Question / Help OBS only captures a 1280x720 section of my 1920x1200 game in preview

[Zapa]

Hi!

I'm first trying OBS. I'm not new to broadcast software anyway but I found interesting to test it with Battlefield 3 and some picture and webcam overlays.

When I create a game source, no matter what settings do I change, OBS always captures only a portion of the complete game. My native resolution is 1920x1200 and so is the resolution of my games. My canvas is also at 1920x1200 and so is my output settings. I create the source but this is how it looks

The source is not covering all the canvas and it is cut. There should be a chat window on top that is not showing as well as a lot more space surrounding. I have added the source transform properties dialog where you can see that the size of the capture is 1280x720.

I tried cropping, scaling, changing all resolutions and the result is always the same. But what is more intriguing is that when I put the game in foreground and start streaming, the source size changes to its correct values filling the space completely.

Summarizing, I cannot design the preview because I cannot know what result will be until I see a recording of a streaming portion which is not productive. When game is in background OBS detects it as 1280x720 and when it is in foreground it detects the resolution properly.

Any Ideas about what I'm doing wrong are welcomed.

Thanks!

 

[Suslik V]

You are doing wrong games. In general, I had a game where its render switched to the 640x480 after alt-tabbing (and this bug was introduced with new update from the game developers!) and doesn't switched back automatically! So, 1280x720 is not bad...

To fix game (or any other source) size in OBS Studio, change transform Bounding Box Type to other than No bounds.

More info about Transform you can find in the OBS Studio Help Guide: https://obsproject.com/forum/resour...ware-studio-multiplatform-help-guide-pdf.365/ look for Transform options (dependencies) table.

 

[Zapa]

I changed the bounding box to several other options. It had no result :(

 

[Osiris]

BF3 and 4 windows get smaller when you alt+tab out of them

 

[Zapa]

It is not that they are smaller but the capture area is smaller making the window 'cropped'. It makes very difficult for the design of overlays.

 

[Osiris]

BF in that screenshot doesn't look cropped, it looks like it actually is 1280x720.

 

[Zapa]

You know what...? You are right. After reading your answer I performed a series of screenshots to compare them and found that although the visible area is smaller the HUD components are repositioned. What is more strange, I took a screenshot of the game with default windows shortcuts an here's what I got.

Exactly the same thing as OBS (but with white background instead of black). So... it is likely that game changes resolution dynamically regarding if it is in background/foreground or some app interacts with it.

Dead poing for me :(

 

[Suslik V]

I changed the bounding box to several other options. It had no result :(

Then you need to try harder.
When you set Bounding Box Type to Stretch to Bounds, for example, then size of the source is controlled (and fixed) by Bounding Box Size field. Re-read Help, please. Of course, it lowers resolution of the image (becomes blurry if game switches resolution by itself) but this allows to you to build the scene right. In the next run you simply didn't run into alt-tabbing and game shows at full resolution in the fixed Bounding Box Size.

 

[Zapa]

I did that also (yes, I read the document) but "not alt-tabbing" makes the thing unproductive as I'm testing how it looks static and while streaming (and I have to alt-tab to play the game).

When I forced the size of the bounding box and started to play the result while streaming was a game source so big that you could only see the weapon and a bit of background. The rest was outside the canvas. So, yes... I could change the size every time I want to stream and change it again when not streaming but that's not the best way to work.

 

[Osiris]

Yes, like i said, when you alt+tab out of BF3 it will become windowed and at a lower resolution.

 

[Zapa]

Yep. That seems clear to me now. OBS was doing OK all the time rendering at the resolution that the window was delivering at every moment. The problem may rely in BF3 when not in foreground.

By the way, thank you all for your answers. I come from a commercial solution and now that I'm learning about OBS it is shortening the gap in terms of features. I'm really happy with it so far :)

============

Just published this and I found the solution. For all the guys that maybe have the same problem. Here's what I did.

- I had Bf3 in foreground fullscreen
- Switched BF3 to windowed mode. The window resized to smaller size (although the game still says it is at 1920x1200)
- Maximize window
- Switch again to fullscreen mode

Following these steps makes windows to save the position and size of the app window so everytime that you alt-tab Bf3 switches to a maximized window and OBS takes its full content to the canvas at the proper size. When you alt-tab again to return to the game it switches again to fullscreen mode.

Great :)