Tips & Tricks How to record 1080p 60FPS for FREE with OBS!

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Kan

Superman
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Hello Freedom! Family!

A lot of you ask, "What is a good software to record Full HD game-play footage for Free?" The answer is OBS or Open Broadcaster Software! I have decided to make a guide on how to record footage because a lot of people say OBS is too confusing to use. With this guide I hope to eliminate the confusion!

This Guide guide to teach you how to record 60 FPS at 1080p resolution with OBS or Open Broadcaster Software using Windows (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or even 10). Similar settings can be used for the Mac version, however the location of these settings may be different.

This guide is for those looking for the ability to record game-play! NOT STREAM!


Table Of Contents:

1 Getting OBS.
2 Setting Up OBS for recording.
3 How to record your Gameplay Footage with OBS.

1 Getting OBS:
  • First you will need to download OBS you can do so through the link below:
  • https://obsproject.com/
  • After that follow the on screen instructions to install and you should see a screen like this:

2 Setting Up OBS for recording.

In order to begin, right click in the scenes box, and choose "Add scene". Enter a name for this scene, it can be anything you want. I will name it YouTube 1080p 60FPS. Once the scene is created, you will need to add a source. Right click in the source box and choose "Add >". Then choose "Window Capture". At this point, you will need to open the game you wish to choose, for me it's Half-Life 2. Once in the game capture, dialogue, you will see this:
OBSwindowcap.png
Make sure to have the game you wish to record selected, In my case it's Half-Life 2. All the other settings can be left at default. However, I recommend un-selecting capture mouse cursor unless you want it on the screen, If you don't see your game here, hit refresh until it comes up, if it still doesn't show close your game, and re-open it. However, once you selected your game hit OK..

Now we need to configure the video settings. Hit the "Settings" button to the top right of the Sources box.

Here are the settings I use: AFTER EVERY CHANGE HIT APPLY!

OBS3.png

Then you will go to broadcast settings, here you will change the mode to: "File OutPut Only" Then chose your file path, it should look something like this:

OBS4.png

After that we will work on Video recording. I have mine set to my Monitors Resolution which is 1920 X 1080 with an aspect Ratio of 16:9. It should read your monitors setting by default and chose that. Then for resolution downscale I select none. However you can Choose 1280 X 720 if you just want HD and not Full HD. Then I change the FPS to 60 to record 1080p 60FPS footage. It will look like this for Full HD 1080 60 FPS:

OBS5.png

Now we will setup your audio devices, Go to "Audio" and then under "Desktop Audio Device" select your speakers so your game audio will be recorded, and then from the drop down menu find your Microphone if you plan to commentate. It should look something like this:

OBS8.png

Next we will select Hotkeys so you know which keys will start your recording. Then under Broadcast find "Start Recording" and "Stop Recording" I set mine to + and -, but you can set yours to your liking:

OBS7.png


Then make sure your advanced options look like this, I have found this to work well for my machine, but you can customize it by changing some of the settings. Here are my advanced settings:

OBS6.png

Once you are done with advanced, hit OK and I will show you how to start recording!

3. How to Record your Game Play Footage:

Before you start recording you want preview your recording. You can do this by selecting "Stream Preview" Don't worry it won't stream since it's only a preview. Once you do so you should see your game play on OBS like so:

OBS9.png
The problem with this is that OBS is not recording your full game to fix this, right click on the screen, select "Position/Size" then fit to screen, and it should change to this:



Once your preview covers the whole area of recording hit stop preview. Then go to your game window, hit + (or whatever key you set to start the recording). To stop I would hit - and that's how you record 1080p 60 FPS game-play footage using OBS!

Then take the file from where ever you saved it, drag it to your editor and you are ready to edit!

With OBS you can record FULL HD 1080p 60FPS Footage for Free! Let me know what you think of this guide and if you have any comments or suggestions feel free to add them below!

Thank you for your time!

- Andrew Kan/ Superman




 

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EoS TV

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Whenever I was doing this to record Diablo 3 content, I noticed having a low Max Bitrate would actually show a direct decrease in video quality. Whenever I increased that Bitrate, the quality would directly increase. I am not sure if this contributes to longer rendering times or not, but I haven't noticed at all. I probably will when I run rendering tests with my new PC that I'll get later on in the year.

