Obs issue with stream quality

[hunter(mgssniperwolf)]

Heya,
Ive been doing a lot of testing with OBS studio and ive ran into issues with the quality of my stream.

The issue is basically that the stream gets very blurry / pixelated when fast movement is happening in cod mw.
And during fast movements its almost impossible to make out whats going on, on the screen.


When playing the game the base canvas is 2560x1440 (this is what i play the game in)
the video is then being downscaled using the gpu, each video posted below has the downscale resolution written in its describtion.

I have considered that it mightve been an issue that im watching etc a 1080p video on a 1440p monitor, so ive tried to watch it without fullscreen due to pixel density but it doesnt seem to help. I also do notice the videos seem crisp on a mobile device, but for people watching me on a pc, and if i was to watch someone with this quality, it would put me off severely.

Does anyone know what i can do to achieve max clarity on my stream?
I appreciate any help i can get, thank you so much in advance for your time.


pc specs:
ryzen 9 3600k (12cores)
rtx2070 super gpu
32gb tridentz 3200
obs running on P1 nvme ssd.
monitor refreshrate: 165hz
monitor resolution: 2560x1440p

internet speedtest:
download: 387.61 Mbps
upload: 36.91 Mbps
latency: 26ms


Facts:
I run obs as administrator during all example videos.
I am testing the stream on my bot account (not affiliated)
When im actually streaming i do use an affiliated account.
The only time theres an frame drop, missing or skipped frames is when i start stream and tab into the game, during the gameplay i have not spotted any missed or skipped frames.



Below you will find 4x test streams, i have included the settings in the describtion of each video.
example videos:
1: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1428438862 860p
2: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1428450880 860p
3: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1428460648 1080p
4: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1428473032 1080p


ive also attached 3x logfiles, and the videos above is labelled in correct order of which i tried the various settings.


EDIT: I forgot to mention that this is a 1x pc stream setup.


sincerly - hunter /

 

[R1CH]

This is expected with high motion and low bitrates. Not much you can do about it.

 

[hunter(mgssniperwolf)]

This is expected with high motion and low bitrates. Not much you can do about it.

Thank you for your post.

So basically what youre saying is:
As of now, due to using 6k bitrate i will not be able to get a better clarity on my stream unless i become a partner where i can then crank the bitrate up to lets say 9k ?
Ive read somewhere that afiliates can use 6500 bitrate, should i ? (dont want to limit what potential viewership i (could) get. and as ive read that 6k can be a bit too high for some viewers causing buffering ?
ive tried to go with a 4500 bitrate but thats just unwatchable,

so im really blind here to what i should do and what tradeoff i should go with, is it just a case of me being too "Nitpicky"?
Do you have any advice of which one of these settings i should use?

Also would it make any difference to put higher b-frames, (if using nvenc) ?
will it be any different for me to enable "look ahead"?

And all in all, with this setup (neither causes any performance issue) what would you personally use? nvenc or x264?
i am not really proficient within any of this and ive done a lot of reading, but i think i could do good with some advice from someone like yourself that has a lot more experience within this than myself

 

[MajorDrumKill]

Thank you for your post.

So basically what youre saying is:
As of now, due to using 6k bitrate i will not be able to get a better clarity on my stream unless i become a partner where i can then crank the bitrate up to lets say 9k ?
Ive read somewhere that afiliates can use 6500 bitrate, should i ? (dont want to limit what potential viewership i (could) get. and as ive read that 6k can be a bit too high for some viewers causing buffering ?
ive tried to go with a 4500 bitrate but thats just unwatchable,

Twitch limits to 6k, and lots of partners push the limits to 8k, not 9. Going above the 6k limit CAN be doable, but you introduce more points of failure in doing this; You run chances of your viewers being unable to watch as you are putting a higher required speed to watch your stream. Also, from personal experience, going over 6k bitrate will also sometimes make your streams glitch out (viewers will get "video playback errors" a lot).

Seeing in the original post, you are gaming in 1440p. I advise keeping your bitrate at 6k, your canvas resolution at 1440, and your output to 864p. Sadly, I am unable to find the website that explained this, but long story short, 1440p scales down into 864p the best, mathematically speaking. 864 from 1440 results in less artifacting and gives a clean image next to 720p. I personally game on 1440 and downscale to 864 and it looks pretty great.

In regards to your Nvenc or x264 question, you are using an RTX 2070 S, it's an absolute no-brainer. Use Nvenc, hands down. Since you're on 1440p, you will need to give the card SOME wiggle room; I advise using the Quality preset, 6000 bitrate, 2 key-frames, look ahead checked, psycho visuals checked, and B Frames 4. This is the newest recommend settings straight from Nvidia's site today (to my understanding). If these give you issues, uncheck the look ahead and bring down the frames to 2.

Keep in mind, since I too am on 1440, I have noticed that single PC streaming on 1440 with Nvenc can cause some dropped frames when live. Turning off your OBS preview helps with this. Good luck!