OBS-Classic: How to make high quality local recordings

OBS Classic OBS-Classic: How to make high quality local recordings

N1GHTHAWK

Member
SO I just implemented these settings in OBS yesterday and was able to record my console games and CS:GO just fine in 720p 60fps, but I tried to record Dirty Bomb in 720p 60fps, but it was lagging and skipping frames. I then downscaled the fps to 30 and it worked just fine, but I would really like to record in 60fps, as it looks a lot smoother. Is Dirty Bomb so much more graphicly intense than CS:GO that my CPU can't handle it?

Here's my 60fps log: https://gist.github.com/e28c6bda5db81af51a4f
 
Last edited:

Boildown

Active Member
Is Dirty Bomb so much more graphicly intense than CS:GO that my CPU can't handle it?

Here's my 60fps log: https://gist.github.com/e28c6bda5db81af51a4f

Maybe, you didn't post your CS:GO log, so I don't know for sure. Nor did you post your success at 30fps.

Since you're not streaming, you can turn your Profile to High instead of Main and your keyint to auto instead of 2 seconds. That will help improve compression / performance. Since you have a GTX950, you should try using NVEnc encoding instead of x264. Its great for recording to disk. NVEnc can't do CRF mode, so you'll need to set a bitrate around 20000 or so.
 

N1GHTHAWK

Member
Maybe, you didn't post your CS:GO log, so I don't know for sure. Nor did you post your success at 30fps.

Since you're not streaming, you can turn your Profile to High instead of Main and your keyint to auto instead of 2 seconds. That will help improve compression / performance. Since you have a GTX950, you should try using NVEnc encoding instead of x264. Its great for recording to disk. NVEnc can't do CRF mode, so you'll need to set a bitrate around 20000 or so.

NVENC uses the GPU to record right? Would that be putting too much of a strain on my GPU as it is running the game as well?

And I'm at school rn, but when I get home this evening I can post my 30 fps log and my CS:GO log. My only other concern about using NVENC as opposed to the x264 is that I also like to record console games as well with my elgato on OBS. Would NVENC even be the right option for that, as my PS4 doesn't use my graphics card to handle graphics?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Boildown

Active Member
NVEnc can record what's on capture cards, unless there's something specific to the Elgato to prevent it. I've used NVEnc with Avermedia and Datapath capture cards without any issues.

The Kepler and Maxwell Nvidia GPUs all have a separate chip to do hardware H.264 encoding. It adds somewhere between a tiny and zero amount of additional strain. Its really not a concern at all, because its not done on any of the gaming architecture of the GPU.

Btw, using NVEnc you should be able to keep your resolution at 1080p60 without downscaling, and that's where I got my 20,000 kbps figure for a recommended bitrate. If you downscale to 720p, then you can lower that to 10-15M probably. If you don't like the quality at 20,000 (if you do 1080p), then increase to 30,000. Of course, this fills your hard drive faster. I found 20,000 to be a good compromise between filling my hard drive and quality.
 

Boildown

Active Member
Consoles don't have Nvidia graphics, so I don't see how they can do NVEnc recording, even if you could somehow install OBS on them.

And NVEnc is only good for recording, not for streaming. X264 certainly gets my recommendation over NVEnc for streaming.
 

Isegrim

Member
Consoles don't have Nvidia graphics, so I don't see how they can do NVEnc recording, even if you could somehow install OBS on them.

And NVEnc is only good for recording, not for streaming. X264 certainly gets my recommendation over NVEnc for streaming.
He's using a capture card.

So you're saying that you would recommend the NVEnc over the x264 for both consoles and PC?
I generally use x264 to record both. If you aren't able to record a specific game with x264 you can go for nvenc. Nvenc is going to use more bitrate but looks just as good as a regular x264 recording.

If you have to use nvenc and want to edit it later make sure that you editing sotfware accepts the file beforehand.
Just make a short recording or something. I had a bit of trouble in the past with nvenc recordings not being accepted, due to wrong settings.
 

N1GHTHAWK

Member
isegrim I was using the settings provided in this video just fine until I attempted to record Dirty Bomb in 60fps, and it started dropping frames and lagging. I switched to NVENC and it worked just fine, so idk
 

Boildown

Active Member
Use should be able to do NVEnc recording when using the Elgato. It works with my Datapath capture card and worked when I used to use an Avermedia capture card.
 

Boildown

Active Member
I think so but I've never had to do it, so I don't know. Check some of the guides. Or, and this is what I do... I use the 32 bit version of the software for one thing and the 64-bit version for another, and use the -portable switch on the OBS shortcut target so that each install saves its own settings instead of sharing between them. So it would say "C:\Program Files (x86)\OBS\OBS.exe" -portable .
 

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
Ehm, the profiles are what you guys are looking for. You can have a profile "PC" and a profile "Console" to save the different settings and easily switch between them. Combined with the Scene Collections you can also have different Scene setups for each collection.
You can even create two shortcuts for OBS to start with the Profile and Scene Collection you want:
http://jp9000.github.io/OBS/general/shortcut.html
  • "C:\Program Files(x86)\OBS\OBS.exe" -profile "PC" -scenecollection "PC"
  • "C:\Program Files(x86)\OBS\OBS.exe" -profile "Console" -scenecollection "Console"
 

Hesticus

New Member
Hey, does anyone know how I can also watch my recording? I just downloaded a media player, saying I need to pay for the FLV?!? It said in the description that this player was already supporting FLV. Really annoyed by this..
 
Top