I have a question for folks on this site who have done game streaming before. How do you do it?

I've toyed around with it myself in the past a bit, but that was on much older PC hardware and with PC games primarily and a teeny bit of PS3. It has been a while, though, so don't remember all that much and my Xsplit sub is over. I know PS4 and Xbox One have easy streaming functionality now but I don't often play on my (modern) consoles.

What do you use to stream and what do you stream? Is it easy once you get it set up? I'm looking for suggestions to get back on the ball with streaming stuff :). Or heck, even recording some footage for upload to YouTube.

Thanks!

Hey Marcus!! I recently started streaming regularly and will be happy to help any way that I can...are you primarily looking to stream PC games?

Also, I highly recommend using OBS over Xsplit, not only because it is free but also because it is SO much more customizable.

I also recommend checking out this video it REALLY helped me out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbbzrRIhTgc&index=3&list=LLzg5UMJ62uoKHTkq5bgkp5g

Yeah, I have seen some of your streams, WhitsEnd! I want to get Mario Maker now :).

I do think my focus is to stream PC games. After all, if I really need to stream console games (aside from Wii U) there is already a built in way to do that. For the most part the PC games won't be super graphically intensive either, due to my focus on indie or retro titles.

In the past I tried OBS (like when Xsplit was new) and it was too confusing for me haha. Hopefully usability from a newbie standpoint has been improved?

Thanks for the link! I will give that a watch. Also thanks for responding!

I was able to get OBS working with a little tinkering, but the guide I followed seemed to be out of date. It seemed to work well, but my internet wasn't fast enough to truly test it :P

I used OBS to capture the Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball session we had a while back.

So you also used OBS, moho. It seems like a real winner and I'm going to mess with it a bit myself tonight.

I tested out streaming tonight. Feel free to check a bit of the recorded video and let me know how the audio and video look/what stuff to improve. My biggest known issue is probably keeping my voice audio higher than game audio at times. Not sure.

https://www.twitch.tv/pixelpacas/v/75165650

Marcus I just checked out your stream. The video and audio quality is PERFECT. It looked and sounded very crisp. My only suggestion would be to maybe turn down the game audio a smidge because sometimes it was hard to hear you over the game audio...or you could turn your mic up a little too I suppose, but either way. That's my only suggestion as everything else was great!! Looking forward to seeing more streams!

And actually after watching Mighty No. 9...I actually kinda want to play it lol. Yes it doesn't look great and I know people are ripping it apart but it still looked fun watching you play it lol.

Thanks WhitsEnd! I am glad that the video and audio quality themselves are up to snuff. I think my mic is at max volume and that it's not super loud in general/I am also kind of quiet XD. In any case, turning down the game volume a tad should be an easy enough fix.

One thing I think I want to invest in is a standalone mic. My headset (that I got recently for the game sessions with you guys) is good but starts hurting to wear after about an hour. I'd rather just use my headphones that don't hurt me, lol. We'll see, though, as that is something to consider maybe only if and when streaming becomes a more regular thing for me.

PS: Mighty No. 9 is totally fine when you get into the "flow" of shooting/dashing. At that point it actually feels pretty fun and similar to - but still different from - Mega Man. There's just a lot of gameplay design stuff that annoys me. Each level always seems to have one problem spot for me, which makes them a chore to redo. Oh well!

Yep, agree with WhitsEnd that your audio is crystal clear, but I'd adjust the balance of your voice recording to stand over the game audio a bit more due to how relatively soft spoken you are to make sure you're being heard. Even a 10-20% relative increase in voice volume would make all the difference.

As for the game itself, I don't think I'll ever go out of my way to pay for that game. Those boss battles look repetitive and terrible. I'd probably play through it if I got it for "free" ie: via a bundle or ps+ or whathaveyou since I generally like mega man games, but this looks so weak to me in comparison.

Thanks dhobo! I will see about getting the audio levels right for the game versus voice so I can be heard clearly throughout. Might take a bit of work but it sounds easy enough!

The boss battles are very simplistic. If I weren't talking and could focus on them purely it would probably be easier to quickly memorize their like three patterns lol.

Hey guys I will be streaming Jackbox Games tonight on YouTube around 7:30pm EST. If you have some time you should come play, it is sure to be a good time and a lot of laughs! Up to 100 players can play and you use your phone and tablet as the controller!

