How to Optimize Your Game Streams Using OBS Studio
OBS Studio has made it possible for anyone to stream themselves playing video games at the click of a button.
Whether you’re new to the software or have been streaming for a while, you need to make sure you’ve tweaked your settings to get the best performance from OBS Studio. So, in this article, we are going to tell you how to do it with minimal impact on your gaming experience.
Use GPU encoding
The first thing you need to do is use GPU encoding. Newer NVIDIA graphics cards have an onboard hardware encoder that can almost match the quality of the x264 encoder while offloading much of the processing to the graphics card itself.
This can improve the visual quality of your stream without impacting your computer’s performance, and may even free up resources for your gameplay to once again hit peak frames per second (FPS) levels if you’ve been struggling with lower frame rates while streaming. We’ve already covered more about hardware acceleration if you’re interested.
As a side note, AMD graphics cards may not benefit as much from the following points as they have an AMF encoder rather than a true onboard hardware encoder. Check out our AMD Radeon screen recording guide.
Follow the steps below to enable GPU encoding:
- Open OBS Studio and click Menu > settings.
- In the settings window, select the output Tab.
- change that output mode drop down to Progressive and select that stream Tab.
- change that encoders option to NVENC (for NVIDIA GPUs) or H264/AVC (for AMD GPUs).
- change that rate control drop down to CBR.
- Set those bit rate to 6000 kbps when streaming on Twitch or 10000 kbps when streaming on YouTube.
- change that preset drop down to quality.
- change that Maximum B frames option to 2.
Run OBS Studio in Administrator mode
Running OBS Studio in Administrator mode can solve certain permissions issues and ensure Windows allocates enough resources for the software to run properly. This can have a major impact on the number of dropped frames you may face, either eliminating them entirely or significantly reducing them.
To ensure that OBS Studio starts in admin mode every time you open it, follow these steps:
- Right-click your OBS Studio application shortcut.
- Select in the context menu Characteristics.
- In the new pop-up window, select the compatibility Tab.
- Inside the settings Activate the group on this tab Run this program as an administrator Possibility.
- click Apply to ensure that this change is saved and then OK to close the properties window.
Limit your number of scenes and sources
To minimize the processing required by OBS Studio, it’s best to limit the number of scenes you use for your streaming setup and the number of individual sources in those scenes. You can reduce both with a few tricks, described below.
1. Use a single browser source for your overlay
If you use multiple source elements to create your overlay, StreamElements can be used to combine your multiple source overlay and replace it with a browser source. This has the added benefit of cleaning up your scene structure.
In addition, StreamElements can process your stream notifications, e.g. B. a new follower or subscriber on Twitch.
2. Use nested scenes to reduce repeat components
If you’ve set up your scenes for streaming, chances are you have a chat-only scene and a gameplay scene that both have a version of your webcam, resulting in your webcam video being processed twice.
To improve this, you can create a new cutscene, insert your webcam capture into that scene, and then use that scene directly in your Just Chat and Gameplay scenes, processing your webcam only once. To add a scene as a source in another scene, just select it scene Option when adding a new source.
Downscaling and frame rate
While everyone wants to stream at the highest possible quality, attempting to stream at too high a quality can actually have a serious impact on the visual fidelity of your stream. Here are a few tips to solve the problem.
1. Don’t use 1080p 60FPS
There are two issues that arise from broadcasting at 1080p 60 FPS: 1. OBS Studio has to use more resources to record your gameplay and 2. the bitrate required to stream at this quality is approximately 12,000 Kbps, currently double that of Twitch Imposed Limits.
As a result, Twitch introduces compression artifacts at the end of the stream, reducing the visual fidelity of your stream. While YouTube doesn’t have bitrate limitations, the secondary need for OBS Studio is an internet upload speed capable of transmitting at the required bitrate, and if the upload speed isn’t enough, the quality of your stream will be further reduced.
2. Use 1080p 30FPS or 720p 60FPS
If your internet upload speed supports it, streaming at 1080p 30 FPS requires around 6,000 Kbps, conveniently Twitch’s upper bitrate limit. Alternatively, you can stream at 720p 60 FPS, which requires around 5,300 Kbps. The reduced bitrate also benefits viewers with a slower connection, as a higher bitrate can cause buffering on their end.
Follow these steps to change your streaming resolution and frame rate using OBS Studio:
- Open OBS Studio and click Menu > settings.
- In the settings window, select the Video Tab.
- change that Output resolution (scaled). either 1920×1080 or 1280×720.
- change that Usual FPS values either 30 (when streaming at 1080p) or 60 (when streaming at 720p).
Use filters to improve the quality of your streams
Applying different filters to your video and audio sources may have less impact on the fidelity of your stream, but can help emulate studio-level quality.
1. Video Filter
The webcam is perhaps your most powerful tool as a game streamer. This is the recording that will present you to your audience and will also be used to see your reactions to in-game events and chat interactions. It is therefore important that your webcam recording is as good as possible.
That color correction Filter can be used to tweak your webcam’s color output to make a feed appear warmer or cooler based on the colors used. That Apply LUT Filter can be used to apply a LUT (Lookup Table) to further color grade your webcam input; Check out how LUTs work with color correction to master this.
That Sharpen Filter can be used if you have a lower resolution webcam to try to clean up any artifacts caused by scaling your input. That Chroma Key Filter can be used when using a green screen and removing the green color.
Follow the steps below to apply a video filter in OBS Studio:
- Open OBS Studio and right click on your video source.
- Select in the context menu filter.
- Click on the bottom left of the new window + icon and then select your desired filter.
- Give the filter a name (the default is usually fine) and customize your settings.
2. Audio Filter
Although your focus may be on improving the visual fidelity of your stream, great-sounding audio input goes a long way in keeping viewers engaged. Since we don’t all own a studio quality microphone, you can use the audio filters in OBS Studio to enhance your audio.
That noise reduction The filter processes the incoming audio and tries to remove unwanted background noise, e.g. B. a desk fan or a loud noise beyond your control. That limiter Filter prevents your microphone from exceeding a certain audio level, which can prevent your viewers from being deaf if you spontaneously shout into your microphone.
That noise gate The filter prevents your microphone input from being recorded until your audio meets a certain minimum threshold. This can prevent background noise from being picked up, but as soon as you start speaking into the mic all sound is processed so this should be used in combination with noise reduction Filter.
That expander Filter acts as combined noise gate and noise reduction, open your mic only at a certain threshold and perform background noise cancellation. Finally, that Win Filter can be used to increase your audio level if you find your microphone particularly quiet.
Follow these steps to apply an audio filter in OBS Studio:
- Open OBS Studio and right click on your audio source.
- Select in the context menu filter.
- Click on the bottom left of the new window + icon and then select your desired filter.
- Give the filter a name (the default is usually fine) and customize your settings.
Be sure to hear the changes your filters make to your microphone monitor your tone.
- Open OBS Studio and right click on your audio source.
- Select in the context menu Advanced audio properties.
- In the new window, change the audio monitoring drop down to monitor and output for your microphone.
Using OBS Studio to enhance your game streams
Following the steps presented here should help improve both the visual and audio quality of your game streams on Twitch or YouTube. You can stream any game you want to these platforms with OBS Studio and even use secondary devices like PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch or mobile phone to really expand your viewers’ gaming horizons.