OBS branch with AMD VCE support.

[Greenland177]

maybe read the FIRST post and you will be helped

I have, but that last edit was around Dec last year.

 

[chummy]

[

Hi everyone :)
I've been reading lots of things from this post and wanted to try to ask myself.

I'm having problems with CPU-Heavy games (Minecraft, for example.) and heavier GPU games

These are the settings with an i7-3770k@4.3GHz and a Radeon HD 7970 not OC'd:

Thanks :)

Do you already tried your Quicksync? Is 3rd generation of Quicksync worse than VCE 1.0?

I have Quicksync from Haswell 4th gen and it is faster(keep higher fps in game, made 1080@60fps fine in heavy games) and has better image quality than VCE 2.0. VCE 2.0 when record 1080@60fps has some frameskip what cause video playback a bit choppy.

Here comparison about in game FPS impact (Quicksync 4th gen Vs. VCE 2.0): https://youtu.be/5knIWSJyz6M

Below comparion about image quality when recording with 4mbit at 1080p@60fps:

QuickSync(haswell) 4mbit Balanced Preset: http://i.imgur.com/4O4xbc3.jpg

VCE 2.0(r9 390) 4mbit Balanced Preset: http://i.imgur.com/PAhDW0o.jpg

 

[Benman2785]

@chummy

r9 390 is a GCN 1.1 card -> better compare a GCN 1.2 card with VCE 3.0

and what is you ipicperiod for VCE? and minQP maxQP? -> with tweaked settings VCE looks pretty good

@Greenland177

the post is from the Developer of that fork - so if there is no newer version you wont find any newer legit version on the web...

 

[chummy]

@chummy

r9 390 is a GCN 1.1 card -> better compare a GCN 1.2 card with VCE 3.0

Since the guy there has a intel with Quicksync 3rd gen and old GCN 1.0 maybe him should use Quicksync instead of VCE 1.0.
I dont get it, even VCE 3.0 i see people there complaining cant do well with heavy games, what is a shame. Nvenc 1.0 do 1080@60fps and 1440p@30fps with any heavy games.

AMD always lags behind, VCE 2.0 was released 9 months after Nvenc 1.0 and is much worse. AMD refurbished same VCE 2.0 and delivered it one year later Nvenc HEVC 4k was released. So was AMD choice to put VCE 2.0 in 2015 to be competitive with Skylake Quicksync and Nvenc HEVC 4k, not me.

Ah yes, lets remember something, Quicksync 4th gen was released 1H 2013 while VCE 2.0 was 2H 2013. So it was AMD choice again and i do pretty well comparing Quicksync 4th gen against VCE 2.0, that's what AMD product was in market to compete with Nvidia and Intel.

PS: Just to uptade @Benman2785, now OBS-studio 14.2 is recording 1080@60fps fine with VCE 2.0 in Win10. Maybe they changed something there since i was using 14.1 when i posted here about the difference from Win8.1 to Win10.

 

[toysareforboys]

Thanks so much, works FLAWLESS! Live streaming 720p30 from my Blackmagic Design Intensity Pro HDMI in at around 3000kbps average, flawless quality!! With my settings it uses quite a bit of my R9 290 GPU! As you can see, streaming for over 2 hours with zero dropped frames :)

-Jamie M.

 

[Benman2785]

@toysareforboys

please change your GOP size -> 1000 is stupid in so many ways ;) // it says that 1000 frames build a Group of Pictures, what isnt smart for video-encoding and gives higher load on GPU than necessary

for 30 fps you can choose GOP size of 15, 30 or 60 -> but i would prefer 30 (youtube prefers 15)

better reduce your IPICPERIOD to 6 or 15 // you set it to 30, so you just have one fixed i-Frame every second -> better have 2 or 5 in that time ;)

AND you dont need 320kbps Audio for streaming -> if you mostly talk you need 96-128 or with louder music you should take 160 and it will be fine (so you can take more bandwith for video-bitrate)

 

[Benman2785]

@chummy

ty for OBS Studio VCE info - but does the bitrate peak problem still persists? i will test that and give some info about it (because with the last version you could only record but NOT stream)

 

[chummy]

@Benman2785 Sorry but i think i not had this problem with bitrate peaks from what i record. Mine only complaint was when in Win8.1 Studio recorded 1080@60fps fine and just when upgraded to Win10 it made very laggish videos. Yet it only in recording , because i dont stream, so i always use higher bitrates, in case i dont use CBR but CQP 22-23 to keep 30-50mbits depending the game.

With OBS1 unfortunately i had no success trying 1080@60fps, it keep some minor frameskiping playback, while now Studio made pretty good 1080@60fps again.

