Bug Report Extreme frame drop/lag

[rays]

First off, let me just say thanks for making this amazing software. It makes streaming ever so smooth, with little to no FPS drop. Sadly though, I haven't been able to use it that much these past two weeks though, as I've had major problems with extreme frame drop/lag. I browse these forums often, and was sure to look for a solution before posting, but I couldn't find one, so here I am.

When streaming, my program has been having a tough time remaining connected to the twitch servers it seems, as my bitrate is often fluctuating to as little as 7kbps, all the way up to 2756kbps (which I didn't even know was possible, seeing as my max upload is 2mpbs), causing the fps counter at the bottom to dip down to levels where my stream is entirely unwatchable (1-3 at times!). Also, while all of this is happening, I'm constantly having to fight twitch, as I'll lose connection and my stream will restart. At times it's gotten so severe that it's consistently lost connection every 2-5 minutes.

It can't be my internet however, as I can easily hop onto xsplit and stream for multiple hours at a time with no problems (just bad ingame fps).

Below is a vod, and a log of that vod. Luckily I didn't lose connection in it, but the frame rate was still atrocious.

The vod: http://www.twitch.tv/hooliganmaster420/b/338359375

The log:

Send Buffer Size: 4096
=====Stream Start=====================================================================
  Multithreaded optimizations: On
  Base resolution: 1920x1080
  Output resolution: 1280x720
------------------------------------------
Loading up D3D10...
------------------------------------------
Using auxilary audio input: Microphone (3- Logitech USB Headset)
------------------------------------------
Audio Encoding: MP3
    bitrate: 320
   chosen type: RGB24, usingFourCC: false, res: 640x480 - 640x480, fps: 15-30, fourCC: 00000000

------------------------------------------
Video Encoding: x264
    fps: 52
    width: 1280, height: 720
    quality: 8
    preset: veryfast
    i444: no
    max bitrate: 1250
    buffer size: 250
------------------------------------------
Total frames rendered: 6226, number of frames that lagged: 533 (8.56%) (it's okay for some frames to lag)
Number of b-frames dropped: 126, Number of p-frames dropped: 0
=====Stream End=======================================================================

Profiler results:

==============================================================
frame - [100%] [avg time: 17.803 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 98.3%] [unaccounted: 1.72%]
| scene->Preprocess - [88.5%] [avg time: 15.748 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1]
| video encoding and uploading - [9.82%] [avg time: 1.748 ms] [avg calls per frame: 1] [children: 9.54%] [unaccounted: 0.281%]
| | CopyResource - [0.0449%] [avg time: 0.008 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | conversion to 4:2:0 - [0.0169%] [avg time: 0.003 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
| | call to encoder - [9.48%] [avg time: 1.687 ms] [avg calls per frame: 0]
==============================================================

Note, these are only the settings I used for this stream in particular. I've tried lowering/raising both the bitrate and the max buffer, (Once I even had both set to a mere 100kpbs, and I still received lag/frame drops), changing my streaming fps (as low as 20, with no luck), changing the resolution I streamed in, changing twitch.tv servers, and changing the max buffer size (including turning it off), with no luck.

I really do like your program, so I hope to be able to use it in the future.

 

[R1CH]

Frame drops are caused by a bad connection or poor upload speed. Try using JTVPing (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=326034) to find the best Twitch server and make sure no programs (firewalls etc) could be interfering with the connection.

Few other minor points - generally your buffer size should be around the same as your bitrate, and 320kbps MP3 seems like a lot of waste. 52 FPS is also an odd number, try with something standard like 25 or 30.

 

[rays]

Frame drops are caused by a bad connection or poor upload speed. Try using JTVPing (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=326034) to find the best Twitch server and make sure no programs (firewalls etc) could be interfering with the connection.

Few other minor points - generally your buffer size should be around the same as your bitrate, and 320kbps MP3 seems like a lot of waste. 52 FPS is also an odd number, try with something standard like 25 or 30.

As stated before, I've done all of that - I've tried literally every twitch.tv server, and I've tried to stream at as low as 20fps with no luck.

If it helps at all, I had no issues with this program up until a week or two ago, with no change in my internet service that could possibly effect anything.

 

[R1CH]

That's generally the only thing that can cause frame drops. Have you tried resetting your modem / router? Some lower end models can have issues with the flood of UDP packets caused by games. I'm installing TF2 now to see if there's any kind of weird interaction, but I doubt it.

 

[Nightwalker]

Frame drops are caused by a bad connection or poor upload speed. Try using JTVPing (http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmes ... _id=326034) to find the best Twitch server and make sure no programs (firewalls etc) could be interfering with the connection.

Few other minor points - generally your buffer size should be around the same as your bitrate, and 320kbps MP3 seems like a lot of waste. 52 FPS is also an odd number, try with something standard like 25 or 30.

As stated before, I've done all of that - I've tried literally every twitch.tv server, and I've tried to stream at as low as 20fps with no luck.

