Tips and recommendations based on our experiences.
This week’s DF Direct Weekly is what you might call a ‘come down’ episode.
Why did it look so bad?
For years now, digital showcases have had a problem: the state of live streaming technology on YouTube.
Low bit-rates, low resolutions, inconsistent frame-rates, terrible macroblocking.
The good news is that things are improving.
Streaming 4K at 60fps with decent bit-rate is now possible.
We saw it with the Xbox Showcase.
Even Summer Games Fest streamed at 4K, even though it looked like nearest neighbour upscaling of 1080p content.
In both cases, we’re seeing genuine improvement over their 2023 presentations.
However, Ubisoft Forward was a retrograde step.
First of all, live streaming revolves around real-time video encoding.
The source computer talking to YouTube is encoding video in a fast, none-too-efficient manner.
Then YouTube needs to decode that content and encode it - again, in real-time, with minimal latency.
Real-time encoding diminishes video quality in a way that offline encoding does not.
Secondly, Ubisoft streamed at 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second.
YouTube is notoriously stingy with bandwidth at full HD resolution, resulting in awful artefacting.
However, the Ubisoft stream had other issues beyond image quality.
In the stream, Star Wars Outlaws had jerky camera movements, dropped frames and even screen-tearing.
Two issues seem to be at play here.
The stuttering camera and dropped frames in the Outlaws trailer, though?
That’s something different.
The fact that the trailer itself tops out at 1440p resolution is also indicative.
There are numerous capture card solutions, but bundled software typically uses sub-optimal real-time video encoders.
Other relatively inexpensive broadcast quality solutions are available.
There are even HDMI 2.1 capture cards now capable of 8K 60fps or 4K 120fps.
However, all video playback platforms top out at 4K resolution at 60fps, so nothing more is needed.
As a bonus, you also have a ready-made solution for broadcast-quality console capture too.
Games totally locked to 30fps with consistent frame-pacing can look fine in a pure 30fps video.
However, games with inconsistent frame-pacing at 30fps will look truly awful in a 30fps capture.
Another bonus of a 60fps workflow is that YouTube allocates more bandwidth, typically delivering a better quality image.
