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Crafting

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  1. Informative
    Crafting reacted to Alex Atkin UK in Which router is better? Linksys EA7500 VS TP-Link Archer C9   
    https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32604-tp-link-archer-c9-reviewed?showall=&start=2
     
    https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32957-linksys-ea7500-max-stream-ac1900-mu-mimo-gigabit-router-reviewed?showall=&start=2
  2. Informative
    Crafting reacted to LukeSavenije in Which router is better? Linksys EA7500 VS TP-Link Archer C9   
    if you have something that could use mu-mimo (the new AC and AC wave 2), go for the linksys. otherwise there isn't a difference for you
     
  3. Agree
    Crafting reacted to Splodge1231 in Windows install stuck on logo   
    Great. Hope I helped
  4. Informative
    Crafting reacted to Splodge1231 in Windows install stuck on logo   
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10, just remember when it's finished to go into your BIOS and set boot to the drive you installed windows on or it will keep booting the installation media
  5. Agree
    Crafting reacted to aeroencychris in What games do you use a controller for?   
    Rocket League or emulators
  6. Agree
    Crafting reacted to EunSoo in What games do you use a controller for?   
    GTA but only when driving
  7. Agree
    Crafting got a reaction from Doramius in Program that shows what is taking up space on a storage device?   
    WinDirStat does a fine job of this, it shows an image, where files are their relative size according to all data, so you can see which big files, where they are and what they are, that uses up your precious data.
    I use it often, and I recommend it, it is very useful.
    It can be downloaded here: https://windirstat.net/
     
    -Crafting
  8. Like
    Crafting got a reaction from Matias_Chambers in Program that shows what is taking up space on a storage device?   
    WinDirStat does a fine job of this, it shows an image, where files are their relative size according to all data, so you can see which big files, where they are and what they are, that uses up your precious data.
    I use it often, and I recommend it, it is very useful.
    It can be downloaded here: https://windirstat.net/
     
    -Crafting
  9. Funny
    Crafting reacted to Zangashtu in Mixed gamer group, what to ask each them, so they could know each other better?   
    If you could change the colour of ANYTHING in the world what would it be? (Purple grass, Brown clouds etc)
     
    Would you rather fight a giraffe or a kangaroo?

    You have the chance to redesign a PC part/console/ what would you change?

    Chicken Bake or Steak Bake? (personal favorite)
     
    If any pet was acceptable to keep and readily, easily available, what would you have?

    Whats the correct way to spell Sean? SHOWOON or SEE-AN? (Shaun or Sean)

    Best part about a Sunday Dinner?

    Imagine someone you really hate, what would be more satisfying? Smacking them in the face and sending them flying DBZ style or drop kicking them off the edge of a cliff?
  10. Funny
    Crafting reacted to Starelementpoke in Mixed gamer group, what to ask each them, so they could know each other better?   
    Go with the classic. If you could have one super power, what would it be.
  11. Funny
    Crafting reacted to Zangashtu in Mixed gamer group, what to ask each them, so they could know each other better?   
    Thanks


    Exactly!
    Have you ever eaten yourself to sickness

    If you could only take one food to a deserted island what would it be

    If you were a valiant heroic knight what animal would you ride into battle?

    Have you ever accidentally punched someone?

    Someimtes the stupidest questions get the best conversations
  12. Agree
    Crafting got a reaction from DisconnectedYT in Should I Wait For Zen?   
    Well, nothing has been checked completely by "reviewers" and such. But the benchmark that they showed off almost half a year ago, really shows, that the AMD "Zen" can beat an I7-6900K at the same GHz. Which just shows, that AMD is "up there" and not joking around those "40%" IPC increase. This is serious. With the recent delidding of the Zen CPU with great conduction, vs the Intel "TIM" which is evidently worse, it shows even more, that AMD cares about temperature, and not just having an "ok" product, maybe this is because of the still hotter chips, but they are not cheaping out on their products.
    I see an interesting future, with Intel firing and not expanding, and AMD finally looking good, I'm looking out to a great year for future consumer products!
     
