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Update (13th May 2011)
XSplit have released a better x264 encoder in their update package. The directions in this thread are no longer necessary, simply update to the latest XSplit version. More information: http://www.xsplit.com/blog.php?post_id=267
The content below is preserved for historical reasons only.
What?
I recently wrote a stream quality guide and lambasted XSplit for its lack of multi-core encoding which severely hinders performance on modern PCs that can execute 4 or 8 threads simultaneously. I was intrigued since XSplit uses x264, which is programmed to be multi-thread capable and decided to look into it further.
Turns out XSplit ships with an old x264 encoder which either doesn't support multithreading or it is turned off by default. Thankfully due to the wonders of API compatibility, we can simply drop in a replacement encoder and get full benefit from multi-core systems! Here are two videos highlighting the difference, encoded with the exact same xsplit settings - same bitrate, same FPS, same quality - only the modified encoder.
Preview Video
Here's a preview of the difference using fast action (Quake II) with hard-to-encode scenes (motion blur, quick camera switching, etc):
Old x264: http://www.mediafire.com/?vivb4c3dckabuy3
New x264: http://www.mediafire.com/?4wz96f7i84sk8cx
How To Install
0. Close XSplit.
1. Download libx264112.zip.
2. Rename libx264-112.dll in your C:\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\XSplit folder to libx264-112.dll.old
3. Extract the new libx264-112.dll to your C:\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\XSplit
That's it! Now when you encode with XSplit, it will use as many cores as necessary for a good quality video.
On my Core i5 2500k @ 4GHz, I am able to use the x264 "medium" preset - the same quality that our TSL VODs are encoded in - in realtime @ 720p30. Obviously results will vary once you throw SC2 into the mix, but for those of you who use XSplit on quad core and especially i7 CPUs, this should allow you to greatly increase quality on your stream (note that replacing this DLL won't actually improve quality by itself, it will allow you to set higher quality without running into single thread CPU limits).
Credits
The x264 encoder was taken from LoRd_MuldeR's libx264 for AVIDemux replacements (link). I have re-hosted it on TL to ensure a safe download.
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Holy shit, were you full screen on quake? I would love to stream quake!
No really though, this is amazing. EDIT: Just actually watched it, and DAMN what a difference.
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This is huge. Thanks for your continued help for all of the up and coming streamers out there.
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Thanks for this awesome find R1CH! Will be very interesting to test this out!
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Holy crap R1CH that is amazing. I noticed you mentioned i5 and i7 but I have an AMD Phenom II x4 955 (3.2GHz), would this help me out streaming at all? Although admittedly I never had any huge issues to begin with.
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Yeah it will help on any system quad core or higher.
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United States7481 Posts
I noticed this greatly increases the size of the file, presumably it also affects bandwidth use? How will this replacement affect people who are already streaming near their max upload speed?
edit: guess i should have downloaded the videos instead of just clicking the links lol
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On May 09 2011 08:11 Antoine wrote:
I noticed this greatly increases the size of the file, presumably it also affects bandwidth use? How will this replacement affect people who are already streaming near their max upload speed?
I recorded longer in the second video since I wasn't getting motion sickness. It's the exact same bitrate, just longer. You get to enjoy more awesome frags.
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One would wonder why the developers of such a popular program have not done this. So would you prefer xsplit with this fix over FMLE, R1CH?
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So there's nothing to adjust with this change? Is it just smoother or the capabilities better?
Also, do I have to readd this every patch?
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Thanks for this definatly gona use for my stream.
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On May 09 2011 08:15 lynx.oblige wrote:
One would wonder why the developers of such a popular program have not done this. So would you prefer xsplit with this fix over FMLE, R1CH?
I'm still disappointed with the full screen source scaling and lack of diagnostic information, but this makes it a lot better. Since it's x264 and not MainConcept, the quality from XSplit encodes should be much higher quality than FMLE.
On May 09 2011 08:18 Torte de Lini wrote:
So there's nothing to adjust with this change? Is it just smoother or the capabilities better?
Also, do I have to readd this every patch?
Most likely, since XSplit uninstalls and re-installs each patch.
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thanks rich 
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Have you had any time to fiddle with the quality 1-10 on xsplit? Im wondering how much of an impact it has.
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Would this be an improvement for a dual core machine?
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on a quad core system will you run into any problems running sc2 at the same time as xsplit if its attempting to use all 4 cores, or will it be smart about its usage?
either way big thanks!
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Wow just downlaoded it gonna try it now, really awesome! Thx for that!
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On May 09 2011 08:10 R1CH wrote:
Yeah it will help on any system quad core or higher.
