BudgiePanic

Ok, thank you. It's getting late here in New Zealand so I'll continue on with this tomorrow

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So... You want to know how to record high quality gameplay with OBS? or maybe you just stumbled

upon this post because you're an avid forum user. Either way, I hope you learn something from this

Guide, and hopefully I can help people that need a little bit of help.



So, you may be wondering, why somebody would want to record gameplay with a tool that is meant for

live streaming purposes. And the simple explanation for this is that OBS offers a much wider set of

features that many other recording programs such a FRAPS, playclaw, and Dxtory (and all the others)

are just missing. Some of these tools include text over video, PiP (Pincture in Picture) that lets you

put your webcam (and literally any source over the top of the gameplay), and not only these, but OBS

has an extremely wide variety of third-party expansions, so there's an endless amount of tools at your control.

 

"Hey, buddy, why don't you just add all these things in post-production or editing?" - well, Buddy, not everyone

has the time to do that sort of thing, and since people on the internet, mainly in the medium of online video,

are fighting over who can produce lots of videos in a faster time-span, making videos without the need for

post-production or editing means that making videos is more efficient: 100% of the time. And another point

I would like to add is that most of the time YouTubers who post lots of videos don't really have a lot of editing

in their videos. The main things that they use are intros, outros, and sometimes that have edited clips as well,

which are ALL THINGS THAT DON'T HAVE TO BE ADDED IN POST PRODUCTION, but instead can be added live with

the means of OBS... Well, enough of that short rant, I know you didn't come to this guide for that, so.... yeah.



So. The Guide. Here goes nothing.

 

So the fact-of-the-matter is that when you are solely recording gameplay it doesn't use as much processing power as if

you were live streaming as well. for example, you don't need to use a buffer size to process the information, because you

don't need the information to be encoded as much and sent to Twitch's server an the likes (which is what I assume

happens when you are streaming).

 

 

1. Make sure you backup all your current settings that you may have for streaming. One way of doing this is going to:

C:\Users\*YourUsername*\AppData\Roaming\OBS\profiles and then changing your profile name's filetype to something

else. For the example, I added ".backup" to the end. Note: This doesn't save extension settings.

 



The reason for this is so that OBS doesn't automatically use the previous settings.

 

 

2. Open up OBS and you will notice all the settings have reset to default and you have no profile. If you go settings

on the general tab you will notice your old profile is gone, instead you have an "Untitled" Profile. Now you need to

rename this profile to something you'll later identify as the profile you will use for recording gameplay.

 



As you can see, for the example I used "Gameplay". This is memorable, and will help me remember that this is the recording profile.

 

 

3. Time to change some settings BABY! For a start we can change the encoding settings:

 



As you can see, I disabled CBR, put the quality to 10, put the max bitrate to 1000kb/s, and like I mentioned before, I turned on "use

custom buffer size", and set it to 0 kilobits because it disables VBV and allows x264 to change the bitrate itself.

 

 

4. Next up, the Audio settings. You can set this to whatever floats your boat if you have knowledge in this sort of stuff,

or you can copy mine if you like (mine matches most music audio quality)   

 



Pretty simple stuff, but I'm obliged to talk you through it so you understand: AAC has higher quality than MP3 at the same file size,

but has less compatibility, but this DOESN'T MATTER because it will be encoded differently when uploaded to YouTube, etc.

48kHz, because it's obviously faster. 128 - 160 bitrate, doesn't really matter I guess, but obviously higher = better. Aaaannndd last

but not least, stereo... for 2 channel operation... because you have 2 ears. and nobody wants mono. Ever.

 

 

5. N-n-n-n-n-next up is the Broadcast Settings. Not much to change here, just make sure you have the "Mode" set to

File output only. Lastly you will need to set the output destination. I made a new folder in my videos folder.

 



You can also set the file type, with an impressive 2 file extensions to choose from, wow!!! mp4 and flv. The difference

between the two isn't anything impressive, but I'd suggest mp4 because it is easier to edit, plus flv is rumored to have a

1.2% larger file size, which doesn't seem like that much but mp4 = 1GB:1.12GB = flv... so yeah  :blush: 

 



 

To change the file type, just change the "Save as File Type" on the "Save As" Dialogue box.

 

 

6. The video settings are down to you. Base resolution needs to be set as the monitor that you will be recording,

or customize it to the correct size; For me that is 1080p. I wouldn't recommend downscaling the resolution, but

you may need to if you notice any lag below around 30FPS. If you are downscaling you can use a filter if you like,

I recommend Bilinear or Bi-cubic since it doesn't make sense to Lanczos, which would most likely make your PC lag.

FPS can be set to 60fps if you think your PC can handle it, pro-tip: it probably can. and lastly disable Aero if you like   

 



 

 

7. Audio settings. Okay, you can literally use your own settings for this because it's different for every individual,

but I will include my own so that this guide is complete.

 



As you can see, I have set-up hotkeys, and customized the desktop boost, and the other stuff.

 

 

8.  ADVANCED SETTINGS YAY! Warning: These settings are advanced... and to be honest I don't entirely understand them.

 

So in the advanced options tab make sure you enable CFR to enable a constant frame rate. Next you need to check where

it says "Use x264 Encoding Settings", and you need to type the following into the text field.


crf=X
"crf" = Constant Rate Factor in x264, and "x" = A Value for 1-20, representing the quality of the output file. (0 = Lossless)

 

Serious Warning: START BY USING CRF=15-20 TO BEGIN WITH, AS A LOW CRF USES A HECK OF A LOT OF YOUR CPU.

ALSO, DO NOT USE CRF IF YOU ARE GOING TO EDIT, AS IT USES A PROFILE CALLED HIGH 444, WHICH MOST EDITING

SOFTWARES AND EVEN A FEW VIDEO PLAYERS CANNOT HANDLE.

 

To read more about x264 parameters, and High 444, please visit: http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings

 

So your settings should look like this is you kept all the default ones other than the ones I told you to change:

 



 

Now, start testing your recording settings in-game to make sure:

 

1. It doesn't lag too much when playing the game

2. The footage doesn't looks too laggy, and          

3. Make sure the footage is sharp and non-pixely 

 

Once you test it a few times you can start changing the settings based on what is happening.



Common Problem: My Game is lagging too much to play.

 

How to fix: Try lowering the FPS, and see if that helps. If not, try changing the CRF (x264 parameter) and make it higher, or

just try disabling it completely. Now, if that doesn't work it's probably your hardware, so try downscaling the resolution about

and see if that even helps, and also try reducing the Max Bitrate in the Encoding tab by about 100 each test. If all else fails,

try reducing the quality balance. THIS IS A LAST EFFORT and I highly discourage this.

 

Common Problem: The gameplay is fine, but the footage is glitchy or has lag issues

 

How to fix: If the footage is glitchy then you definitely need to disable the Custom x264 Settings. See if this helps (which it should)

If this fails to work then I guess you could try changing the filetype. mp4 to flv, or flv to mp4. see if that helps at all. If that fails to

work then I'm gonna say it's your hardware, so follow the hardware fix for the above problem.

 

Any other common problems please send them my way