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Let's talk about streaming!!

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 6:10 AM

  Hello all. Thought to start a thread and gather all the questions about streaming our wgt games. This thread will be more or a less a guide on how to stream better without streaming compromising your gameplay quality.

  A good place to start is here:

  Twitch Streamers - Twitch Video Encoding/Bitrates/And Stuff

   

  However, twitch provides only general guidelines without handling many many other issues, like:

  Can i stream without problems?

  Does my internet upload speed is enough?

  Why should i chose this setting and not the other one?

  Are my CPU, GPU and ram powerful enough to do that? And if so, which settings do i need?

  What is hardware encoding and what is software encoding? And which one of these 2 will be better for me?

  Is this game (WGT) a cpu based game or a GPU based one?

  Could i experience bottleneck? And what on earth is bottleneck?

   

   

  And so many others....

   

  So, if you like the idea of streaming, this should be the place where you can find your answers.

   

  PS

  I know that in youtube there are a bunch of guides how to stream. However, imo it would be a good thing to have a guide specifically for our game.

• TopShelf2010 10,915 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 6:55 AM

  Yiannis1970:

  So, if you like the idea of streaming, this should be the place where you can find your answers

   

  Might I suggest before jumping into this new thread, have a look at the following thread...

  Twitch Possibilities and Enhancements

  The previous thread was created some time ago... 2014. There is some useful information within the thread. Several players shared their own personal setups.

   

  Just trying to help

  Don

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 8:25 AM

  Sure Don, thank you.

• WGTNico 643 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 9:13 AM

  Hey Yiannis, 

  I actually have some insight when it comes to the world of streaming, I used to work at a Twitch analytics startup, and I am a small streamer myself. I'm gonna talk about what I think is important when it comes to streaming and am happy to answer any further questions or go in deeper if anyone wants.

  Setting up a stream?

  • Have consistent internet speed you can search up internet speed test. What's really important is to have an upload speed of ideally at least 5mbps if you have that, you SHOULD be good to have a consistent stream. 
  • I would recommend using OBS over Streamlabs OBS, at first OBS is a bit harder to setup but gives you a lot more customization options over Streamlabs and Streamlabs is actually just an overall evil company that is actually harder on your PC is than OBS

  Should I use a mic?

  •  Yes 100% people more often than not Twitch viewers are watching a stream for the game, but what makes them stay is the streamer itself, the best way to do that is to have a mic and have a conversation. Talk about what you're doing in the game, keep the conversation with yourself going at all times even if there's no one active in chat. Tell a story, talk about the game, etc. but just keep talking
  • If you are using a mic please setup some mic filters within your obs. You just right click your mic source in obs and go to filters. For the best filters this is actually when I recommend finding a YouTube video that best fits your mic cause they are all different and then test some of the filters yourself to find the best sound for your mic.
  • Viewers don't want to listen to a mic that sounds bad, has awful background noise, or if you get too loud peaks and hurts their ears. 
  • Mics are one of if not the most important thing when streaming

  Do I need a webcam?

  • Short answer. Up to you
  • It does add a sense of personality to a stream by seeing reactions and such, but some people (myself included) don't enjoy showing their face on stream, videos, etc.
  • I use a vtuber model cause that's what works for me but it's really up to you 

  How often should I stream?

  • Twitch meta changes a lot and as does stream hours. The current "ideal" time you want to stream on Twitch when you're smaller is: around 3 times a week with 2-4 hours each stream.
  • Back in 2018 and before you could just stream on Twitch for 8 hours a day and grow with ease, but that's not the case anymore,
  • You're better off doing strong efficient streams and getting the most out of you and your content
  • WGT is a pretty niche indie game and streaming community so you do typically see a lot of the same people but still having a consistent schedule is important so that people know when you'll be on and roughly for how long each given stream

  Should I use other platforms?

  • If you want to as more than just a streamer than yes absolutely
  • What I would say are the best platforms to focus on in terms of importance are:
  • YouTube -> Twitter -> TikTok/YouTube Shorts -> other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc. 
  • YouTube is still the best platform to grow as a creator and you can make so many different kinds of videos (never make highlight/clip videos they do not work anymore unless you already have a large following)

  When it comes to WGT we've also targeted a lot of these things to improve upon our own end. More streams we have the Patchnotes streams every Tuesday, and are working on some videos for YouTube and have a very consistent TikTok. 

  Happy to discuss some stuff further if anyone has any questions, streaming is a very fun thing to do and I am of the opinion that we can all help WGT grow not only on Twitch but on all platforms together.

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 3:57 PM

  Very useful information and input Nico. Thank you.

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 4:28 PM

  WGTNico:

  Setting up a stream?

   

  • Have consistent internet speed you can search up internet speed test. What's really important is to have an upload speed of ideally at least 5mbps if you have that, you SHOULD be good to have a consistent stream. 
  • I would recommend using OBS over Streamlabs OBS, at first OBS is a bit harder to setup but gives you a lot more customization options over Streamlabs and Streamlabs is actually just an overall evil company that is actually harder on your PC is than OBS

   

   

  Let's start with these 2 above basics.

  As Nico suggested, a stable 5 Mbit upload is quite a good number to start with.

  You can go here and test your upload speed (ping number is very important too, lower number is better here)

   

  www.speedtest.net

   

  As for the software used, i do believe as well that OBS is better than streamlabs, but unfortunately for me who i am still with win7, OBS studio does not support my OS. So either i have to go with a very very old version of OBS or stick with streamlabs...i prefer the latter.

   

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Fri, Apr 8 2022 4:44 PM

  WGT is one of the easiest games to stream cause is a pic (jpeg) based game with only a small content of CGI like the flagsticks, the balls, the avatar. So, at the end of the day, does not require an extremely powerful hardware to run and eventually stream it.

  My system is 13 years old which i added a low-mid range GPU few years back. The game runs like a charm and i don't have any problems with streaming eventhough my upload speed is only 5 Mbits.

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Mon, Apr 11 2022 2:01 AM

  Yiannis1970:

  As for the software used, i do believe as well that OBS is better than streamlabs, but unfortunately for me who i am still with win7, OBS studio does not support my OS. So either i have to go with a very very old version of OBS or stick with streamlabs...i prefer the latter.

   

  Correction:

  I did find a version of OBS (27.2.4.) which does support (to be exact is running cause support no longer exists officially) Win 7!!! So i am quite quite happy using it now.

   

• ScottHope 10,416 Posts

  Mon, Apr 11 2022 4:38 AM

  Hello gents,

  because of my tinnitus I tend to have music playing on my PC most of the time. Is there anyway to separate the music (Windows Media Player) from the game audio, so that it is not heard on stream, but I can still hear it through my headphones?

  Thank you.  ; )

• Yiannis1970 3,293 Posts

  Mon, Apr 11 2022 7:14 AM

  Hey Scott. There you are...

   

  

   

  On the advanced audio properties, you select monitor only (mute output). On the stream will be only the sound of the game.