I presume not very much on dual, if any, based on that quote but R1CH would know better.
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On May 09 2011 08:23 Vequeth wrote:
Have you had any time to fiddle with the quality 1-10 on xsplit? Im wondering how much of an impact it has.
The quality setting sets the CRF, which is then further capped by the VBR limit. CRF basically sets how many bits are assigned to each frame. It has a big impact, most people on quad core systems should be able to handle 5-10 easily though. It's more of a bitrate than a CPU thing, lower quality will result in lower bitrate.
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will people with only 2 cores benefit aswell?
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so my AMD Phenom II x4 955 Processor will actually come into play and I'll have a better stream!?! R1ch where is the donation button!!
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R1CH you are the man among men! Thanks for this!
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Thanks man this is awesome
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Dual cores will see little if any benefit, since SC2 will max one core and single threaded XSplit could easily max the other. If anything it might make things worse by having more threads competing for time slices.
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Catyoul
France2377 Posts
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Woo, thanks for this R1CH. Gonna get testing on it right away, if it shows a great benefit then my stream will look sexier for IPL 2 qualifiers this week. =)
I have a Sandybridge 2600K processor, so this should show quite an improvement if all goes well. =)
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Just tested it with Portal 2. Dont think will have much impact on SC2 for me, its running fine at 720p30fps. But Portal was really choppy before no it works just fine. really nice find =)
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This explains why Xsplit runs like SHIT on my computer I"m going to try this out.
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I notice that you mention encoding and vods, is this purely for the offline recording or does this apply for live streaming as well?
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On May 09 2011 08:52 Firkraag8 wrote:
I notice that you mention encoding and vods, is this purely for the offline recording or does this apply for live streaming as well?
I'm going to assume it's for livestreaming too because its all about how it runs...
I think.
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On May 09 2011 08:52 Firkraag8 wrote:
I notice that you mention encoding and vods, is this purely for the offline recording or does this apply for live streaming as well?
Both.
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Just tested it out, 100% runs better however my cpu fan starting going off the charts, and i run an i7 which is fairly capable ive never heard the cpu fan before since it handles everything really well. However this time it went nuts i turned off my stream in fear of burning it out, any comments or ways to stop this?
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Nice to see that getting an i7 actually has some use with gaming related tasks. Thanks for this R1CH. Already got it installed. Now how often do you think we will have to replace the file? Do you think it's something that will have to be redone every time xsplit released a patch? I understand it's impossible to tell. I'm going to try setting the file to read only for now.
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On May 09 2011 09:01 MrJargon wrote:
Just tested it out, 100% runs better however my cpu fan starting going off the charts, and i run an i7 which is fairly capable ive never heard the cpu fan before since it handles everything really well. However this time it went nuts i turned off my stream in fear of burning it out, any comments or ways to stop this?
If you have higher CPU usage it will heat up more and the cooler has more work. So if u have a Stock Cooler(they are most of the times pretty loud at full speed) and are annoyed by the sound just get a better cooler and your fine.
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Also probably prudent to mention that the first gen i7's run quite damn hot, and arent rated to as high of temperatures as some of the earlier quad core bins. I'd recommend a Noctua cooler for silence + performance if it ends up getting on your nerves. Perhaps try downloading a program like Coretemp, and monitoring the temperatures. The general rule is that 80 degrees is the worry threshold for first gen i7's.
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rich, your talent is undeniable. Thank you so much, you are an asset to this site, community, and fuck it... the internet in general.
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On May 09 2011 08:34 R1CH wrote:
Dual cores will see little if any benefit, since SC2 will max one core and single threaded XSplit could easily max the other. If anything it might make things worse by having more threads competing for time slices.
If they support hyperthreading (I think core2duos do?) they'll might still see some benefit. A hyperthreaded dual core CPU looks like 4 processors to the OS, though the speed benefit is not nearly as great as a true 4 core processor. And of course the particular algorithms used for video encoding, and their implementation, may not benefit from hyperthreading trickery.
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Dear R1CH,
Since I started casting/streaming games, I've been on an endless odyssey to find a x264 CUDA/OpenCL encoder. I asked the xSplit guys a while a ago and they said:
This is not currently something we can do right now. Currently there only few implementations of GPU based encoders and none of them seem to have good results. Currently we are using the x264 library for encoding. If x264 may at some point in time in the future support GPU based encoding this is something that we could redily provide support for. Sauce: http://www.xsplit.com/requestDetails.php?requestID=2111&page_name=requests
Since they missed the new x264 encoder, maybe they missed a decent CUDA encoder. Have you heard anything?
