Improving recording with shadowplay

arc@css · 1 Feb 2016 at 11:49

uncle_rufus said:
Definitely give it a try with the non-default codec. The default codec produces really big files and performs terribly - something like Lagarith Losselss YUV12 is a lot better - there's also some good multithreading options and stuff you can turn on which help further.

Thanks. I'll check that out and will probably upload another example. I did record the lagarith codec as part of my comparison video a few days ago, though in the end I had so many examples that I felt it was too many (I had 6 for Mirillis alone). In the end I decided to restart afresh.

uncle_rufus said:
Be aware too that especially for the "big file size" cases you hard-drive will make a big difference to performance (if it can't write fast enough to the drive you end up with choppy performance, or video, or both) - the formats which write compressed like ShadowPlay don't have as much of a problem with the disk

I'm using an ssd.

I think it's a hard game to get looking near perfect; I recently watched Gopher's Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl playthroughs, and even though they are relatively recent works (CS in particular), there are quite similar in appearance to mine re : blocky artifacts. Having said that, it seems to be quite improved (in particular the DSR videos).

When going about the editing process, I find that adding in too much brightness tends to make it a bit worse. It seems to highlight it more.

SuperG · 1 Feb 2016 at 17:26

Are their instances of people using two microphones, one headset (for TS communication), and one microphone (such as Blue Snowball for better quality voice recording) and then using the microphone recording to overlay the TS audio?

arc@css · 1 Feb 2016 at 20:56

SuperG said:
Are their instances of people using two microphones, one headset (for TS communication), and one microphone (such as Blue Snowball for better quality voice recording) and then using the microphone recording to overlay the TS audio?

Sorry, I've never tried doing audio / commentary before.

uncle_rufus · 1 Feb 2016 at 20:56

arc@css said:
Having said that, it seems to be quite improved (in particular the DSR videos).

When going about the editing process, I find that adding in too much brightness tends to make it a bit worse. It seems to highlight it more.

I wonder if maybe upping the contrast would help? The blockiness maybe seems to be worse in areas of poor contrast (i.e. lots of muddy greens and browns and greys in shadow)

SuperG said:
Are their instances of people using two microphones, one headset (for TS communication), and one microphone (such as Blue Snowball for better quality voice recording) and then using the microphone recording to overlay the TS audio?

It's certainly something you could do if you wanted to... personally I just use my snowball for TS as well as recording.

I think the key to recording TS though is to get a virtual audio cable type program (VAC - virtual audio cable isn't free but there are some free alternatives)... it will allow you to separate the game sound and your friend's voices on TS (which at times will be very important - to make sure they can be heard okay or even to temporarily silence the track, say if they say something super racist or whatever)

arc@css · 1 Feb 2016 at 21:16

uncle_rufus said:
I wonder if maybe upping the contrast would help? The blockiness maybe seems to be worse in areas of poor contrast (i.e. lots of muddy greens and browns and greys in shadow)

I'll pop the latest video (Dxtory + Lagarith) (below) into Premiere Pro & adjust it, then post it and make a comparison. Even without the change in brightness, I'm liking what I see compared to some of the earlier efforts. The Lagarith combo you suggested has so far doubled fps.

No edit / contrasts untouched :

Brightness increased (different recording but doesn't matter much) :

Dxtory settings :

Brightness comparison pre-render (1.3 vs 1.0) :

arc@css · 1 Feb 2016 at 21:49

DEL 707 said:
The colour in the vid, seems more paler then it did in game, is there anyway to correct that?

I'm not sure if I answered this bit, DEL, so I thought I'd chime in. I alter mine with the editing program I use, however you can change it in the YouTube editor if you don't use an editior like Vegas / Premiere Pro or whatever.

Sorry for taking your thread slightly off topic (other recording methods aside from ShadowPlay).

uncle_rufus · 2 Feb 2016 at 07:23

Do we need to start a general "Recording/Streaming tips & tricks" type thread?

Klunt Bumskrint · 2 Feb 2016 at 07:30

Anyone know why I record at 1440 but when I upload to Youtube it's max res is always 1080, yet if I upload a 4K video from my phone it plays at 4k

Raumarik · 2 Feb 2016 at 12:10

arc@css I've recently moved to DXTory due to how well it works with multiple audio channels and the insane level of control you have over the codecs etc. Finding almost no performance loss when recording, it dumps it to a relatively large file on my mechanical HDD (around 70Gb/hour at 1080P/60fps) and I've got individual channels for game sound, teamspeak and my mic configured.

