Streaming 101 with OBS/FFSplit.

It has come to my attention that Factions does not have very many active streamers.
Sometimes when one of the main streamers are playing in a game, the matchstaff spends a lot of time looking for a replacement, and often new people don’t know how to stream effectively.

Right now it’s mainly me, Wexiomatic, and Heavyweapons guy who stream the Featured games on the weekends.
So we’ll need more people! If you’re interested in helping, please read this little guide.

I mainly use FFSplit, which is basically like XSplit, I’ve also used OBS, but find it a bit wonky sometimes, but it still works.
You can download FFS here.

Before you start, please make sure your computer is capable of streaming. If I tried to stream using my old 200$ laptop from Walmart I used to have, my computer would probably burst into flames.
Right now my current specs for my laptop are

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
• 8 GB RAM

So I’m pretty good to run almost anything.
If you’re able to run League and most current gen games smoothly, you should be able to stream.

Let’s start with FFSplit. Oh, and make sure you sync up your Twitch account, or the Factions twitch account with your streaming device, for which you’ll need the stream key. To find your personal stream key if you want to stream using YOUR Twitch account, go to http://www.twitch.tv/dashboard while logged on. It should take you here:

If you want to stream on the Factions Twitch account, please ask 501st Big Mike for the stream key. I would have it but I’ve forgotten it a million times.

Go to Stream Key then Show Key. Now once FFSplit is installed, go to File > Options > Output
and insert your key where it says Stream Key, then click apply OR click Connect With Twitch to log into your account to sync it up. Now we’ll talk about each part of FFSplit.

Session:

You can have multiple profiles associated with your streaming device. Twitch, Hitbox, other streaming websites. I have one for LeagueFactions and my own person Twitch account, I mainly use the Factions one now. Also, test your upload speed like it says above. I’m in California and my ISP is Xfinity, so my current speeds are 
Which I think is pretty good. :P

Output:

Choose the profile you wish to use, rename the Factions one LeagueFactions or Factions, and your personal one whatever you want to keep track. My personal Twitch account is currently selected above. Output type should be Twitch.tv. Now choose the best sever for you, you can just use the Find Best Server button.

Encoder:

I would suggest using the same settings I use for the best streaming quality. You can also create multple Encoder Profiles to experiment with, but I just this one as my default one.

Capture:

I use my headset to talk and listen to others on Raidcall. So I have the Capture Playback as my headset and Capture Recording as Default (not sure if my headset is also default, I’ve just never changed it from Default Recording Device).
Push to talk you can use if you’re going to have a lot of background noise, so you just push a button if you want to talk.
You’ll notice I have Audio and Mic Boost set to 300%. Idk if it’s FFSplit, or something else, but when I had it at 0% or anything under 300% the audio was very quite and I couldn’t hear the shoutcasters or myself, so I played around with the audio and found this to work fine. So if your voice or casters are too quiet or loud, adjust these settings. I believe Audio is for INCOMING sound, eg: Shoutcasters in Raidcall, music player, League Client.
Mic is for sound coming from YOU. So if YOU are too loud or quiet, adjust the Mic. If the casters are too quiet or loud, adjust the Audio.

Misc:

Hotkeys I skipped because I have no use for them, and I don’t think you will either. Make sure to have your high end graphics card selected next to Video Adapter. I also use Monitor Capture, which as stated, captures everything shown on your monitor. So I don’t have to have the Windows Aero enabled. Only use Windows Aero for Window Capture.

This is what FFSplit looks like when I open it

I recommend using Monitor Capture mode, I’ve tried the other modes which are Region Capture and Windows Capture.
Didn’t have much luck with Region or Windows for whatever region, so I stick to Monitor. Unlike in OBS, there is no Game Capture mode, but go ahead and experiment with different modes if you’d like. And where it says OUT and MIC, OUT is Audio. I also have Enable Preview on at the top, which is why you see a million screens. :P
But yeah, hopefully all this will help if you decide to use FFSplit, just play around on your person Twitch account as well to get the hang of things. Next I’ll talk about OBS, I rarely use it, but it’s basically the same with the settings.

OBS:

Scenes basically let you have multiple things saved for different games if you plan to stream different stuff. League, Osu, Steam games, etc. (I think, idk wtf Scenes are)
So for now I have 1 Scene titled LeagueofLegends. Sources is where you can capture the game, window, monitor or other stuff. In the picture above I have Monitor Capture on, as you can see my desktop in the background, with another Source titled LeagueOfLegends, which is my Game Capture.

This is what it looks like with just Game Capture, all you see is the game Client.

Here you can see the different options for creating a Source. We explained what Window and Monitor Capture were in the FFSplit guide. Image is if you want to insert an image onto your stream, like those fancy overlays you see the popular Twitch streamers use. Text is for adding your own custom text onto your screen. Video Capture Device is for capturing your Webcam, like you also see Twitch streamers do.

Encoding:

This is my basic setup for the Encoder settings, I played around with it for a while, looked up guides, and this works the best for me.

Broadcast Settings:

Pretty much the same as FFSplit settings. Insert your Stream Key, select stream service, best location, etc.
You can choose between a Live Stream for Twitch, or to File Output Only under Mode which is just a local recording for uploading to Youtube or something.

Video:

I use this for my Video settings. I choose my high-end graphics card, set the resolution to the resolution of my screen, 30FPS, and I Disable Aero cause I use Monitor Capture. I think it’ll be fine if you use Game Capture as well. And apparently anything more than 30 FPS isn’t needed, and I’ve been fine using 30FPS for OBS or FFSplit.

Audio:

These are my Audio settings. Again, I use my headset so I have my headset used for Desktop and Microphone Audio Device. I suggest playing around with the volume settings, different headsets or computers might be louder or quieter than others. These are the settings that work best for me.

Advanced:

This has pretty much been untouched (I think). I can’t remember if I’ve fiddled around with the Advanced settings, but this is what I use.

Mircrophone Noise Gate:

I think this is the default settings you get with OBS. Don’t even know what this stuff does, but I haven’t touched it.

So there you have it. If you have any questions or need help with streaming, just leave a comment or ask me when I’m in Raidcall or the Factions chat room.