What kind of tech would I need to live stream XIV?

[Loony_BoB]

I'm very curious about this. A lot of people in my LS are keen on watching the other LS members run through dungeons and whatnot when they aren't in the party doing the run. Right now I'm using OBS but it seems things just aren't working out. I have my game at custom resolution of 1664 x 972 at the moment, and it tends to cut out pretty much every five seconds I try to stream. I'm using a GTX 460 graphics card and a quad core i5 CPU. 6GB RAM. Tried a 2.5 resolution downscale with no joy, and tried 0 downscale with no joy. I'm really not wanting to have to downsize my game's resolution, obviously... but have been wanting to upgrade my PC for a long time and maybe can convince my good wife to not get angry if I want to save up for that. Maybe. If I'm super good. xD

EDIT: Currently on Virgin Media in the UK, 20Mb but upgrading to the 120Mb package.

[Technyze]

Its more about your upload speed than anything, your PC seems fine for streaming decent quality but not great. If you use xsplit youll probably want a better CPU and if you use OBS youll probably want a better GPU, but I would recommend upgrading both if you use OBS and want great quality.

However if you don't have an upload speed over about 3500-4000 kb/s then it is probably not worth upgrading your computer to stream. If you're upload is over 5500-6000 kb/s you will able to set ur bit rate in the 3000-3500 kb/s range and have excellent quality for FFXIV.

In regards to your resolution, with your current setup you might be able to get away with down-scaling to 1280x720. If you want to stream any higher than that you'll need some serious upgrades.

I also have a i5 quad core but I have a 660 GTX, and OBS has a much higher demand for a GPU than CPU. I stream at a 720p downscale and bit rate 3300. Here is my most recent broadcast. http://www.twitch.tv/technyze/b/480089414 . I would love to stream 1080p unfortunately my CPU can't handle it

Hope this helps!

[Norack]

I don't do this and have only watched someone stream once so I don't know for certain but from what I know and thing off these are the steps in order to stream what you do:

1.) Get This

2.) Make a Twitch account

*optional*

3.) Get a webcam so people can see you while you are live streaming.

Sorry if you need more than that as I have said before I have only watched live streaming 1 time and have never even had the need to do it, this is just what I am guessing you will need in order to do it.

Edit--------------

being lazy and only reaad your opening title lol, the only thing I would say that is desperately needed to upgrade would be your GPU.

[Loony_BoB]

Thanks for the help. And yeah, I stream using OBS + Twitch already for Football Manager. Works fine 90% of the time for that, but FFXIV naturally uses a fair amount more oomph from the PC to the point it can't co-exist with a stream.

I get the feeling either my system board or my GPU (more likely the latter) is on the way out anyway, so it won't take much to motivate me to upgrade that and carry on using OBS.

Having finally discovered where Virgin Media UK have their information stored: http://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-ma...hresholds.html

I'm currently on the XL20 package (2Mbps with a threshold speed reduction of 75%) and will be shifting to the XXL120 package (12Mbps with a threshold speed reduction down to 4.3Mbps). Hopefully that helps. Not bad for just £7.50 more per month... luckily the wife was on board with that one.

[Technyze]

That upgrade to your internet will help you immensely.