If it helps at all, I had no issues with this program up until a week or two ago, with no change in my internet service that could possibly effect anything.

What is your system information? Processor/Graphics Card/etc

 

[rays]

Oh sorry, I forgot to copy the top half of the log:

Open Broadcaster Software v0.432a - 32bit (´・ω・｀)
-------------------------------
CPU Name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU         750  @ 2.67GHz
CPU Speed: 3710MHz
Physical Memory:  4087MB Total, 1780MB Free
stepping id: 5, model 14, family 6, type 0, extmodel 0, extfamily 0, HTT 1, logical cores 4, total cores 4
------------------------------------------
Adapter 1
  Video Adapter: ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series
  Video Adapeter Dedicated Video Memory: 1063923712
  Video Adapeter Shared System Memory: 1874391040

 

[Fred_]

Btw, TF2 does *something* as it WILL make the stream go offline on round end, at least in bot practice. I can't even try it with real players as the stream keeps dropping like mad then.

 

[R1CH]

Figures, right as I'm done installing Steam goes down :(.

 

[R1CH]

Ok, seems like TF2 really taxes the GPU, to the point where OBS has issues performing its own GPU operations and thus has periods of very slow frame rates (which twitch disconnects for). Try to limit the GPU usage in TF2 by turning off multicore rendering, turning on vsync, turning off MSAA, etc. Failing that, just set a hard FPS limit with fps_max.

 

[rays]

Ok, seems like TF2 really taxes the GPU, to the point where OBS has issues performing its own GPU operations and thus has periods of very slow frame rates (which twitch disconnects for). Try to limit the GPU usage in TF2 by turning off multicore rendering, turning on vsync, turning off MSAA, etc. Failing that, just set a hard FPS limit with fps_max.

I'm already running an FPS config to max out my performance. Is there anything that could've happened to OBS in the past week or two that changed it from the way it was before?

Because, like I said, I haven't always had this problem. This is new.

 

[R1CH]

If you downgrade to an older version do you still have the problem?

 

[Lain]

hm, I'm not entirely sure if it's because of the GPU thing -- I've used the same config tweaks where TF2 runs at like 300-400 FPS, and it usually has no problem.. but it usually depends on the game. it shouldn't cause it to drop frames. what is the device you're using by the way? (I really need to make it log the name as well)

 

[rays]

If you downgrade to an older version do you still have the problem?

Yes, the problem still occurs.

hm, I'm not entirely sure if it's because of the GPU thing -- I've used the same config tweaks where TF2 runs at like 300-400 FPS, and it usually has no problem.. but it usually depends on the game. it shouldn't cause it to drop frames. what is the device you're using by the way? (I really need to make it log the name as well)

I'm using the Window Capture that's built into OBS.

 

[Nightwalker]

5700 is sort of an older series for AMD GPUs. You might want to consider lowering your TF2 settings to see if that can fix your issue.

Also, if you have upgraded the drivers, or haven't, that may also cause issues.

 

[rays]

5700 is sort of an older series for AMD GPUs. You might want to consider lowering your TF2 settings to see if that can fix your issue.

Also, if you have upgraded the drivers, or haven't, that may also cause issues.

As I already said, I'm using a max fps config, and when I'm streaming, my ingame fps is 300+.

It's the stream that lags, not my game.

 

[TanGeng]

It's already been said, but turn down your ingame fps.
It's competing with OBS for GPU resources.

 

[R1CH]

You could also try boosting the process priority of obs.exe to something above TF2 just in case some of the threads get starved.

 

[hilalpro]

300+ fps is an overkill.. i suggest that you stream at 60 fps with a high obs.exe priority to maintain it

99% this is an issue with your router configuration. try recording the file locally and play it to confirm.

there is just not enough consistent cell rate to upload consistently through your connection '(yes even on low bitrate), try changing the service to cbr with the maximum cell rate available.

if you don't know what that is or if you can't access the router try downloading a program called cfosspeed it will smoothing the way the packets are sent/received and it will implement some tricks in order to avoid packet loss's

 

[rays]

Thanks for the prompt and helpful replies, everyone.

After capping my fps at 241 (twice the refresh rate of my 120Hz monitor + 1), resetting my router, and changing the priority of OBS, I think my issues may have been solved. Granted this was only after an hour or two of testing; so we'll see if it holds up.

Here's a link to the vod:

http://www.twitch.tv/raysfire/b/338405948

Anyways, thanks again for the help guys. What was it that happened to either my computer or OBS that made me have to make all of these adjustments in order for it to work right, though? That still really confuses me.

 

[Lain]

Hm, not entirely sure unfortunately -- so many different types of computers, so much different hardware, sometimes it's difficult to say what specifically happens in every case. It can be a little frustrating for me as a developer, because I want to know precisely what was going on. Often I have to end up theorizing with my best guesses and working from there.. but if you got it working that's what's important for now at least.