    -Crafting
  13. Informative
    Crafting reacted to minibois in Which HyperX headset to get?   
    They are all just slightly different.
    Cloud II is the main headset in the lineup and is quite solid. It has a detachable microphone too and you can set the headband to different heights.
    The Stinger is more budget-minded with a non removable microphone and overall more plastic build.
    The Revolver is inbetween, with a headband that fits your head by itself (like for example the steelseries siberia) 
  14. Agree
    Crafting reacted to Visordo in Installed new GPU, now monitor won't show anything   
    Some interesting reading about the topic. I cannot confirm nor the deny the findings, because I have not personally tested myself. But it looks a lot like your scenario.
     
    http://www.overclock.net/a/the-final-answer-to-the-controversial-pcie-x16-version-compatibility
     
    They recommend a Motherboard update if there are any for your specific Motherboard.
  15. Agree
    Crafting reacted to Energycore in Installed new GPU, now monitor won't show anything   
    Ah, hmm. Maybe that's what that is? Only way to find out is to contact the manufacturer.
  16. Informative
    Crafting reacted to Visordo in Installed new GPU, now monitor won't show anything   
    It could be. I have read from time to time that this is an Issue. Aparently Nvidia cards do not have this problem. I don't know if newer AMD cards have fixed this. I had and old system I wanted to put a Video Card on and I decided at the end for an Nvidia card because I read that I could run on compatibility issues.
  17. Informative
    Crafting reacted to Visordo in Installed new GPU, now monitor won't show anything   
    PCI express version on the Motherboard? I know that some AMD cards PCIe 3.0 are not fully backwards compatible with older version of standard.
  18. Informative
    Crafting reacted to arvark in Huawei P9 Lite vs P8 vs LG G4   
    IMO:
    1: LG G4
    2: P9 Lite
    3: P8.
  19. Like
    Crafting reacted to arvark in Huawei P9 Lite vs P8 vs LG G4   
    First of all, because of the fingerprint sensor (not sure if the P9 Lite has it), but also personal preference, and I'd say no, not worth 30$ more, they're more or less the same, so it's your choice between those two  (not convinced by the P8, doesn't even have finger print sensor)
  20. Informative
    Crafting reacted to WereCat in Huawei P9 Lite vs P8 vs LG G4   
    From my experience I would go with the Huawei P9 Lite. I have Huawei Mate 8 and their Kirin CPU is really fast and efficient and the phone doesent get hot at all. Everything is snappy and responsive and I think their EMUI skin on Android os one of the most fleshed out version of Android out there. There is barely any bloatware if any... and it can be uninstalled 90% of the time.
  21. Agree
    Crafting got a reaction from arvark in Huawei P9 Lite vs P8 vs LG G4   
    The P9 has fingerprint sensor, well, might settle for P9 Lite, it's also on sale at the company giving me signal now anyway, so it's actually much cheaper than the others. Well, probably the conclusion then, thanks alot guys!
     
    -Crafting
  22. Like
    Crafting reacted to swordsman247 in Wrong driver for Webcam (help)   
    Well, I'm out of ideas. maybe someone else will jump on and be able to help you, good luck.
  23. Informative
    Crafting reacted to MrTomnus in Ultimate guide to recording your gameplay   
    I thought it would be nice to have a guide detailing all the possible ways to record your gameplay as a nice reference in case anybody was looking for the best way for them to record. This guide will cover most of the FREE programs available to use that can capture your gameplay. Some are easier than others, and some have greater benefits than others. I'll talk about them here.
     
    WHY RECORD GAMEPLAY?
     
    This will be obvious to a lot of people - some need to record their gameplay as they have a games channel on YouTube that they need to submit content to in order to provide videos for their subscribers. Other people don't exclusively makes gaming videos but like to have an archive of footage from various games, which brings me to the next point. I bet there's been one moment in a game that you wish you'd recorded. Say you're lucky enough to snipe the pilot out of a helicopter in a game of conquest? Or you got an amazingly high score playing Super Hexagon that you wish you could show your friends? Or maybe you did an awesome takedown in Watch_Dogs? Some people even like to record to see how they play and try to improve on themselves next time.
     
