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Edit history:
mikwuyma: 2010-08-03 04:47:09 pm
spread the dirt to the populace
So, people have been asking about my stream setup.  Luckily I already posted about this on another forum, so I'll just c/p it here:

- i use 640x480 windows for all my emulators (reasonable size for playing) and move them all to the same spot so i never have to change the screen capture settings (more on this below).  you really don't wanna use fullscreen mode when streaming...being able to see & respond to the chat window is part of the fun of it!  speaking of which, you might have to compress the chat window a bit to see everything while playing.

- screen capture program = VHScrCap.  google that, its p. easy to find.  it comes with a few other programs upon installation but you want to find "VHScrCapDlg.exe".  the settings i recommend here are as follows:

under "Capture", coordinates = whatever your window is.  select a specific area for this, the option might be kinda hidden but it's there.  i don't like having the emulator menu options visible, so i make sure to leave them out of the selected area.  this is why i like putting all my emulators in the same area, so you'll never have to mess with this again.

under "Settings", you have a few things to do.  set framerate to 60fps (this program is hella lightweight don't worry about it), don't show cursor or mouse clicks and (can't stress this enough) UNCHECK "OPTIMIZE SCREEN CAPTURE" & "OPTIMIZE SCREEN DELIVER".  finally, set the output size to 640x480, and make the border color black if it isn't already.

- for audio, any USB headset will do.  i like one that has separate volume control for mic & speakers.  also, and this is important, plug the microphone into your USB port, and plug the headphones into the standard headphone jack! this allows you to do the next couple steps...

- first off, right-click your volume control, select "Recording devices", right-click anywhere on that list, and check "Show Disabled Devices".  this will magically make a mysterious option called "Stereo Mix" appear - enable this and make it your default recording device!  also, make your computer speakers the default playback device if they aren't already.

- search for a program called Virtual Audio Cable...you may or may not need the full version to make this work (not sure).  install it and run "AudioRepeater.exe" (i recommend making a desktop shortcut of this btw).  for the wave in, select your USB mic, and for the wave out select your computer speakers.  set the sample rate to 22050, and (important) set the total buffer to ~40ms or so.  once you have all that set, hit start - if you can hear yourself talking then it worked!  that's why the buffer is so important, as it's the delay between when you speak and when you hear yourself.

- you have video, you have audio...now, to integrate it all, you will need flash media encoder.  the ustream page says it doesn't work w/ win7, but the page is old or they're just being dumb or something b/c it works perfectly.  this is what you will actually stream, so you've got a bunch of settings to switch.

but first off, you will need to download your show's XML file and have FME load it in order to stream to the site.  the big streaming sites should all have instructions/links for this.

after loading the XML, it's settings time!  this is really dependent on your pc/internet connection/etc., but just as a reference point here's mine:

video device = VhScrCap
video format = VP6 (don't use h.264 it makes shit waaaaaayyyyy too slow)
frame rate = 30.00fps (ustream max, i use 60fps with VhScrCap to keep dropped frames to a minimum)
input size = 640x480, maintain aspect ratio
video bit rate = 450-700kbps (whatever your audience can handle without skipping), output size = 640x480
audio device = stereo mix (this is everything you hear, i.e. the game + your voice)
audio format = MP3
channels = stereo
sample rate = 22050Hz
audio bit rate = 40kbps
volume = 100%
DO NOT CHECK "AUTO-ADJUST", it sounds good in theory but it just makes the stream skip more

make sure to save the XML files after finishing everything here!

- once all of this is set, hit the green "Start" button at the bottom of FME to begin streaming to the site, then go to the site and start broadcasting!  you must start streaming with FME before doing anything from the site!  also, don't forget to start Audio Repeater with the given settings before streaming.
Thread title:  
spread the dirt to the populace
Thanks Mike & co.  You should probably edit the title to say "Emulator Streaming Guide" though!
Sleeping Terror
There's not much point to streaming at 640x480 when the games themselves output a smaller resolution. You'd probably be better off lowering that to 320x240, and using the extra bandwidth to up the audio quality (say, 44kHz and at least 128kbps).
contraddicted
What might be worth noting is that there is a waz to get around having any ustream page open. This is as convenient as it is reducing load for people without a powerhouse of a PC.
In the FME there's the right panel with the FMS URL, the Backup URL and the field "Stream". In the field Stream is a confusing hash value of random numbers and letters, but it suspiciously ends on "offair". Remove that part from the end and your stream should be online in your channel seconds after clicking start in the FME.
I personally thank bmn for telling me this Smiley

There's also some other things I did note during my ustream encounters that might be helpful for beginners.