- B.Cat
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Simply amazing, great find!! I stream with FME, is xsplit superior to the quality and tweakability?
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x264 which XSplit uses is superior to the MainConcept encoder used by FMLE. However XSplit lacks good diagnostic information such as FPS, input / output drops and buffer lengths which can make it hard to tell if your stream is working properly, as well as suffering from a bug which causes all input to become slightly blurry. XSplit is leaning towards being more tweakable now it supports ffmpeg style x264 presets.
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Now if only bandwidth wasn't a huge limitation =(
Thanks so much regardless!
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GJ R1CH, could you post a screenshot of your exact settings that you use to stream at 720p30? Do you normally use the Xpslit broadcaster or just the codec and something else? I have a solid CPU (i5 2500k that I can OC to 4.8 stable) and a solid connection (6Mbps UL according to speedtest although I think its closer to 4Mbps) so I want to see how far I can push my stream. Thanks.
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On May 09 2011 09:27 chameleonism wrote:
GJ R1CH, could you post a screenshot of your exact settings that you use to stream at 720p30? Do you normally use the Xpslit broadcaster or just the codec and something else? I have a solid CPU (i5 2500k that I can OC to 4.8 stable) and a solid connection (6Mbps UL according to speedtest although I think its closer to 4Mbps) so I want to see how far I can push my stream. Thanks.
Quality 10, x264 preset "medium", 1280x70, 30fps, 3000kbps bitrate (you should probably lower this, was testing with VODs). No layered window, no Skype, Aero disabled. CPU usage was around 80% over 4 cores, not sure how well this will work with SC2 eating 20-40%.
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hmm, I have an i5 4 core processor; so this should of had some sort of effect, but it didn't.
Now that I think of it, the only thing that seemed to effect the quality on my stream when I tweak the settings is changing the output resolution :/
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Cheers Rich, you are a boss. Just came off doing a test, noticeable quality improvement, no framerate drop on Quality 6 - Slow encoder setting. Sadly I can't go to 7 on this connection or higher or it'll drop frames like a boss :[ but it does look much better, thanks!
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Wow awesome find R1CH! My AMD quad core I bought 2 years ago is finally paying off. :D
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Holy crap. The Wizard strikes again.
The difference between those 2 videos is astounding.
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Like R1CH said the bitrate can be significantly lower if you try and run a 3k bitrate stream it will be mostly unwatchable for a lot of people.
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Thanks for this great discovery!
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What can this man not do... Thanks!
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R1CH I love you man! This is awesome.
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You're some kind of wizard. This is awesome.
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Can't believe they were using an old encoder like that. I only have a core 2 duo so I would never have noticed. Thanks for letting everyone know!
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How much of a difference does the preset make in Xsplit?
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I'm assuming this will affect performance of hyperthreaded dual core processors as well as true quad core processors?
Regardless, this is pretty awesome. We better see epic quality streams from now on 
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What the heck, now I want to play Q2, lol. That is really cool though, nice work.
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On May 09 2011 11:19 scottyyy wrote:
How much of a difference does the preset make in Xsplit?
I'm not sure what the default "XSplit" preset is, but you should definitely use one of the medium / slow / fast / ultrafast / etc presets as these are standardized settings made by people who know exactly how the codec works and provide the best quality / speed tradeoffs. For clarity, the "presets" apply to internal configuration of the x264 codec, they don't affect any XSplit options.
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This is brilliant, thanks a ton R1CH! Also commenting on here so I can find this later
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Thanks R1CH I went from 720p to 1080p (mainly for Epeen reasons)
Not sure if it looks any better, but definitely taking advantage of my 6 cores better (1090T).
Freaking amazing.
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R1CH, you're amazing. Also sharing the same name is pretty cool. So from one Rich to another, awesome work and I'm definitely hoping you look into more live streaming programs in the future!
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On May 09 2011 11:35 Vincere wrote:
Thanks R1CH I went from 720p to 1080p (mainly for Epeen reasons)
Not sure if it looks any better, but definitely taking advantage of my 6 cores better (1090T).
Freaking amazing.
Really shouldn't bump up resolution just because you can compress better, you're still going to run on limited bandwidth. Streaming wise off a ABR quickly encoded i would probably run 2k-3k kbits then double that for 1080p to maintain quality at erratic screen changes like you would in a game. You don't really need such large resolutions Xx144p scaled up like 1024x576 are good resolutions, the bigger the screen the more bit rate required to maintain quality, lower resolution the fuzzier the picture people should find the balance that they can run a stream that doesn't turn to shit at fast screen changes.
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Will this also help out hyperthreaded i7's more than processors with only 4 threads?
