Question / Help No Man's Sky - NVENC with SLI

[LokeYourLord]

Hi guys. I am having a little problem with OBS in this particular case. I am trying to record/stream No Man's Sky, and i tweaked around with the settings, but i come no further than 50FPS now. No Man's Sky runs at 4k 60FPS for me (using the downscale mod to 0.75%) almost all the time with no Microstutter. The NVIDIA Control Panel enforces AFR2 for my SLI setup on No Man's Sky (GTX 970 in SLI). My problem is, that when i have OBS Studio open, my games FPS drops down to about 40-50FPS from 60FPS, and i cannot find out what to do to fix it. One thing i did is using the Game Capture instead of using Device Capture. Then instead of using the OpenGL renderer which people say i should use (by using the OpenGL renderer i get about 10-15FPS, no idea framerate at all), i started using the D3D11 renderer which pumped my FPS up all the way to 40-50FPS, but still no 60FPS.

Here my Broadcast Settings:

Yes, i have Gigabit and thus my Bitrate is 7500, though i initially had it set to 10000. GPU doesn't matter which one i set it to, even with some people saying that you have to specify the GPU the game is running on, which seems to be bs. I am using Level 5.1 as i know from Adobe Premiere it handles higher FPS and resolutions (like 4k) better. I also use the Low-Latency High Performance Preset, but i tried normal High Performance as well. Keyframe interval is said to be the best at 2, so i haven't tried changing that yet. I am rescaling my output as i don't want to stream in 4k.

What in all world am i doing wrong that takes 10-20FPS from me while i play No Man's Sky? My Stream Server is set to Stockholm, SE, which is the closest i get, with about 25ms in ping and 10000kbp/s+ upload speed (tested with TwitchTester). Is there anything i can do to get my full 60FPS and stream in a not horrible FPS/resolution? I cannot bring myself to force my viewers to watch in 720p 30FPS, as i myself wouldn't like that either. 1080p 60FPS is a standard, and anything below is in my point not worth watching, not these days anymore.

Anyways, if someone could help me with that, i would be very happy for your help!

Also, as a side note: I run both NMS and OBS in Administrator mode, as i previously had a black screen on NMS when recording with OBS, because i didn't run OBS in Administrator mode. I just luckily found a thread saying that you need to run OBS Studio in Administrator mode to record games/programs that also run in Administrator mode.

 

[RytoEX]

I'm not sure I can solve your problem, but let's take a look.

First, please post a log of a streaming session that exhibits this problem.

Since you're using SLI, try enabling "Multi-adapter Compatibility" in your Game Capture source and see how that affects things. I've seen conflicting reports on whether or not this would help, so someone with more experience on SLI setups is welcome to chime in.

Try disabling the preview in OBS Studio.

Are you also recording this footage, or are you just streaming it? If you're just streaming it, then
uncheck "Rescale Output" (Settings > Output > Streaming > Rescale Output). Set your output resolution by using the Output Resolution setting (Settings > Video > Output (Scaled) Resolution).

Your streaming bitrate is too high, according to Twitch (though, see also this post). You might consider lowering it to be more in compliance with Twitch, but that is probably not the problem here.

Is there anything i can do to get my full 60FPS and stream in a not horrible FPS/resolution? I cannot bring myself to force my viewers to watch in 720p 30FPS, as i myself wouldn't like that either. 1080p 60FPS is a standard, and anything below is in my point not worth watching, not these days anymore.

As an aside, 720p@30FPS is also a standard, and it is not a horrible FPS/resolution. Video in 60 FPS can look strange to some people or even give them motion sickness. If you're determined to stream in 1080p@60FPS, that's one thing, but 720p@30FPS is acceptable, as is 720p@60FPS. I'm pretty sure Twitch even recommends 30 FPS in general.

 

[LokeYourLord]

I'm not sure I can solve your problem, but let's take a look.

First, please post a log of a streaming session that exhibits this problem.

Since you're using SLI, try enabling "Multi-adapter Compatibility" in your Game Capture source and see how that affects things. I've seen conflicting reports on whether or not this would help, so someone with more experience on SLI setups is welcome to chime in.

Try disabling the preview in OBS Studio.

Are you also recording this footage, or are you just streaming it? If you're just streaming it, then
uncheck "Rescale Output" (Settings > Output > Streaming > Rescale Output). Set your output resolution by using the Output Resolution setting (Settings > Video > Output (Scaled) Resolution).

Your streaming bitrate is too high, according to Twitch (though, see also this post). You might consider lowering it to be more in compliance with Twitch, but that is probably not the problem here.


As an aside, 720p@30FPS is also a standard, and it is not a horrible FPS/resolution. Video in 60 FPS can look strange to some people or even give them motion sickness. If you're determined to stream in 1080p@60FPS, that's one thing, but 720p@30FPS is acceptable, as is 720p@60FPS. I'm pretty sure Twitch even recommends 30 FPS in general.

