Question / Help Optimizing Stream & Grass Problem in DayZ

[KaBe88NL]

Hey everybody.

I've been streaming on Twitch for a couple of months now and everything looks good in my opinion.

But sometimes people are complaining about buffering when they watch my stream.. (they admit they don't have a great pc).
I've lowered my bitrate and for some its fixed but there are still some people with problems.

Now i want to optimize my OBS settings so more people can watch.
I want to do this without losing a lot of quality because i post stream highlights on Youtube.

Next to that I have problems with grass in DayZ. As soon as grass shows up on screen everything becomes ''blocky'' (this is only on Recording/Stream, on my screen it looks fine). But I don't know if this is fixable..

Here are two screenshots to explain what i mean.
( http://i.imgur.com/Y0SAdMB.jpg )

I hope one of you OBS geniuses can help me set my OBS setting perfectly!

PC Specs:
Intel i7 4790K (4.40 Ghz)
2x 8Gb Kingston HyperX Fury Red
Geforce GTX 750 Ti 2GB DDR5
Kingston SSD V300 240GB ( write 450MB/s read 450/MB/s ) - Game Directory
HDD WD Red 2TB IntelliPower - Recording Directory

OBS Settings:
Encoder: x264
Bitrate: 3000
Resolution: 1920x1080 (no downscale)
FPS: 30
Process Priority Class: Normal
x264 CPU preset: very fast
Encoding Profile: main

Thanks in advance!

KaBe Gaming ( http://twitch.tv/kabe88nl )

 

[dping]

Hey everybody.

I've been streaming on Twitch for a couple of months now and everything looks good in my opinion.

But sometimes people are complaining about buffering when they watch my stream.. (they admit they don't have a great pc).
I've lowered my bitrate and for some its fixed but there are still some people with problems.

Now i want to optimize my OBS settings so more people can watch.
I want to do this without losing a lot of quality because i post stream highlights on Youtube.

Next to that I have problems with grass in DayZ. As soon as grass shows up on screen everything becomes ''blocky'' (this is only on Recording/Stream, on my screen it looks fine). But I don't know if this is fixable..

Here are two screenshots to explain what i mean.
( http://i.imgur.com/Y0SAdMB.jpg )

I hope one of you OBS geniuses can help me set my OBS setting perfectly!

PC Specs:
Intel i7 4790K (4.40 Ghz)
2x 8Gb Kingston HyperX Fury Red
Geforce GTX 750 Ti 2GB DDR5
Kingston SSD V300 240GB ( write 450MB/s read 450/MB/s ) - Game Directory
HDD WD Red 2TB IntelliPower - Recording Directory

OBS Settings:
Encoder: x264
Bitrate: 3000
Resolution: 1920x1080 (no downscale)
FPS: 30
Process Priority Class: Normal
x264 CPU preset: very fast
Encoding Profile: main

Thanks in advance!

KaBe Gaming ( http://twitch.tv/kabe88nl )

First, generally speaking, you need 3500 bitrate for a 1080@30fps stream to be considered med to low quality. you are only running 3000 bitrate to which in dayZ is to low.

I would downscale to 720p and leave the bitrate the same. Then set your CPU preset to Fast or medium (might be to low). You'll know its to low because CPU usage will go above 90%.

 

[KaBe88NL]

Thanks for your reply!

Yeah i had my bitrate at 3500 but then a lot of viewers had buffering problems..

So 1080p is only available for partners :P

I will try streaming at 720p (with the Medium CPU preset) tonight and see if there is some improvement..

Will this fix the grass problem?

 

[Osiris]

There isn't much you can do about it, bitrate isn't high enough when streaming.

 

[dping]

Thanks for your reply!

Yeah i had my bitrate at 3500 but then a lot of viewers had buffering problems..

So 1080p is only available for partners :P

I will try streaming at 720p (with the Medium CPU preset) tonight and see if there is some improvement..

Will this fix the grass problem?

the lower resolution and dropping the preset should give you much less pixellation. monitor your CPU usage while streaming and gaming normally and if it stays below (lets say) 60% you might be able to drop the preset a little more, but medium should do the trick

 

[FerretBomb]

Unfortunately DayZ is well known for munging video encoding, especially in regards to the grass. Good compression (a slower x264 encoder preset) and far more bitrate for the resolution is the only way to really cope with it. I'd say that 720p@30fps with 2700-3000kbps and a Faster or Fast preset should work, but it's still going to get chewed up.

Optimal accessibility/quality tradeoff (aka: "The Golden Point") for non-partners is 720p@30fps, 2000kbps with as slow a compression as your system can manage.
1080p is really out of the ballpark for most high-motion games (eg: anything first or third-person with lots of fullscreen camera movement) where non-partners are concerned, if you want to be watchable/keep buffering manageable for most viewers.

I'd probably consider a drop to 540p or even 480p@30 at 2000kbps, as a non-partner looking to stream DayZ. The lower resolution will take less CPU and allow even better compression. A majority of viewers don't fullscreen the video anyway.

Just make sure to monitor your CPU load and temperatures over a long period while actively gaming and streaming. You don't want a thermal overrun, and it can happen pretty easily when you step down the encoder presets. Go one step at a time, test for 15-30 minutes, then step again until it's not viable any more.

 

[KaBe88NL]

I now use 720p @ 30fps with a bitrate of 3000 and the preset set to medium..
The grass looks a lot better now and my processor stays below 55% while streaming for 1 hour..

I think these are the best settings for me..

Thank you guys for helping me out!