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Wizardry shenanigans... there is always a price to pay in the end i tell you what!
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I noticed an increase in performance while playing SC2, but if I play stream and turn on WoW xsplit just crashes with no error box or anything, it just closes as soon as I go into WoW. I have an AMD 955 BE, windows 7. Any ideas how to fix or why it does this?
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On May 09 2011 09:32 R1CH wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2011 09:27 chameleonism wrote:
GJ R1CH, could you post a screenshot of your exact settings that you use to stream at 720p30? Do you normally use the Xpslit broadcaster or just the codec and something else? I have a solid CPU (i5 2500k that I can OC to 4.8 stable) and a solid connection (6Mbps UL according to speedtest although I think its closer to 4Mbps) so I want to see how far I can push my stream. Thanks. Quality 10, x264 preset "medium", 1280x70, 30fps, 3000kbps bitrate (you should probably lower this, was testing with VODs). No layered window, no Skype, Aero disabled. CPU usage was around 80% over 4 cores, not sure how well this will work with SC2 eating 20-40%.
Wondering a couple things rich:
1: You mention no skype... does skype somehow interfere with streams or add lag of some sort? I often run skype while streaming and am sometimes in a skype call with people (especially when co-casting a tournament for example). Would there be improvement using something like teamspeak for this instead? Is there something specific about skype that lags the system or something?
2: I've been using VHMultiCam and FME 2.5 for a while now with some minor issues but for the most part some decent success. I've been hesitant to even try XSplit as I've been told it completely messes up your VHMultiCam config/install and thus I'd have to reconfigure everything if I decided I didn't like it and wanted to go back to VHM. Is XSplit superior enough to VHM to warrant the switch? Does it have the same functionality and customizability (i.e. I like the features to be able to add images on top of the stream, have 12 different presets to switch between, add my webcam on top, and fade between the presets)?
3: When I cast the TL Open from the TL House you guys were using VHMultiCam (tho granted using a capture card so you didn't have the resource hog of VHScrCap) on the streaming computer. Have you since switched to XSplit? Or if you're still using VHMultiCam on that one but using XSplit for personal streaming, what's the reason to keep VHM on the TL Streaming computer?
Thanks in advance!
<3 u wizard ^^
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Australia7069 Posts
What do the slower/medium/faster etc mean? What gives better quality? Slower?
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On May 09 2011 13:59 -orb- wrote:
Wondering a couple things rich:
1: You mention no skype... does skype somehow interfere with streams or add lag of some sort? I often run skype while streaming and am sometimes in a skype call with people (especially when co-casting a tournament for example). Would there be improvement using something like teamspeak for this instead? Is there something specific about skype that lags the system or something?
Skype itself is a pretty big CPU hog with all the bloated theming and codecs it uses. It wasn't designed as a low impact VoIP program whereas things like Ventrilo / TeamSpeak / Mumble are. XSplit can also integrate with Skype via the settings option, which I was referring to the fact I had turned off.
On May 09 2011 13:59 -orb- wrote:
2: I've been using VHMultiCam and FME 2.5 for a while now with some minor issues but for the most part some decent success. I've been hesitant to even try XSplit as I've been told it completely messes up your VHMultiCam config/install and thus I'd have to reconfigure everything if I decided I didn't like it and wanted to go back to VHM. Is XSplit superior enough to VHM to warrant the switch? Does it have the same functionality and customizability (i.e. I like the features to be able to add images on top of the stream, have 12 different presets to switch between, add my webcam on top, and fade between the presets)?
XSplit will destroy VHScrCap and Multicam on install. Up until now I've been reluctant to use XSplit due to it's poor encoding performance and the fact it requires login and has had unstable login services, thus the lightweight nature of Multicam combined with FMLE was ideal. XSplit is beginning to improve upon Multicam features though like supporting transparent images, more scaling and better video options. XSplit can still act as a DirectShow source to applications like FMLE so you don't lose too much by trying it, and Multicam also suffers from the same scaling bug that blurs everything so you don't get any quality loss. At worst you won't lose any features by switching.
On May 09 2011 13:59 -orb- wrote:
3: When I cast the TL Open from the TL House you guys were using VHMultiCam (tho granted using a capture card so you didn't have the resource hog of VHScrCap) on the streaming computer. Have you since switched to XSplit? Or if you're still using VHMultiCam on that one but using XSplit for personal streaming, what's the reason to keep VHM on the TL Streaming computer?
Currently, "because it works". We don't want to mess around too much with the streaming setup with important events such as the TSL3 finals coming up. After TSL3 I'll definitely be playing around and running XSplit for events like TL Attack (although there's an outstanding bug with XSplit desynching with the specific capture card we use somehow).