Thanks, i did disable the "Rescale Output" and enabled the "Multi-adapter Compatibility" setting. My bitrate might be too high, but it's not like Twitch just stops the stream, it just throttles the bitrate if it is too high, so streaming in 7500kbp/s will not make a difference for me, only for Twitch which is going to stop at about 5000-6000kbp/s (if i remember correctly).

I thank you for the help, though i cannot agree with you on the 720p 30FPS thing. 720p looks far too horrible, and should be considered a "no no" when streaming. Same goes for 30FPS, as our eyes can see way beyond 60FPS, so having 60 as a standard isn't too much to ask for. And for those who say they get "motion sickness", which i personally have never experienced, even on games on my Oculus Rift way below 75FPS (where some throw up), i must say it's just about getting used to it. After some time your brain will adjust just fine and you will not feel any motion sickness anymore, that's at least how i got rid of it and some of my friends, so i know it clearly works. It's just about going beyond the comfort zone and trying it out, after some time you clearly see why 60FPS and beyond is better, because it is. Cinematic isn't an option, not for games. Movies are acceptable at 24FPS, but i prefer also those in 48FPS sometimes.

 

[LokeYourLord]

Btw, none of the options seemed to help. In the main menu when i start the game, i still get about 10-20FPS, which shows me that OBS is still doing what it does, causing the drops. I as said disabled the "Rescale Output" and enabled the "Multi-adapter Compatibility", and even did right click on the preview and disabled it, FPS still the same (actually, when i enabled "Multi-adapter Compatibility", my FPS sank all the way down like it did with the OpenGL Renderer, so not a very good option either). Here my log:

https://gist.github.com/c3bdca9f523d3cc37ee6e1e2cfe3e75b

EDIT: The log is a tiny bit wrong, my CPU is running at 4497MHz, not 3999MHz, as i overclocked it, which OBS probably cannot notice. Also the part about "Running As Administrator" is wrong, i do run it as Admin, else i wouldn't be able to Capture NMS.

EDIT: Sorry, used the "last log" option, not current one. Here is the ACTUAL correct log:
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/c09103669c3bdf96f3d48caa48db33cb

 

[Osiris]

You should not be using 7500 kbps on Twitch, they can ban you for that. Twitch's maximum is 3500kbps. Twitch also doesn't throttle bandwidth.
Those limits are not good enough for 1080p 60fps, which is why we recommend 720p 30fps.

Regarding your issue, try it without SLI.

 

[LokeYourLord]

You should not be using 7500 kbps on Twitch, they can ban you for that. Twitch's maximum is 3500kbps. Twitch also doesn't throttle bandwidth.
Those limits are not good enough for 1080p 60fps, which is why we recommend 720p 30fps.

Regarding your issue, try it without SLI.

I did turn down to 3500kbp/s already (btw, its sad that Twitch doesn't throttle it, which is honestly quiet sad for such a huge streaming service, i might stream to YouTube instead, i will see about that).

In what way "Try without SLI"? I won't disable SLI in the NVIDIA Control Panel, if that is what you mean. I gain more FPS in the game for that, since it uses AFR2. I can disable SLI for No Man's Sky specifically, or OBS, depends on what you means.

 

[Osiris]

I mean exactly what I said, try disabling SLI and see if the fps still drops, as game capture is only able to get frames from 1 GPU and with SLI the rendering of frames alternates between the 2 GPUs.

 

[LokeYourLord]

I mean exactly what I said, try disabling SLI and see if the fps still drops, as game capture is only able to get frames from 1 GPU and with SLI the rendering of frames alternates between the 2 GPUs.

Ye so disable SLI for JUST No Man's Sky, as that is an option in the NVIDIA Control Panel, to disable SLI for a Single Game/Program and not the entire PC. There are different options you know :/

 

[LokeYourLord]

Ok so, i did disable SLI, and it made no difference what so ever. OBS still causes a 10FPS (about) drop, that with disabling SLI doesn't become better or worse, it stays the same. Here my latest log:

https://gist.github.com/50af521c897e46124df4c4f809968cc5

 

[RytoEX]

Thanks, i did disable the "Rescale Output" and enabled the "Multi-adapter Compatibility" setting. My bitrate might be too high, but it's not like Twitch just stops the stream, it just throttles the bitrate if it is too high, so streaming in 7500kbp/s will not make a difference for me, only for Twitch which is going to stop at about 5000-6000kbp/s (if i remember correctly).

I thank you for the help, though i cannot agree with you on the 720p 30FPS thing. 720p looks far too horrible, and should be considered a "no no" when streaming. Same goes for 30FPS, as our eyes can see way beyond 60FPS, so having 60 as a standard isn't too much to ask for. And for those who say they get "motion sickness", which i personally have never experienced, even on games on my Oculus Rift way below 75FPS (where some throw up), i must say it's just about getting used to it. After some time your brain will adjust just fine and you will not feel any motion sickness anymore, that's at least how i got rid of it and some of my friends, so i know it clearly works. It's just about going beyond the comfort zone and trying it out, after some time you clearly see why 60FPS and beyond is better, because it is. Cinematic isn't an option, not for games. Movies are acceptable at 24FPS, but i prefer also those in 48FPS sometimes.