Either way, it seems like a decent guide man. The only thing I'd suggest doing is making a guide on how to do scene changing cause that stuff is a pain to setup compared to xSplit.
 
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Kan

Superman
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Whenever I was doing this to record Diablo 3 content, I noticed having a low Max Bitrate would actually show a direct decrease in video quality. Whenever I increased that Bitrate, the quality would directly increase. I am not sure if this contributes to longer rendering times or not, but I haven't noticed at all. I probably will when I run rendering tests with my new PC that I'll get later on in the year.

Either way, it seems like a decent guide man. The only thing I'd suggest doing is making a guide on how to do scene changing cause that stuff is a pain to setup compared to xSplit.

Maybe on a separate guide, but this is just to teach partners how they can record using OBS :)
 
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MyTime Gaming

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Quick question - why not use the Game Capture option instead of Screen Capture. Screen capture would make sense if you're not running your game in full screen. Game capture is the most efficient method when capturing games!
 
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Mortiel

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Whenever I was doing this to record Diablo 3 content, I noticed having a low Max Bitrate would actually show a direct decrease in video quality. Whenever I increased that Bitrate, the quality would directly increase. I am not sure if this contributes to longer rendering times or not, but I haven't noticed at all. I probably will when I run rendering tests with my new PC that I'll get later on in the year.

This is correct. Bitrate directly correlates to the quality of video, because in OBS that setting is actually referring to how compressed the video is encoded. The higher the bitrate, the less compressed. Higher bitrates come at a direct cost of higher CPU usage (or GPU if you use Nvenc) and storage space (less compressed means it take up more space).

The rule of thumb I go by with my two setting presets in OBS is to have live streaming configured for a 2600 kbps so my home internet's crappy upload speed can keep up, but local recording I have a 8000 kbps (8 mbps) bitrate. This is over the recommended 7500 kbps for 720p videos, but it's probably superstition on my part. :)

Anyway, here is a table from YouTube with suggested bitrates based on resolution and framerate. Hope this helps!

(Note: This is not necessarily for live streaming. You bitrate for streaming should be slightly under your internet uplink rate.)

Type_____Standard Framrate (24, 25, 30)____High Framrate (48, 50, 60)
2160p____________35-45 Mbps_______________53-68 Mbps
1440p______________16 Mbps_________________24 Mbps
1080p_______________8 Mbps_________________12 Mbps
720p________________5 Mbps________________7.5 Mbps
480p______________2.5 Mbps__________________4 Mbps
360p_______________1 Mbps_________________1.5 Mbps

EDIT: My formatting sucks... I'm trying to clean it up.
 
Last edited:
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Nuke

Proud Nerd & YouTuber
Freedom! Member
Hello Freedom! Family!

A lot of you ask, "What is a good software to record Full HD game-play footage for Free?" The answer is OBS or Open Broadcaster Software! I have decided to make a guide on how to record footage because a lot of people say OBS is too confusing to use. With this guide I hope to eliminate the confusion!

This Guide guide to teach you how to record 60 FPS at 1080p resolution with OBS or Open Broadcaster Software using Windows (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, or even 10). Similar settings can be used for the Mac version, however the location of these settings may be different.
This guide is for those looking for the ability to record game-play! NOT STREAM!

Table Of Contents:

1 Getting OBS.
2 Setting Up OBS for recording.
3 How to record your Gameplay Footage with OBS.

1 Getting OBS:
  • First you will need to download OBS you can do so through the link below:
  • https://obsproject.com/
  • After that follow the on screen instructions to install and you should see a screen like this:

2 Setting Up OBS for recording.

In order to begin, right click in the scenes box, and choose "Add scene". Enter a name for this scene, it can be anything you want. I will name it YouTube 1080p 60FPS. Once the scene is created, you will need to add a source. Right click in the source box and choose "Add >". Then choose "Window Capture". At this point, you will need to open the game you wish to choose, for me it's Half-Life 2. Once in the game capture, dialogue, you will see this:
Make sure to have the game you wish to record selected, In my case it's Half-Life 2. All the other settings can be left at default. However, I recommend un-selecting capture mouse cursor unless you want it on the screen, If you don't see your game here, hit refresh until it comes up, if it still doesn't show close your game, and re-open it. However, once you selected your game hit OK..

