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- Sep 8, 2013
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- Over in that city next to the AFA
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Program
So aside from the hardware that you would require to stream from an Xbox360 (Isn't it dead there?) or the PS3 you essentially have two good options. Xsplit which has an unlimited free trial, but limits your options unless you pay for a subscription in which case it's godlike. For other poverty streamers out there that need that slight more customization that Xsplit doesn't allow which generally makes your stream stable is OBS or Open Broadcaster Software.
Setting Up OBS
Firstly OBS allows for any number of plugins to be made for it, but I stress that you should wait to use any of these other than the default ones until you have a stable stream set up. Aside from that setting up your data feeds is generally speaking simple enough. To do so you need to right click in the Sources pane to the left of the Scenes pane in the bottom left. You shouldn't really need to worry about setting up any global sources as in most cases it will cause more problems than it's worth. Anyways for Skullgirls specifically the Game Capture option for sources should work fine for capturing the game. Just make sure you have Skullgirls or the Endless Beta open when you attempt to do this. Aside from that, the only other option for video input from sources is to check the box asking if you want to stretch the video input to the screen dimensions.
Technical Bits
So now we get to the more "technical" stuff. Other than twitch.tv's requirements there are some steps you will want to take to have a stable stream. One of the more important things for overall image quality is down scaling your resolution. You can find this by going through Settings>Settings>Video and you will want to mess around with it to find a good middle ground. Aside from this for the moment you need to change something else in settings. Go to Encoding and make sure Use CBR and Enably CBR padding are enabled. Now we get to one of the things I consider to be dumb for how you set it up. Your Max Bitrate and Buffer Size which both have their effectiveness determined by your upload and download throuputs. (I didn't say speed because of how vague it is and throughput just means what you're actually getting.) Most would say to just use speedtest.net however it may not be completely accurate especially with the scale we're looking at. For the sake of simplicity I will as well, but make sure you select a server not in your state or general area to test with as it will give you a more accurate depiction of your throughputs.
From here we do a small amount of math. Speedtest.net measures your speeds in MBs or MegaBytes and OBS uses KBs or KiloBytes. Every MB is 1024 KB and as such we will need to downscale. Furthermore how much data you allocate to your max bitrate directly relates to your buffer size. It will be mostly used for upload, but if you can it's always good to allow the bitrate a little more to work with. Realistically you will want to set your bitrate to at least 1500 and if you can't get that I would advise against trying to set up a stream, but it is beneficial (quite) if you can go above this. At most you would use about 3000. Now before you go, "I have 10mb/s download rate I should set it and the buffer size to 4000 each! My stream won't lag at all then!" you have to realize that the number you have in your head at least needs to be cut in half. This is due to the fact that your buffer size (the delay) needs to be at least equal if not higher than your max bitrate. The reason for this is rather simple as the better your buffer rate compared to your bitrate the smoother the stream will look. I try to set my buffer rate about 500 kb above my max bitrate to give a little more room to have it come out smoothly. If you have a good download throughput I would recommend personally 1750 bitrate and 2000 buffer size.
Audio
On to audio which I don't think should be that tricky. Other than making sure the game source is making noise if you want to include music simple select whatever you use as speakers or headphones. This can be found easily by left clicking the speaker in the bottom left and then clicking mixer. Your mic should be under a familiar enough name, but the process is the same unless it is only a microphone and not a headset. Real quick however it's good to note that quite often audio and visual may desync. I don't know exactly why this is nor have I bothered to try to completely fix it, but be aware that this is normal and nothing to be quite concerned about. Two other things you may want to play around with are the sliders on the main screen for audio output and input on your computer. That is just to make sure one does not absolutely overpower the other.
Visual - Layout
Moving on to stream layout it's rather simple but easy to forget about. The source list works like say photoshop layers or any other layer system for that matter. Whatever is highest on the source list and checked will be on top of all other sources. That being said to move around various source object such as images or text you'll want to click the Preview Stream button in the bottom right then click Edit Scene. From here you just need to select the source you want to move in the source pane and the move it on the display and lick Edit Scene again when you're done. From there you should be fairly good to go and can test is by watching your own stream. Just remember that when you actually stream to either pause your own dashboard or mute.
The Black Bar Issue
Some streamers, including myself, have run into a problem with have black bars above and below their game capture. The fix to this is rather simple, but may take a small bit of testing on your own end. Essentially what it boils down to is the base resolution of the game, the resolution setting of your capture, and what OBS actually sees from the game capture. If you have a borderless fullscreen of say 1280x1024 and your OBS is set to that you will get black bars because that particular resolution is not widescreen(the way the game displays itself). Simple put if the in game resolution you are using is either not the same or non-widescreen then you will see these black bars in your output. Now under the same scenario as before with a 1028x720 resolution, the bars will disappear. However if your game is in 1028x720 and your OBS resolution is set to a higher resolution there is a good chance you will still see the black bars. Simply put, all you need to do is find a widescreen resolution and set both your game and your OBS resolution setting to that resolution and they will most likely disappear.