I'll try to tune in for a bit if I can make time tonight. I've been missing a lot of your streams lately due to being caught up in a bunch of stuff :/

So, earlier this week I had intended to use OBS to record some gameplay locally to upload to Youtube. However, I'm not super familiar with the software yet so I accidentally hit STREAM instead. I ended up streaming without realizing it for an hour about, lol. In any case this got me a little less scared of streaming itself and I've started playing more games and recording/streaming them and then sending to Youtube.

I've been inspired by WhitsEnd that it seems the best way to get into this world is simply to be consistent. Getting into streaming/playing regularly is a great lesson!

Moho_00 also inspired me with his gameplay videos that are being uploaded to Completionator's Youtube. Even though he isn't always great at the games, he is willing to show these recordings regardless. As of right now I am modeling my videos after this "unfiltered gameplay" style, though I am trying to actually beat games rather than just demo them for 20 minutes. Only 3 videos up so far but I'm excited to do more in the future. https://www.youtube.com/user/PixelPacas

Haha man, there are times when I almost don't upload those videos because I'm soooo bad at them. But then I think YOLO and hit the upload button. What I don't really tell everyone is in 90% of the cases, I've never played the game before and flip through the instruction manual while the game is loading, so depending on how long the intro is, that's how well versed I am at the controls :P It's fun though.

I had two main reasons for doing it: 1) I get annoyed when I can't find a pure, good quality gameplay video of a game in its original form (i.e. not emulated); 2) I have so many games sitting around that I've never even loaded up the first time, so now I can say I did and have a record of it :P

I certainly enjoy the videos regardless of the skill displayed during the gameplay :P. Many times I perform abysmally at games with or without video pressure but that's just how things are.

Number 2 is one that personally is really alluring to me as well. In the past I created a blog series where I would try games from my collection for the first time and then write up thoughts on them/whether I would continue playing or go onto something else. That fizzled out as I got gigs writing at other places, meaning there are still tons of unplayed titles in my collection.

Pretty sure I asked you this question before but: what hardware are you using to capture your game consoles?

Right now I'm using an Elgato Game Capture HD.

moho_00:

Right now I'm using an Elgato Game Capture HD.

I know it does not list PlayStation 3 on the list, but do you know if it is compatible regardless?

Not sure about that specific Elgato, but my hd 60 pro capture card requires that I use a separate hdmi splitter in order to strip the hdcp "feature" on the ps3 that can't be turned off on the console itself.

What exactly is this "feature"?

@moho_00: You can use this to capture Saturn and Dreamcast stuff? Whenever I see these "HD" capture boxes/cards I immediately think there is no way they can function with older consoles.

Yep, it comes with a component adapter that you can send a composite signal through. At least, I don't recall purchasing anything extra :P

Oh nice! Although now I just found this on the Elgato site... https://help.elgato.com/customer/portal/articles/1020263

So, this is NOT the component adapter, and therefore would be a separate purchase. But the component adapter does allow you to plug a composite cable in.... Therefore, the only bonus of buying this is if I needed S-video? Just trying to work things out, as I would love to have a fully comprehensive solution to grab video from as many of my consoles as possible.

@DOBERMAN_AX it's a copyright thing, prevents people from sending the output signals to unauthorized devices (like capture cards :P)

I see, well darn. I'm looking for an affordable one for the PS3 specifically, but I wouldn't mind one for the older consoles as well. Any recommendations?

If you're intending to record ps3 footage, you're pretty much stuck needing a splitter (one that actually strips HDCP! Not all hdmi splitters do this! Research your options to be as sure as possible before you waste money)

Optionally, you can use a component cable connection instead, which will result in abysmal picture quality/resolution. If a capture device claims it can record ps3 footage, they're referring to doing so via component.

The older Game Capture HD from Elgato can handle a fair number of older consoles, but the tradeoff is that it will only record at 1080p 30fps max unlike some of the newer, more expensive devices out there. I don't know much about other brands to really recommend anything though so hopefully others will chime in.

@Doberman_AX I use an Elgato HD60 and it cannot record footage from the PS3 as well....I was unaware of an option that dhobo had mentioned (HDMI Splitter) but right out of the box there is no option to stream PS3 unfortunately :( I didn't know that when I bought it.