Question / Help OBS discards my changes + flickering

T

troyX

New Member
Hello,

I updated to the latest version of OBS yesterday, and as it turns outs I probably shouldn't have... Whenever I try to change the target bitrate, my settings are discarded and go back to this. I don't know what VBR_LAT is, and can't seem to find where AMD VCE now is. I followed this guide, but it looks like it's no longer relevant since the update.

Also, when I record gameplay, the screen flickers whenever there's text or little movement (during Overwatch character selection for example, or TESO dialogs).

Any way to fix these problems ? My drivers are up to date, I'll gladly provide any important information you might need.

Thanks,

Troy
 
R

RytoEX

Forum Admin
Forum Moderator
Developer
That guide is for the now deprecated Media Foundation AMD VCE encoder, which is vastly different from the AMD AMF encoder plugin (now bundled with OBS Studio) which is what you have selected in your screenshot. As I understand it, selecting a Preset overrides most settings. From the plugin author:
Xaymar said:
If you have a Preset selected, it will override most of your settings for values in the preset instead. That is by design, it's what the word preset stands for. :P
Click to expand...

Preset behavior has changed in recent plugin updates. From the plugin's patch notes for 1.4.1.1 (which you'll probably want to update to):
'Enforce HRD Compatibility', 'CABAC' and 'Quality Preset' are no longer overridden by Presets. 'Target Bitrate' and 'Peak Bitrate' are now allowed within a certain range in 'Twitch', 'YouTube' and 'Recording' Presets. Twitch limits between 1.0 and 4.0 mbit/s, YouTube between 1.0 and 25.0 mbit/s, Recording accepts anything larger than 10.0 mbit/s.
Click to expand...

I'll ask the plugin author, @Xaymar, for more details about the presets to see if I can get you some more specific info.

As for your other issues, there is a Troubleshooting Guide for the plugin.
 
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Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
"Preset" in the settings literally means preset, it completely configures it for you so you don't have to - that also means replacing your settings. If you don't want that, select the preset once and then deselect it again - or live with the limited options presets still allow you to change. Recording, Twitch and YouTube allow you to change the Bitrate within certain limits, B-Pictures can be enabled or disabled and some more advanced options are also unaffected by presets.

As @RytoEX said, the Troubleshooting Guide is the first stop for everyone that has issues with the AMD Encoder. It contains easy to use knowledge and solutions that will help change how you mess with things. I don't know what causes your flickering as you did not provide a log file.
 
T

troyX

New Member
I didn't even know you could update plugins :) Is there a guide on this ?

Thanks for the heads-up on preset, the behaviour is peculiar but I get how it works now. I'll tweak the settings and get back to you if it still doesn't work (flickering included).

I know this is not really the place, but which settings do you suggest for local recording, editing with Sony Vegas, and rendering in 1080p/60 fps ? Since you seem to be our AMD expert here :D The gameplay is sometimes blurry when there's too much movement.
 
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Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
troyX said:
I know this is not really the place, but which settings do you suggest for local recording, editing with Sony Vegas, and rendering in 1080p/60 fps ? Since you seem to be our AMD expert here :D The gameplay is sometimes blurry when there's too much movement.
Click to expand...

The preset "Recording" with 35000kbit/s should work fine for that. If you need even higher quality (at the expense of performance and disk space) use High Quality or Indistinguishable.
 
T

troyX

New Member
Hi,

So both High Quality and Indistinguishable settings do not work (they simply won't record anything). I used the blank preset and chose VBR (16 mbps target, 35 max) but my Overwatch videos are kinda blurry (sometimes the file goes as high as 20 mbps and it looks fine, but sometimes it doesn't go over 9 mbps for some reason and it's pixelating). I want the source video to have a crisp image quality and I think 20 mbps is the way to go : should I choose 20 mbps CBR and render at these settings on Vegas ? I heard that YouTube reencodes at 12 mpbs VBR anyway...

I don't mind using VBR (20-35), but shouldn't it never go under 20 mbps ?

Thanking you in advance :)
 
T

troyX

New Member
Recording, Quality, 1 keyframe, 35 mbs setting looks great :) Thanks for the update and the useful guide.

I know this might not be your area of expertise, but do you think I should render on Vegas at 35 mbps CBR or rather VBR 12-35 mbps ? I don't quite get how VBR_LAT works, as it always stays close to the bitrate I enter and never under (while it should, on menus for example).
 
Xaymar

Xaymar

Active Member
VBR_LAT uses GPU latency, it stays at the target bitrate but can go below or above depending on gpu usage and latency. So it's great for games that randomly use large amounts of gpu power.

As for rendering, use VBR. CBR will mostly contain filler data/padding as often there is no other way to even stay at a given bitrate.
 
T

troyX

New Member
Thanks a lot. It's a shame because MainConcept AVC rendered videos take two/three times longer than Sony AVC, but the latter only uses CBR...

Kudos to you for your help :)
 
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