Question / Help OBS Studio Recording problems.

[akaLuckyEye]

Hello!

I decided to start a side project to learn image & Video editing. I'm new to this.
I used NVIDIA recording function first just to play around a big, but the sound was bad and I could not record the mousecurser so I looked for a better one and decided to try OBS studio.
But I ran in to a wall, I have tried all day find a good setting with no luck.

I try to get 1440p60FPS because it looks better, at 1080p60FPS the graphics on the game looks cloudy, I have a 1440p monitor 144hz. But I locked it at 60 because I don't know if that can effect the recording or not.

On NVIDIA I could record at 1440p 60FPS and get good quality in my opinion, here is two of my tests with NVIDIA.
1440p 60FPS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqHMri3Zj4g&feature=youtu.be
1080p60FPS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqvqqudsnA&feature=youtu.be

1080p are cloudy, is that the best you can get with 1080p when recording?


With OBS Studio I have had no luck. I have followed a lot of guides and tried so many different settings.
I attached two logs one 1080p60FPS & one 1440p30FPS.
In the stats, at 1080p the FPS drop, Average time to render frame becomes red, Frames missed due to rendering hits red.
The 1440p30FPS stats are fine when I record but the video is a bit jittery when i look at it, I guess that is because it is 30FPS?

I have tried with 30FPS, VBR 100 000/200 000, VBR 40 000/60 000, CQ level 15, Present Max Quality, Quality, Output mod: Standared and more.
So many different combinations but noting seems to work.

I have tried all day and need to sleep.
Do anyone have any ideas?


SOLUTION: Don't record in to a external hard drive. =)

// Have a Nice One

 

[koala]

Use simple output mode.
Don't use advanced output mode with custom ffmpeg output.
For recording, use simple output mode, nvenc as encoder, and quality "Indistinguishable quality". 1080p will definitely work, see how 1440p will work.

Use Tools->Auto Configuration Wizard to see what OBS Studio proposes according to the power of your hardware.

 

[akaLuckyEye]

Yeah that is much better, Thank you so much.

"Frames missed due to recording lag" jumped to yellow in the stats when I used 1080p, Indistinguishable quality, nvenc, 60FPS.
And then I tried what Auto Configuration Wizard told me to use, 1080p,High Quility, nvenc & 60FPS. "Skipped frames due to encoding lag" jumped up to yellow a few times.

Is that normal or can I tweak around with some settings or the games graphics so it don't jump up to yellow?

 

[koala]

Skipped frames due to encoding lag indicates GPU overload. OBS needs a bit of GPU resources for itself, so you should make the game you capture use less resources. You can do this by enabling vsync and limiting the fps of the game. It may very well be that you cannot use the full benefits of a 144 Hz monitor (up to 144 fps) if you want to capture a game without lags.

The Nvidia recording function is a bit different in this case. It has the privilege to just use whatever GPU resources it requires to capture without lag, because it is part of the driver. But OBS has to compete for GPU resources.

 

[akaLuckyEye]

First of all thank you for all the help.

And I found out what the problem was, I recorded in to a external hard drive like a dumb dumb. Switched hard drive and it works perfectly.

 

[koala]

I just saw that I wrote something wrong - encoding lag isn't necessarily a sign of GPU overload, instead it depends on the encoder. Lags due to rendering lag is a sign of GPU overload. Encoding lag is only a sign of GPU overload if there is a hardware encoder in use, like nvenc.

But if OBS isn't able to write data to storage media fast enough (like an external HD), it's perfectly possible to get encoding lag, since unwritten frames pile up in the encoder. Usually, even external HD's should be able to sustain this data flow, but Windows doesn't enable write-back cache to USB devices, and without this the data flow is not as smooth as required.

 

[akaLuckyEye]

Ok.
Would recording to the same HD as the game is running on have any effect? Is it better to record it to another HD if you have one?

 

[koala]

I don't think that is a problem. Usually, a game loads stuff at game start and map change, and that's it.