How to start a Twitch stream?

[Nightlingbolt]

I don't know where to post questions about streaming, so... yeah, sorry!

I'm thinking of getting into streaming, maybe streaming Pokemon Blue, but I don't know how to start up a stream from Twitch. Can someone explain the process?

[untuxable]

Sure! I can only explain how to use OBS since it's the program I use, but I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

First off, a couple of questions:

1. Do you use OSX or Windows as your OS?
2. Are you trying to stream a console game or a PC game? Since you're starting with Pokemon Blue, you're either going to be using a Gameboy Player and Gamecube or an emulator on your computer.

[Nightlingbolt]

Windows 8, and I'm emulating it.

Do I have to pay for OBS, or is it free?

[untuxable]

OBS is a completely free program. You can download it here: https://obsproject.com/
Since you're using Windows 8, you'll get the Windows version on the left (obviously, but I'd like to be thorough)

Go ahead and intall/boot up OBS, and I'll attempt to explain what everything does. I'll save actually setting up your stream for the next post.

I will say this before I start delving into the program: The Mac and Windows versions are different. I use the Mac version, so I may tell you about a setting that isn't actually there. From what I know, the differences in what you can change in the Settings are pretty severe.

**Preview**
The big gray rectangle is a live stream preview. Once you start adding Sources, they will show up here.

**Scenes**
A Scene is a preset group of Sources. For example, if you need one setup of Sources to stream a console game and another setup to stream PC games, each setup will be saved as an individual Scene so you can have them ready to get when you start OBS again later.

**Sources**
These are the important things. A Source is one element of the stream; a camera, a microphone, a desktop capture, etc.
"+" adds a Source
"-" deletes a Source
The paper looking thing are the individual options for that Source. It changes depending on what the Source is.
The arrows change the order of the Sources on your stream, like Layers. Stuff on top in the order covers stuff on the bottom.

**Mixer**
You can Audio sources in the Settings menu, like a microphone or your game audio. Once those are added, they'll show up here where you can adjust their individual volume levels with a slider

**Start Stream**
Self explanatory, that's the GO button. It'll change to Stop Streaming if you're live.

**Start Recording**
OBS can also be used to record gameplay footage and such. Since you want to straight up stream, you're probably not going to use this.

**Settings**
Once you've gotten everything above, click Settings, and I'll walk through that.



-----------------Settings----------------------
Remember that disclaimer I gave.

**General**
This just has the language settings.

**Stream**
I know this one is different depending on Mac/Windows.
Regardless of what options there are, there should be somewhere for you to enter your Stream Key. Your Stream Key is basically an address that lets OBS know where to send the stream; namely, your channel. To find your stream key, log onto Twitch, then head to your Dashboard. Click on "Stream Key" tab, then copy/paste the code from there into the Stream Key box in OBS. NOTE: DO NOT let anybody see your stream key. If they have it, they can stream to your channel without your permission. This is actually how I can stream on TSG's channel; I have their stream key.

**Output**
Again, may be different depending on version. I'm just going to give you what's under mine and use your best judgement.

-Output Mode-
I have mine set to "Simple(Stream and/or record)." I don't know what this does, nor can I actually change it.

-FLV recording path-
If you record a video with the "Start Recording" button, this will determine where the file will be saved.

-Video/Audio Bitrate-
Bitrate is the raw amount of data that you are sending to Twitch, and is one of the most important settings. The higher the bitrate, the better your stream quality will be up to a point.
Here's a good rule of thumb for bitrate: Head to [url]www.speedtest.net[url] and test your internet connection. About 80%-90% of the Upload value will be your max Video Bitrate. I have an upload of 1.1 MBPS, so my bitrate is set to 850 (default units of measure here is KBPS btw).
Audio Bitrate doesn't really need to be higher than 96 or so.

-Automatically Reconnet-
If OBS loses the connection to the Twitch server, it will automatically try to reconnect instead of instantly stopping the stream. leave checked if it's there
Retry Delay is how long it waits before it retries to connect again if it fails
Max Retries is the max number of times it'll try to reconnect before it auto-stops the stream

-Advance Encoder Settings-
Turn it on.

-Uses Constant Bitrate-
Also known as CBR, this makes OBS attempt to keep your bitrate around where you set it as opposed to jumping higher and lower than the value you set. Always keep it on.

-x264 preset-
x264 is a type of format of a video stream, and it's the only one that Twitch accepts. My default was "veryfast," so I kept it there, haven't had any issues

**Audio**
This is where you can add microphones and such

-Sample Rate-
Keep it at the default, which should be 44.1khz I think.

-Channels-
You can choose whether your stream's audio is Mono or Stereo. You probably want it at Stereo.

