Question / Help Window Capture extremely choppy

ERRORCODE616

New Member
Hello!
I'm currently having a problem with my output capture file ending up extremely choppy and color distorted.
For context, I've recorded three hour long episodes of Doki Doki Literature Club on Steam. That was with my desktop connected to my old 720p tv. Frame rate, audio sync, and color were all fine. I've since upgraded to a 4k tv, and the frame rate is extremely choppy, and the colors of the game (webcam is fine) were distorted. Is there a setting that I have to change in order to alleviate the lag?
I've added my log file, as it is too long to paste into the body of my post.
 

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Narcogen

Active Member
Window capture is very poor performing. You'll be better served by display capture.

You're also using a very old version of OBS (0.16) better suited to running on Mavericks or Yosemite. The latest is 20.1.

Your base resolution is very high (4k) so you're asking your machine to both scale and encode, and your machine is not capable of doing it, as the log shows:

21:02:42.209: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 3554 (96.7%)
21:02:42.209: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 2060 (51.2%)​

Half the time your machine can't render the frame before it needs to start rendering the next frame, and almost all the time it can't encode that frame. This output would be utterly unwatchable.

Your bitrate is 2500, which is very low for 1080p60, which is what you are trying to output. Either increase the bitrate or lower the canvas resolution. Shoot for 720p60 or 1080p30-- given that I believe the amount of motion in Doki Doki is limited, 1080p30 might be preferable, and a good bitrate for that is 3500-5000.

Lastlly, your CPU preset is veryfast. Go to superfast or ultrafast-- your machine is simply not capable of rendering 1080p30 down to 2500 at that quality.
 

ERRORCODE616

New Member
Holy crap. For some reason the version I was on wasn't able to detect new updates, so I always thought I was on the most recent version. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Will report back with results based on your recommended settings.

EDIT: OK! Followed your settings to a T, with the bitrate set to 5000 at 1080p30(both canvas and scaled). Problems with visual glitching are gone, but now both webcam and game capture visuals are lagging behind considerably. Any suggestions?
EDIT: Also, I should note that, as I stopped the test recording, there was a little notification at the bottom of the capture window that indicated some sort of overload.
 

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Narcogen

Active Member
You're still on veryfast CPU preset, and OBS is overloaded both on rendering the frame and compressing it. Move to superfast or ultrafast.

18:36:44.283: Output 'adv_file_output': Number of lagged frames due to rendering lag/stalls: 956 (29.8%)
18:36:44.283: ==== Recording Stop ================================================
18:36:44.288: Video stopped, number of skipped frames due to encoding lag: 1920/2051 (93.6%)​
 

bearcatjamboree

New Member
I know this is an old thread, but is there any effort to improve the Window Capture performance? I ask because it's a whole lot more convenient to use OBS Window Capture so viewers only see the app you want them to see.
 
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