Hey guys!

So, in the past I used a high picmip to make the stream clean and simple. Easier to see enemies and items = easier for viewers to understand what's happening (especially non-qw'ers).

However, I then decided that the textures that I have look way better. Here comes the problem;

While streaming, you are constantly transmitting data at a set number called bitrate. If your bitrate is too low, the stream tends to get grainy when a lot of things are happening on the screen. With QuakeWorld being such a fast game, texture quality suffers when you have a limited bitrate.

I stream at 3500kb/s, which is the maximum that Twitch allows. Anything above that is considered abuse of their bandwidth. While 3500kb/s is already pretty high in streaming terms (high quality streams are usually only 2000-3000kb/s as more isn't needed), it is not enough for the fast pace of QuakeWorld. Yesterday we even recieved complains of "bad quality stream" even though the stream is 1080p, 60fps and 3500kb/s. This is the highest possible quality achievable on Twitch. The stream still gets grainy when using nice textures.

So, I need advice as to what a solution could be. Remove textures? Start lego-quaking? Get other textures which are not AS crisp as the ones I have?

I don't know about lego textures... I don't think that would fit a stream setup, and viewers from other games would call it minecraft. Removing textures altogether is essentially what I did in the past, and some people were not happy about that and I can't really say I was either. So the only solution I can think of would be to get other textures that are 'lower quality' than the ones I have. Does such a thing exist?

Or I could just let the viewers live with the grainyness, but that's very sub-optimal.

Please help me, I need ideas!

/andeh

What encoder settings to you use? I assume you are using OBS? Then there should be the possibility to use custom x264 parameters.. may give a few percent of improvement.. however depending on what you set there it may not work with Twitch's system. Could be some try and error task. Also 1080p60 with high x264 settings may require a hell of a cpu..

Have you tried scaling down to 1280x720 and see if it still looks good, more fluid with less blatant pixelation?

Setting the x264 CPU Preset lower increases quality on my stream, but I do have a weak internet compared to yours. I can't even watch most streams on source, as there comes a massive lag when I view high bit rate videos.
60 FPS seems like a lot, perhaps lowering both x264 and FPS would yield better results?

That's what I used in the past, but with upgraded hardware I now want to provide a 1080p stream. 720p streams feel so 2010.

@Tuna: Right, but I'm pretty sure Twitch won't cooperate about that. Changing anything gives huge warnings on your channel that something is wrong. Not sure what to do.

@Ocoini: Not sure you understood what I said. The quality is top notch, the best quality you are allowed to stream to Twitch in. The problem is that QuakeWorld is too fast of a game. I'm trying to find a way to get around that...

EDIT: Maybe I should mention that if I record locally at around 6000kb/s it starts looking pretty much as if you were playing yourself. 3500kb/s just isn't enough...

(Edited 2015-09-22, 01:11)

720p with HD textures is ur best shot, I guess.

So what you are saying is that NO QuakeWorld stream is ever going to be able to have 1080p with good-looking textures without getting grainy?

I am not bottlenecked on neither CPU nor internet connection.

I don't know, but it also might be related to the 'native' high fps rate of quakeworld and how the streaming software constrains it to 60fps. You could try setting max_fps to 60 on ezquake and test.

In the other hand, if we are talking about bandwidth restrictions on the streaming server, is 60kbps (3500 / 60) enough to render an incredibly well compressed HD image frame with sounds?

I think what ocoini suggested gives more time for encoding, which means higher quality. The recommended setting is "Very fast" (or similar) though and it may be that twitch complains about it if changed. Image definitely looked more clear while moving when testing it locally.

You may get some data reduction for free when using gl_picmip, I managed to reduce the size of an png screenshot 1920x1080 with 24bit textures from 2.4 mb to 2.0 mb with gl_picmip 3 while the visual difference is hardly noticable.

Yeah, it never got grainy in the past when I used picmip on the stream. I just wish there was a way to use HD textures without it being grainy... I'll test some with the CPU presets and see if I can make it better.

hey andy... i saw in ur stream ur water was see through as in transparent..... how is that possible? pretty good u can see ppl in the water

Don't remember the command by heart... Only available from QTV though.

Yes, I mean quality on " fast motion"

From my research/googling: Mainly the quality in fast motion in obse comes from higher bitrate/buffer, and so QW is pretty much screwed in general, as many people are unable to watch source quality with high bit rate if they are watching it in a browser.

Another option could be to use Flash Media Encoder - and testing a gazillion different video codecs and maybe striking gold :\

I think the quality on your stream is pretty good though, even when i watch it on medium. But I am very used to the grain. ( http://www.twitch.tv/ocoini/v/17312111 Perhaps simply explaining to the viewers why there is grain is something to consider. Before I left on sunday I did manage to roughly explain it to one person on the stream chat, and he at least seemed to be understanding =)