What software do you use for Twitch game streaming?

Cromulent · 6 Sep 2015 at 23:48

I'm thinking about trying to do a game stream (just to see how well it works really and whether anyone is interested in watching it) and was wondering what software you guys used to broadcast the game?

The Twitch website seems to recommend Xsplit Broadcaster which looks OK and has a nice free option but it looks a little complex for my needs. All I really need is to be able to stream my game at 1080p at 30fps with audio recorded from the game and my headset and maybe a video of me in the corner from my cheap webcam.

Are there any other software recommendations or should I just stick with Xsplit Broadcaster?

Cromulent · 7 Sep 2015 at 00:10

Fanatic said:
I use OBS - Open Broadcaster Software.

Streaming to Twitch your maximum bitrate is 3500kb/s unless you are a partner. And even at 3500 I think viewers are likely to get loading/freezing during watching your stream.

720P@30FPS@3000kb/s is what I use.

Depends on the game of course. An RTS where lots of the screen doesn't change would be fine at 1080P with lower bitrates. Fast paced twitchy FPS games would need more bitrate.

You could try streaming to the new YouTube service. Can use higher bitrates and your stream is transcoded into many quality levels. Only partner channels on Twitch get that.

Awesome. Thanks for the tips.

I'm actually planning on only streaming RTS games (I've pretty much ditched the PC for gaming apart from strategy games which don't really work on consoles) so I might be able to get away with the lower bit rate settings as you suggest. I didn't realise Twitch placed so many constraints on your streaming, that kinda sucks.

I did consider YouTube Gaming but thought I'd go with Twitch instead. If as you say YouTube Gaming is much better than Twitch then I might change my mind. I have quite a fast upload rate on my internet connection (10Mbps) so should be able to stream at reasonable quality.

I'm doing this as an experiment to see how well it works. If it works out well I might do it more often.

Cromulent · 7 Sep 2015 at 18:05

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I'll try both OBS and Xsplit and see which one is best. Unfortunately I don't think Nvidia Shadowplay is an option for me (even though it sounds like exactly what I want) since I have AMD GPUs. I guess Shadowplay requires an Nvidia GPU. Oh well maybe when I upgrade my computer.

I think I'll have to stick to Twitch for the time being since it is the most popular game streaming service and everyone know what its about.

I guess if I do start doing this I'll have to upgrade my headset and web cam to something reasonable. At the moment I spent £20 on the headset and £15 on the web cam so they are all pretty cheap.

I'm quite looking forward to this actually. I've wanted to stream strategy games for ages but haven't had the chance to get round to it until now.

Cromulent · 7 Sep 2015 at 20:10

Spuddy said:
what sort of budget do you have in mind for a new microphone?

I wouldn't buy a separate microphone, I'd look for a new headset. But at a guess (and I haven't really worked out my finance yet) it'd be less than £100. It would have to be USB so I could use it on the PS4 as well.

Of course this depends on whether I can get some listeners to join when I'm getting everything set up. If no one joins I won't really bother with spending any more money.

Cromulent · 7 Sep 2015 at 22:43

GoogalyMoogaly said:
There's a fork of OBS that supports AMD's VCE which should help performance. XSplit has both AMD and Nvidia support built in.

Ah, cool. Useful information. Thanks.

Cromulent · 8 Sep 2015 at 01:37

Twirlywoos said:
Shadowplay

I'll watch your stream but depends on 2 things

1) what games you play?
2) are you from Newcastle?

Haha.

1) Strategy games like Empire: Total War, Shogun 2: Total War, Rome: Total War (the original one), Hearts of Iron 3 and Supreme Commander probably to start off with. Maybe a few RPGs if the fancy takes me.

2) No I'm from the South East

.

Cromulent · 9 Sep 2015 at 02:25

Cool. Thanks for all the information.

Looks like I'll be using OBS then. I'll play around with streaming rates. As I said earlier I'll be playing RTS / grand strategy games so FPS isn't really as important. I guess I can do some testing and see what works best for me. I can certainly handle upload rates of 3,500 so I should be able to get really good quality out of it.

Cromulent · 9 Sep 2015 at 03:25

Boycey0211 said:
cannot comprehend any enjoyment someone would get out of watching someone play a turn based strategy game.

Would be the equivalent of watching someone play minesweeper live, but thats faster paced. I'd rather just play the game.

You'd be surprised. Anyway the games I'm playing aren't strictly turn based.

Cromulent · 10 Sep 2015 at 04:56

GBRusty said:
For me anythng I bother to watch must have commentary so i can understand the thought processes behind any decision.

Doing that is certainly my plan. Playing grand strategy games means there is an awful lot of thought that goes into each game and I'd like to get that across to my audience.