Question / Help Unstable/FPS drops while streaming League of Legends

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b4dveng

New Member
Before you continue reading... Yes, I've tried all of these steps here: https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...ing-too-long-to-encode-read-this-first.23334/



Hi, I've been streaming League of Legends on twitch for a couple weeks now and have had no issues (other than a few small fps drops and a "High encoding" error message, but those just lasted a few seconds). Off stream I can uncap my FPS and turn V-sync off and get around 200-350 FPS and its very smooth. During the stream I would only get 60-120 FPS uncapped but it was very chopping so I turned V-sync on and it capped the FPS at 60 and kept it really smooth (I tested 60 FPS cap with V-sync off but I found uncapped with V-sync on to be much smoother).

I was perfectly content with how things were, I didn't even notice a difference between V-sync being on while I was streaming and off while I wasn't streaming. But now all of the sudden (without any settings changed at all) I've been getting VERY chopping FPS in game while streaming (still normal when not streaming so I know its something to do with OBS).

Before this issue I was streaming 60FPS, 720p, and I get 160-220 download/20-24 upload speeds. I was also streaming on a Max bitrate of 1000 kb/s (this was recommended to me so that viewers with slower speeds would not be effected negatively, but I have since changed it to 2200...also recommended to me but I still see no change)





Here are my Computer's Specs: (I'm gunna be "that guy" with the links so that you can see specifics if you'd like)


OS: Windows 7 Ultimate

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_mmc=TEMC-RMA-Approvel-_-Content-_-text-_-

GFX Card: None, people have told me this is the main issue. However I streamed just fine without one for weeks and also a gfx card isn't really necessary for League of Legends.

Monitors: Dell se198wfp 19" 2x (don't laugh, I know they're bad but I had them leftover from yearssss ago and they worked just fine)

Software: Open Broadcast Software (classic)



I'm relatively new to OBS and streaming in general and I thought I had everything under control when I had no problems the first couple weeks. Now it's horrible and I don't know where to go from here since the settings were not changed at all but it randomly started getting extremely unsteady frames. Any help is much appreciated, thank you!


P.S. I realize that I DEFINITELY didn't provide as much detail as I should have so if you have a specific question just ask and I'll let you know.
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
Yep. Need an OBS logfile from a live streaming session at least 5 minutes in length, with active gameplay.

1000kbps is nowhere CLOSE to enough for 720p@60; even 2200 is too low. 2700 is generally the starting point. Would recommend dropping OBS to 720@30fps, 2000kbps. Best tradeoff point between minimizing viewer buffering, resolution, and smoothness. Streaming at 60fps is generally a waste of bitrate, when it comes down to it, unless you have a technical reason for needing it (like flashing sprites disappearing/staying solid). Even then, you need to downscale to 480p to fit it into the budget.

Specs/components almost don't matter past a certain baseline. Any that do will be included in the logfile.
 
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b4dveng

New Member
FerretBomb said:
Yep. Need an OBS logfile from a live streaming session at least 5 minutes in length, with active gameplay.

1000kbps is nowhere CLOSE to enough for 720p@60; even 2200 is too low. 2700 is generally the starting point. Would recommend dropping OBS to 720@30fps, 2000kbps. Best tradeoff point between minimizing viewer buffering, resolution, and smoothness. Streaming at 60fps is generally a waste of bitrate, when it comes down to it, unless you have a technical reason for needing it (like flashing sprites disappearing/staying solid). Even then, you need to downscale to 480p to fit it into the budget.

Specs/components almost don't matter past a certain baseline. Any that do will be included in the logfile.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I did mess around with the bitrate and FPS a bit but then I thought to myself, "I streamed for weeks without any issues with these settings, why would they all of the sudden be bad?", but maybe that's just my ignorance.

As I mentioned, I'm new to OBS. How do you get the OBS logfile? And do you need the logfile from before or after the issue started to occur?

Thanks!
 
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b4dveng

New Member
Bump, really need help :(

Been messing around with settings, lowered the quality so much and still having FPS issues
 
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b4dveng

New Member
Could adding a graphics card solve this problem?

