[Omega]

Hiii everyone,

I asked @Marion and she said it would be alright for me to make some guides to share on this forum! I wanted to start off with the basics for any budding content creators out there. If you're using a Legion, chances are you're ready to stream some HD or even 4K quality content on your chosen platform. Rather than going into ideal hardware set up, I thought I'd advise on the bare minimum requirements to get yourself live and I can add more details for those more robust set ups, down the line.

What do I need?

Well, it's up to the creator really! But if you want to just straight up stream PC games, here are my tips:

• A good machine, ideally with solid state drive. You'll need your internal drive for running the game and the ssd for streaming, if you don't want to sacrifice performance.
• A good internet connection - ideally connected with ethernet to minimise disruption.
• If you would like better camera quality, I recommend buying a USB HD camera that you can manipulate. In-built cameras on laptops can be quite good but you don't get the ability to pivot and move around as much, should you want to alter your set up or stream consoles/mobile devices too.
• I would recommend also investing in a USB microphone so you can be heard clearly and so you can control background noise/levels against your game more easily. For my microphone, I use a free tool called Audacity. In the next tutorial I can teach you have to remove back ground noise with this software too.
  

• And for the main event - how to capture that gameplay! There are two main schools of thought for streaming/capturing the gameplay. Those that use OBS and those that use Xsplit. I am the latter. I tried quite a lot to use OBS but I could never balance my hardware timing in a satisfying way.

1. Download Xsplit broadcaster from xsplit.com (note, it only works on Windows machines atm so Linux and Mac are out the window.)
2. Make sure to register on their website else you won't be able to use the software. There are paid upgrades which allow you to stream at high resolutions and frame rates otherwise the max is 720p and 30fps - this is fine if you're just practising. You can use your email or other social media to login
3. Get it installed and sign in
4. So now you can stream your game! Get your game fired up in the background (it's easier if you launch in windowed mode.)
5. Have you got your camera and microphone connected to your machine? Good!
6. In the bottom left hand corner of your software you'll see Add Source. Go ahead and click that.
7. Now chose, Devices
8. You should see your microphone and webcam there, so go ahead and them
9. Your image should appear once the webcam has initialised! You can resize it like any image by clicking and dragging. If you want to trim the shape of you camera image, hold down alt until your cursor turns into an upwards arrow - this will now crop you screen shape.
10. You can have even more fun with your camera by going into its Properties. Generally, for a stream you don't need to add any delay. You can play with the options and change lighting, colours and, if you have a green screen, perform a Keylight and mask so you have no background! I'll go into detail in another guide.
11. Ok so, where's the game? Go back to Add source and choose Game Capture.
12. You should see your game as an optional program to add to the broadcaster such as Monkeyisland.exe
13. If you don't see it or if you're not using something like GoG or Steam, you can go ahead and capture the whole desktop (though this can be a bit funky and start and end of streams.) Choose Add Source and choose Screen Capture. Choose entire screen. (Cue strobe seizure)
14. So now we have your camera and your game ready to stream! Are we streaming on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or maybe some other platform?
15. Twitch is the easiest for beginners, and is mostly a dedicated audience to gaming so this is what I'll go through today. To make a Twitch channel, go ahead and register at twitch.tv
16. Looks a bit scary doesn't it? Don't worry - the given settings are comprehensive enough for a beginner! All you need to acquire is your Stream Key from Twitch - you can find it in your personal settings on your account. Remember never to share it with anyone else as they will be able to hack your stream and your account!
17. On the broadcaster, click Broadcast and there will be a little cog for you to Add new stream
18. Choose Twitch and you will be presented with the above screen
19. Where is says Account, click the text and you will be taken through the set up where you can input you Stream Key and authorise Xsplit to stream to your Twitch account.
20. Once it's all done, go ahead and hit OK on the above screen.
21. Whatever is showing in your Broadcaster will now be streamed, LIVE, to your Twitch channel!
22. When you're finished, go ahead and hit Broadcast and End Stream.
23. You can download your streams from Twitch for up to 14 days after your go live, unless you save them as your Showreel or unless you are a Twitch Affiliate or Partner (future guide coming soon!)

Thank you for reading, I hope to check out your streams soon! If you have any questions you can ask here or ask on my twitch.tv/omegazippyfins.

I'm looking forward to sharing some more tips soon!

Love

Omega

[MoriMoonpaw]

Aaaaamaazinggg thanks for taking the time to create this! Super useful for getting started.

Looks like I'm all set then for my first streaming... 😅 after I fix some of those bare minimum requirements such as my internet which keeps cutting off periodically recently for some reason. I'll get back to your guide here when that's sorted and... get started I guess! 😄 I think I would use Twitch. I guess picking what game to stream and in what way would also be a good thing to figure out? 😄

[Omega]

Yes sounds good!

Do you have Steam? It's important to play something you enjoy rather than what you think is popular at the moment. Because you can tell when a streamer isn't too interested in the game and it is offputting. The audience wants to see how YOU play the game more than the game itself.

You like WoW and I think you can have a lot of fun streaming that because there is so much to see and do! And you could also stream with other people on your team. I don't play it so I'm not too sure about the ins and outs.

[MoriMoonpaw]

@Omega WoW is my favourite and there are a few things I could stream which is probably more "niche" - I don't know how many people would enjoy watching me fishing in various fishing spots for example but I'd love to do that 😅😅😅. Also achievement hunting is something I was thinking, trying to work towards some sort of goals.

I have Steam yeah!

[Omega]

@Marion It's more about the banter with "games that have no ending". You can stream it as much as you like. This is why people can stream minecraft so much!

Oh steam is good because you can launch windowed like I said in the guide. You can also use the Steam community to share you streams when you go live so people can have a look on the game page. Have a look https://steamcommunity.com/?subsection=broadcasts



thanks

[QueenTomato]

Hi @Omega

I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this with everyone on the Community and taking the time to write it! The level of details here is just 👌



Is there any specific camera brand that you use / recommend?

I'm not really familiar with streaming (totally a beginner) but I noticed you spoke about two main schools so I wanted to ask what would be the main differences between using OBS and using Xsplit?

[Omega]

@Tamara

My camera is a logitec HD cam, and I have a Yeti Snowball microphone. Because with the Vtuber model you have to have very good lighting and good camera otherwise the tracking won't work correctly, I also have a spotlight.

Thanks

[Elixor]

Thanks you @Omega for the tutorial/guide!

[MoriMoonpaw]

Hey @Omega!

I mentioned earlier that I'd wanted to start streaming for a while and would check out your guide to get started once I'd fixed an internet issue I was having. Your guide was super helpful, thanks so much again for taking the time to write it and post it on here! 🙏

After a couple of videos where sound wasn't working or I was super pixelated 😅 Or forgot to mute the stream in the background so everything echoed horribly 🤣 I managed to get it working ok I think! I started with Tetris Effect: Connected 😁 You can check it out here e.g. this one where I finally beat the Normal mode after a lot of panic and frustration. 🤣

My next step is to figure out chatbot settings and overlay stuff! 😎

[Omega]

Ohh well done!

You can go to addons in the top menu and have a look at some of the overlays and widgets - there's lots to choose from. Try this: Tools > Plugin Store > Sources. You'll find the Twitch Chat plugin and you can install it. Once you've installed the plugin, you can now find it in Add Source and click on Twitch Widgets. Just remember to authorise the widget to access your Twitch Account.