XSplit's biggest overhead seems to be the scene effects, even with an empty scene it can eat up 15% CPU which is almost an entire core. I don't know what they did vs Multicam in this regard but it doesn't seem right (wouldn't surprise me if the ugly skinned interface was to blame somehow). This kind of mitigates some of the benefits, I'd ideally like to try it with DXTory or some other method that doesn't involve GDI screen capture.
On May 09 2011 14:00 Kiante wrote:
What do the slower/medium/faster etc mean? What gives better quality? Slower?
Yes. The preset names refer to how much time the codec spends making a frame. Slower means it spends more time encoding so it can produce a better quality image, but produces overall less FPS, it's not really designed for live streaming. For live streaming you probably don't want to try anything slower than medium or fast.
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United States17042 Posts
This is awesome R1ch thanks
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Just edited almost all my settings thanks to R1CH's input and knowledge (which appears to be endless, naturally!)
Here are my computer/internet specs: AMD Phenom x4 965 (Quad-core, 3.4 GHz) - 2.08 upload rate.
I set the following: - Present: Medium,
- Quality 10
- Bitrate: 1,200
- Buffer: 300
- 25 FPS
- 1280 x 720 resolution
Hope this helps those in a similar standing.
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Hello,
R1CH, please. Make a new R1Q2 =D
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R1CH, this is just freakin' awesome. Thanks a lot for this great find.
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Got a pretty significant performance increase for my PC (AMD 555 3.5GHz (OC) with 3 cores unlocked) using this.
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What would TL do without you?
Thanks for this tip, hopefully I can now stream in 1080p instead of 720p. Looking forward to see the stream quality of the progamers rise too, although I fear that they often don't have the necessary bandwith.
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Working amazing so far on my laptop. TY.
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I love you for this, R1CH, thank you so much! <3
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R1CH is like a god, except he answers to prayers :D
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wow great, gonna try this tonight. Any clue if this will give a good performance increase on a i5 2500k stock speed?
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On May 09 2011 20:54 adelise wrote:
wow great, gonna try this tonight. Any clue if this will give a good performance increase on a i5 2500k stock speed?
Why would you have a 2500k at stock speed? To overclock you need to change literally one value in the BIOS.
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damn R1CH.
Thanks alot for this, you are a hero :D
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awesome! Does this only affect xsplits internal capturing methods or will this also improve performance when you use dxtory or scfh?
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On May 09 2011 21:03 scottyyy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2011 20:54 adelise wrote:
wow great, gonna try this tonight. Any clue if this will give a good performance increase on a i5 2500k stock speed? Why would you have a 2500k at stock speed? To overclock you need to change literally one value in the BIOS.
Stock cooler.. no money for a new one yet
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I have a decent machine but nothing top of the market. Changing this file and nothing else results in a quality loss for me when jumping around. For example if I were to click another part on the mini-map I'll experience a split second of fuzzyness in the video that does not exist otherwise.
CPU: Phenom II X4 945
Sidenote: No FPS drops.
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On May 09 2011 21:58 adelise wrote:Show nested quote +On May 09 2011 21:03 scottyyy wrote:On May 09 2011 20:54 adelise wrote:
wow great, gonna try this tonight. Any clue if this will give a good performance increase on a i5 2500k stock speed? Why would you have a 2500k at stock speed? To overclock you need to change literally one value in the BIOS. Stock cooler.. no money for a new one yet
Stock cooler is still adequate at getting the 2500k to a decent overclock without risking overheating. You could overclock to 4.0 and you would be perfectly fine.
Staying on topic though, I will definitely try this fix and see if helps improve my stream. Thanks!
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If I don't have an i(x) processor will this still improve my stream quality?
My processor is (copy pasted): Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
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As someone that plays and streams, this is actually owning my in game fps. I get more fps just spectating and not hitting any keys. But as soon as I start to apm spam, my fps drops to like 2-3
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On May 10 2011 00:21 Thaniri wrote:
If I don't have an i(x) processor will this still improve my stream quality?
My processor is (copy pasted): Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8300 @ 2.50GHz 2.50 GHz
Any system with more than 2 CPUs will benefit. Yours has 4, so it's likely that you get better performance.
It's still always a good idea to test yourself, as the amount of hardware configurations for PCs makes definitive answers very hard.
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I think my performance is worse now. There's no performance boost at least.
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (not overclocked)
4 Gig RAM
Radeon HD 5870
1MB/s Upload (set to 650 kB/s in xsplit)
There's not much i could've done wrong so why won't this thing work for me? 