My stream is choppy in the ustream server window, but I did everything according to Josh's guide!
That window in your browser is not a reliable way to judge if your stream is fluid or not. In some cases not even viewing your own channel is, but that's definitely better. If you have a second PC and enough free downstream bandwidth, this is the most reliable way. I'd recommend asking someone else who's online to take a quick look.

My stream is choppy, but also for the viewers, but I did everything like Josh wrote
This can have several reasons. It might be your bandwidth, your CPU or related to your video card if it is an integrated one.
First step to reduce stress on all of those is strangeness' recommendation of lowering resolution. I chose the odd resolution of 352x288, which is slightly bigger than 320x240. Don't forget to lower your bitrate a good notch.
By having smaller images to encode you lower the stress on your CPU and if you use a fullscreen mode also on the connection to your video card (which should only matter for integrated cards).
My experience with the Intel GMA 950 and the GMA X3100 are that those are crap for screencasting and you will only get fluid results by choosing a very low resolution, like 320x240.
If you are smart enough to check the CPU load by opening the task manager keep in mind that FME uses way more CPU if it has to encode wildly moving pictures instead of your desktop.
It can also increase performance if you choose to play in the same resolution as you want to stream, so there's no resizing involved for vhscrcap.

The stream looks good for still pictures, but if I move it all gets blurry
This is likely the result of a too low bitrate for a given resolution.

You have an Intel X3100 and your stream looks fluid, what did you do?
Something so weird and bastardizing that it is even funny.
If your laptop has a TV-out, you can use a USB capture dongle to capture your own screen.
spread the dirt to the populace
Thanks for the tips!  I'm going to test my stream tonight with 320x240 and higher audio quality...
too many gyros
There is an easy, very effective way to stream with an emulator. This is probably not the BEST possible way to stream with an emulator, but it is a very good program imo.

In the newest version of manycam (Downloadable at www.manycam.com) you can choose the "Desktop" source option to show your desktop. There is a customize option that allows you to choose any area of the screen you want (usually the game) Before the update, it would be very laggy, but they created a new "Update Rate" option that allows you to stream w/out lag. If it's alright, I could post a tutorial on how to set up manycam so that you get the most effective quality and smoothness.
contraddicted
Apparently for some people there isn't the hash of the stream in the FME's "Stream" field anymore, but just something like "livestream".

I tested it out with Idkbutlike2 and in the XML file you get from ustream there's the real Streamhash, with "offair" at the end. Open the XML with Notepad, remove the "offair" part, save, then import to FME again. Scroll from the bottom up to find the Stream property between the <output and </output> tags.

If you remove the off air part, your stream starts immediately when you press Start in the FME. So you can save the CPU usage of your browser and at least for Idkbutlike2 it lead to a crucial improvement in the framerate from "slideshow" to "nearly fluid", because his CPU was choking on encoding the stream.
fucking .gif....
I'm reading some not so great things about manycam on download.com.  so unless most of them don't know wtf they are doing or shouldn't be running it, what should I be doing?

also, what's this nonsense with having to register to even download VHScrCap?
Well, you have to register an Adobe account to get FME as well. It's nothing big AFAIK, just register and account, and download both of those programs.
too many gyros
Quote from Shadow Jacky:
I'm reading some not so great things about manycam on download.com.  so unless most of them don't know wtf they are doing or shouldn't be running it, what should I be doing?


