Question / Help Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. Help

[l00b]

Hi guys,
I am fairly new to streaming still. I used to stream off my console using capture card.

I am now more into Pc Gaming and am having difficulty getting a smooth gameplay experience while streaming.
Unfortunately I am not at my streaming PC but I can list the Specs.

i7 960 3.2ghz
Asus Sabretooth
24 Gb Ram
Hd Radeon 6970
Windows 7
DL/UL : 25Mbps/2.5Mbps
Capture Card: Happauge Colossus (I used this for streaming console, I havent been using for PC streaming but just thought Id list it here too.)

My goal is to be able to stream in 720p. My monitor resolution is 1920x1080.
After my own research I should be able to stream in 720p. (According to my bandwidth)

Problem
I am currently trying to stream LoL. In game while I play and try to mouse around the map, (edgescolling) It feels like framerate is being drowned or something. The stream looks fairly smooth its really just my gameplay that bugs me, and well I choose not to stream as it hinders my performance.

My question is, What are my options to be able to have a smooth streaming/gameplay experience.

I have tried lowering my monitor resolution, both native and ingame, and this does help. But I would much rather be able to play in 1080p.
I do have some cash to through around so PC upgrades are not out of the question.

Is my CPU bottlenecking?
My GPU?

Let me know what you think, or if you need any additional information.

Thanks <3

 

[TriAtlasGaming]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Try this...

Create ONE scene. Then for sources, create just a Software Capture of your desktop, so that you have one scene and one source. Play LoL in borderless window mode. Make sure to have Aero disabled at start-up.

Bit-rate and Buffer at 1800. Use CBR. Audio codec is AAC with 96 bit-rate. Set quality balance to 8.

Minimize Network Impact. Set FPS to 30.

In the advanced settings, make sure your priority class is Normal and your CPU preset is at Veryfast, however, if you have some CPU power to spare, you can set it to Faster or Fast (this will give you a better quality stream, at the cost of more CPU resources). At the bottom, click on Bind to Interface and set it to your PC's ip address.

 

[TriAtlasGaming]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

If 1800 bit-rate is too high, then lower by 100 increments and test.

Also, please download this ==> http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=326034 This will help you find out the best twitch.tv server to stream to.

There really is no need to upgrade your computer. LoL can be played at a constant 60fps or more, with half the power of your hardware, and still stream at the same time.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Thanks for the quick reply.

As soon as I am back at home I will test it out and report back!

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Ok,
So I am home now and tested the settings you recommended.
Unfortunately I am still having the same problems.

After further testing here I somewhat believe it is my gpu that is bottlenecking the performance.
When I run the stream in game capture I am able to play LoL in fullscreen mode. When this happens my fps stays a constant 130+
As soon as I use borderless I drop to a max of 63 fps with an average of 55ish.

I believe what I am feeling while I play in borderless is a lack of framerate, or just to what I am used to playing on.

Again I dont really want to downgrade my monitor resolution.

I know my gpu is decent and all but could this not be it? For my liking am I going to need more FPS to get the result I am looking for?

Or does anyone else have some tweaks or tips to get the smooth gameplay feeling im looking for.

 

[Grimio]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Borderless should not have such a huge effect on the performance, there is something wrong here.
Post a log file of a borderless streaming session please.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Here is the log.

I tested it again,
Lowest In-game settings borderless: 55fps
Lowest In-game settings Fullscreen: 300fps

Highest game settings borderless: 30fps
Highest game settings fullscreen 135fps

As I was reading the log I noticed it is the 32 bit OBS and I know I am running 64bit win 7. Imma see if there are 2 downloads. Maybe I mis-clicked.

Edit* I took another look at download files. I still havent noticed a 64 bit client so maybe this isnt the issue.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

As well, while doing more testing.
If I create a scene and use game capture. I am able to run LoL in fullscreen mode without the shuddering on stream.

Unfortunately this isnt the best case as when I alt tab during a game the display freezes until i maximize again.
But while I am in game doing this, the smooth gameplay is there!

Maybe this is an option. But I still have no idea why im dropping 100+ frames in borderless?

 

[ThoNohT]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Monitor capture in Windows 7 is inferior to Game Capture or Window Capture. Monitor capture should definitely not be used with full screen games.

Enable Aero and use Game Capture for full screen or Window Capture for borderless (if you want the animation to continue when alt-tabbed out). I personally didn't notice any difference in fps ingame for borderless or fullscreen. Is the same difference noticeable when not streaming?

Te 64 bit version should be in the 64 bit folder in your OBS folder. The installer installs both. Just check your start menu.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

So I did a quick test this morning before heading to work.
Same thing still happens.

While streaming w/ OBS in borderless avg is still 55 fps
Turned off OBS closed everything. Borderless still in game, fps went to 200+ fps instantly.

