fps stream related stuff seems to perform bad if you stream on the same box. stutters, input lag, etc.

a capturecard setup is ideal if youre intending tf2 streaming

k subforum made

i can vouch for all the stuff craig said. a 2 PC setup is harder to configure but well worth the effort if you want to avoid all of the performance impacts streaming has on your game.

check out lanskys guide on natf2
its pretty good

How much would it be to make a dedicated stream box though?

How great of a videocard would I need, also it's a bit daunting because if I made a PC just for streaming it'd probably be a lot better than the computer that I actually play on..

If I were to have an onboard capture card, I'd probably get a blackmagic intensity pro, which would mean it would need to be an intel board with compatible USB 3.0 slots which would drive up the price. I'm unsure if I'm willing to drop more than a grand just to stream videogames for fun lol

I think if you have an i7 OC'd, you probably will be fine streaming at pretty good settings. Capture cards I've seen cost as much as a mid range video card from what I've seen, so I don't know if it's really worth it unless you have a decent older system.

Do not buy Blackmagic products. They are not easy to use or setup, and Blackmagic is notorious for having little-to-no documentation and almost zero support.

I use a Avermedia Game Broadcaster HD and it works really well.

Really? I've heard the complete opposite about blackmagic products

http://shoryuken.com/forum/index.php?threads/8wayrun-incomplete-guide-to-streaming-in-3-parts.151686/

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=309480

THANK YOU TLR! Your stream is the best one i've seen for TF2, so i'll will take your advice on that one. Thanks!

So I've actually been wanting new computer parts because at least my processor is old (Phenom II x4 955 which is now discontinued apparently...) and I'm looking into switching to Intel because I've heard bad things about Bulldozer.

If I take my current PC (the above CPU on an ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO with 4 GB of RAM [used to be 8... one of them appears to be dead], a Radeon HD 6870, and storage) and replace the video card with my old 9600 GT, will I be able to stream? Assuming my 12 Mb down/1.5 Mb up is up to it of course. I know streaming affects my sister's gaming, but I'm pretty sure the last time I tried to stream something was before we upgraded our internet service so it might not be as big of a problem. I managed to get it down to 240p and bad quality before she stopped complaining, so IDK. Good news is that she's moving out in a year (sometime during the summer) so hopefully I can get at least 360p when she's not here.

I'm streaming fine with a Q6600(3ghz) using dxtory and ffsplit running tf2 at 1920x1200 and streaming at 768x480

i have the same processor as you, hooky (phenom ii x4 955 BE, standard clock). i've been streaming dota at 1280x720, and I think it's been fine so far... the only lag i've experienced was network lag, my internet at home is 20Mbs/2Mbs(i think) so streaming at school where i have a 100 Mbs connection is fine.

But then again, it's dota 2. i also have 8 gb, and a gtx 275, but i think that's slightly worse than the radeon 6870(and shouldn't affect it that much anyway)

i think you should be able to stream decently, the 9600 isn't that bad of a card. your network connection might be a issue but, you'll just have to mess around with the settings.

you can stream dota2/rts on the same box fine. I've done so on a build similar to jeekas and an i5.

my guess is this has to do with less stuff moving on your screen. in an fps your entire screen is constantly changing as you look and move around the environment. the helicopter perspective in rts means the only time stuff changes that drastically is when you scroll your camera around. more stuff happening on the screen likely causes more processing demands. on top of this rts is playable at lower fps and a stutter isn't game ruining.

I have no explanation for why there's inherent noticeable input lag though

So blackmagic parts are no good? What would you recommend if you plan to stream through a laptop, asus g73/53. I'm confused too, if I were to buy a capture card like the one TLR suggested, would I install that into my gaming rig? Or into the laptop which would be streaming? Sorry, I've been googling driving myself crazy and can't seem to find that option. Everyone who streams from a laptop uses the black magic but I don't play on encodeable/streamable resolution for it.

@tyrone: Normally, capture cards are internal cards just like your video card. They go inside of the computer that does the streaming.

However, since you want to use a laptop to do your streaming, internal cards are not an option as there is no way to install one of them in a laptop. Therefore, you have to use an external capture device that would be connected to your laptop via USB. The only ones that I personally know of are made by Blackmagic unfortunately. Hopefully someone in this thread knows of a good external capture device capable of the kind of resolution required for PC game capture.

Tyrone - You can look at the avermedia livegamer HD. It can go into your gaming PC. It does the encoding, so there's very little (if any) performance hit. It doesn't work flawlessly with xsplit yet, but it works well enough. It'll be optimized soon, though. You should be able to stream at 720p 60FPS with very little framerate loss in-game.

Also please teach me how to be mid +

listen to john he has a formidable penis

I love men

John I would follow you on twitter but I don't want to @reply you man... my mum reads that shit

Also, look at this guy's specs / stream - http://www.twitch.tv/pyyoooniii/b/327976629 - he doesn't use a capture card

if you use wifi turn off wireless on your router and buy a separate access point

if you're wired there isn't much you can do except disabling everything that uses the network (last.fm clients, torrents, etc)

Anybody can stream at 60 fps 720p, Atmo. The problem is the performance hit you take. Alot of people don't want to take any hit at all. With Pyyoooniii's build, he probably gets upwards of 5-600 FPS in 6v6, but when streaming he's locking it at 120ish. 120 is enough, obviously, but e-peen is fantastic.

yes, I know, I'm just illustrating the point that you can max out your stream quality without recourse to a capture card which gives you no benefit outside of streaming.

Depends on what you want to do. It's great for 60FPS 1080p capture - would work fantastic for capturing games and uploading straight to youtube without taking any performance hit from capturing live. I think alot of what TF2 is missing via the youtube scene is competitive games that aren't casted, but uploaded straight live with comms. Helps people feel the intensity.

Well that's up to you guys at twitch to deal with IMO. Last I checked, highlights from twitch streams sent over to youtube were significantly degraded in quality...

Technology doesn't work that way.

on a side note, it's incredible what frontpaging VanillaTV streams has done to viewership

thanks john!

:>

Hey John, so that would be a 1 computer set up? No need to buy a streaming pc right? Also thanks again for putting TF2 on the home page of twitch. You dabes.

Yes, it works with one PC. I think it only requires a 1x PCI-E slot as well.