Now we need to configure the video settings. Hit the "Settings" button to the top right of the Sources box.

Here are the settings I use: AFTER EVERY CHANGE HIT APPLY!

View attachment 10481

Then you will go to broadcast settings, here you will change the mode to: "File OutPut Only" Then chose your file path, it should look something like this:

View attachment 10482

After that we will work on Video recording. I have mine set to my Monitors Resolution which is 1920 X 1080 with an aspect Ratio of 16:9. It should read your monitors setting by default and chose that. Then for resolution downscale I select none. However you can Choose 1280 X 720 if you just want HD and not Full HD. Then I change the FPS to 60 to record 1080p 60FPS footage. It will look like this for Full HD 1080 60 FPS:

View attachment 10483

Now we will setup your audio devices, Go to "Audio" and then under "Desktop Audio Device" select your speakers so your game audio will be recorded, and then from the drop down menu find your Microphone if you plan to commentate. It should look something like this:

View attachment 10486

Next we will select Hotkeys so you know which keys will start your recording. Then under Broadcast find "Start Recording" and "Stop Recording" I set mine to + and -, but you can set yours to your liking:

View attachment 10485


Then make sure your advanced options look like this, I have found this to work well for my machine, but you can customize it by changing some of the settings. Here are my advanced settings:

View attachment 10484

Once you are done with advanced, hit OK and I will show you how to start recording!

3. How to Record your Game Play Footage:

Before you start recording you want preview your recording. You can do this by selecting "Stream Preview" Don't worry it won't stream since it's only a preview. Once you do so you should see your game play on OBS like so:

View attachment 10487
The problem with this is that OBS is not recording your full game to fix this, right click on the screen, select "Position/Size" then fit to screen, and it should change to this:



Once your preview covers the whole area of recording hit stop preview. Then go to your game window, hit + (or whatever key you set to start the recording). To stop I would hit - and that's how you record 1080p 60 FPS game-play footage using OBS!

Then take the file from where ever you saved it, drag it to your editor and you are ready to edit!

With OBS you can record FULL HD 1080p 60FPS Footage for Free! Let me know what you think of this guide and if you have any comments or suggestions feel free to add them below!

Thank you for your time!

- Andrew Kan/ Superman



Great tutorial, this will surely help out a lot of novices to the program and maybe even some people that are experimenting with settings :)
 
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Mammer244

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Every time I have tried to use OBS I used audacity and could not get them to work nice together:(
 
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Vϟlt

Active Member
Aug 24, 2015
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Hi Kan!

I have had some trouble using OBS. I am decently experienced though. This .GIF can tell you what is going on majorly.



Short version: When I click fit to screen, the Minecraft option has a big black border around it containing the corner-borders. How could I make it exactly to fit?

Long version: In the .GIF, I try to make it fit to screen. If you see the black borders around the actual scene though, you can see that it's selected. That is all just a Minecraft selected screen. Nothing else, that's just it. How can I remove the border around it?
 
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Nuke

Proud Nerd & YouTuber
Freedom! Member
Hi Kan!

I have had some trouble using OBS. I am decently experienced though. This .GIF can tell you what is going on majorly.



Short version: When I click fit to screen, the Minecraft option has a big black border around it containing the corner-borders. How could I make it exactly to fit?

Long version: In the .GIF, I try to make it fit to screen. If you see the black borders around the actual scene though, you can see that it's selected. That is all just a Minecraft selected screen. Nothing else, that's just it. How can I remove the border around it?
Great help using a GIF, that should help a lot of people :)
 

joaopneves

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Aug 24, 2015
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I've used OBS once, and I did like it. I have not a "good computer", so to me is not a "what software to use" but "what software I can use". :p
 
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Robin “Williams” Muscato

My Youtube Channel
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May 31, 2015
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i got that to work for my video card just right. it turn out setting the recommend for my video card didnt turn out as good. but now with my new setting. it taking the load off my cpu. video play in HD now. steam work well too. best tool out there after you get setting right.
 
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