There are mainly 2 things to streaming. Internet and computer.
On the computer side, you at least need a decent processor (i5 would be best to run streams up to 1080p 30fps at a 3000 bit rate or 720p 60fps at a 4000 bit rate) and your games usually have to be border-less full screen or windowed for the software (OBS) to pick it up (unless its directly captured from the game itself) if not you will start seeing really weird stuff happen.
Assuming you have a good computer that can stream and you've fixed all the technical problems that may arise before streaming. Around the internet and forums alike, plenty of people mention that to stream without lagging your own internet too badly (unless you are on dial-up) the bit rate is usually about half of what your upload speed is at. For example if you have a 10mpbs upload speed, the recommended bit rate would be half of that 5mbps which is about 5000 kbps. I have tried to stream above that supposed half way mark. Previously I had a 1.5mpbs upload so i had my bit rate set to 1200kpbs and it still runs pretty smoothly.
Bit rate is one thing, another thing is the resolution and fps. Quality and fps are proportional to bit rate, If you attempt to stream 720p 45fps with a 500kbps bit rate you just get tons of jumbled up pixels on screen. Mess around with the numbers and see what you can pull off. (Thanks to Pox for pointing my earlier mistake out)
Now we got that out of the way, here are a couple things to take note of.
Whether you run sc2 or any other game on the highest settings or not will not affect your stream quality. It is then dependent on how well your GPU runs the game and that does not have any significant impact on the game (from what I have experienced).
I tend to keep the rule of thumb that i should have the same in game fps or higher as to what i put to stream. For example, my stream software is set to stream at 60 fps, i try to make sure that my game runs at 60fps or higher. May not have any technical ground or effect, but its something that i maintain.
I have also noticed that keeping the stream software minimized puts less stress on the computer. For my case at least, so i recommend keeping it minimized, not in the background open.
I base all that I have said here as experience from my stream. For your reference here is a VOD from my stream as proof.
When I had my old internet (25 mpbs download, 1.5 mpbs upload, stream settings at 720p 60fps 1000kbps *Yes it might seem im breaking my rules, but it works, so i do it, again what i mentioned above is a general guideline, you should mess around with the numbers to see how much you can get away with:
I use OBS due to it being less intensive on my computer as compared to Xsplit (adding on to the fact that OBS is free and I am cheap/p00r and will not buy a premium for a Xsplit)
To answer your question, yes you can stream, probably towards the 480p 30 fps side with a 500 kpbs, if it gets laggy for you in the game (latency wise) then im afraid it is then not possible to stream, unless you want your viewers to see just a blur everytime you move anything on screen.
For a more detailed guide and stuff you can take 25 minutes of your life watching a OBS guide i made (a little outdated but it still roughly works on the core important parts on streaming):
An important thing to note if you want to stream on Twitch, they are now limiting their stream input qualities, meaning that to stream at high qualities and be able to broadcast those to twitch for viewers, there is now a limit. The limit is as such, Video requirements Codec H.264 (x264), Mode: Strict CBR, Keyframe interval: 2 seconds. Audio requirements: Codec AAC-LC or MP3, Stereo or Mono, Maximum bit rate: 160kbps (AAC) or 128 kbps (MP3), Sampling frequency: any (AAC), 44.1KHz (MP3). If streams do not adhere to within these limits several consequences will be laid down by twitch. Reference: http://help.twitch.tv/customer/porta...t-requirements . The above mentioned settings can be modified under advanced settings and audio settings respectively for OBS. For your case, since you are streaming at a low bit rate and quality it shouldn't affect you. Maybe besides the keyframe value has to be changed to 2, but other than that nothing else you really need to take note of.
Hope this helps!
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Admin head of Team Oandlig Spektrum (OS)
When there's a will, there's a way and there's a wall
Last edited by OSL0rd; Tue, 20th-Aug-2013 at 11:55 PM.
Reason: Edited error
Quality and fps are disproportional to bit rate, for example, the higher the quality and fps you want to stream at with a fixed upload speed the lower the bit rate has to be
What? The bitrate is literally the rate you upload the compressed video stream at, so it should always be set slightly below what your connection can reliably upload. Using lower bitrates with high resolutions/framerates will just give you a mess of compression artifacts.
What? The bitrate is literally the rate you upload the compressed video stream at, so it should always be set slightly below what your connection can reliably upload. Using lower bitrates with high resolutions/framerates will just give you a mess of compression artifacts.
Come to think of it, I def made a mistake. High quality with low bit rate you just get jumbled pixels on stream. My bad. Cheers for pointing it out.
___________________________________
Admin head of Team Oandlig Spektrum (OS)
When there's a will, there's a way and there's a wall
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