Recorded gameplay is smooth, but then it randomly chugs frames!!

[Thelavanation]

I've tried everything.

I record my videos at 1440p 60fps or 2880x2160 60fps for YouTube. Everything was fine a few days ago, but it was a different story when I went to record today. I set up my recording like usual, but when I checked the final product, there were random sputters of lag in the recording. This sent me down a rabbit hole to try and fix the issue.

I tried every single encoder, switched bitrates, used simple mode, reinstalled OBS, and even tried an older version; nothing seemed to work. In the game, I tried capping the framerate to 60fps, using V-sync, and different windowed modes, but nothing seemed to work either.

I'm out of options. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[koala]

According to the log, the recording was flawless. The settings are all the default and all recommended settings. No lagged or lost frames, no rendering lag. Try using a different media player, for example VLC.

 

[Thelavanation]

According to the log, the recording was flawless. The settings are all the default and all recommended settings. No lagged or lost frames, no rendering lag. Try using a different media player, for example VLC.

Thanks for the reply! I just tried using VLC media player and it lags in the same spots...

 

[koala]

Are you sure the game didn't lag, and OBS didn't just record the game's lags?

 

[Thelavanation]

Are you sure the game didn't lag, and OBS didn't just record the game's lags?

The game doesn't lag on my main monitor. But on my second monitor where I have OBS, I can see it lagging in the live preview.

 

[koala]

In the preview already? This means it is an issue somewhere in the capture or compositing process of OBS, not the encoding process. Will probably already happen even if you don't record in the first place.

What happens if you use display capture instead of game capture? The game seems to run with Vulkan, may be this isn't working properly here. Also try to change between true fullscreen/windowed fullscreen/window mode in your game and see what happens (with game capture, and with display capture). May be there is some capture flaw within OBS that can be worked around.

And I see your monitors have different fps. The big one 60 fps, the small one 120 fps. Try running both with 60 fps. In the past there were reports of mysterious lags if there are monitors connected with different fps - some kind of long standing Windows issue, not OBS issue.

 

[PaiSand]

Another thing to look up to is the antivirus. Remove it (you can reinstall it later if needed) and test.

 

[Thelavanation]

In the preview already? This means it is an issue somewhere in the capture or compositing process of OBS, not the encoding process. Will probably already happen even if you don't record in the first place.

What happens if you use display capture instead of game capture? The game seems to run with Vulkan, may be this isn't working properly here. Also try to change between true fullscreen/windowed fullscreen/window mode in your game and see what happens (with game capture, and with display capture). May be there is some capture flaw within OBS that can be worked around.

And I see your monitors have different fps. The big one 60 fps, the small one 120 fps. Try running both with 60 fps. In the past there were reports of mysterious lags if there are monitors connected with different fps - some kind of long standing Windows issue, not OBS issue.

I just tried everything you mentioned and nothing has helped. One thing I noticed is that fullscreen mode is much laggier in recording and previewing than windowed mode. It seems to happen with every recording software as well, so not an OBS issue. I'll see if I can rollback my windows version if possible...