/edit
Infact the game gets really laggy now when there are many units on the field.
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On May 10 2011 02:02 Elzar wrote:I think my performance is worse now. There's no performance boost at least. AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (not overclocked) 4 Gig RAM Radeon HD 5870 1MB/s Upload (set to 650 kB/s in xsplit) There's not much i could've done wrong so why won't this thing work for me? /edit Infact the game gets really laggy now when there are many units on the field.
It is possible that the SC2 processes and the xsplit processes fight for the same cores. It is likely that other processes running on your system are blocking the cores. Try to set the affinity for the SC2 and the xsplit process each to different cores and check if it improves.
Also, check if you have unneccessary programs running that slow down your system.
Also: Do you record the videos? It might be that the encoding is now too fast and your HDD becomes a new bottleneck that is slowing the whole system.
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Thanks for the quick response.
It is possible that the SC2 processes and the xsplit processes fight for the same cores. It is likely that other processes running on your system are blocking the cores. Try to set the affinity for the SC2 and the xsplit process each to different cores and check if it improves.
Only thing i have running besides xsplit and SC2 is Xchat (IRC) with almost no CPU usage, Firefox and Winamp.
I didn't have those lags when i used the old .dll (including Firefox + Winamp running) so i dont know why the new .dll now slows down my system, but i'll try to set the affinity for SC2 on Core 1 + 2 and Xsplit on Core 3 + 4.
Also: Do you record the videos? It might be that the encoding is now too fast and your HDD becomes a new bottleneck that is slowing the whole system.
I dont record.
//edit
i'll try to set the affinity for SC2 on Core 1 + 2 and Xsplit on Core 3 + 4.
Didnt change anything.
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It says access denied when I try to extract the file to the Xplit folder... I am the administrator on my computer, can someone help?
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On May 10 2011 03:39 Axeltoss wrote:
It says access denied when I try to extract the file to the Xplit folder... I am the administrator on my computer, can someone help?
extract file to your desktop, then copy and paste the file into the Xsplit folder, then delete the archive file.
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Thanks for all the answers rich!
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Hyrule19057 Posts
On May 10 2011 02:30 Elzar wrote:Thanks for the quick response. Show nested quote +
It is possible that the SC2 processes and the xsplit processes fight for the same cores. It is likely that other processes running on your system are blocking the cores. Try to set the affinity for the SC2 and the xsplit process each to different cores and check if it improves.
Only thing i have running besides xsplit and SC2 is Xchat (IRC) with almost no CPU usage, Firefox and Winamp. I didn't have those lags when i used the old .dll (including Firefox + Winamp running) so i dont know why the new .dll now slows down my system, but i'll try to set the affinity for SC2 on Core 1 + 2 and Xsplit on Core 3 + 4. Show nested quote +Also: Do you record the videos? It might be that the encoding is now too fast and your HDD becomes a new bottleneck that is slowing the whole system. I dont record. //edit Show nested quote +i'll try to set the affinity for SC2 on Core 1 + 2 and Xsplit on Core 3 + 4. Didnt change anything. It's "lagging" because the newer version of the encoder uses more of your CPU power, leaving everything else with less.
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Ok, now i get it.
I think i might have misunderstood R1CH then.
Thx tofucake.
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R1CH, you're the man!
Splitmedialabs should pay for for improving their product. (if they would earn sth from it)
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Thanks alot for this
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Using a newer version of x264 should significantly improve performance even on the same number of cores. It's under regular development and there have been quite a few improvements, including mbtree (which is amazing)!
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United States10654 Posts
On May 09 2011 15:15 desrow wrote:so i never had any problem with xsplit heres a VOD http://www.justin.tv/desrowfighting/b/285344201if u go to 2part u see sc2 i can run everything on high just got tired of watching high graphics dunno if this "thing" is worth the time..
Well it's just less stressful on a single CPU core. It takes about thirty seconds and has no downside.
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Recorded 3 test videos with the following settings. Hope this will help out many other cable users.
i5 2500K (Stock)
8GB RAM
1920x1080 -> 720@25 stream
15mbps down / ~1.5mbps up
Image comparisons: http://min.us/mbtSyonCe2J5eX#1
TEST 1:
VIDEO ENCODING:
XSplit default x.264
Quality 7
kbps 950
buffer 1850
Res: Default
AUDIO:
44.1
96000 MP3
Mic 100%
FPS: 40 START, ~30
CPU: 50-60% ALL CORES
-========-
TEST 2:
-=(Note: Bit of stream lag)
VIDEO ENCODING:
fast x.264
Quality 10
kbps 1200
buffer 2800
Res: Default
AUDIO:
44.1
96000 MP3
Mic 100%
FPS: same
CPU: 55-65%
-======-
TEST 3:
-=(Note: Earlier Stream lag gone!)