 

[crackofdawn]

I'm having some issues with dropped frames. I have an R9 280 (3gb memory) an AMD FX-8350 8 core processor, and 16 GB of RAM, and I'm trying to record to a local file using VCE 720p60 and in the recording there are dropped frames. While playing the game everything is fast and looks fine, but my audio actually glitches slightly if I'm recording. Sort of a tiny pop or audio skip or "blip" sound every random number of seconds while I'm playing the game (only while I'm recording, without recording everything is fine). So, when I record I get audio glitches in game occassionally, and my recording itself comes out with frame drops. My settings are:

Encoding:

AMD VCE
Max Bitrate 20,000
Audio Encoding AAC 48khz 128 stereo
Use AMD AMF

Video:

Base resolution: Monitor 1
Resolution Downscale 1.5 (1280x720)
Bilinear
FPS 60

AMD VCE Encoder

Constrained QP
I Pic Period 0

GOP 30
IDR 0
B-frames 0
AMD AMF settings: SPEED, DX11, MinQP 18, MaxQP 18, I/P/B/B-delta 26/26/26/4

Everything else is the default from clicking the 'SPEED' button in the top right corner.

I've tried messing around with so many settings on the AMD VCE Encoder settings screen including changing QP min/max, the I/P/B settings, I Pic Period, switching to CBR, VBR, Disabling D3D/OpenCL interop, switching AMF Engine Type to Host, DX9, and DX11, and nothing stops the audio glitching and dropped frames. The only thing that seems to lessen it is to switch 720p60 to 720p30 which stops all dropped frames (still get some audio glitching) but the video looks worse than 720p60 with dropped frames (overwatch).

I don't know why I would be dropping frames at 720p60 with an R9 280/3GB and an 8 core processor with 16GB of memory. I see posts every now and then by other people with a slower rig than mine recording at 1080p60 without dropped frames (no idea how).

Any advice on my setup and what to change, and specifically what might cause my audio to glitch while I'm recording? (That's by far more annoying than the dropped frames).

Edit: Just to add I'm on Windows 10

 

[toysareforboys]

AND you dont need 320kbps Audio for streaming

That's just crazy talk. I'm an audio freak! I hate when anything is under 320kbps, especially voices. If I could stream in flac lossless that's all I would do :)

I left the GOP at 1000 just so I can work my GPU like it's supposed to be worked.

I tried the i pic period at 6 but I was getting weird super high spikes of bitrate, at 15 it seemed ok though, I'll try with that.

Thanks!

-Jamie M.

 

[Benman2785]

@chummy
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-studio-amd-vce-bitrate-problem.45454/ -> pls read and check out yourself

when you dont stream you dont need Jackuns OBS VCE fork - because OBS Studio works different and for local recordings a bit better -> other way of handling the Hardware-Encoder

@toysareforboys
i am also audiophile and have pretty good ears (13Hz-28kHz), so i can hear SubBass and higher frequenzies what is not normal and much more than the "average people"
i hear a difference between 192kbps and 224kbps mp3lame but between 256kbps and 320kbps its the same and sounds like flac (in 99,95% of audio)

believe me - 160kbps aac is really "enough" for good audio - better use more video-bitrate for streaming
i even think twitch only allows 160 or 192kbps audio - so they would reencode your higher bitrate

to your 1000 GOP
its simply stupid to give that load to your GPU -> 1000 GOP says that you combine 1000Frames to one Group -> but when your keyframe is every 2 seconds it will "cancel" the last 940 frames of your GOP -> what is additional load on GPU -> so 1000 is a stupid useless setting

depending on how jackun has implimented IDR (and if u set it to 0) the worst case would be that you have
a Keyframe only every 66,6 seconds // but i think jackun forces 2x fps when IDR is 0 -> so you still get keyframes every 2 sec

you really dont need a GOP of 1000 -> because its useless // better use 1/2x or 1x or 2x fps for GOP and 2x fps for IDR

I Pic Period of 6 gives you only high bitrate peaks if your minQP and maxQP are strange and your GOP is set wrong ;)

just try as i show

these are good VCE settings for streaming most scenes - also fast scenes from shooters

 

[Benman2785]

AMD AMF settings: SPEED, DX11, MinQP 18, MaxQP 18, I/P/B/B-delta 26/26/26/4

1. does your GPU get min 60FPS in the Game?
maybe try 48fps to reduce load and save some bitrate for better quality

48fps / gop 48 / idr 96 / ipicperiod 8
works fine for YT or streaming

2.for streaming or local recording?

maxQP of 18 will result in HIGH peaks and these may result in dropped frames -> its also high load for your GPU
try:
minQP 20 & maxQP 42 for streaming
minQP 15-18 & maxQP 23-28 for local recording

ps you need a fitting bitrate for each scenario - twitch allows only 3500kbps so 48fps will look better than 60fps because every frame can have a higher bitrate

pps found out u do local-record
usually your card should handle 720p60 in Balanced without problems - please provide a testvideo online so i can check it (pls fast download) // like http://benmanshafen.de/vids/AMD_VCE_The_Division.mp4

ppps try to uncheck "use CBR" in Codec and use QP 8-10 and check again (ONLY for local recording) - maybe set bitrate to 25000

 

[toysareforboys]

to your 1000 GOP
its simply stupid to give that load to your GPU -> 1000 GOP says that you combine 1000Frames to one Group -> but when your keyframe is every 2 seconds it will "cancel" the last 940 frames of your GOP -> what is additional load on GPU -> so 1000 is a stupid useless setting

you really dont need a GOP of 1000 -> because its useless // better use 1/2x or 1x or 2x fps for GOP and 2x fps for IDR

I tried with GOP to 30 and IDR to 60 and the load on my GPU went down to 5%, lol :)

Thanks again for the great explanation of the settings.

