Open Broadcaster Software Gameplay Recording Tutorial

Hey, there. Here's a video guide on how to use OBS to record gameplay footage, especially of low-fi / native resolution games.

If you want to record "screen-fraction" games (games that use OpenGL or Direct3D to draw things using floating numbers, which can scale freely, and in which a higher resolution equates to more quality) like Cobalt, Batman, or Minecraft, then you would want to get the resolution as high as possible while keeping up a good FPS rating. 3D games and modern HD 2D games are usually of this kind. Generally, a larger resolution equates to sharper, crisper pixels and more defined details in-game.

If you want to record "native-pixel" games like Cave Story, Arvoesine, or other games like that, then you probably want to record at their native, 1x resolution if possible, like I outline in the video. Generally, a larger resolution does NOT equate to sharper, crisper pixels and more defined details in-game.

Once you're done with your recording, you can add any effects or audio tracks as necessary and output the video to 720 or 1080p (or whatever) through an NLE like Blender or LightWorks with anti-aliasing disabled (at least, in Blender you can) for sharp pixel outputted results.

The goal is to have a video that is as low resolution as possible while keeping high quality and the sharp pixels associated with the game. So you basically want to select the lowest resolution that the game allows while still keeping as much quality as possible. If it allows you to select 320x240, then it might be able to output at that resolution with 100% quality. Otherwise, you might have to make use an application like Sizer to resize game windows to specific pre-defined resolutions or down-scaling.

Of course, this isn't necessary if your computer can handle 1080p video recording. For others whose computers are less powerful (like mine), though, this information can hopefully be of some use.

If you liked the video, please feel free to like, comment, and subscribe. You could even put a few bucks to me for each thing like this I do at my Patreon page:

http://www.patreon.com/solarlune

Anyway, thanks a lot for watching!

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Blender - a cross-platform open-source 3D modeler, game engine, animation tool, and NLE (Non-Linear Editor), among other things:
http://www.blender.org/

Open Broadcast Software - the live-stream / video recorder: http://obsproject.com/

LightWorks - a cross-platform NLE with an interesting design: http://www.lwks.com/

Sizer - Resize game windows to specific pre-defined resolutions by clicking on their borders (doesn't work for every game):

http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/

WinSpy - Get information about game windows, like their size and positioning:

http://www.catch22.net/software/winspy-17

Music credit: Noise Attack by Kevin Macleod