Question / Help Problems streaming CoD4

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bowieee

New Member
Hey guys,

just ignorantly dropping by hoping to get some pointers as to what I'm doing wrong here.
I want to stream Call of Duty 4, played around with several options but can't seem to get the stream to a clean quality.
Now I believe I'm not lacking neither hardware nor internet to produce my goal, but correct me if I'm wrong.
I believe 3.5 upstream is the limit for Twitch unless you're partnered, might this be the problem?
Anyway... Help, please? ;3

Internet

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5077852316

Hardware

i7 2600K @3.4 GHz
GeForce GTX 960
(16 GB RAM - not really necessary, is it?)

Example Slip

http://www.twitch.tv/bowieeetv/v/43489300

OBS Settings

I assume the logs also contain my OBS settings but just to be safe:
https://gyazo.com/2cfaabd337b6e07c218899819ff50e37
https://gyazo.com/8a8ba9d9cb96177fa4295a348c8a5b14
https://gyazo.com/5c72e4870ac3335dab3c19b5878b15c8

Logs (for the example clip)

http://pastebin.com/u7X8Y3LJ
 
D

dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
Hey guys,

just ignorantly dropping by hoping to get some pointers as to what I'm doing wrong here.
I want to stream Call of Duty 4, played around with several options but can't seem to get the stream to a clean quality.
Now I believe I'm not lacking neither hardware nor internet to produce my goal, but correct me if I'm wrong.
I believe 3.5 upstream is the limit for Twitch unless you're partnered, might this be the problem?
Anyway... Help, please? ;3

Internet

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5077852316

Hardware

i7 2600K @3.4 GHz
GeForce GTX 960
(16 GB RAM - not really necessary, is it?)

Example Slip

http://www.twitch.tv/bowieeetv/v/43489300

OBS Settings

I assume the logs also contain my OBS settings but just to be safe:
https://gyazo.com/2cfaabd337b6e07c218899819ff50e37
https://gyazo.com/8a8ba9d9cb96177fa4295a348c8a5b14
https://gyazo.com/5c72e4870ac3335dab3c19b5878b15c8

Logs (for the example clip)

http://pastebin.com/u7X8Y3LJ
Click to expand...
you aren't getting the quality you are after because 1. you are usings NVENC and 2 you are usings high performance.

there is no quality better than x264 if you CPU can handle it to which 1080@30 is going to push close to that limit. I would try and change your NVENC preset to quality instead of performance but I will say that 1080@30 will need more bitrate to look decent. I say this because x264 needs 3500 to look decent for that resolution/fps so you will be lacking as long as you're using a hardware encoder

personally, if you do downscale to 720@30 2500 bitrate then change to x264 then post a link to your logfile like below. you will have better quality and there will be even more room to push your x264 preset even lower.
giphy.gif
 
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sam686

Member
Are you running game at full screen, and using alt+tab to stop your stream few seconds later?

Game capture will only capture a game, and for most games, capture will freeze or go black if full screen game is minimized, and should come back working when going back into game. You may run the game as windowed mode with Aero disabled, or maybe use a second monitor.
 
D

dping

Active Member
sam686 said:
Are you running game at full screen, and using alt+tab to stop your stream few seconds later?

Game capture will only capture a game, and for most games, capture will freeze or go black if full screen game is minimized, and should come back working when going back into game. You may run the game as windowed mode with Aero disabled, or maybe use a second monitor.
Click to expand...

None of your advise here is good nor applicable to OPs issue.

OP is having quality issues, not anything to do with disabling aero in a windowed mode or black screen from an alt tab.

disabling aero is never recommended
 
B

bowieee

New Member
sam686 said:
Are you running game at full screen, and using alt+tab to stop your stream few seconds later?
Click to expand...
Yes, I am - but, like dping mentioned, that's not a problem - I'm even using this intentionally.

@dping: thanks, will give the 720p version a try now. The GPU acceleration option is just pretty handy for me because it assures close to no frame loss.
 
D

dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
Yes, I am - but, like dping mentioned, that's not a problem because I'm using this intetionally.