I don't necessarily want to blow 100's of dollars unless I know for a fact that it will not just help but solve the issue completely
 
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b4dveng

New Member
If anyone has a solution to this and it works AND you also play League as well. I am willing to duo with you for a few free wins on a smurf.

Please, I'm desperate :c
 
FerretBomb

FerretBomb

Active Member
Sorry, I'd missed the earlier bumps.
Most i5s tend to run out of steam after 720p@30fps; with a low-motion game like League this is usually a bit easier though, with more wiggle room.

What is your CPU load looking like while in-game, according to Task Manager? You're duplicating/late on a lot of frames, and your video thread time is a bit high (7ms when it's normally under 5, and many GPUs have it under 1ms).
Have you tried switching off vsync? Still getting the same max framerates (checking for any additional GPU load incurred by recent League patches)?

Unfortunately there's no guarantee of a fix. The iGPU is simply the most likely cause. You can likely get away with a fairly low-end card even; no need for hundreds of dollars. Even an older GTX 750Ti is around a hundred bucks, and should be an enormous step up from the iGPU; most especially in that it has its own dedicated VRAM (which is very fast) instead of needing to share the system memory like the iGPU does.

Plus if you have a computer store nearby, you could always do a 'troubleshooting rental'. Buy one, install and test. If it works, great. If not, take it back and say that you got the wrong one and it wouldn't fit, that your "computer is too old".


The most interesting bit is that the old logfile still shows the same skipped/late frames problem. It literally looks like OBS is running the same way in both cases, which suggests that new software may have been installed/running concurrent, or patches to existing software could be the cause of the new problem.
As an example, I can't keep Chrome open while I'm livestreaming any more, as an update a few months back caused a massive problem with my system. Was nothing I did, just an automatic patch.
 
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b4dveng

New Member
FerretBomb said:
Sorry, I'd missed the earlier bumps.
Most i5s tend to run out of steam after 720p@30fps; with a low-motion game like League this is usually a bit easier though, with more wiggle room.

What is your CPU load looking like while in-game, according to Task Manager? You're duplicating/late on a lot of frames, and your video thread time is a bit high (7ms when it's normally under 5, and many GPUs have it under 1ms).
Have you tried switching off vsync? Still getting the same max framerates (checking for any additional GPU load incurred by recent League patches)?

Unfortunately there's no guarantee of a fix. The iGPU is simply the most likely cause. You can likely get away with a fairly low-end card even; no need for hundreds of dollars. Even an older GTX 750Ti is around a hundred bucks, and should be an enormous step up from the iGPU; most especially in that it has its own dedicated VRAM (which is very fast) instead of needing to share the system memory like the iGPU does.

Plus if you have a computer store nearby, you could always do a 'troubleshooting rental'. Buy one, install and test. If it works, great. If not, take it back and say that you got the wrong one and it wouldn't fit, that your "computer is too old".


The most interesting bit is that the old logfile still shows the same skipped/late frames problem. It literally looks like OBS is running the same way in both cases, which suggests that new software may have been installed/running concurrent, or patches to existing software could be the cause of the new problem.
As an example, I can't keep Chrome open while I'm livestreaming any more, as an update a few months back caused a massive problem with my system. Was nothing I did, just an automatic patch.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I've tried everything in your first paragraph, didn't seem to have any issues there. As for the low-end card, I think I might give that a try as that is the only thing I can think of that might be causing this and like you said if it doesn't work I can always return it.

As for the old logfile. When I was streaming at first I could leave vsync off and have over 60 FPS but it seemed very jittery, I'd turn vsync on and it would cap the FPS at 60 but it kept it very smooth. However, occasionally I'd get a small hiccup and the fps would start to shake and my OBS gave me the "Error: High encoding" message, but that only lasted a few seconds before returning to a stable FPS. I'm guessing that is what caused the skipped/late frames problem in the old logfile. However now if I try to stream with the same exact settings I'll have under 60 FPS and EXTREMELY jittery quality (says I'm getting 40-50 FPS but feels like 10-20). Since this problem seemed to arise out of no where I'm assuming it did have something to due with a patch like you said. I will run some repairs and what not and see if that fixes anything and I'll get back to you.
 
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