Question / Help Stutter in stream/preview. No rendering/encoding lag.

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Baskstest

New Member
Around 15mins into a stream, recording, and even just having OBS not doing anything other than previewing, the preview starts stuttering and that stutter goes into the output. Sometimes this lasts for a couple seconds. Sometimes it will not go away until I close OBS and reopen it. This is a problem that I have had for some time now, and have been unable to fully fix. It has been an issue across multiple PCs. The only thing that is the same across the PCs is Windows 10, Monitors, and OBS.

This happens with any and every game. It happens with game capture, display capture, and window capture. 30 fps and 60 fps.

Here is an example clip from a test stream. It is clipped when the stutter starts ~15 minutes into the stream, and goes until the video is smooth again to show the disparity. https://clips.twitch.tv/SillyCourteousLettuceOMGScoots


I have tried everything I can think of/find to get rid of this short of purchasing a capture card. This isn't a problem I am willing to throw money at. Reinstalled Windows, clean install of OBS. Having a scene with nothing other than game capture. Nvenc, x264, various settings on and off. Ancient versions of OBS. OpenGL renderer, Windows 10 Game Mode on/off. No dice. I first noticed this on my 7 year old PC. I have since then built a new PC with all new hardware and it still happens.

Old PC specs:
i5-3570k
Asrock z77 extreme4
8gb ram
GTX 1060

Newer PC spec:
i5 9600k
Aorus z390 pro
16gb ram
RTX 2060 Super


One thing I have tried that helped, but didn't not fix the issue is using a refresh rate testing website to make note of the true refresh rate of my main monitor, and then setting OBS to a fractional FPS value based on that. Numerator: 599962 Denominator: 10000. This doesn't fully fix the problem, but it does make it so that the stuttering starts every ~1 hour 40 minutes instead of every ~15 minutes.

Other things to note:
It happens around 15 minutes of OBS being open. Not starting from when streaming or recording starts.
I have 3 monitors. All set to 1080p 60hz. They are the only thing my 2 PCs have in common hardware wise.
I have tried each monitor plugged in solo, and it makes no difference.
I stream at 1340x754 because that is the size of twitch's player and it is clearer than 720p being stretched up to that. I have tried various output resolutions and it makes no difference.
It isn't just while gaming. I can see it happening when moving a window around on screen or just my cursor using display capture.



If anyone can offer a solution or other things to try, it would be greatly appreciated.
 

Attachments

  • 2020-01-29 01-56-48.txt
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Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
Does the problem occur within this logfile?

01:57:07.103: ==== Streaming Start ===============================================
02:13:02.750: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] User stopped the stream
02:13:02.750: Output 'adv_stream': stopping
02:13:02.750: Output 'adv_stream': Total frames output: 57330
02:13:02.750: Output 'adv_stream': Total drawn frames: 57390
02:13:02.753: ==== Streaming Stop ================================================

That's 16 minutes of streaming, and a total of 60 frames dropped over that time.
 
B

Baskstest

New Member
Yes that log is from the test stream that the clip I linked is from. I streamed until the stuttering happened around 15 minutes in. Once it became smooth again for a few moments I stopped the stream and saved the log file that I included. The stuttering happened for around 25 seconds before becoming smooth again.

However, there is typically a ~60 frame difference between output and drawn even if I stream for only 2 seconds before stopping the stream.

Example from a stream I just started and stopped immediately after it established the connection:
12:40:14.002: ==== Streaming Start ===============================================
12:40:15.260: [rtmp stream: 'adv_stream'] User stopped the stream
12:40:15.260: Output 'adv_stream': stopping
12:40:15.260: Output 'adv_stream': Total frames output: 67
12:40:15.260: Output 'adv_stream': Total drawn frames: 128
12:40:15.262: ==== Streaming Stop ================================================
Click to expand...
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
If that 60 frames dropping is typical even without the stuttering you're seeing, then I think OBS is not reporting that in the log, which means it's possible that the stutter is upstream of OBS somewhere?

I don't see anything obvious in your settings that should be causing it under your circumstances.

Your output size is unusual, but even so I don't see how it would cause that.

I might suggest making a new, fresh profile and scene collection, with nothing but a game capture in it, and see if the same thing happens there or not.

Most of the things you tried changing wouldn't have helped and should not be done-- there's no reason to use the OpenGL renderer at all (it is disabled by default in fresh installs of OBS), downgrading is only helpful in very specific circumstances (users who cannot upgrade to latest OS versions).

The only commonality I see between your setups is Nvidia hardware, and possibly whatever legacy settings you have in OBS if you migrated user profile data from one PC to the other.
 
B

Baskstest

New Member
New fresh profile, new scene collection, only added game capture, only setting changed was from 30fps to 60fps. Still ~15 mins in stuttering occurred. Stopped stream, saved log. 58 frame difference in drawn/output frames.

Again though, I don't even have to stream or record for this stuttering to happen. It happens in inactive OBS ~15 mins after opening it and can be observed in the preview window alone.
 

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  • 2020-01-29 16-13-34.txt
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Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
If it happens after 15 minutes without streaming, then it's not related to your encoding settings at all, but either to the rendering of your scene, the game capture, or, since it seems to affect multiple applications, your OS/video hardware.

Drivers up to date? Using any apps on the Known Conflicts list?

