Believe it or not streaming is not something new. It's been here for a while. In 1995 Microsoft came with ActiveMovie which allowed streaming media in a really strange video format. It continued in Windows Media Player. Apple also had to come up with something similar and so they introduced streaming in QuickTime 4. During those times RealPlayer also allowed streaming. So watching something or viewing the downloaded stream needed us to have the respective codecs and players installed. The Windows Media Player allowed us to choose our own settings for our streams and often rendered the stream unviewable for many. RealVideo seemed to work fine though. It was the only thing that managed to stay 'playable' even after a new version was out. Few years later (2002) Adobe Flash happened and since then we could truly speak about unified streaming that everyone could view.
Since technology advances fast we are now in a totally different world of streaming now. It has become something very common and something that an ordinary consumer can do.
Nowadays in the era of interactive media, streaming has become a huge thing - many people earn a lot of money by streaming. That does not mean that you have to be one of those people, but one day streaming is something you might want to do, no matter for what reason.
In most cases in order to stream we need software that can make this happen (encoder software). Gamers in general have been doing this for ages and do not have problems setting everything up. For those of you who struggle with it I wrote this short article. It is an overview of what is possible in one specific and free software.
Open Broadcaster Software
In order to start streaming one needs equipment (computer, microphone, monitors, lights if need be etc) and software. It seems to me that majority of serious streamers use Open Broadcaster Software or its Multiplatform version now being named Open Broadcaster Studio.
Since I wanted to stream and record my own videos I decided to give this program a try. It is free and can be downloaded at http://obsproject.com. At first I wasn't sure how good this program can possibly be but it far surpassed my expectations. It can simply stream what you have on your screen but it can do way more. You add text, images, overlays, video camera feed etc to your stream. You can also switch from one scene to another. It can become a TV studio practically. In order to have bigger control over your stream it is good to have a second monitor.
Note that you can simply use Open Broadcaster Software as a screen capture software. You do not need to go live.
After the software is downloaded it needs to be set up and for that you can read the documentation at the aforementioned site. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 and want to use Window/Screen/Monitor capture you will have to disable aero (Win8 and win10 cannot disable aero) or OBS won't be able to stream/record at all. If you will use Game Capture leave it on. You can either disable aero yourself in Windows or check 'Disable Aero' in OBS under Settings -> Video.
So how one sets the scene? You can start by adding a scene and naming it. Then you need to add 'sources' which you want to show on your stream. In my case there is sts_channel pane that hides practically the windows taskbar (this can be just cut from the view), chat pane that hides Magic Online chat if I don't want to show Twitch chat instead, webcam feed and monitor/display capture. You can add way more to your scene if you wish and many things can be set via OBS (opacity, size, color etc). For example players show their record, logos of their sponsors etc. on their streams.
To change the size and position of sources on your scene you need to see a preview of your stream or actually stream. You then just click on the source you want to edit and then use your mouse to either resize it or move it (In Open Broadcaster Software you need to click on 'Edit Scene' first). Right-clicking the source will show a menu that can help you set other things (for example if you want to set your webcam's exposure/contrast etc.).
To actually stream Magic Online games you will have to go to Monitor Capture and check "Capture Layered Windows" otherwise OBS won't see the game window (but only Main Navigation window).
Also note that Window and Monitor Capture won't let you stream games in full screen mode. Only Game Capture can do that but this mode can be unstable. With Monitor capture you can stream only a sub-region of your screen.
The order of your sources is important. Think of it as layers. If your screen capture will be the top most object you won't see any of the objects that are beneath.
You can hide any source/object any time you want. You can switch audio streams, change their volume, set push-to-talk and push-to-mute etc. Audio should be set before you start to stream (my microphone input is set to relatively high - 76% - and Magic Online is set to minimum otherwise it is the only thing that can be heard). You need to set to what devices OBS will listen. You can choose those in Settings -> Audio. If it won't show set your device to default in Windows and keep the Default option in OBS. I also have set push-to-mute if by a chance someone rushes in my room and starts talking to me. It comes handy.
I have set another scene that I sometimes switch to if I need to do something on my computer in between rounds and I'm not entertaining my viewers. It is simply an image that says that I'm 'in between rounds' and not really present. So after I finish my match I can just switch to the scene not worrying about the fact that people would see what I do on my computer.
As another example here is another scene I created and can use. I wanted to do some interviews from time to time and for that I created a scene that contains 2 video feeds, background image and text. (the text can be changed while streaming, the same way as anything else)
When you have your scenes ready you need to set your encoder settings. For me x264, flv, 3000 bitrate (use constant bit rate) works fine so see what works for you (the recommended value is 70-80% of your upload speed). Count with 3500 bitrate as the maximum. 3000-3500 bitrate is recommended for 1080p streams. For lower resolutions lower the bitrate (for example for 720p, 1800-2500 should do). So set the resolution and bitrate accordingly.
The older version is not saving your replays unless you tell the program to do so automatically (check 'save to file', otherwise you can always do that manually). You can also set replay buffer that allows you to save the last X seconds of your stream (you need to set a hot key for that obviously^_^).
Then you have to set up your stream. I use Twitch, so I needed to fetch my stream key from Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/[you username]/dashboard), select the closest server and I was ready to go. If you want to use Youtube you will have to log in to Youtube, go to Creator Studio, click on Live Stream and under Encoder Stream get your Stream Key.
Twitch can automatically upload your videos to Youtube where they stay (on twitch they are deleted after 2 months or so) after your session is done. But if you would like to do it yourself and edit your videos or just trim them or change the audio or whatever I recommend using VirtualDub with mp4 or flv plugin depending on what container you will set in OBS.
So that was in short little bit about Open Broadcaster Software. It is really awesome software. The best one I encountered. So have fun streaming!
Here's one game to show you that the software works and the link will take you to Youtube Gaming which I find pretty cool (it is far from perfect but is getting better). The live streaming finally works fine and has a good quality. So people don't need to be afraid to use it and if Google makes it even better (so it can be edited for example via YT Gaming etc it might actually become pretty good). But so far it is Twitch being no 1.