Well the effects are really stupid, and the may be talking about the earlier versions. I also don't know of a way to get the sound of your game to work on manycam, so it would be best used if you are going to be commentating rather than using the game audio. If you download, the best way to get awesome quality is to:

1) Go to the "Sources" Tab
2) Click on "Desktop"
3) Choose the "Custom Desktop" option
4) Use the grey box to customize what portion of your desktop you want to show, which would usually be the game that you are playing/your emulator.
5) After clicking "ok" on the top left of the grey box, the best way to get a smooth framerate is to go to the "Update Rate" slider right next to the custom desktop option. If you slide it all of the way to the left (0) it will become a very smooth framerate rather than the super choppiness of the default setting.
6) choose manycam as your video source on ustream, and your headset/microphone for audio.

If anyone could find a way to get game audio, that would be nice.
fucking .gif....
well I'll try VHscrCap first then Manycam...
Another good screen capture program to use would be SCFH, which is the program I use.

Step 1: download and install SCFH
Step 2: Follow the rest of the instructions post SCFH install http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/how-to-install-and-use-scfh-dsf/
VHscrCap is good too. I wouldn't use Manycam personally due to it limiting the framerate when using its screen capture (it's something stupid like 5-10 fps)
too many gyros
Quote from AniMeowzerz:
I wouldn't use Manycam personally due to it limiting the framerate when using its screen capture (it's something stupid like 5-10 fps)


It updated, now its like 20-30 fps for the new version. It's pretty smooth.
Edit history:
Shadow Jacky: 2010-08-11 03:07:34 am
fucking .gif....
well right now I'm ok with VHScrCap, but now I just need the game audio to come through.

edit: even though I thought I had the audio come through it, I must have done something wrong, so I still need to figure this out..
Quote from AniMeowzerz:
Another good screen capture program to use would be SCFH, which is the program I use.

Step 1: download and install SCFH
Step 2: Follow the rest of the instructions post SCFH install http://koitsu.wordpress.com/2009/09/12/how-to-install-and-use-scfh-dsf/
VHscrCap is good too. I wouldn't use Manycam personally due to it limiting the framerate when using its screen capture (it's something stupid like 5-10 fps)

keep in mind that SCFH != SCFH DSF, I'm not even sure what the former is for
Edit history:
bmn: 2010-08-15 01:30:32 pm
bmn: 2010-08-15 01:30:32 pm
bmn: 2010-08-15 12:35:49 am
A couple people been asking how to put Ustream chat into their static topics. Unfortunately Taiga mangles the standard embed code and you need to modify it to make it work.

Working code (for my stream at least) looks like this:
Code:
<object width="400" height="240"><param name="flashvars" value="autoplay=true" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/irc.swf?channelId=298399&brandId=1&channel=#go-go-bmn&server=chat1.ustream.tv&locale=en_US" /><embed flashvars="autoplay=true" width="400" height="240" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/irc.swf?channelId=298399&brandId=1&channel=#go-go-bmn&server=chat1.ustream.tv&locale=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" /></object>


If you know your channel ID and IRC channel name then you can use this code and just change those bits (each of them are in two places). You can find the channel ID in the normal chat embed code you get from Ustream - find the bit that says something like channelId=298399. The IRC channel is a hash (#) followed by the version of your channel title you see in the URL, e.g. #go-go-bmn.
Edit history:
arkarian: 2010-08-15 01:15:42 am
gamelogs.org
you actually don't need to do any of that. just follow the 3 clicks detailed here.

that thread also covers embedding livestream which is a little more complicated.
Edit history:
bmn: 2010-08-15 01:25:15 am
Ustream chat is in an embed tag, which Taiga tries to convert into an object tag. It fails to bring over the height and width, and replaces any FlashVars with an autoplay FlashVar on its own. I believe it also breaks FlashVars with object tags. Example (this is Ustream's chat code for #go-go-bmn):

gamelogs.org
oh i see, you just meant the chat. yeah can just fuck with the values in there until it works ... or just use the forum to chat.
Willing to teach you the impossible
I know I talked to you about it before, but I just wanted to show where my issues were to help out.