    So with the reasons out of the way, I'll try to help you get set up with the right program for your needs.
     
    CAPTURE SOFTWARE
     
    There is a lot of variety in this category, so I'll explain the pros and cons of each application. Remember, all of these programs are free.
     
    MSI Afterburner Lets you see framerate while recording Also functions as one of the most popular graphics overclocking tools Can capture external audio (microphones) Cannot capture external video form webcams etc. Open Broadcaster (OBS) Allows video streaming as well as local recording Various capture methods to choose from Has very intricate control over bitrate, framerate and codecs Can capture microphone and camera input with gameplay simultaneously Much more flexible than other capture programs nVidia Shadowplay Runs with negligible performance hit on nVidia graphics cards Allows minor control of bitrate Allows, at most, the last 30 minutes of gameplay to be captured in the background, to be saved for later in case something cool happens when you're not recording Not as accurate control over quality as OBS Smaller file sizes compared to OBS AMD Game DVR Has similar performance to Shadowplay, but for AMD cards Allows control of both framerate and bitrate Capable of streaming video to twitch.tv Has a DVR feature similar to Sadowplay, to save replays of awesome moments during your gameplay Cannot capture all games currently In beta (at time of writing) Other programs that are not free which have screen capture functionality include Camtasia, Bandicam, Fraps and Xsplit. These will not be covered in this guide as they are paid software (or they have limited recording functionality unless registered/activated), and the software listed here is free for everyone to fully access which makes it more likely for people to use them.
     
    BITRATE
    Some people will already know what a bitrate is, but I'll explain the term and what it means for game capture. This can help you to decide which software is best for you, as some programs allow finer control over bitrate than others.
     
    The bitrate is the amount of video and audio information that is captured from the game in each second. Bitrate, funnily enough, is commonly measured in bits per second. You'll often see it as Kb/s (kilobits per second) and Mb/s (megabits per second). The higher the bitrate of a video, the more information it contains and the higher quality it will be. But like most things, it's not all that simple. Two videos with the same bitrate might not be of the same quality.
     
    I want to record a video at 720p, 30 frames a second at a bitrate of 30,000kb/s. To most, this video will look perfectly acceptable, and it really does. However, if I record exactly the same video, but at 1080p, 30fps at 30,000kb/s, there's a strong chance that when viewed side by side a person will say that the video at 1080p looks worse. This is because of the resolution to bitrate ratio. A 720p image contains around 900000 pixels. With our 30,000kb/s bitrate that's 1/30kb of information per pixel. However a 1080p image has 2,000,000 pixels, more than twice as many pixels as a 720p image. Therefore the amount of information per pixel in that 1080p image is halved when recording at the same bitrate. What this leads to is what's called artifacting, where the lack of information in the video causes blocky colours to appear in the video, making it appear fuzzy. With static video, it isn't too noticeable - but put a moving subject in and it becomes immediately obvious.
     
    In order to avoid this problem and give these two videos the same arbitrary quality, we would need to double the bitrate of the 1080p video to 60,000kbps.
     
    The same thing is true when looking at framerates. If I have recorded a 1080p video at 30 fps with a bitrate of 40,000kb/s, then record another identical video, but at 1080p, 60fps at 40,000kb/s, despite the fluid motion of the 60fps video, the quality of the image will be worse. This is because the framerate of the video has been doubled, but the bitrate has stayed the same. Because both of these properties of the video are reliant on time they affect each other (hence the word rate in their names). Because the framerate of the second video is twice the framerate of the first, the amount of information each frame receives is halved. So to alleviate this problem and get the same arbitrary quality from both videos, the bitrate of the 60fps video needs to be doubled to 80,000kb/s.
     
    WHICH BITRATE IS BEST FOR RECORDING?
    This question is subjective and lots of people have different opinions. It's dependent on what you need from your video. Do you want the best quality possible? Or would you prefer to have videos with a very small file size? With a high bitrate, the quality of a video is better, but the file size gets larger as more data needs to be written.
     
