Streamers with jobs

Thanks, W00t! That looks pretty unobtrusive. Appreciate it!

Zoso1701 wrote:

So Amazon Prime has me taking more part in Twitch. I've popped in on a few of Wink's Dark Souls sessions, and am enjoying how different Twitch feels without ads.

So, I want to start doing some light streaming. In your opinion, what's the strongest free option for just streaming to twitch gameplay and voice audio?

I use the built-in nVidia software... no muss, no fuss. I only have the 1 monitor, so I don't know if OBS makes multi-monitor stuff easier... no clue.

OBS is the best. Nvidia Shadowplay is alright. That one sometimes captures older games that OBS won't. Overall though, OBS has an amazing set of options, can save multiple profiles, and has all the settings you need to record locally and stream as well. It's just so fantastic.

Let's go dogging! www.twitch.tv/HatchetJob

Just following up. Thank you for the OBS suggestion! I was able to actually do some quick test streams and seems like I've got something working!

Zoso1701 wrote:

Just following up. Thank you for the OBS suggestion! I was able to actually do some quick test streams and seems like I've got something working!

Yay! Let us know if you have any questions! Once you get familiar with OBS you can do all KINDS of sh*t with it.

I'll be the voice of dissent to promote XSplit over OBS as being the better software.

The caveat being that if you want to stream at 1080 without a watermark or do much other customization of your stream layout - XSplit isn't free.

But if streaming is something you get REALLY into, I honestly can't recommend XSplit enough.

*Full Disclosure - I'm on the official XSplit Stream Team for Beam.pro - so I'm pretty biased. Choose the size of your grain of salt accordingly.

I fired up XSplit before OBS. I'm just messing around very casually. OBS definitely let me get to streaming something much quicker.

Zoso1701 wrote:

I fired up XSplit before OBS. I'm just messing around very casually. OBS definitely let me get to streaming something much quicker.

That's fair, so long as you tried it.

If you ever want to explore it again and have questions, let me know.

My problem with Xsplit is justifying the cost when OBS works as well as it does for free.

wolfstar76 wrote:

I'll be the voice of dissent to promote XSplit over OBS as being the better software.

Care to elaborate as to why? I tried both and went with OBS since it seemed to do all the same crap, but was free.

This is interesting, and a bit concerning. This is the county I'm in.

Call of Duty vlogger cited by county for running home business

Veloxi wrote:

Care to elaborate as to why? I tried both and went with OBS since it seemed to do all the same crap, but was free.

I have several reasons, but as with most things your mileage may vary.

1) I had a weird issue on my first streaming PC where XSplit simply out-performed OBS. Even though XSplit is usually said to be more system intensive, I could stream without dropped packets and OBS Studio couldn't. Looking back and knowing now what I didn't know then, I may be able to chalk that up to any number of things. It was 3+ years ago, so maybe OBS didn't encode as well as XSplit. Maybe I had XSplit set to GPU encoding and left OBS on CPU encoding.

I can't go back in time and check all the options - but I've fiddled with OBS now and then in recent months (especially when I want to stream on Beam.Pro's FTL service - where latency between video and chat are less than 250ms (came in super handy for streaming TellTale Batman - my audience was able to play along) and its been fine ).

My current PC build, the current version of OBS, my current knowledge base - they all mean that OBS does the job just fine. However, you never quite get over those first impressions...

2) I simply like the interface better. OBS get the job done, but the methods for manipulating overlay elements just feel ... very Windows 95 to me. That may be a silly reason for many people, but if my software doesn't feel right, I tend to seek options that work/feel better for me.

One example of this is how much "work" it can be to add a webpage URL to your overlay. Get the URL. Add it to your overlay. Stretch it to fit the whole display. But if the resolution doesn't match your stream resolution, scroll bars appear, or things appear stretched. You have to (where available) match your URL's resolution to your stream resolution and make things work. (My basis for this is primarily from working with streamjar.tv ).

With XSplit, I drop in a URL, stretch the layer how I want, and forget it. It auto-detects resolution, and scales things to match whatever your stream resolution is. No muss no fuss.

3) OBS steadfastly refuses to "Auto-Detect" games.

I've set it, fiddled, set it again, reinstalled, fiddled more and at the end of the day - I end up having to install an Overlay layer for each game, or do monitor capture, which doesn't play as nicely with performance because you're not pulling from the DX Buffer that way (or so I'm told). It also means that if I have to be more cognizant of what's behind my game. Did I leave a web browser up with something secure? What if someone send me an IM and it popped up under the game?

Plus, even if I could get that working - it works by auto-detecting what's full-screen. XSplit detects games by reading the DX buffer (from what I can tell). That means if I swap from my game to something else, or if I shut down my game - I'm still in control of what's being seen (e.g. - not my full monitor, not even my desktop, unless I so choose). For a long time I thought I was alone in this, but I've talked to a handful of streamers recently - and several of them confessed this is a battle they have as well.
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There are also some plugins I really like for XSplit (like a built-in keyboard/mouse display so people can see what I'm typing/clicking in a game), but at the end of the day it's about the UI/UX for me. Xsplit just feels more polished - and that polish was worth paying $40/year for.

I've since hopped onto a lifetime membership for $200. I suppose, technically, this means I "have" to stream for five more years to break even - but I don't forsee that being an issue.