Still tweaking the codec settings but the fact that I get so much control over them is fantastic, such a big step up from Mirillis and Shadowplay. I used Mirillis for about a year and found it inconsistent, I'd be reinstalling it regularly and having problems with importing MP4s into Sony Vegas, support was never brilliant. Shadowplay was far less hassle but recently I've felt the "nvidia game experience" program was getting bloated beyond belief so I'm happy to have removed it.

arc@css · 2 Feb 2016 at 12:13

uncle_rufus said:
Do we need to start a general "Recording/Streaming tips & tricks" type thread?

I've asked the Dons.

@ Halfmad : I don't suppose you'd mind sharing your settings? Or check out mine above?

Raumarik · 2 Feb 2016 at 12:42

Yeah I've got lagorith installed so might give them a try tonight bud. Must admit I've mostly been messing with the h268 codec although with mixed success, it's either OK or bloody awful

uncle_rufus · 2 Feb 2016 at 13:50

arc@css said:
I've asked the Dons.

@ Halfmad : I don't suppose you'd mind sharing your settings? Or check out mine above?

Cool...

I forgot to say those settings you have above look almost exactly like how I have it setup

I bought a 2TB Seagate Barracuda to record onto as it seemed a good choice as a mechanical drive with decent enough speed and the performance is fine for me - barely detectable in game

Raumarik · 2 Feb 2016 at 13:58

I was pleasantly surprised by using an old 1TB drive I had to be honest, I've got AIDA/Goverlay working with my little external USB LCD screen so I can monitor it's write speed but using the h268 codec it only seems to need about 40Mb/s to write at 1080p/60fps.

I'll give those settings a blast later and see how I get on!

arc@css · 2 Feb 2016 at 14:39

H268? Don't you mean H264?

Raumarik · 2 Feb 2016 at 14:40

That'll be it, doing it from memory and I'm over 40 now

arc@css · 2 Feb 2016 at 14:58

Halfmad said:
That'll be it, doing it from memory and I'm over 40 now

Ahh, I thought so. I didn't comment the first time I saw you mention it, but after the second I thought I'd better ask just in case there's something better out there that I don't know about!

Admiral Huddy · 3 Feb 2016 at 10:08

uncle_rufus said:
Do we need to start a general "Recording/Streaming tips & tricks" type thread?

Sound like a good idea. Put something together and maybe we'll get it stickied

Raumarik · 3 Feb 2016 at 10:28

SuperG said:
Are their instances of people using two microphones, one headset (for TS communication), and one microphone (such as Blue Snowball for better quality voice recording) and then using the microphone recording to overlay the TS audio?

You've got a few choices to do this

1. (as suggested by Uncle Rufus) Shadowplay set to key press for recording mic, rather than always on.

I found this a bit clunky as I typically play games using joystick/throttle etc so I wanted a lazy solution.

2. Free utils plus game capture that supports mutli channel input e.g DXtory:

I use the following to do this.
Virtual cable (free)
Voicemeeter (free)
Dxtory (paid - you might get OBS working with this)

With Virtual cable installed I can then use voicemeeter to keep my mic, TS and game sound in different stereo channels and DXtory records all three individually allowing me to edit, balance etc later on.

This is the only reliable method I've found of doing it so far.

3. Run cables using a second sound card (or onboard + dedicated sound card). It's just a case of looping things. I did try this but found I got a lot of interference due to not having mixers etc. Unless you have the gear I wouldn't waste my time.

4. Record using Shadowplay and capture your mic independently using Audacity. Then sync them. This is a very simply solution but feels fiddly when doing it and you have to remember to kick off both programs. It's possibly you could use virtual cables to separate TS from the game too - although I never figured that part out as I opted for (2) instead.

Out of those if you see yourself doing it regularly and don't want hassle I can't really recommend anything other than (2) as I find it a piece of cake to do now it's configured.

sunlitsix · 3 Feb 2016 at 11:15

I don't see much of an issue with the quality using Shadowplay, for example :

1440p 60fps 60Mbps bitrate, if needs be you can go all the way upto 130Mbps on certain cards.

After editing in Sony Movie Studio Platinum I render out at a similar bitrate, it makes uploading a pain due to bigger file size but that's the cost for IQ.

Klunt Bumskrint · 3 Feb 2016 at 11:21

sunlitsix said:
I don't see much of an issue with the quality using Shadowplay, for example :

1440p 60fps 60Mbps bitrate, if needs be you can go all the way upto 130Mbps on certain cards.

After editing in Sony Movie Studio Platinum I render out at a similar bitrate, it makes uploading a pain due to bigger file size but that's the cost for IQ.

But why is it only 1080p, is the issue I have.