]

Your stream looks amazing. You've made the absolute most of of the bitrate you have available. I don't think you could do anything else to improve the stream outside of increasing bitrate.

 

[FerretBomb]

A custom buffer size isn't going to really help unless you have network connection flakiness. Not going to help with image clarity/fidelity at all. Just saying.
Also, you really are never going to get a true 1:1 stream... there's a point at which you need to manage expectations when it comes to real-time video. You might get minor gains if you lower your encoder preset, if you have the CPU available. But really, that's about it.

If you absolutely, positively, HAVE to have THE best quality imaginable, have you considered a dual-system rig, possibly with a multi-CPU encoding machine purely dedicated to running at the lowest preset possible?

You may also want to test-run at 1080p@30fps (no downscale) which can give a noticeably clearer picture, if the downscale is what's causing the pixellation (as it was in several cases on my own stream). Don't expect it to work, but it's something to try, that you might get a better result from. Alternately, playing the game at a native 720p, and maintaining 720@60 settings, if you can live with looking at low-resolution on your own monitor in the interests of improving the stream's quality. Or dropping to 720@45 (or 30) to devote even more of the bitrate to image fidelity, at the slight expense of fluidity.

 

[suicidetree]

Thank you guys for all your feedback!

So my settings are not that bad, awesome! :)

I did try the 1080p@30/45 FPS the result was quite disappointing. The stream looks fine while you stand still, but with some high motion scenes it becomes very blurry wich is pretty much *meh* to me.

I'm happy with my stream as it is for now - maybe I'll spend some money into a AVerMedia Live Gamer HD with a 2 PC setup.

Cheers

 

[FerretBomb]

Please be aware that while that card can ACCEPT a 1080p@60fps source, it cannot CAPTURE at that rate; it only provides a captured stream up to 1080@30, if memory serves, despite the doublespeak that their marketroids came up with to strongly suggest otherwise without (strictly) outright lying. There are also a few other issues with running in a two-system setup (audio, mic usage, in-game VoIP, OBS control, etc).

Additionally, I feel the need to point out that in general, only a VERY small segment of your viewerbase will full-screen you; a stark majority will leave you popped-in to interact with the chat, or just to use you as background noise. It's one thing to focus on having top-shelf video... so long as you realize and understand that less than 1/20 of your viewers will ever even see it, or notice, as compared to the content you provide.