Question / Help Stream is lagging!

[makuta]

Hi! I picked up OBS today when a friend recomended it instead of using the free Xsplit version and I looked up some youtube guides and been reading some on the forum guides.

But I still have a problem, my stream laggs really bad when I play games. Wich really confuses me because i have a good internet connection (http://www.speedtest.net/result/2427626053.png).

I've been trying with a lot of different Setting but mostly with:

- max bitrate = 5000 and Buffer size = 5000, I've been playing around a lot with theese settings but whatever i change it too i still have pretty massive laggs. And the quality balance is on 10.

- I stream in 1280x720 in 30 fps.

- In the youtube video guide they told me to have the "Send Buffer Size" set to "32768" but I've tried with the "11680" and I can't see any difference.

- the "Higher quality resampling" is also on.

I stream from Sweden and use the "EU: Amsterdam, NL" FMS URL so that shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry if this is a stupid question or there is an easy answer, but i can't seem to find anything that works so please help me out if you can. Thanks!

 

[Haliinen]

Please lower the bitrate to something like 3000-3500 kbps, let the buffer size be the same as your bitrate. Try to use the server which is in the UK instead with the settings I just recommended to you and it should be all fine.

EDIT: Oh yeah, do also turn off the send buffer, you don't need it enabled, it should work just fine without it.

 

[ExEvolution]

By stream lagging, do you mean that streaming causes a drop in frames per second in your game or that the stream video is many seconds behind your actions in game?

Your bitrate is very high, and your viewers will need at least a 5mbit connection to view your stream properly

What kind of CPU are you using?
Video card?
Screen region or gamehook?
What x264 encoder preset are you using? veryfast is the target for modern CPUs as it looks good without stealing too many cpu cycles from your game
High quality resampling will have a negative impact on performance for minimal gains in quality, you will likely get better quality just bumping up the audio bitrate to something like 192kbps
A high "Quality Balance" is good for low motion scenes, but can cause sudden drops in quality during high motion

 

[makuta]

By stream lagging, do you mean that streaming causes a drop in frames per second in your game or that the stream video is many seconds behind your actions in game?

Your bitrate is very high, and your viewers will need at least a 5mbit connection to view your stream properly

What kind of CPU are you using?
Video card?
Screen region or gamehook?
What x264 encoder preset are you using? veryfast is the target for modern CPUs as it looks good without stealing too many cpu cycles from your game
High quality resampling will have a negative impact on performance for minimal gains in quality, you will likely get better quality just bumping up the audio bitrate to something like 192kbps
A high "Quality Balance" is good for low motion scenes, but can cause sudden drops in quality during high motion

The gameplay for me is perfect, it's only the stream on twitch that freezes and have pretty poor fps.

I'm using a i5 3.30 or 3.40 ghz, and Geforce GTX 580. I'm having it on veryfast and haven't tried to change it. I'm also using a screen region.

I will lower my bitrate next time i can try it out at home, but shouldn't i be able to have the max bitrate around 5000 without any problems with my 11 up, just to lower the bitrate they recive? Also, can i stream 1080p even with a 3000 bitrate? Thanks!

 

[makuta]

Please lower the bitrate to something like 3000-3500 kbps, let the buffer size be the same as your bitrate. Try to use the server which is in the UK instead with the settings I just recommended to you and it should be all fine.

EDIT: Oh yeah, do also turn off the send buffer, you don't need it enabled, it should work just fine without it.

Shouldn't I be able to have higher max bitrate with 11 upload but lower the reciving bitrate? And how come the UK server worked better even though the "Amsterdam NL" servers have better numbers, should i always go trough UK?

 

[Haliinen]

I've had a much better experience with the UK servers, yes. You abuse their servers if you're streaming at a very high bitrate, just saying. Some of the twitch servers located in the EU struggles at bitrates around and above 5000 kbps, that's probably why you experience frame drops in your stream. I haven't had the nicest experience with the twitch server in Amsterdam either. Anyway, when you're streaming it's vital that you don't keep the average bitrate too high because you know, you're streaming for a reason right? If people drops into your stream with a poor Internet connection they will start to experience frame drops, lag, what ever, simply because their Internet connection can't keep up with the bitrate you're streaming with. I'm actually myself on a very good upload but I stream at 3500 kbps with one of the UK servers and it works pretty good.

 

[makuta]

I've had a much better experience with the UK servers, yes. You abuse their servers if you're streaming at a very high bitrate, just saying. Some of the twitch servers located in the EU struggles at bitrates around and above 5000 kbps, that's probably why you experience frame drops in your stream. I haven't had the nicest experience with the twitch server in Amsterdam either. Anyway, when you're streaming it's vital that you don't keep the average bitrate too high because you know, you're streaming for a reason right? If people drops into your stream with a poor Internet connection they will start to experience frame drops, lag, what ever, simply because their Internet connection can't keep up with the bitrate you're streaming with. I'm actually myself on a very good upload but I stream at 3500 kbps with one of the UK servers and it works pretty good.

Alright, thanks! Will definitely try that out when I'm at home. But will it work to stream in 1080p with a 3000-3500 bitrate or should i stick with 720p? Thanks again!

 

[Haliinen]

Yes, I'd think that 3500 kbps bitrate is fine for 1080p, but it's not worth it in my opinion. I recommend you to stick with 720p, 60 fps preferably if the preset is set to very fast, if you experience lag in your game go back to 30 fps. But your PC should be able to encode the stream in 720p @ 60 fps nicely (if the preset is set to very fast).

 

[Xaraa]

If your stream was above 4000kbps(Even though i can watch it because i have 60mb D/L) i wouldn't watch it, my reason for this is your taking all my D/L bandwidth. What about if i want to D/L a film or something i can't because your stream is taking all my bandwidth, also you have to remember a normal person only has around 20-30mb download so then can only watch a 3000kbps and under stream unless its a twitch partner so they can change the quality. Overall its good that you can put out a 5000kbps stream but you have to think of the viewers.

 

[dramabomb]

A 5k bitrate is too high for how unreliable Twitch is. 3k bitrate is fine for just about anything. I know it doesn't seem that way, but trust me, it will be more than adequate. You may be able to handle 5k, but your viewers and Twitch.tv itself definitely will not be able to.

 

[Bensam123]

What resolution and what bit rate you need to be at stream at that resolution depends heavily on the amount of action that is happening on the screen. It's possible to stream at a high resolution and lower bit rate if you play something like RTS's or even MOBAs, but not when it comes to FPS's.

Gamecapture is better then screen region if you can use it. Some games have performance issues when you play in windowed mode too.

You should really post a log of when it's happening and also an example of the video so we can get an idea of what's going on. A lot of different things could be happening when 'my stream lags bad when I play games'.