NOTE: My experiences are almost entirely based on using XSplit Broadcaster. I haven't really fiddled with XSplit Gamecaster - but I have the impression that GameCaster is sort of the "easier-to-use because it's less configurable" little brother to Broadcaster. A subscription to XSplit unlocks features in both programs.

tanstaafl wrote:

This is interesting, and a bit concerning. This is the county I'm in.

Call of Duty vlogger cited by county for running home business

This the absolute dumbest sh*t.

Thanks for your impressions wolfstar76, biased as they are.

Veloxi wrote:

Thanks for your impressions wolfstar76, biased as they are. ;)

Oh, you.

I know, I'm adorkable.

Thin_J wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:

This is interesting, and a bit concerning. This is the county I'm in.

Call of Duty vlogger cited by county for running home business

This the absolute dumbest sh*t.

I was especially facepalming at (emphasis mine):

There are specific rules for running a business out of your home, which differs from those in a commercial area, to ensure that the residential integrity of neighborhoods are not compromised.

Yeah, all the Internet Traffic (that goes to YouTube, not even your neighborhood) could REALLY screw things up...

So, another total noob question. How do I get Twitch to show what I'm playing? Is that a setting in OBS, or do I do something on the Twitch website as soon as I click "start streaming?" Thanks for the help... internet searches haven't been super clear.

I've done a couple Half-Life 2 broadcasts, formally. I would greatly appreciate some more connections on Twitch. I've tried to follow as many goodjers as I've seen, so will definitely follow you back if I find I missed you. https://www.twitch.tv/zoso1701

Zoso1701 wrote:

So, another total noob question. How do I get Twitch to show what I'm playing? Is that a setting in OBS, or do I do something on the Twitch website as soon as I click "start streaming?" Thanks for the help... internet searches haven't been super clear.

It's on your Twitch Dashboard.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/W5Lhpl4.png)

You can also use something like Nightbot to set the game and stream title with !game and !title commands in your chat, if you use such a bot

Also, is that a typo on the Twitch website? Surely it should *not* read 'Not Playing'

Thanks Hyetal for pointing that simple thing out! Got that sorted this morning.

Omni, bots sound a little above my current level, haha!

Zoso: I'd bet if you looked into it, you'd find it is not above your current level But, all in your own time matey

Bots are a great tool to have and, on the whole, they're made to be extraordinarily user-friendly.

Most of them are as simple as either going to a bot's website, or to the bot's own stream channel and pushing a button (or typing a command) to invite it over to your channel.

From there, there's usually a web interface to learn the basics. What commands already exist - and how to write your own.

As a streamer, it's very nice to have a bot to setup repeating commands to send text to your channel about things like "Here's my schedule," or "Join my discord ," or "Don't be a dick,".

Getting familiar with just that will quickly open up to "Man, I didn't know my bot could do {other things}! That's awesome!" and soon there's nothing but tools to play with.

Back in my Twitch days I used AhnkBot, which was a little more complicated because you had to run that one on your own local computer. Before that Nightbot was pretty slick.

I use ScottyBot now that I'm on Beam, and I think it's the bees knees.

As the only user here (I think?) of XSplit or Beam - this may not sound awesome to anyone else, but it feels worth mentioning in the thread due to my recent drum-beating for XSplit:

https://www.xsplit.com/blog/new-xspl...

Why this is awesome:

One of the big things that Beam.Pro does to try and differentiate itself from other streaming services - is to pride itself on interactivity. A Beam Stream can include interactive buttons that do anything from acting like a sound board that the audience can use - to allowing control of the streamer's video games and more - depending on the imagination of the streamer.

FTL is a new proprietary streaming technology that Beam has been developing that allows the latency between the streamer and their chat to drop to 250ms or less. When you're running an interactive stream (or just talking to your audience) - that sort of nearly real-time interaction is simply AMAZING.

As a proponent of XSplit and Beam both, this feels like a red letter day for me.

I use Beam via Restream, and I do like it, but it doesn't pull in the numbers that Twitch and YouTube do, at least not yet.

Veloxi wrote:

I use Beam via Restream, and I do like it, but it doesn't pull in the numbers that Twitch and YouTube do, at least not yet.

I'm surprised about the YouTube, but not at all about the Twitch.

When I was using Restream, my YouTube numbers were usually nil - but that was only for a month or two after the launch of YouTube Gaming. Perhaps they've ironed out the bugs and found their audience?

Beam is the community I want to be in. I might dabble with other services again down the road, but from where I sit right now that feels unlikely.

It's worth noting that to try FTL you do have to stream to Beam directly (or at least, I'm not aware of any re-streaming services that support FTL. I'm not even sure if they could...)

EDIT: Tossed you a follow on Beam.

Likewise!

If anyone is around late at night, and wants to see FTL on Beam in action - I'm going to be testing the new XSplit Beta tonight, and hope to be running my stream at under 250ms of delay.

That said, I'm looking to finish the second half of Oxenfree tonight - so if that game is on your "no spoilers" list, you may want to skip tonight.

Stream should start up at 10pm Eastern. Link in my signature.

Just a heads up, Communities are coming to Twitch very soon which will be really well suited to collecting all the various goodjers who stream all onto a single page together. In addition to setting the game you're playing, you will be able to configure your stream to be included in the GWJ community and appear in a directory with everyone else flying the goodjer banner on Twitch! That should give us a single place to go to see any goodjers that happen to be live, and it will be a lot easier to maintain than the old teams feature.