    When I record, I like to have great quality videos, so I stick to 1080p, 30fps at 40,000kb/s. When played back locally on your PC, it looks great, and with a 1TB HDD it takes a lot of video to fill it up. Half the bitrate, though, and you half the file size, which is convenient for small storage needs. 20,000kb/s at 1080p 30fps is just about okay enough for videos with a lot of motion (FPS games, for example). If you really want your videos to look amazing, you can try recording at 80,000kb/s at 1080p, 60fps. But bear in mind some storage media will find it difficult to keep up with bitrates close to 100,000kb/s, which will manifest itself as frame drops either in game or in your recording.
     
    Unforturnately, with YouTube, videos are compressed heavily. This means you won't see the same quality in your videos as when viewed locally. Therefore, beyond a certain bitrate it is impossible to tell the difference between two videos. I'd recommend a maximum bitrate of about 25-30,000kb/s for recording to YouTube. Larger channels get their videos prioritised in that their videos can be streamed at higher bitrates. But you basically need to be as internet famous as PewDiePie or TotalBiscuit to get that privilege. 
     
     
     
    MSI AFTERBURNER
     
    Using Afterburner is quite simple. During the install process you need to select both Afterburner and the Server Statistics Tool and you'll be all set! When you launch Afterburner, you'll see this window appear:
     

     
    Click the settings button in the bottom right corner of the overclocking panel, and click the video capture tab.
     

     
    Make sure you set a global hotkey to start and stop recording so you can easily do this in game. Try to pick a key that isn't used by most games. I usually use the cluster of keys above the arrows on a tenkey keyboard (home, pg up, pg down etc.). Leave the video format at MJPG and the container as AVI. You can turn the quality up to 100% if you like but remember that this will use more disk space.
     
    Set the frame size to full frame to record at your monitor's native resolution, or you can select another from the dropdown. However, recording at a non native resolution may cause problems. You can change the framerate to whatever suits you best - if you're uploading to YouTube you can leave it at 30fps, but if you want smooth video to watch natively, set it to 60fps. This may take a performance hit though.
     
    Next, choose a location to store your videos. If you have an HDD I recommend storing videos there, rather than an SSD. In Audio capture properties, select the first source as your system audio, and if you have a microphone, set the second source as your microphone. To access them you may need to select DirectSound capture device.
     
    That's it: you're ready to record! Just jump in game and hit your hotkey and you can start recording with MSI afterburner!
     
    OPEN BROADCASTER
     
    This is, at the moment, my favourite software for recording gameplay, as it's so versatile. OBS is an open source application, meaning you can download plugins that other people have created which gives the program added functionality. We won't be using any of these, however. I'll keep it simple for now!
     
    Download Open Broadcaster from https://obsproject.com/ . Install and run it, and this window will appear:
     

     
    To configure OBS for recording, we need to access the settings menu. In the General tab, create a profile and name it "Recording".
     
    In the Encoding tab, choose your video encoder. I use QuickSync as it gives a minimal performance hit while recording, but x264 is okay as well. To enable QuickSync encoding you need to have an Intel CPU with integrated HD graphics, and have enabled the iGPU in your BIOS settings. Change your bitrate to something that suits you. Remember that the larger the bitrate, the better the quality but the larger the file size will be. Leave the audio encoding as it is.
     
    Set your output mode as "File Output Only" and choose where to save your recordings. Make sure to also set recording hotkeys to easily control your playback.
     
    In Video Settings, make sure your GPU is selected as the video adapter and select the resolution you would like to record at. If you have mulitple monitors, make sure the correct monitor is selected. You can also choose your framerate in this menu as well.
     
    Select the audio devices to record from in the Audio tab, and set hotkeys for mute if you like.
     
    You can leave most of the advanced settings, however if you notice after recording that audio isn't in sync with your video, then you should change the global audio sync offset. It might take a few tries to find the right timing.
     
    Now we're halfway there. To set up what to record, return to the main OBS interface. In the scenes menu, right click and select "Add Scene". Name it whatever you like, but I call mine "Games". Click the new scene, and, in the sources menu, right click and select "Add" then "Game Capture". Name it according to the game you'd like to capture.
     