VIDEO ENCODING:
fast x.264 (Replaced libx264-112.dll to your C:\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\XSplit)
Quality 10
kbps 1200
buffer 2800
Res: Default
AUDIO:
44.1
96000 MP3
FPS: same
CPU: 60-85%
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I am using a duo core i3 oc'ed to 3.5ghz. I've noticed a significant fps improvement using this update. Thanks!
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I've tried the same settings with TF2 and it works awful. Granted, it worked awful before on my dual core, but I was wondering if there was any reason for this too?
It feels like 12 fps in game although I get 120.
I even reduced quality to 7 and kbps to 800 out of 1500 max.
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incredible, I used to not be able to stream L4D2 or Portal 2, it would be incredibly choppy and un-enjoyable, even with my 1090t x6 at 3.8 and everything, replaced that file and ran MW2 (much more graphically intense) and it ran silky smooth
Good find, thanks for posting.
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Well, for what its worth Xvid is the second best video encoder quality wise, and is also EXTREMELY efficient in cpu use, so possible alternative to the megahog of x264
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Dam. Thanks again, I will be testing to see how much it gets better later today on my stream.
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On May 10 2011 20:04 xarthaz wrote:
Well, for what its worth Xvid is the second best video encoder quality wise, and is also EXTREMELY efficient in cpu use, so possible alternative to the megahog of x264
How do i get xsplit to use the Xvid encoder?
Is this even possible?
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The ffdshow codec pack has it, not sure if it works with xsplit but camtasia and hypercam detected it
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Does it works only on 4 core + ? What about 2 cores ?
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Thank you very much for this guide Rich. I'm an xsplit user myself, so anything that can increase the quality of video using resources that should be available in the first place is greatly appreciated. I'm at work at the moment, but I'm very excited to get home and try this out.
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R1CH... I love you, thanks much!
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I've tried using DXTory to do the capturing and it seems to be significantly slower then just using Xsplit by itself.
Xsplit was capturing at 30-40fps and DXtory would be 20-30fps.
Maybe i'm doing something wrong but I doubt it.
System:
i7-2600K not-OC'd
4GB 1333-ram
Geforce 8800 GTX
All game settings on Low.
Not sure what i'm doing wrong with DXtory I set its video settings for the outputs to 1920x1080 60fps.
I output at 720p 15fps, vid 850 kbps sound 64kbps, preset Slow.
I'll try to do some more indepth testing somehow with vod'ing or something later on. I feel my G-card and inet upload(1mb) is my bottle necks.
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when i try to do this i get this message:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N5GkB.png)
use google translate from Norwegian to your language to translate it.
I would love to get some help on this, because i am supposed to stream some clan stuff.
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On May 11 2011 00:58 Adeeler wrote:
I've tried using DXTory to do the capturing and it seems to be significantly slower then just using Xsplit by itself.
Xsplit was capturing at 30-40fps and DXtory would be 20-30fps.
Maybe i'm doing something wrong but I doubt it.
System:
i7-2600K not-OC'd
4GB 1333-ram
Geforce 8800 GTX
All game settings on Low.
Not sure what i'm doing wrong with DXtory I set its video settings for the outputs to 1920x1080 60fps.
I output at 720p 15fps, vid 850 kbps sound 64kbps, preset Slow.
I'll try to do some more indepth testing somehow with vod'ing or something later on. I feel my G-card and inet upload(1mb) is my bottle necks.
change preset from slow to standard/faster and try again (this lowers quality but is less heavy on your cpu).
i have an oced i7 920 @ 3.6 ghz and using the modded x264 that r1ch posted with the slow option pushes my cpu @ 60%
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I'm running my preset on veryfast and there's no noticeable quality change and the framerate runs fine. Just experiment with it, I have veryfast with a quality of 10 and it looks just fine.
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OH boy, i gotta test this - thanks!
edit: yes this certainly has helped my computer's performance when streaming. thanks r1ch
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I'm having some fps issues while streaming but they're not constant, every now and then i notice a drop in fps and then it goes back to normal which is smooth. I've tried changing settings within xsplit and nothing seems to help. :/
Specs:
i7 920 @ 2.6 (yeh stock cooling ;p)
12GB DDR3 RAM
Dual 260GTX SLI'd
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On May 11 2011 03:57 r1val wrote:
I'm having some fps issues while streaming but they're not constant, every now and then i notice a drop in fps and then it goes back to normal which is smooth. I've tried changing settings within xsplit and nothing seems to help. :/
Specs:
i7 920 @ 2.6 (yeh stock cooling ;p)
12GB DDR3 RAM
Dual 260GTX SLI'd
Sure its not a CPU issue? I have the same CPU as you do, and i remember having some performance issues when i ran at stock.
