Question / Help OBS Recording is choppy. Feels like rubber-banding and is not smooth

[JohnRusl5646]

I have been trying to record COD: MW recently and I have had terrible luck with getting a smooth recording. The video seems very choppy and almost looks like subtle rubberbanding at times. Ignore the internet lag, my internet has been pretty poor recently.

The video is uploading while I'm writing this so it will not be up right away, but here is the link: https://youtu.be/ghjJYXsXfVE

 

[JohnRusl5646]

I also read somewhere that having 2 monitors with different refresh rates might have an impact on recording. My one monitor which is the one I have my games on runs at 144 Hz and the other is at 60 Hz which I have discord, spotify and google on.

 

[FerretBomb]

You have minimal encoding lag and no visible render lag in that log. However it appears that you're using FFMPEG for output for some reason? Very few people should ever need to do that; if you are following a 'best settings guide', please be aware that 99.9% of those are full of bad, if not outright malicious information.

I also read somewhere that having 2 monitors with different refresh rates might have an impact on recording. My one monitor which is the one I have my games on runs at 144 Hz and the other is at 60 Hz which I have discord, spotify and google on.

That is very likely the case. It's an OS-level bug with the desktop compositor that's been around for years. The only workaround is to run all of your monitors at the same refresh rate (so 60hz in this case). There is a fix coming in Win10 2004, but that won't be out until later this year, or next year.

 

[carlmmii]

The ffmpeg logs are from the automatic remux. Not part of the original encode.

The actual issue is with how OBS is capturing the game. Frames are being captured out of order.

From what I've seen, this is a problem specific to DX12. I've encountered this myself with Shadow of the Tomb Raider using game capture when fps drops below 60fps, and have not been able to figure out a fix for it other than ensuring the game doesn't drop below 60, or using display/window capture.

 

[JohnRusl5646]

You have minimal encoding lag and no visible render lag in that log. However it appears that you're using FFMPEG for output for some reason? Very few people should ever need to do that; if you are following a 'best settings guide', please be aware that 99.9% of those are full of bad, if not outright malicious information.

That is very likely the case. It's an OS-level bug with the desktop compositor that's been around for years. The only workaround is to run all of your monitors at the same refresh rate (so 60hz in this case). There is a fix coming in Win10 2004, but that won't be out until later this year, or next year.

In my output settings I selected the "Type: Standard" and not custom (What I think is the FFMPEG, correct me if I'm wrong). If what you are referring to is the "Recording Format: mkv" then what recording format should I use? I plan on using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the recordings and I want to have 3 audio tracks which somewhat limits my options. Thanks for the reply!

 

[JohnRusl5646]

The ffmpeg logs are from the automatic remux. Not part of the original encode.

The actual issue is with how OBS is capturing the game. Frames are being captured out of order.

From what I've seen, this is a problem specific to DX12. I've encountered this myself with Shadow of the Tomb Raider using game capture when fps drops below 60fps, and have not been able to figure out a fix for it other than ensuring the game doesn't drop below 60, or using display/window capture.

Oh interesting. I'll try changing some of my settings based on that. I have tried using the display/window capture but that results in my recordings looking like they are at about 2 fps. One interesting thing that I did notice that is a seperate issue but may be involved with the recording problem was when I play COD: MW and look in the task manager, the COD application is using 0% of my GPU and close to 50% to 70% of my CPU. I'm not sure if you can make anything of that on the OBS side of things but it is an Activision/COD issue and not OBS. Thanks for the reply!

 

[carlmmii]

Btw, something I would definitely do as well for your encoder settings is to turn off psychovisual tuning and look ahead, and change off of max quality. All of these use CUDA processing, which can increase non-encoder GPU load (and cause performance issues with encoding as a byproduct).

I wouldn't put too much stock into how task manager reports GPU usage. It's been glitched for quite a while for that specific reporting. GPU-Z and other things like MSI afterburner should still be accurate.

 

[JohnRusl5646]

Btw, something I would definitely do as well for your encoder settings is to turn off psychovisual tuning and look ahead, and change off of max quality. All of these use CUDA processing, which can increase non-encoder GPU load (and cause performance issues with encoding as a byproduct).

I wouldn't put too much stock into how task manager reports GPU usage. It's been glitched for quite a while for that specific reporting. GPU-Z and other things like MSI afterburner should still be accurate.

Will do. Thanks again! I'll post on if this helps fix the issue.

 

[JohnRusl5646]

Turning off the psychovisual tuning and look ahead seemed to increase the recording performance slightly. I kept it in the Game Recording mode but I'll also try display/window capture one more time to see if it helps. I also downloaded GPU-Z and carmmii you were right. The game took the GPU load up to 70% and while recording, it went up to 99%. I think I'll have to lower the bitrate a little and possibly the game graphics as well.

Here is the new recording: https://youtu.be/LEJONZiWIB0

Also, I recorded without opening OBS in administrator mode this time (I forgot, oops) and the logfile is a lot shorter. I don't know if I need admin mode for it to show more data but I included the logfile anyways. Take a look.

 

[carlmmii]

It's short because it doesn't have a recording session. Make sure to choose current if you still have OBS open after recording, or previous if you've closed OBS and are re-opening afterward. If it's a log from prior to that, then the logs will need to be uploaded or attached manually.

Btw, make sure you always run OBS as administrator. This puts OBS on the GPU priority list so that windows can properly allocate the resources necessary, otherwise you'll most likely run into rendering and encoding lag.