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Hey everyone
So I'd like to be streaming regularly now, as I now have my own KR account and I feel my playstyle is unique enough to benefit the community.
The problem is that every time I stream, it seems that my Internet goes to crap and my delay on the NA server goes to like 0.5-1 second. I've tried everything and some of my teammates/media people think that my computer is the limiting factor.
I currently run on an Asus U35JC laptop and would prefereably prefer to stay on this laptop (u can look up the specs if u want). However, I am open to new suggestions but I love this computer and I want to stay on it.
Tonight at 12 AM EST (midnight), I will be testing my stream and I welcome anyone and everyone to try to help me with my delay. I'll be testing out games on the NA server to try to stabilize there first. If necessary, I'll buy an SSD or a graphics card - there are many things I haven't tried.
If I can get it working with acceptable lag/delay, I offer those who help me the most - could be 1 person, could be up to 5 people - an hour of lessons each =).
THANKS!!!
-Victor
EDIT: i can upgrade 4 GB ram to 8 GB ram, can switch out for an SSD, etc..
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Is it internet lag or graphics lag? Do you know how to tell the difference between the two?
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Others with my Internet are fine with it. I'm going to hook up straight to the router via ethernet and will be using ping-test all the while.
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What program are you using to stream?
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I'd highly suggest trying out xsplit and justin.tv to stream if you aren't already. I have used fmle and VH capture a la Day9's tutorial (here) with every setting possible on ustream, justin and livestream, and I have found that not only is xsplit easier to use and lighter on system resources, but it generally produces a better-quality output image. It's in beta right now (read: you'll have to pay for it later so you may only use it temporarily) but as a quick fix it should show improvement if you were using fmle before.
Don't even bother with a 3rd party screen capture program (like VH capture) - use xsplit to natively capture your screen. Play with setting the affinities and priorities of your programs to your cpu cores (do you need sc2 has high priority, or can xsplit/fmle be higher? can you put xsplit/fmle on a different core?). Cut corners wherever you can, turn off any active antivirus, don't have your web browser open unless necessary, use a lightweight music program, overclock if you feel comfortable doing so, etc. Streaming at 15fps looks fine and you may even need to push lower than that. Cut as many corners as you can at first, get a stable environment, and then up settings or add programs as you feel necessary.
Edit: some clarifications - I suggest Justin.tv because xsplit keeps having problems with ustream for me.
Also, for sc2 graphics settings, try everything on the lowest settings except textures on medium, shaders on medium, and terrain on medium. It still looks pretty good in this way with minimal damage on system resources.
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Hyrule19033 Posts
I'm assuming U35JC-C1 just because it's the most powerful. You can try setting the processor affinity for SC2 and your encoder to different cores. That should help a bit. But it's really not strong enough to run a high quality stream.
If the lag is system lag or internet lag, there's other things too. If it's just internet lag, lower the bitrate of the video. If it's system lag, get a new computer.
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Hey Antimage, I've helped a lot of users set up a stream without hitch.
I personally use XSplit and Own3D.tv, but I suggest you use what you are comfortable with.
First and foremost, please give us your specs, mainly Your CPU RAM (I see we have it above) and Upload rate (found via Speedtest, the link is above in another post)
Cheers!
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Do the processor affinity changes and program priorities save every time I start up the programs?
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On March 01 2011 03:59 Antimage wrote:
Do the processor affinity changes and program priorities save every time I start up the programs?
No, you have to set it every time you start up the programs. One thing to doublecheck is, if you are using VHScreenCapture, there is an option called 'optimize desktop capture' or something like that which has to be off. Also, switching to FMLE2.5 will probably help if its a system resources thing as, for some reason, 2.5 is more cpu efficient than 3.1/3.2 and provides effectively the same functionality.
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On March 01 2011 03:59 Antimage wrote:
Do the processor affinity changes and program priorities save every time I start up the programs?
Try out different mixes of priorities and affinities to see what works best for you, then (assuming you're running windows) you can create a batch file that will launch the programs with the correct settings
+ Show Spoiler +I'll go in depth here in case others search and this thread shows up
an example batch file (.bat) might contain the following 2 lines:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Xsplit"
start /HIGH /AFFINITY 1 XSplit.Core.exe
In this example I installed Xsplit to C:\Program Files (x86)\Xsplit - that's the folder containing the executable I want
then /HIGH is the priority I picked (your options are /LOW, /NORMAL, /HIGH, /REALTIME, /ABOVENORMAL, /BELOWNORMAL), and /AFFINITY 1 sets the program's affinity to core 0 (I believe /AFFINITY N sets the program's affinity to cores N-bitwise, that is /AFFINITY 3 matches to cores 0 AND 1 since 3 turns into 0011, in any case you can experiment and check to see if you got it right by using the task manager)
I cannot get the start command to set priority/affinity if I include the /D modifier to supply the program's location (at least on windows 7), so I just cd to the location in the previous line
BIG FAT EDIT: I completely forgot that this will not work with SC2 because you have to start the sc2 launcher "Starcraft II.exe" (antihacking and checking for updates first) to get sc2.exe to actually run. This means the only batch file work-around here is to have IIS installed and use adsutil.vbs to change the affinity and a third party program like PV by Igor Nys that can change priority and handles comand-line calls. I.E. It's really messy, but still possible.
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Thanks! I'll try that as soon as I get home from work. Will test with some ppl b4 I go public :D
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Right, so I figured out a dirty workaround for sc2. It works for windows 7, and probably xp/vista (I'll edit this post if someone lets me know). It uses the following 2 programs which just have to run for a second when you run the .bat:
PV to change priority
ProcAff to change affinity
download both, unzip them to the same directory
make the following .bat file:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft II"
"StarCraft II.exe"
ping -n 5 127.0.0.1
cd "CHANGE THIS TO WHERE YOU PUT PV AND PROCAFF"
PV -ph SC2.exe
ProcAff /set 2 sc2.exe
Make sure to modify the fourth line. For example, it could read:
cd "C:\Users\YourName\ThatFolderWhereIDownloadedThosePrograms"
The 3rd line forces the batch file to wait 5 seconds, hopefully long enough for the starcraft II.exe launcher to finish it's job and launch sc2.exe so we can edit sc2.exe's priority and affinity. If 5 seconds isn't long enough (say for example, there's a patch or your computer hangs on starcraft II.exe because it's slow) then this won't work. You'll have to either do it manually or set the wait time to some absurd number.
On the last line, the 2 here sets the affinity to core 1 (since 2 hex is 0010 bitwise). So changing it to, say, 5 = 0101 would set the affinity to cores 0 and 2.
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My Sc2 froze a few times triyng to do this... can u make a step to step guide? :O
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EPT