@dping: thanks, will give the 720p version a try now. The GPU acceleration option is just pretty handy for me because it assures close to no frame loss.
Click to expand...
I think sam686 accidentally responded to the wrong thread so no issue there :P
 
B

bowieee

New Member
x264 actually doesn't even have the same video presets, it goes from "highest" to "lower", lower being the highest CPU usage.

I'm gonna be trying different settings of those with 1080 and 720 now and see how it goes.
 
B

bowieee

New Member
Is there a difference between changing the resolution to 720p and having the custom resolution on 1080p and enabling the downgrading option?

Nevermind....just found out! :D
 
S

sam686

Member
I didn't read carefully and thought the problem was freezing...

Ideally its best to run the game at 720p and stream at 720p. Otherwise it is ok to use the same base resolution as the game, and downscale to 720p or less.
 
D

dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
x264 actually doesn't even have the same video presets, it goes from "highest" to "lower", lower being the highest CPU usage.

I'm gonna be trying different settings of those with 1080 and 720 now and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

veryfast being the minimum you would want for streaming and with 720@30 you could probably go down as low as medium preset but I would like to see a logfile first like I showed you above.


bowieee said:
Is there a difference between changing the resolution to 720p and having the custom resolution on 1080p and enabling the downgrading option?

Nevermind....just found out! :D
Click to expand...

as for this question. what ever your primary source is running at, this is what you would want to set the base resolution to.

most of the time that is the monitor's resolution but some people play games at lower than the monitor's res so ideally, what you source is.

After that downscale to the ideal stream resolution. downscale is always less blurry than setting base at 720 if your source is higher than 720
 
B

bowieee

New Member
Thanks for the tip on how to quickly get logs from OBS!

Here's the new log:
https://gist.github.com/fa4e09dc95377ab890ff

This is with x264, 3500 kb, 1080p downscaled to 720p (Filter: Lanczos), CPU preset faster, encoding profile main

EDIT: It's looking better and more stable already and my FPS don't drop too heavily, usually 5-10 fps below the 250 mark.
 
Last edited:
D

dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
Thanks for the tip on how to quickly get logs from OBS!

Here's the new log:
https://gist.github.com/fa4e09dc95377ab890ff

This is with x264, 3500 kb, 1080p downscaled to 720p (Filter: Lanczos), CPU preset faster, encoding profile main
Click to expand...
bitrate is a bit high for your needs. lower bitrate will keep viewers from buffering. 2000 to 2500 bitrate/buffer should be sufficient just make sure they are the same.

you have alittle more room if you like. fast preset. this should be the limit for this game before performance starts to tank in game or in stream. lower preset means better quality per bitrate and since we will be reducing this, the fast preset will help a little.
 
D

dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
Changed to 2500 kb and fast preset:
https://gist.github.com/b42d3845247127faf42c

Just saw that my FPS already started dropping vastly below 250, so I guess I can't go there with my current setup.
Click to expand...
duplicate frames a little high for my liking but let optimize things real quick.

1. turn down MSAA in games to 2x instead of 4x. there really isn't a true need to run higher than 2x as the rest is just eye candy for you.

2. check your mic and headset audio format in windows. right click on the speaker near the clock and click playback devices, then double click your default speaker/headset then select advanced tab. check audio format, either 48000Hz or 44100Hz. which ever it is, set OBS to the same in the encoding tab in settings. check mic as well. ensure all three are the same.

After doing this, rerun the test. make sure you do not have your stream running in the background and instead use a popout chat. running stream can cause extra CPU load which will stutter game and/or cause stream to duplicate frames.
 
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dping

Active Member
bowieee said:
If MSAA is Anti Aliasing then it was on x2, if that is an OBS option I have no idea where to find it.

Audio format was 48k on all of them. (mic, headset and OBS)

Will post a 5 min log once you've answered the MSAA question.

EDIT: Here's my latest log https://gist.github.com/69be591b416df3f59d9b
Click to expand...
that log looked better but watch your duplicate frames. if they go over 1% duplicate frames then change the preset back to faster.

the last log you were going over 2.5% duplicate frames which can cause game or stream lag.
 
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