Question / Help Would like some help configuring settings on a Multi-Instance OBS setup.

[Hawky]

My System:
Windows 10 Pro x64
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k
MB: MSi Z97 Gaming 5
RAM: HyperX 16GB DDR3 1866MHz
GPU: MSi Nvidia GTX 970 4G
Windows C:\ drive: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB M.2 SSD
Secondary D:\ drive: 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" SATA Drive

OBS Configuration:
I use OBS to record, not to livestream. I use two instances of OBS. One instance records my Logitech c615 webcam and my Blue Yeti microphone using Quick Sync. I call that the "Webcam" instance. The other instance records my game or whatever I'm recording. I call that the "Game-Video" instance. Here are the settings for both instances.

Webcam Instance:

Game-Video Instance:

So what I want to know is if these settings are OK and good for local recordings? I've looked around on the net a lot about what settings to use for local recordings for both x264 and Quick Sync but I'm always getting conflicting results. These settings seem to work fine, but sometimes my Webcam instance will crash with the "QSVHelper.exe was killed, encode failed." Other times my PC will completely freeze and lock up (no bluecreen). I have to do a hard reset when that happens.

Here are logs of both instances:
Webcam instance: https://gist.github.com/43ae89fcc04b9454c28a
Game-Video instance: https://gist.github.com/0faa28e089e5b56a52c1

Other details:
- Both of my monitors (I have two) are connected to my GTX 970. I never needed to connect or fake a monitor to get Quick Sync to work.
- I've noticed that my CPU usage is around 80-100% when recording a game. And that when my CPU usage hits 100% for too long, that is when I get the "QSVHelper.exe was killed, encode failed." error.
- Also on the note of CPU usage. My games lag and stutter when recording. This lagging and stuttering shows up in the recording and doesn't look great. This lagging and stuttering doesn't happen when only using the Game-Video instance, and CPU usage is at 50-70%. But when I start the Webcam instance my games start stuttering and CPU usage hits 80-100%. Frame-rate is stable though.

 

[dping]

My System:
Windows 10 Pro x64
CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k
MB: MSi Z97 Gaming 5
RAM: HyperX 16GB DDR3 1866MHz
GPU: MSi Nvidia GTX 970 4G
Windows C:\ drive: Samsung 850 EVO 250 GB M.2 SSD
Secondary D:\ drive: 1TB 7200rpm 3.5" SATA Drive

OBS Configuration:
I use OBS to record, not to livestream. I use two instances of OBS. One instance records my Logitech c615 webcam and my Blue Yeti microphone using Quick Sync. I call that the "Webcam" instance. The other instance records my game or whatever I'm recording. I call that the "Game-Video" instance. I don't use OBS to capture the game though. I use DxTory with the 'DirectShow Output' option so OBS can capture what DxTory is capturing. Here are the settings for both instances and DxTory.

Webcam Instance:

Game-Video Instance:

DxTory

So what I want to know is if these settings are OK and good for local recordings? I've looked around on the net a lot about what settings to use for local recordings for both x264 and Quick Sync but I'm always getting conflicting results. These settings seem to work fine, but sometimes my Webcam instance will crash with the "QSVHelper.exe was killed, encode failed." Other times my PC will completely freeze and lock up (no bluecreen). I have to do a hard reset when that happens.

Here are logs of both instances:
Webcam instance: https://gist.github.com/43ae89fcc04b9454c28a
Game-Video instance: https://gist.github.com/0faa28e089e5b56a52c1

Other details:
- Both of my monitors (I have two) are connected to my GTX 970. I never needed to connect or fake a monitor to get Quick Sync to work.
- I've noticed that my CPU usage is around 80-100% when recording a game. And that when my CPU usage hits 100% for too long, that is when I get the "QSVHelper.exe was killed, encode failed." error.
- Also on the note of CPU usage. My games lag and stutter when recording. This lagging and stuttering shows up in the recording and doesn't look great. This lagging and stuttering doesn't happen when only using the Game-Video instance, and CPU usage is at 50-70%. But when I start the Webcam instance my games start stuttering and CPU usage hits 80-100%. Frame-rate is stable though.

change the x264 instance (game instance) to superfast preset then change the custom buffer to 0. this will allow crf to work.

In the webcam instance, remove the custom x264 crf option and just change the ICQQuality to 20.
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/custom-parameters-of-quicksync.104/

 

[Hawky]

change the x264 instance (game instance) to superfast preset then change the custom buffer to 0. this will allow crf to work.

In the webcam instance, remove the custom x264 crf option and just change the ICQQuality to 20.
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/custom-parameters-of-quicksync.104/

That helped but not by much. Maybe 5% less CPU usage. My games still have stuttering issues.

 

[dping]

That helped but not by much. Maybe 5% less CPU usage. My games still have stuttering issues.

then try ultrafast. the faster the preset the bitter the files will be. btw, you misspelled crf in the custom x264 options. its crf not cfr. Anyway, 17 might be to low anyway, you really want to start around 20 or 21 if its even needed. the lower the number, the higher the cpu usage as well.

you might also try the balanced preset of quicksync instead. again, same concept, but slightly different, the less work the cpu or igpu does, the bigger the files with crf (or in the other case the ICQQuality).

 

[Hawky]

then try ultrafast. the faster the preset the bitter the files will be. btw, you misspelled crf in the custom x264 options. its crf not cfr. Anyway, 17 might be to low anyway, you really want to start around 20 or 21 if its even needed. the lower the number, the higher the cpu usage as well.

you might also try the balanced preset of quicksync instead. again, same concept, but slightly different, the less work the cpu or igpu does, the bigger the files with crf (or in the other case the ICQQuality).

Huh. I think my issue might have been the custom x264 option! Also If I use the OBS game capture instead of DxTory it works great! For some reason DxTory is still lagging a lot though. Using OBS game capture I still get occasional 2-4 second bursts of stuttering. Still annoying but we are getting closer!