-Desktop Audio Devices-
This is where you can capture audio that is being output by your computer (as opposed to a microphone). You may be able to use this to capture your game audio, though it might take downloading another audio program. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

-Mic/Auxiliary Audio Device-
If you've got any kind of microphone, plug it in, and it should show up as one of the options. Pick it. The mic may now show up if you plugged it in after booting up OBS, so try restarting OBS if that happens.

**Video**

-Renderer-
This setting is how your computer renders 2D and 3D graphics, and is decided by your graphics card. I only have one option, OpenGL, so probably stick with whatever shows up by default.

-Video Adapter-
no idea what this is. Mine's blank.

-Base Resolution-
This value determines the video quality and aspect ratio of your stream EX) 480p, 1080p, etc.
What quality you can stream in is largely determined by your upload bitrate. The higher the resolution, the more info you're sending, the higher you're bitrate needs to be. To give you some point of reference, my video bitrate is 850 KBPS and I stream at 1280x720, which is 720p.
Also keep in mind that this determines your aspect ratio. 1280x720 is a 16:9 aspect ratio, otherwise known as widescreen. If you're streaming a Gameboy color game on an emulator, it's not going to be in a widescreen format, so you're going to have some blank space. This is where having pretty assets and whatnot comes in, but you don't have to worry about that now (or ever, honestly). Just know that your video may not take up the whole stream area.

-Scaled Resolution-
Keep it the same as your Base Resolution, whatever it is. This is used when you're streaming to somewhere that requires you have a specific resolution, but Twitch doesn't have that, so don't worry about it.

-Downscale Filter-
no idea, mine is blank, ignore.

-FPS-
You know what this is, Frames Per Second. Typically, 30 is a good rule of thumb. If you can set the FPS on your emulator/game/console/whatever, make sure that that value matches the value you set in OBS. Consistency is good.

And that ends the basic walkthrough. With most of these settings, it's trial and error. You try something, you test it, it doesn't work, you try something else.

Also, dear god that was a lot of text. I may re-write this and just make a post about so other people can use it too.

[untuxable]

Now I'll try to give you a setup for your stream.

Video
1. Open up your emulator, boot up Pokemon.
2. Boot up OBS. Make sure you've gone through your settings and set stuff to what you think might work. If something is wrong, you'll figure it out and change it later. At the very least, make sure you've entered your stream key under "Stream."
3. Click the "+" under "Scene" to make a new Scene. I think you can name it by double clicking on it if you want. Make sure your new Scene is selected/highlighted
4. Click the "+" under "Source" to make a new Source. Since you want to capture an emulator, you're probably going to want to use a "Window Capture" Source. Select it, and a new dialogue box should pop up.
5. Name it what you want, then click OK
6.Now, you should be able to pick the window that you want from a drop-down menu. It'll appear as whatever the title of the emulator window is. Find it, select it, hit OK.
7. At this point, you should have the window with Pokemon in your Preview area. If you click on the emulator inside the preview area, it should be outlined in red lines and you can resize it however you like on the fly using the corner handles.

Mic Audio (if you plan on using one)
1. Make sure your mic is plugged in first, then go to Settings, then Audio.
2. Under Mic/Auxiliary Audio Device, your microphone should appear in the drop down menu. Select it, then close out Settings.
3. There should now a be a "Mic/Auxiliary Audio Device" volume slider under "Mixer." Speak into the mic, make sure OBS is picking it up and such.
4. Ta da! You now have a mic.

Game Audio
This is infinitely more complicated and will probably be somewhat unique to your setup.
You need some way to get the audio being output from the emulator and input it into OBS. I've got a couple of ideas on how to do this, but I don't know if any of them will work.

1. Go to Settings, then Audio again. Under "Desktop Audio Device," put on "Default." This MAY automatically reroute the sound coming out of your speakers into OBS. I just tried it on mine and it didn't, but it may work for you.
2. Download a free program like Virtual Audio Cable that can take audio from one program and put it into another one. I don't know what programs are out there nor how to work them, so you may be better off asking Gendarme/Blaumagier/Alan about this. Chances are, you'll have to boot up that program, tell it to capture your default output sound (what normally comes out of your speakers), then go into the OBS Settings and set up a new "Mic/Auxiliary" with the program as the option.
3. If you have a good enough microphone, you can actually just let the game blare out of your computer speakers and let your microphone pick it up as well as your voice. I've done this for a long time with my webcam, and it's worked okay.

I'll see if I can get another TSG streamer who uses OBS and Windows to come in here and give you some more accurate/better info.


Also, link me to your channel so I can follow it. when you start doing stream tests (and you will want to do stream tests), I'll try to pop in and give you some live feedback.

[Nightlingbolt]

Actually, I think I'll use XSplit, since that's what I have downloaded. Can anyone with XSplit experience help me out here?