Quote from bmn:
Otherwise:
  • Copy and paste the normal embed code (from the stream embed, Menu > Embed > Chat) into your post and submit it.
  • Edit the post and re-enter the width and height values (twice). I have them at 400x240.
  • Find the tag and option specifying FlashVars, and copy the key=value&key2=value2... string. Then delete that tag and option.
  • Find the URLs (twice) to irc.swf, add a question mark at the end (before the quote mark), and paste the FlashVars string after the question mark.
  • If you find that the & signs in the FlashVars string have become &amp;, change them back.
  • Submit the post.


I am sorry, but this sounds way more complicated that it really is I am sure.

I will break this down to how I understand it.

Here is the code I started with, I took out the "<" and ">" at the start and end to keep it a code

embed width="563" height="266"type="application/x-shockwave-flash"flashvars="brandId=1&amp;channelId=2814902&amp;channel=%23heidman&amp;server=chat1.ustream.tv&amp;locale=en_US"pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer"src="http://www.ustream.tv/flash/irc.swf" allowfullscreen="true"/

1: easy enough to do, I did it and found that it was not working properly, and that is why I am here.

2: twice? as in height twice and width twice? or twice as in 1 each being 2 changes?

3: Where would I start the copy from? I am assuming you are talking about this part "flashvars=" and the string after it.
So that would mean copy after that? So copy this? brandId=1&amp;channelId=2814902&amp;channel=%23heidman&amp;server=chat1.ustream.tv&amp;locale=en_US. With or without the quotes (I was assuming without since you were putting it in quots).

4: Again with the twice... I see 2 URLs but only 1 end with ".swf"
also, what is irc?

5: Easy enough

6: I hope I can manage

This is how I was understanding it, I was unable to get it working. I know I was doing something wrong because comparing my end product to your working code was WAY off. This is mostly just to point out that there will be people, like me, that will not understand this.
fucking .gif....
ok so streaming has been going well for me so far, but now I want to improve it a bit by having better sound instead of this lame setup I have going on (placing the speakers close to my mic so the sound comes in).

right now I can't combine both my mic and speaker audio on windows xp (tried to, but nothing works) and tried out Virtual Audio Cable and I guess I missed out of the free version because the trial version (which is also free) starts to remind you it's a trial version by voice. 

someone had suggested I get some audio splitters to get it working, but I'm not sure.  So if anyone has any suggestions, I'm willing to try them out.
We all scream for Eyes Cream
Quote from Josh the Funkdoc:
- for audio, any USB headset will do.  i like one that has separate volume control for mic & speakers.  also, and this is important, plug the microphone into your USB port, and plug the headphones into the standard headphone jack! this allows you to do the next couple steps...


What if I have a regular headset that plugs into the microphone jack?
from red to blue
Quote from Axel Ryman:
Quote from Josh the Funkdoc:
- for audio, any USB headset will do.  i like one that has separate volume control for mic & speakers.  also, and this is important, plug the microphone into your USB port, and plug the headphones into the standard headphone jack! this allows you to do the next couple steps...


What if I have a regular headset that plugs into the microphone jack?


The same, just change the Wave In in audiorepeater.exe to whatever your mic port is called.
Exoray
Anyone had any luck finding any program similar to Virtual Audio Cable? I'm not getting any audio at all with that one (not to mention the trial version is unusable)
Edit history:
puwexil: 2011-02-25 06:51:32 pm
Professional Second Banana
Right now, when I try to set up for emulator streaming, I get audio errors if I try to run both FME (broadcasting stereo mix for audio) and the VAC Audio Repeater (headset connected to sound card microphone port repeating to PC speakers) at the same time.  I can run either FME or VAC independently right now though, and I can run both at the same time if I use the integrated mic on my PC monitor for the VAC source rather than my headset.  Also, I was able to use my headset with FME and VAC until about a week ago when I got a Dazzle, installed the drivers/software, and did some testing with VirtualDub and Anri-Chan.

Any suggestions on what to do to troubleshoot this?  I've tried disabling all audio input/output devices unrelated to the streaming setup, but to no avail.

UPDATE: Turning off the echo cancellation option in my audio driver seems to have fixed it.