Question / Help What resolution should I be recording in with these computer specs.

GUnit

New Member
These are my computer specs


Intel Core i7-4710HQ

Quad Core

12 GB Ram

1920x1080p screen resolution

Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600

I dont know much about computers but I think these specs generally determine the computing power. Ask me for any other specs if you require them. Anyways I want to record games on my laptop but I can't seem to figure out at what settings to do so. I tried recording at screen resolution 1920x1080, 30 fps, 30000 bit rate (i dont know what bit rate means but a guide told me for good quality to use that much). I am also recording the video files into an usb so its not directly saving on my hard drive, apparently that reduces the fps drop in the games. But these specs dont work because i keep getting the message WARNING video taking too long to encode and when i replay the videos theres basically really low frame rate. Is my computer too weak to record games at good quality? will dropping the resolution to 720p be good enough? I plan on uploading these files to youtube so i want the maximum quality i can get.
 

Lain

Forum Admin
Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
It means using too much CPU. It means reduce video settings, or change CPU preset in advanced.
 

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
Then I would also recommend to use our guide:
How to make high quality local recordings

It allows you to use variable bitrates and you could lower your encoding preset to superfast or ultrafast, although I would think your CPU should be capable. If nothing seems to help, show us a log file of your tests:
Problem? Make sure to post a log and/or crash dump -- HOWTO

A problem could be that your iGPU is the only available graphic card. If its already used too much by your software/game, obs has nearly no "room" to copy over the images from it to produce the video. But normally, as Jim mentioned, taking too long to encode is a CPU thing, so for recording, as mentioned, lower your encoding preset OR see if you could use quicksync on your system.
 

GUnit

New Member
I used the high quality local recordings thing you told me to use and it helped a bit. But i had to reduce the resolution size to 480p for the lag to stop. For every like 15 seconds theres a quick spike in frame. And for some reason the mouse cursor in the video is a bit out of location of where it actually is supposed to be. How can i fix this mouse cursor problem. And im assuming the 480p with the small lag spikes is as good as its going to get for me right?
 

Jack0r

The Helping Squad
I would have to see a log file as mentioned, to say anything more to the performance.

The mouse cursor problem is a bit strange though, maybe Jim has an idea what could be the reason for it.
 

Lain

Forum Admin
Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
Hm, you may want to scale it down to 720p with downscale. 1080p might be just a slight bit much, despite being a hyperthreaded 4-core
 

GUnit

New Member
I scaled it down to 480p with a 3000 bit rate, but for some reason theres frame spikes every like 7 seconds where the screen twitches what is the cause of that?
 

Lain

Forum Admin
Lain
Forum Moderator
Developer
Try increasing the process priority in advanced (above normal perhaps) and tell me if it helps at all. Very unusual
 

Boildown

Active Member
A lot of people have problems with LoL; not exactly sure why as I don't play it myself. That said, I'd suggest the counter-intuitive notion of taking away some of OBS's (x264's) CPU utilization by reducing the number of threads it spawns.

Right now you have a nonsensical command in your custom x264 settings, of simply "15".
16:43:51: Using custom x264 settings: "15"

Perhaps you were trying to set CRF=15? Anyways, replace that "15" with the following: "threads=8".

This will reduce the number of threads spawned by the x264 encoder and should result in more efficient usage of your computer resources, and less competition with LoL for those resources. Its been my observation confirmed by many others on these forums that on hyperthreaded CPUs, particularly the quad cores with hyperthreading, that x264 opens too many threads (because it thinks you have an octo-core), resulting in slightly worse performance than if the threads are forcibly limited to a lower value. Ordinarily I recommend 9 or 10 threads, but LoL seems to demand a lot. You should experiment to find the best "threads=x" value of x. It will almost certainly be 8, 9, or 10.

However I'm not convinced this will eliminate your 4 to 5 percent duplicated frames by itself. You should also try reducing your preset to SuperFast.

Finally, you might check if the Quicksync encoder is available on your computer and use that instead of x264, if the above doesn't produce acceptable results.
 

GUnit

New Member
I tried everything to get rid of the lag spike but it won't go away. I tested 8 threads, 6 and 4, i increased the process priority, i changed the preset to super fast, i even tried recording in 360p with a 500 bit rate but its still there, i guess the program just wont work properly on my pc. I also enabled quick sync but that didnt do anything, i think it mightve just increased the amount of lag spikes.
 

Boildown

Active Member
Post a log file with nothing special except SuperFast preset instead of VeryFast. Make it at least 5 minutes in length of high action content. Without log files, we have nothing to go on.
 

GUnit

New Member
I dont get why this happens at 720, 480 and 360p, i really want to use this program cuz i tried using frapps but its file sizes are ridiculous
 

GUnit

New Member
Ive tried 5 different programs and it looks like Dxtory works perfectly for me and its only 40$. ima just use obs for audio cuz it seems like its good for that.
 
Top