Edit* I shouldnt say OBS is the problem, because when I was using xsplit to try and stream LoL I still suffered the same issue. (Loss of framerate in Borderless)

Tried this on both 32 and 64 bit.
Tried window capture instead of monitor.
Im still very confused.

Does it make a difference that I have 2 monitors? Could I be leaking fps out that way? I dunno im just throwing out idea's. I think I going to go get either a 7970 or a 680, try it in borderless and see what happens.
If it doesnt solve it, then at least I have a stronger card than now and I can still do the Game Capture full screen and just use another scene for desktop.

Unless... There are any more ideas out there?

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

One last bump

Going to buy a 680 this afternoon. I will get it installed and test streaming with it when I am home from work this evening.
We will see if the Gpu makes a difference!

 

[ThoNohT]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

It's a very weird issue though. Buying a new GPU for it seems rather radical, unless this GPU has issues. Streaming should definitely not impact the framerate as much as reducing it to 1/4. If you get 200+ normally, you should be able to stay 120+ easily while streaming.

If you want to get a new card, that's fine of course. But only for streaming this game, that's a bit radical. You could try getting on the obs chat, whenever you have some time to do experiments. Someone might be able to take some time and watch your stream, check your settings etc to see if they can find anything.

 

[Grimio]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

The log looks so weird. Settings are fine but you have such a high lagged frames percentage and the majority of the frame processing is spent on preprocessing.
Did you try updating your drivers or cheking for any background programs which may interfere with screen capturing, like overlays?

I hope the new GPU works out for you if you decide to go that way. I'm very happy with my gtx670, so it should work very well for you too.

 

[Krazy]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

For LoL the best thing to do is to make 2 scenes. One for in game using Game Capture (in your case, while playing fullscreen) and another that's just monitor capture or whatever you like to show the menu screens. You'll also want to grab the automatic scene switcher plugin from the plugins forum and set that up. You will then be able to alt tab and such freely, and not have to worry about switching scenes or anything like that.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

The log looks so weird.

Yea I wouldnt be surprised. I was so frustrated I literally changed every setting to try and get something to work. So that may have clogged up the log.

Anyways, on ward with the adventure.
I took a trip down to my PC store this afternoon and explained to them I cannot figure it out. Finally we came to the conclusion that since technically my CPU, GPU, Mobo, RAM, all that stuff is good and it has to be a hardware issue somewhere.
The only thing left is the Harddrive.
This somewhat made sense to me because in the Windows Performance Rating. All of my numbers are 7.7 out of 7.9 except for HD transfer rate which was like 5.7 or something very close.

TL;DR I bought a 240Gb SSD Harddrive, will install all of my programs including OS onto it and see what it does.
The store has a 1 week return policy so I have nothing to loose.

Will report back in a couple hours when I've got this up and running!

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

SSD did it!

So smooth and fast.
I have my OS, OBS, and the games that I stream as well as VOiP installed to the disk.
Everything else is still on the old HD.

Tested the stream, framerate improved slightly. But the most noticeable thing is the smooth gameplay I was looking for.

As for my stream for LoL since there are lots of people asking about the setup is.

1 scene - 2 sources
Top layered source is Game Capture - Start a custom game of LoL, like actually in the game not the launcher @ champ pick.Go to video settings, make sure you are on full screen.
Bottom layer - Software Capture - Monitor.

Keep them both active.
The gamecapture since it is layered on top will show only when the full game has booted up.
After the game ends and the client is closed, there is no gamecapture video feed so the monitor capture takes over.

No switching scenes.

Perfect :)
Thanks to those that tried <3

 

[XeiZ]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Thats not how it works, monitor capture is still capturing stuff and using resources, more than gamecapture even.

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

Well it is how it works.
Its working just fine. ;)

Maybe not the most efficient but I have enough CPU power to run it.
Of course Ill continue to optimize.

 

[Dariofubar]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

If you use your capture card as a source then you don't even have to switch between scenes anymore and it should also improve your feeling while streaming .

 

[l00b]

Re: Trying to achieve smoother gameplay while streaming.. He

If you use your capture card as a source then you don't even have to switch between scenes anymore and it should also improve your feeling while streaming .

I think I will try it tonight, Im pretty sure I know the settings on PC and OBS to give it a shot so I will.
I just have to double check the Colossus is supported by OBS

*Edit* Just checked the sticky post in this forum section by Jim on supported devices. According to that post all Hauppage dont directly work with OBS.

I might be able to do a work around like using Arcsoft to capture it and then window capture arcsoft to stream. I tested something very similar while I was streaming console before. It ended up being that since there was so much recapping of video and reso changes it made the quality lack.

I will still try it out, why not?!
But when OBS gets operational with this cap card I may do another test thread for those to see. I remember on Xsplit, support for Colossus was quite neglected.