     
    The following window appears. You'll need to have the game running in order to select it. Click the refresh button and find your game in the dropdown menu. It's now ready to record your game! In order for it to record the application, you must have its source box checked and the scene it belongs in must also be selected, like this:
     

     
    Click "Preview Stream" to check if it's working correctly (remember, the app still needs to be running). Test audio levels by talking into your microphone, and when you're ready, stop the preview, then start recording.
     
    You can also record footage from a webcam and overlay it simultaneously while recording. This allows you to record a single video in one go, without having to process the videos together in editing afterwards.
     
    To do this, first ensure the drivers for your device are installed. Go to the scene where your game sources are found, right click and add a video capture device. Select the device that will capture video (in my case, a webcam). There are lots of things to play around with in this menu, so experiment. You can change the size of the video that is captured, and even use a chroma key to "green screen" yourself. If you have an external mic that you'd rather use, remember to disable the webcam's audio.
     
    Once you've changed settings, you can move the webcam capture around the screen to your liking. To do this either right click the video capture device, select position, and move it around the screen until you're happy with it, or use the "Edit Scene" button and select the source to edit. You can move it around the scene and resize it. This is how I set mine up:
     

     
    You can also add other things such as pictures and text to the scene, which is what most streamers do to include links, donation and subscriber info.
     
    This was a video I recorded using OBS at 1080p at a bitrate of 20,000kb/s (obviously YouTube's compression makes the video look a little worse, but the performance is what's great about it)!
     

     
    STREAMING WITH OBS
     
    Since this is one of the most popular applications for streaming to sites such as Twitch.tv, I thought it would also be sensible to include a guide on setting up OBS for use with streaming. First things first, you will need a Twitch account. Now the majority of the work happens in OBS, but we'll need to keep the Twitch site open as we'll be coming back to it.
     
    In OBS, click Settings, and in the General tab, create a new profile called "Streaming" or whatever you like. This allows you to switch from the recording preset you made earlier to the streaming one.
     

     
    Now, when streaming, the encoding settings need to be slightly different. Because you will be using your router and internet connection to upload your real time gameplay to Twitch's servers, the quality you are able to upload at is dependent on how good your upload speed is. It's a good idea to go to www.speedtest.net first to see what your upload speed is like. In the max bitrate box, set your bitrate to a feww hundred kb/s lower than your upload speed, and set your buffer to your upload speed. That way if the stream happens to output with more quality than you ask, it won't go over your upload speed, which can cause what's known as "dropped frames".
     

     
    The next tab contains settings we didn't visit before, since we weren't streaming. This holds the most important settings for your stream.
     

     
    Make sure you change your mode to "Live Stream" at the top to access these settings. First of all, choose the site you are streaming to. In this case, it's Twitch.tv/Justin.tv. Then, pick a server that is closest to you. This will allow you to get the smallest stream delay and best upload possible. The next part is the important bit - your stream key. OBS uses this to identify your account and make sure the stream goes to the correct account, and not somebody else's! To find your stream key, go back to Twitch. On the main page, click your username, then click Dashboard. It takes you to this page:
     

     
    When you are streaming, this page is where you will be able to change the things that allow people to find your stream. We'll come back to this Overview page later. For now, we just want the stream key. Go to the Stream Key tab. A quick note - you should NEVER access this page while people can see it when you are streaming. This key allows them to access your stream, so be careful! Click the "Show Key" button, then copy and paste it into the corresponding box in OBS.
     
    Next, if you like, set your hotkeys for streaming. At the bottom of this page, OBS will tell you if your settings are optimised for streaming. There are some things that you might want to ignore depending on the settings you've chosen, but one message that should be there is your keyframe interval. OBS recommends you have at least 2 keyframe intervals. If you don't know what a keyframe is, Taran did a great video about it in a Fast As Possible episode, which also explains things about bitrate too:
     

     
    Now that's done, you'll want to go into video tab again. The bitrate you can stream at will determine the settings you want to include in here. For anything around 1000-2000kb/s, you will want to downscale your stream to about 720p at 30fps. If you're lucky and have a higher bitrate, you can stream at 720p 60fps, or even 1080p. You'll have to play around and see what works best for you.
     
