60 FPS game capture and streaming tips for the year of 2018
51. Hardware Encoding
Upgrade to Windows 8 or 10 if you haven’t already! Use GeForce Experience or AMD Radeon ReLive for recording or streaming without lags and FPS drops with hardware acceleration provided by video card! It is supported starting with GeForce 600, Radeon HD 7700, R series. Software codecs can hardly handle encoding 1080p60 in the real-time, and we can expect some
2K and 4K content soon.
When recording in Windows 7, it will split files bigger than 4 GB, and lose some frames and audio in the cut points. But streaming should work fine.
2. Avidemux
Avidemux can work with video files without recoding using keyframes as the cut points. It can save a lot of time if you're ready to publish the video without changes but need to cut something or merge multiple files. Just drag them here, use Up and Down arrows to find keyframes, select, cut fragments and save as MKV or MP4 when ready. If you upload some MP4 files, YouTube will suggest: “Your videos will process faster if you encode into a streamable file format”. Use MKV, AVI or FLV if you want to save some time. MP4 cannot be opened until you have a full file. Avidemux, despite the name, is having a problem with AVI files and I always get errors when I try to use them.
3. Game brightness
Slightly increase the brightness in a game! Avoid the true black RGB 0,0,0 and aim for 10,10,10 or 16,16,16 as the darkest color. It may look fine before you send it to YouTube, but shades can often blend in one color after compression. Brightened images tend to preserve more detail. Some games use simplified graphics or a limited color range and don't need this change. Look if the game is using dark shades and intense graphics. And if does—increase brightness in the game settings. No such option? Use Vegas Pro effect called Sony Levels or Sony Brightness. Try 0.010 or 0.016 values for Output start: If it still shows high CPU or Encoder usage, you can try High Performance setting here:
Don't use Computer RGB to Studio RGB effect, it will limit the color range to 16-240 and you'll lose bright and white colors and experience some shades of Grey! Just increase the brightness, slightly. Don’t try to adjust brightness using monitor or driver settings, it only changes your view and not the video file.
YouTube is currently allowing chat with paid messages, donations, and sponsorship on YouTube Gaming Platform, you don’t need OBS to interact with subscribers much. The idea is to stream or record games using video card solutions (with WebCam or Mic when needed) and direct viewers to YouTube Gaming page to interact in a dynamic way and sponsor you (basically it’s just a different URL).
5.1. Vegas Pro
For some advanced edits, effects, and mixing, you can use Vegas Pro. Unlike some other editors, it works natively with various frame-rate files, which you get during recording. Make sure that you use 32-bit pixel and disable View Transform to preserve the original color and quality.
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5.2. Vegas Pro
Starting with version 15, Vegas Pro can also utilize GPU acceleration to render files significantly faster. For earlier versions, use external x264vfw codec in the custom AVI container. You can also use files previously rendered by Vegas Pro without re-coding. If you need to make small changes or modify audio—paste such file in the project, do what you need, and render it again with the same codec. If you don’t make changes to frames, you should see “No recompression required” message, and it will copy frames quickly. Use AC3 or MP3 audio with a bitrate of 160-256 and sample rate of 44-48 kHz. Using 44.1 kHz can cause some problems. In Windows Audio settings check that your device is using 48 kHz or more for best results. You may set up some codecs from K-Lite Codec Pack (you need encoding) if you don’t see them on the list.
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6. x264, h.264, h.265
YouTube’s maximum upload size is 128 GB.
As far as I know, there is no limit to the length of the video. I have a 22-hour video there, and you hardly ever need more than that. x264 is just a software/tool/lib to make H.264 videos. When rendering some project with x264 or other codecs, configure settings for the desired output. Preset will change the rendering time and you generally want ultrafast there, unless you need to reduce the file without losing quality. Changing quality with CQP or CRF parameter (1 to 51): 6 is usually considered lossless, 16-19 is awesome, and 20-24 is good. H.265 is not going into mass in the coming years, but can already be utilized by some programs and can be encoded by some video cards. We don’t need it for YouTube anyway. Lossless video can be made using H.264, but YouTube will not tolerate big files and limit the bit-rate and chroma sub-sampling to 4:2:0 (4:4:4 can be lossless).
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Start small, and you’ll find ways to improve later.