Wiki - Known Conflicts | OBS

This page has moved to https://obsproject.com/kb/known-conflicts.
obsproject.com obsproject.com
 
B

Baskstest

New Member
Drivers are up to date. No apps from the known conflicts list. I do have Geforce Experience and Discord, but their overlays are off. OBS is added to the whitelist/exclusion lists for my antivirus. I have tested on a clean install of Windows 10 with nothing extra except GPU drivers and OBS and it still happens.

Narcogen said:
since it seems to affect multiple applications
Click to expand...
OBS is the only application I have had this issue with. The games/Windows remain fluid during it, and Shadowplay records fine.


I have found forum posts here of other people experiencing this across their multiple machines as early as 2015. Every one of them was left unsolved. :( The closest thing to a fix anyone reported that they were able to find was the whole matching how many hertz that https://www.vsynctester.com/ reports your monitor's refresh rate as, (Mine is 59.9962hz) and setting the fractional FPS value to match that. (59.9962 fps) Which for me only makes it go from happening every 15 mins, to every 1 hour and 40 mins. This "works" on both PCs... I don't know if that points to the cause or if it is just a weird coincidence.

I forgot to mention. OBS never says less than 60fps at the bottom or in the stats window when the stuttering is happening. Twitch inspector also stays at 60fps. So it must be duplicate frames??
 
carlmmii

carlmmii

Active Member
As far as the 60 frame discrepancy goes, you can ignore that. That's perfectly normal, and is completely independent of any type of capture phenomenon.

Analyzing the video frames, it doesn't seem as simple as a desync. The frame stuttering occurs at random frame intervals, from every other frame, to up to 8 frames before a skip. This leads me to believe that it's not something as simple as a framerate mismatch (I really wish it were that easy).

What methods have you tried for capturing gameplay so far? I see you're currently using game capture, but what options to you have selected for that? What happens if you try display capture, or even window capture (if it works)?

As a few extra "why not" tests... what happens if you disable the OBS preview? Also, try turning off PsychoVisual Tuning in the encoder settings -- I doubt this would have any effect, but it is using CUDA, which means it is using extra GPU resources, which could somehow be affecting frame timing.
 
B

Baskstest

New Member
I have tried display and window capture, and the result is the same. In the tests I have uploaded the logs for, the defaults are selected for game capture, but I have tested it with various options off and on, and there is no change.

Turning the preview off there is no change. Turning off PsychoVisual Tuning there is no change.

Don't know if this is helpful info, but I just learned that if I am using display capture and it starts stuttering, I can toggle a game from full screen to windowed borderless then back to full screen and the preview becomes smooth again. It works when the stutter is happening while streaming as well as when OBS isn't encoding. If I started the game window borderless, open OBS, ~15mins pass, and the stutter in the preview of OBS starts, just going from windowed borderless to fullscreen removes the stutter.
 
Narcogen

Narcogen

Active Member
By "multiple applications" I mean you're experiencing this problem capturing more than one application, so the issue is not merely a bad interaction between OBS and a particular game (Modern Warfare has problems like this currently).
 
M

Mrbiggz

New Member
Have you got any antivirus or a program like malwarebytes running other than Windows defender? I've been having a stutter issue recently which was evident in the preview from the moment I load obs. I uninstalled avast antivirus and the stutter seems to have gone. Potentially being caused by a scan process it was running on obs every second, who knows. Maybe it won't even apply to you but everything is worth a shot I guess.

Made this account just to reply to that ;)
 
J

JohnCiber

New Member
Mrbiggz said:
Have you got any antivirus or a program like malwarebytes running other than Windows defender? I've been having a stutter issue recently which was evident in the preview from the moment I load obs. I uninstalled avast antivirus and the stutter seems to have gone. Potentially being caused by a scan process it was running on obs every second, who knows. Maybe it won't even apply to you but everything is worth a shot I guess.

Made this account just to reply to that ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I'm going to try it

I'm having this issue with a single PC and two computer setup. Both have Avast. BTW this is a very old problem that a few of us have: The Random Stuttering with 0 fps drop (I always check the forums from time to time to see if there is any news on how to fix this problem)

Question / Help - Random stuttering in preview which goes into recorded videos.

I am having a weird problem since upgrading to windows 10 and the latest version of obs studio. Using NVenc or x264 makes no difference. When I use "game capture" I get random stuttering in the preview window that makes it look like it's at 30fps but is still reporting 60fps. This is just the...
obsproject.com obsproject.com
 
R

relaksmedia

New Member
I have posted this reply to a similar thread:

I’ve had the same issue for the longest time now. I am sure I have tried a good chunk of the given possible work arounds on this thread. But here’s what I have known to somehow work in my case.
I am running OBS as Admin, I have 2 monitors same refresh rates but the game monitor has a 21:9 aspect ratio. What I tried the other night is set the base canvass and output to match my game resolution (2560x1080) it’s working smoothly so far. I will post an update if the issue comes back.
I hope this helps, and I hope this really fixes my issue.
 
O

odellykins

New Member
Just a build a new PC last weekend so i could dual pc stream.

Ran into this same problem with the obs preview on the NEW PC....i cannot get my head round it and have read through all the posts i have found about it :(
 
R

relaksmedia

New Member
Revisiting this thread in hopes of getting an answer. I have built a totally new PC with 3700x and rtx 2070 with 32gb of 3200mhz ram, NEWS FLASH the OBS preview stuttering is now even worst.

tried different resolutions, refresh rates to no avail.

what’s worst is that i see people who has identical systemsthat does not have this f’n issue.
 
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