I was able to OC my 920 to 3.2 with the stock cooler, running at 65-70c at full load.
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On May 11 2011 00:59 AsBan wrote:when i try to do this i get this message: use google translate from Norwegian to your language to translate it. I would love to get some help on this, because i am supposed to stream some clan stuff.
yeah i got that just extract into My Documents and than manually take the file into C:\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\XSplit and it should work fine
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Thanks R1CH! Helps a ton!
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On May 10 2011 02:02 Elzar wrote:I think my performance is worse now. There's no performance boost at least. AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (not overclocked) 4 Gig RAM Radeon HD 5870 1MB/s Upload (set to 650 kB/s in xsplit) There's not much i could've done wrong so why won't this thing work for me? /edit Infact the game gets really laggy now when there are many units on the field. similar results here, i have an X4 940 BE not OCd (3.0ghz) an HD 5770, 4 GB ram, good connection. Can't see any difference in performance, still a bit choppy.
I'm pretty sure I've done everything right, low cpu usage without xsplit, no programs running really. With xsplit + SC2 my cpu usage is almost maxed though so i'm guessing that's the problem.
any pro tips from you gurus? I'm going to take a stab at OCing after my finals this week, maybe that will help
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Nexic, i wouldn't try to overclock if you have the supplied CPU fan.
At least that's what i read about the Phenom II X4 955 BE, not sure if this applies to the X4 940 BE.
But you're right, it would be nice if someone could comment on our problem.
tofucake said earlier to me, my CPU isn't powerful enough to profit from the new .dll
Is 3,2 GHz really not enough?
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yeah i guess i shouldnt have been so cheap upgrading my pc last summer ;_;
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On May 12 2011 18:24 Elzar wrote:Nexic, i wouldn't try to overclock if you have the supplied CPU fan. At least that's what i read about the Phenom II X4 955 BE, not sure if this applies to the X4 940 BE. But you're right, it would be nice if someone could comment on our problem. tofucake said earlier to me, my CPU isn't powerful enough to profit from the new .dll Is 3,2 GHz really not enough?
based on what R1CH has said its a case of how you're core usage is that the moment. try using the old file and watch how you're core usage is split between them. if its fairly balanced already then this change wont help / will make things worse.
if you have an almost idle core while running sc + xsplit this should be helping you.
its also worth reading rich's other topics on setting up xsplit and stuff for you're pc.
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Just checked and there are no idle or underutilized cores (running with the old .dll).
So that's why i dont get any performance boost. =)
its also worth reading rich's other topics on setting up xsplit and stuff for you're pc.
I'll look into them.
Thx turdburgler.
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Thank you R1CH you sick wizard !
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you sir, beat me.
yea Thanks to TeamLiquid on xsplit ! nice.
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Do you, or anyone else by any chance know if xsplit website is down for you guys?
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damn now I really wanna play Quake! Thanks, this is great!
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The T3 beta encoder sadly has colors all whacked in my stream, so I have to stick with T2 + dll from this thread.
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@dtox you mean its worse than the one (dll) here in TL?
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Made streaming while playing WoW terrible performance wise. I'm only getting 30 game fps now when i use to get 50-60 fps. Playing SC2 is great though. I got an AMD 955.
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So, with the new update, do we still use this DLL?
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I run an Quad core 2.5 ghz with 0.36 uplaod rate, it lags in game if i allow it to use multiple core and if i don't i get lag on the stream, please help
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On May 25 2011 17:55 The.Doctor wrote:
So, with the new update, do we still use this DLL?
no, with the new update I believe they fixed it and using the proper DLL
and I can confirm this cause my stream IS 400% more better then it has ever been using XSplit. It's awesome =D.
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No changes here as well.. It seems it is still choppy ingame while streaming.
And I think it has actually become worse with the new update..
My settings are:
Core i7 930
GFX HD5850
6GB Corsair XMS3
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The new Tier 2 / Tier 3 is lagging for me as well.
Maybe you shouldn't install those.
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With the BETA 3 this is included by default anyway.
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Hello. Is ther any reason to still use this or is it pointless if you are using the latest version?
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Xsplit updated their Xsplit encoder shortly after I released this, so there is little reason to use it any more.
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EPT