-Jamie M.

 

[crackofdawn]

1. does your GPU get min 60FPS in the Game?
maybe try 48fps to reduce load and save some bitrate for better quality

48fps / gop 48 / idr 96 / ipicperiod 8
works fine for YT or streaming

2.for streaming or local recording?

maxQP of 18 will result in HIGH peaks and these may result in dropped frames -> its also high load for your GPU
try:
minQP 20 & maxQP 42 for streaming
minQP 15-18 & maxQP 23-28 for local recording

ps you need a fitting bitrate for each scenario - twitch allows only 3500kbps so 48fps will look better than 60fps because every frame can have a higher bitrate

pps found out u do local-record
usually your card should handle 720p60 in Balanced without problems - please provide a testvideo online so i can check it (pls fast download) // like http://benmanshafen.de/vids/AMD_VCE_The_Division.mp4

ppps try to uncheck "use CBR" in Codec and use QP 8-10 and check again (ONLY for local recording) - maybe set bitrate to 25000

Yes, local record. I will try some of these settings when I get home tonight and see how it works. It's been quite frustrating so far. The most frustrating thing is the audio glitching though. I do get >60fps while I play the game (can hit ctrl+shift+r in game and see my FPS 70+ at all times)

 

[Benman2785]

@crackofdawn

do you have a second screen so you can observe your gpu and cpu load during recording
do you use your GPU as audio-source (HDMI?)

do you use latest driver? (audio, gpu, mobo)

what game do you capture? and how? screen-capture or window-capture or game-capture?

pls provide a test video (maybe ftp/webspace and not yt (because yt changes video))

 

[crackofdawn]

@crackofdawn

do you have a second screen so you can observe your gpu and cpu load during recording
do you use your GPU as audio-source (HDMI?)

do you use latest driver? (audio, gpu, mobo)

what game do you capture? and how? screen-capture or window-capture or game-capture?

pls provide a test video (maybe ftp/webspace and not yt (because yt changes video))

I do have a second screen - CPU seems fine but I haven't observed GPU, I'll try that. I'm using my onboard audio, I have the latest GPU driver, will look into the motherboard drivers. I'm capturing only overwatch and via game-capture. Will make some of the tweaks previously suggested and then try making a test video.

 

[crackofdawn]

I do have a second screen - CPU seems fine but I haven't observed GPU, I'll try that. I'm using my onboard audio, I have the latest GPU driver, will look into the motherboard drivers. I'm capturing only overwatch and via game-capture. Will make some of the tweaks previously suggested and then try making a test video.

I tried setting both 'balanced' and then 'speed' in the VCE settings, and tried FPS 48 as well as min QP 18 and max QP 25 and it actually seems to drop even more frames now (or at least the final videos look worse).

My CPU usage is really low the whole time I'm playing/recording - spread pretty evenly among all 8 cores at around 20-30% per core. GPU goes to 99% when I start the game, but while I'm playing+recording it goes down to about 80-85% and stays there the entire time. I did update my mobo audio drivers (realtek) but I just realized I'm playing with a USB headset so that may or may not even have any affect on the audio glitching since my headset has its own drivers which are fully up to date (Plantronics GameCom 788) , but I'll test that more tonight and see.

Will try to take a test video 20 seconds or so long when I have a chance tonight and find a place to upload it.

 

[Benman2785]

I tried setting both 'balanced' and then 'speed' in the VCE settings, and tried FPS 48 as well as min QP 18 and max QP 25 and it actually seems to drop even more frames now (or at least the final videos look worse).

My CPU usage is really low the whole time I'm playing/recording - spread pretty evenly among all 8 cores at around 20-30% per core. GPU goes to 99% when I start the game, but while I'm playing+recording it goes down to about 80-85% and stays there the entire time. I did update my mobo audio drivers (realtek) but I just realized I'm playing with a USB headset so that may or may not even have any affect on the audio glitching since my headset has its own drivers which are fully up to date (Plantronics GameCom 788) , but I'll test that more tonight and see.

Will try to take a test video 20 seconds or so long when I have a chance tonight and find a place to upload it.

maybe ur USB Audio is a problem - better disable your integrated audio via bios OR use it as standard
usually overwatch should perform well - i will try to record it on my own and say something about it the next days

 

[Tastefulavenger]

Hey can anyone give me an idea of the settings I should aim for when recording with a
R9 280 & amdfx 6300 & 8gbs of ram combo

I want to achieve 60fps with 1080p if possible but i'm okay with down-scaling for more intensive games
Games I wanna record for example are Doom (2016),OverWatch, and Max Payne 3 (doing reviews for all 3 currently)

 

[Kubaks]

Hi!
Can someone send me suggested settings for streaming?

I want to stream Overwatch on 720/1080p with 30 fps
My PC:
i5-4670
8GB RAM
Win 10 64bit
Asus r9 270x 4gb edition.
Platform = Twitch
Upload 10 Mb