OBS Studio is an incredible piece of software, letting you stream, record, and do all manner
of crazy things absolutely free - though you certainly should support it.
BUT there's a lot of settings and options to dive through.
Today I wanted to point you towards 7 less-talked-about OBS settings that you should consider enabling,
or disabling I guess, to make your streaming life easier in this video sponsored by Nerd
or Die.
I'm EposVox, the Stream Professor, and I have countless videos on my channel about OBS and
streaming to help you get the most out of your tech - I have a new mini series coming
about explaining what little features in OBS actually do on a more technical level, as
there's a lot of misinformation out there about them - So hit the subscribe and notification
buttons so you can stay informed.
I'd consider this video a kind of intermediate guide to OBS, so if you're confused about
some of the basics, check out my OBS Master Class to get up to speed - but let's jump
in with setting #1: Automatically start the replay buffer (when you stream, and the like).
If you're unaware, OBS Studio has a neat feature that let's you keep a running recording going
but only save a specific chunk of time - useful for grabbing highlights or making instant
replays without cutting through long VODs.
I have a couple tutorials on this linked below.
But, unlike Nvidia Shadowplay, which you can have running basically at all times, OBS's
replay buffer doesn't just run as a system process, you have to manually start it.
Thankfully they've added a checkbox in the general Settings tab which allows the Replay
Buffer to automatically start whenever you hit "Start Streaming".
This way, you don't have to remember anything but to go live and hit your "save replay buffer"
hotkey whenever you want to save a clip, and always be ready to rock.
(And of course it works on AMD GPUs or Intel iGPUs, since it doesn't require a Nvidia GPU
like Shadowplay, as well, so there you go!)
Likewise, there's a checkbox to automatically start recording when you start streaming.
Because I haven't had this box checked (and because I was trying to save recording space
for the start of the stream) every stream I've done for the past...
6 months has had me pause about 5 minutes in and say "whoops I forget to hit start recording"
- WELL NO MORE!
This box makes sure you have your high quality local VOD always saved, useful for busy people
who don't remember everything like myself.
These first few settings have been hiding in the overlooked General Settings tab - options
that some of us just forget about over time, but I'll have some secrets at the end, too.
Organizing your sources on the OBS canvas can be pretty tedious - but thankfully in
past updates they've added snapping for sources so you can easily align your sources to the
edges of the canvas and other sources.
Unfortunately, not all snapping features are enabled by default.
In General settings again, make sure Source Alignment Snapping is even enabled in the
first place.
Here you can adjust the sensitivity for OBS to detect that a snap should happen, as well
as toggle edge or other source snapping.
The one that's often left unchecked is the "Snap Sources to horizontal and vertical center"
option, which can make things a LOT easier for centering and aligning sources, especially
bigger ones.
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Our last setting in the General tab has to do with Studio Mode.
Studio mode splits the OBS preview into a "Preview" and "Program" monitor view.
Program Monitor is the view currently shown on stream, while Preview lets you see the
next scene you wish to queue up.
This has no end of applications and is how most broadcast tools usually work - but OBS
lets you customize it a bit.
You can enable and disable labels to specifically identify which preview is which (which helps
for space saving if you don't need the labels) - but the big one is enabling vertical layout.
This puts the two previews on top of each other, which could help you get the exact
layout configuration you want in OBS (especially for those of you running OBS on a vertical
monitor).
You can also enable transitioning by double-clicking on that scene, which is a tad more accessible
with a quick action compared to clicking the specific transition button.
If you didn't know, to show the Studio Mode, click the "Studio Mode" button below the Start
and Stop streaming and recording buttons to show or hide it.
I'll have a whole video on optimizing your OBS layout coming soon - so get subscribed
for that one.
Let's jump to the Advanced tab now.
First and foremost: Automatically remux to MP4.
You should be recording everything in OBS to the .MKV container to prevent corruption
- Master Class episode linked below - but remembering to Remux to edit can be a pain.
With this checkbox, you can be certain everything you record gets auto-swapped to MP4 as soon
as you're done.
It doesn't take long since remuxing is effectively a file copy between containers, and is definitely
worth doing.
Unfortunately it does not auto-delete the MKV file after it's done remuxing (although
that's a safety measure in case remuxing doesn't work) so you will have to go in and delete
the MKV file after it's done making the MP4.
Second we have a kind of niche option that not everyone should use, but one that's helpful
for some in a pinch: Dynamic Bitrate changing.
This is a new-ish feature that's still technically in beta, BUT if you have a history of getting
bitrate fluctuations or frame drops due to networking issues - be it from an unreliable
ISP, being stuck on wi-fi, or random issues you still can't figure out - this checkbox
could save you.
This box attempts to lower your bitrate when OBS detects that your network can't keep up
with the bitrate you're trying to stream and raises it back up when things improve.
This means that yes, your quality will drop during low bitrate moments, but your framerate
will be more stable and you run less of a risk of disconnecting.
I'd only enable this feature if you need it, but it could be very helpful.
If you're having networking issues, you could also tinker with the "Enable network optimizations"
and "Enable TCP pacing" checkboxes as well.
Lastly, we have the big render lag fix that I made a huge deal about when it was first
implemented, but still not enough people know about.
If you're running OBS in a single PC streaming setup and you're streaming GPU-heavy tasks
- gaming, video editing, 3D work, etc. - run OBS as administrator.
The Windows team have finally cooperated and allowed OBS to reserve the graphics resources
it needs in real-time by running it as admin in Windows 10, helping it compete with everything
else.
This is an absolute MUST for many games like Apex Legends and Warzone, which absolutely
wreck your graphics performance and cause render lag even on modest settings and powerful
hardware.
If you're getting both encoding and rendering lag, it's likely that the encoding lag is
being caused BY the render lag.
You can't encode frames that were never rendered, after all, so try this fix before trying to
solve encoding lag.
It's worth noting that work is being done to phase out the need for this admin fix through
the "Hardware-accelerated Graphics Scheduler" option in newer Windows 10 (and Windows 11)
builds, but I have found disabling that and running OBS as Admin is still the best route
for now, there's still some work to be done on HAGS.
There you go: A bunch of hidden and less-talked-about OBS settings that can really help your efficiency
and execution of your stream.
What else do you want to know about OBS?
Join us on Discord at Discord.gg/eposvox and let's chat.
Remember: Be kind, rewind.