In the post I linked earlier:

The 3500kbps bitrate is the maximum the ingest servers are vetted to handle correctly.
Going past 3500 is not advised, and is "here there be dragons" territory; if your stream starts to screw up, Twitch won't be able to help you until you drop the bitrate to that safe ingest max.
[...]
Staff have said that the point where you may end up banned as a denial-of-service attack starts around 6000kbps

So while Twitch servers may just ignore some of your extra data (which may result in a choppy stream), they might also just ban you for it. If you're really curious, you could ask Twitch support or other staff and see what they say about it.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the motion sickness bit, as I've had very different personal experiences with it. In any case, it's really not relevant to your current technical issue. I only mentioned it as a counter point to the idea that video should only come in or be consumed as 1080p@60fps.


Feel free to re-disable the "Multi-adapter Compatibility" setting if that did not help.

Do you still take a hit in FPS if you stream at 720p@30fps? I know you don't want to stream at that setting, but I'm asking for diagnostic purposes.

Do you still take a hit in FPS if you just have OBS Studio open and not streaming? Your initial post kind of implies this, but I want to double check. What are the refresh rates on your 4K display and whatever display you have OBS Studio on? Do you take a hit in FPS in other games besides No Man's Sky?

The reason for these questions is that it sounds kind of like this thread, but without knowing your display refresh rates, I'm just making a guess.

All of that aside, I'm not even sure that streaming with NVENC at Twitch's bitrate limits will look even good for 1080p@60fps. Have you considered x264 for streaming?

 

[LokeYourLord]

In the post I linked earlier:

So while Twitch servers may just ignore some of your extra data (which may result in a choppy stream), they might also just ban you for it. If you're really curious, you could ask Twitch support or other staff and see what they say about it.

We'll have to agree to disagree on the motion sickness bit, as I've had very different personal experiences with it. In any case, it's really not relevant to your current technical issue. I only mentioned it as a counter point to the idea that video should only come in or be consumed as 1080p@60fps.


Feel free to re-disable the "Multi-adapter Compatibility" setting if that did not help.

Do you still take a hit in FPS if you stream at 720p@30fps? I know you don't want to stream at that setting, but I'm asking for diagnostic purposes.

Do you still take a hit in FPS if you just have OBS Studio open and not streaming? Your initial post kind of implies this, but I want to double check. What are the refresh rates on your 4K display and whatever display you have OBS Studio on? Do you take a hit in FPS in other games besides No Man's Sky?

The reason for these questions is that it sounds kind of like this thread, but without knowing your display refresh rates, I'm just making a guess.

All of that aside, I'm not even sure that streaming with NVENC at Twitch's bitrate limits will look even good for 1080p@60fps. Have you considered x264 for streaming?

I stopped using Twitch as i cannot believe the low kbp/s they force you to use, so i started using YouTube. To confirm your question, yes i get an FPS hit just by having OBS Studio open, and i am not streaming, so FPS drops, but there is no stream going on (FPS is the EXACT same also when streaming). I have OBS on one of my other monitors, my 1080p monitor. Doesn't matter though where i have it, FPS doesn't change. I use NVENC as running No Man's Sky in 4k 60FPS already requires fairly heavy CPU and GPU usage, and since NVENC is somewhat of a "DVR", since it is its own chip apart from the rest of the GPU, it uses no more or less FPS to record, which is the best part about it, no FPS hits when using NVENC. I can try at 720p30FPS and see how it goes, but speaking from experience, changing the stream output usually has nothing to do with the in-game FPS itself, though i might be wrong in case of OpenGL. I did disable the "Multi-adapter Compatibility" setting the second it started to cut my FPS in half. My 4k monitor has a refresh rate of 24Hz and 60Hz (exactly 60, not 59.99999999999999 or so). I will check if i get FPS hits in other games and not just No Man's Sky, but it is hard to observe as No Man's Sky is one of the very few games that challenges my Computer by Hardware (and Software/Architecture, not that No Man's Sky is very well optimized as we all know :/ ). I can see if i can find a game that i can barely run at 60FPS 4k on my PC, and then try using OBS on it and see if the FPS actually gets a hit. All my Displays (if you look at my logs it actually tells you that) have a refresh rate of 60, not just my main monitor, they all run at 60Hz, though my right "Monitor" (TV, just as small as a Monitor and mounted with VESA), actually has 60Hz but i am having a problem with it (somewhat). It can run in 1080p, it lists me that as recommended resolution, but i don't have the remote anymore, and it is stuck on Overscan if i have it on 1080p, but not if on 768p (laptop resolution). Also, it says 60Hz, but i somewhat doubt it, as some of the times it looks like 30Hz, though it says 60Hz on the back, but when i move my mouse course quickly over it, i clearly see there is some kind of ghosting/lag in there, unlike on my other 60Hz monitors, but i cannot imagine that to be a problem with OBS.