240hz 60fps overwatch twitch streaming guide

ow_streaming_guide_240.txt

*Last Updated: 3/25/2020*

Does your beefy computer have annoying issues streaming and playing at the same time?  Read on...

This guide is intended for peeps who have something comparable to:

* i9 9900k @ 5ghz
* 32GB DDR4
* Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080
* Acer Predator XB252Q 240hz GSYNC monitor (1080p)

**Software:**

* NVIDIA Driver: 442.19 Studio Version (Stable, no geforce experience app)
* OBS Studio 25.0.1

**NVIDIA Driver Settings:**

* Turn GSYNC off - You're already getting 240fps+, and yes GSYNC takes away from performance at high framerate/refresh rates
* Low Latency Mode to On - This used to be called Max Prerendered Frames.  Do not set this to Ultra because it messes with Overwatch and is CPU intensive.  You will find yourself limited to 221 fps instead along with heavy OBS streaming lag during a hero selection screen.  If you care more about stream quality (no dropped frames) rather than input lag, turn this to off.
* Power Management Mode:  Maximum Performance

**OBS Settings:**

Do not run OBS in administrator mode if you care about max Overwatch performance.  If you care more about stream performance, run OBS in admin mode for high priority.

Output

* Encoder: NVIDIA NVENC H.264 (new)
* Rate Control: CBR
* Bitrate:  Depends on your internet connection.  Got fiber?  6000.  Twitch Affiliate?  Put more
*  Keyframe interval: 0
* Preset: Max Quality (esp if you have an RTX card)
* Profile: High (unless your stream viewers like using old devices, put main or baseline)
*  Look-ahead: unchecked
* Psycho Visual Tuning: checked
* GPU: 0 (unless you have multiple gpus, pick the one you want encoding)
* Max B-frames: 4 (gives better image quality.  If you're limited on bitrate, put 2 instead)

Video

* Base Res:  1920x1080
* Output:  1600x900 ( if you stream  @ closer to 10000 bitrate, then leave this at 1080 )
* Downscale filter: Lanzcos
* FPS: 60

**Overwatch Settings**

* Limit FPS:  237 (need an explanation? see blur busters forums.  This limit is important for monitor sync as well as letting extra gpu power go to NVENC)
* Ensure resolution is 1080x240hz
* Ensure Vsync, Triple Buffering, Reduce buffering are all OFF (reduce buffering is the same as Low Latency mode which we set above, and is more optimized for 120fps or lower.  You may see a performance hit turning it on)

For "competitive" streams where max performance is essential: Everything low / off except for:

* Texture Quality: High (gotta keep something high)
* Texture Filtering Quality: Medium+
* Model Quality: Medium+
* Antiantaliasing: Medium+

**Windows Settings**

* Game mode off
* Browser hardware acceleration off
* Battlenet launcher off or hardware acceleration turned off in game settings


This should give you a smooth 60fps stream with max FPS in Overwatch in sync with your 240hz monitor.

Interested in a Overwatch Stress test?  See [Workshop Code PG4HH](https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/c5qbeu/i_created_a_stress_test_workshop_game_mode_to/)

**Troubleshooting**

If you find your stream still seems "choppy" or "laggy" especially with mouse movements not being as smooth as other streams, stuttering, etc:

* This is pretty much the reason I wrote this guide, to try to figure this out
* I found that if you run OW in "Windowed" mode (alt+enter), and it seems super choppy, Windows is doing something fucky that I haven't figured out yet.  It seems to not be giving any windowed mode gpu utilizing application enough power, including OBS.
* Restart your computer first.  I know this sounds lame, but it fixed one issue of this occurring for me when nothing else did (restarting ow, admin mode ow, admin mode obs, changing refresh rates, disabling second monitor, killing every process i could think of, etc).  If you ran into the same issue as me, you'll notice your computer restarted with different refresh rates.  Correct them and try the OW Windowed mode test again.
* Try disabling OBS Preview.
* Ensure hardware acceleration on any Media Sources is disabled.
* Try decreasing your Webcam resolution to 720 or 480.  Your webcam takes CPU to decode on the fly.