    Now that's done, you are ready to stream! On the Twitch dashboard overview, enter a title for your stream and a game you will be playing, so people who want to watch the game you're playing can find it. Select the sources you want to include, then simply press the start stream button in OBS and that's it! Keep an eye on the metrics at the bottom of the window and see if you get a lot of dropped frames. If that's the case, stop streaming and turn the bitrate of the stream down a bit, along with the buffer, and try again. Alternatively this could be due to your CPU not being able to handle streaming at 60fps if you've chosen that.
     
    AMD GAME DVR
     
    As the application's name suggests, this program is available only to people with AMD graphics cards in their systems. It allows recording of gameplay with a minimal performance hit by utilising the GPU's integrated H264 encoder. This program will work with any Hawaii based GPU which includes the latest R7 and R9 series of grpahics cards. If in doubt, check AMD's website.
     
    When installing the graphics drivers for your AMD GPU, you will have the option to install the Gaming Evolved application. Make sure you select this in order to download the Game DVR software. Alternatively, you can download the software here: http://www.amd.com/en-us/markets/game/downloads/raptr
     
    On opening the application, you'll see this window:
     

     
    My application says that drivers are not detected because I am currently running beta drivers (catalyst 14.7). This actually has also given me some problems with trying to record with Game DVR, causing games to crash sometimes, which didn't happen with my previous driver version. As stated earlier, Game DVR is in beta, so this behaviour can be expected.
     
    Anyway, to enable Game DVR, simply click the "OFF" button in the Game DVR section to enable in game recording. To configure recording settings, click the settings icon in the lower right of the Game DVR window, and you'l see this screen:
     

     
    Here, you can set the amount of time in the past the software will capture for an instant replay so you don;t miss an awesome moment, you can configure the bitrate (up to a maximum of 50,000kb/s) and choose your framerate, up to a maximum of 60fps. You can also assign recording and replay hotkeys, as well as save locations for game captures and replay recordings. Bear in mind that with a long replay time selected, the temporary file Game DVR creates for it can get quite large, so be sure to put the file on a drive with enough space.
     
    EDIT: Very recently AMD have updated the Game DVR app to include microphone and webcam recording. Simply check the boxes in the Game DVR settings to enable these features.
     
    To start recording with Game DVR, simply launch your chosen game with the Gaming Evolved app open, and you'll see a small overlay in a corner of your screen. This is what is shown when ready to record:
     

     
    And this is what is shown when recording:
     

     
    So far, the only games it doesn't seem to record are games running in borderless window mode (such as Hearthstone). Also when running other game client overlays such as Steam and Origin, there can be a few problems, but hopefully once this software comes out of beta, these problems will be fixed. I have to say, the video looks very nice and it captures 60fps video brilliantly. I can't record at the same bitrate when using OBS at 60fps, so for my personal recordings I will be using Game DVR as often as I can!
     
    This video was recorded using Game DVR. It's actually the first time there have been a few frames skipped in a recording, along with a couple of audio issues. But the 60fps recording is worth it

     
     
    NVIDIA SHADOWPLAY
     
    Since I did my guide on AMD's Game DVR, I don't have an nVidia GPU in my system, so I can't walk through the recording process step by step. However, NCIX did a nice short video on getting set up with it, so I'll link it here:
     

     
    Thanks for reading this guide, I hope it helped! If you have any questions please feel free to ask
  24. Agree
    Crafting reacted to PokeCatz in Antivirus Needed? If so which one is considered "the best"?   
    I use 360 Total Security.
    It's somewhat non intrusive. (Block webcam from being used unless approved and stuff like that) but it does a good job of getting to the viruses.
    Also no problems at all.
  25. Like
    Crafting got a reaction from Enderman in Monitor flickers randomly   
    Well, the cable replacement did not help anything, guess I'll have to RMA as it must be the monitor.
     
    -Crafting
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