Thank you for reading this, and good luck you new streamer, you.
edit: 5/7/2014 Added a section on the "Black Bar Issue" for game captures. A small credit also goes to CiscoKid_
So aside from the hardware that you would require to stream from an Xbox360 (Isn't it dead there?) or the PS3 you essentially have two good options. Xsplit which has an unlimited free trial, but limits your options unless you pay for a subscription in which case it's godlike. For other poverty streamers out there that need that slight more customization that Xsplit doesn't allow which generally makes your stream stable is OBS or Open Broadcaster Software.
Setting Up OBS
Firstly OBS allows for any number of plugins to be made for it, but I stress that you should wait to use any of these other than the default ones until you have a stable stream set up. Aside from that setting up your data feeds is generally speaking simple enough. To do so you need to right click in the Sources pane to the left of the Scenes pane in the bottom left. You shouldn't really need to worry about setting up any global sources as in most cases it will cause more problems than it's worth. Anyways for Skullgirls specifically the Game Capture option for sources should work fine for capturing the game. Just make sure you have Skullgirls or the Endless Beta open when you attempt to do this. Aside from that, the only other option for video input from sources is to check the box asking if you want to stretch the video input to the screen dimensions.
Technical Bits
So now we get to the more "technical" stuff. Other than twitch.tv's requirements there are some steps you will want to take to have a stable stream. One of the more important things for overall image quality is down scaling your resolution. You can find this by going through Settings>Settings>Video and you will want to mess around with it to find a good middle ground. Aside from this for the moment you need to change something else in settings. Go to Encoding and make sure Use CBR and Enably CBR padding are enabled. Now we get to one of the things I consider to be dumb for how you set it up. Your Max Bitrate and Buffer Size which both have their effectiveness determined by your upload and download throuputs. (I didn't say speed because of how vague it is and throughput just means what you're actually getting.) Most would say to just use speedtest.net however it may not be completely accurate especially with the scale we're looking at. For the sake of simplicity I will as well, but make sure you select a server not in your state or general area to test with as it will give you a more accurate depiction of your throughputs.
From here we do a small amount of math. Speedtest.net measures your speeds in MBs or MegaBytes and OBS uses KBs or KiloBytes. Every MB is 1024 KB and as such we will need to downscale. Furthermore how much data you allocate to your max bitrate directly relates to your buffer size. It will be mostly used for upload, but if you can it's always good to allow the bitrate a little more to work with. Realistically you will want to set your bitrate to at least 1500 and if you can't get that I would advise against trying to set up a stream, but it is beneficial (quite) if you can go above this. At most you would use about 3000. Now before you go, "I have 10mb/s download rate I should set it and the buffer size to 4000 each! My stream won't lag at all then!" you have to realize that the number you have in your head at least needs to be cut in half. This is due to the fact that your buffer size (the delay) needs to be at least equal if not higher than your max bitrate. The reason for this is rather simple as the better your buffer rate compared to your bitrate the smoother the stream will look. I try to set my buffer rate about 500 kb above my max bitrate to give a little more room to have it come out smoothly. If you have a good download throughput I would recommend personally 1750 bitrate and 2000 buffer size.
Audio
On to audio which I don't think should be that tricky. Other than making sure the game source is making noise if you want to include music simple select whatever you use as speakers or headphones. This can be found easily by left clicking the speaker in the bottom left and then clicking mixer. Your mic should be under a familiar enough name, but the process is the same unless it is only a microphone and not a headset. Real quick however it's good to note that quite often audio and visual may desync. I don't know exactly why this is nor have I bothered to try to completely fix it, but be aware that this is normal and nothing to be quite concerned about. Two other things you may want to play around with are the sliders on the main screen for audio output and input on your computer. That is just to make sure one does not absolutely overpower the other.
Visual - Layout
Moving on to stream layout it's rather simple but easy to forget about. The source list works like say photoshop layers or any other layer system for that matter. Whatever is highest on the source list and checked will be on top of all other sources. That being said to move around various source object such as images or text you'll want to click the Preview Stream button in the bottom right then click Edit Scene. From here you just need to select the source you want to move in the source pane and the move it on the display and lick Edit Scene again when you're done. From there you should be fairly good to go and can test is by watching your own stream. Just remember that when you actually stream to either pause your own dashboard or mute.
The Black Bar Issue
Some streamers, including myself, have run into a problem with have black bars above and below their game capture. The fix to this is rather simple, but may take a small bit of testing on your own end. Essentially what it boils down to is the base resolution of the game, the resolution setting of your capture, and what OBS actually sees from the game capture. If you have a borderless fullscreen of say 1280x1024 and your OBS is set to that you will get black bars because that particular resolution is not widescreen(the way the game displays itself). Simple put if the in game resolution you are using is either not the same or non-widescreen then you will see these black bars in your output. Now under the same scenario as before with a 1028x720 resolution, the bars will disappear. However if your game is in 1028x720 and your OBS resolution is set to a higher resolution there is a good chance you will still see the black bars. Simply put, all you need to do is find a widescreen resolution and set both your game and your OBS resolution setting to that resolution and they will most likely disappear.
Thank you for reading this, and good luck you new streamer, you.
edit: 5/7/2014 Added a section on the "Black Bar Issue" for game captures. A small credit also goes to CiscoKid_
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