Summoning Xorn: How do you set up your stream?

[Art Wendorf]

I labored over the title in an effort to gather knowledge from the master. I've seen how you have your twitch stream set up so that you have the players at the bottom of the screen. I know that you're using roll20 some how. I also know that my computer-fu is weak, Grand Master. So I was hoping that you could give me (and possibly others who are curious but too shy to ask) how you managed to run Fantasy Grounds with Roll20 to get such a wonderful layout.

While I haven't even *begun* my chat-based Fantasy Grounds game, I'm keeping my eye to the future in case it works out well and we (my players and I) want to expand into realm of voice and then into Video!

Any help would be helpful even if it is to say that it's too convoluted to be helpful... If that makes sense.

[ddavison]

Hey Art, I am pretty sure you can use XSplit to configure a layout that displays Fantasy Grounds and also video showing the cameras of all your connected guests from Skype. I'm not sure if it also works for Google Hangouts, but I'd be surprised if it didn't. It's pretty flexible in how it does regions.

[FSHSchmo]

Look me up one evening on Twitch and I can help ya out also. I use OBS to stream my content. I believe what Xorn does is uses Roll20 for the video chat and uses whats called "window" capture and you can select a certain part of a screen you want to use and then overlay that onto your stream.

[Vishera]

I was going to make a start-to-end video on how I setup my streams. perhaps a series of videos broken down into sections such as creating the overlays, setting them up on OBS, using roll20 for the cams, and streaming tips and tricks. If it generates enough interest I will most certainly do it. check out my twitch channel to see how mine look and if any of you are curious how I do it, I will make the videos. www.twitch.tv/behindthedmscreen

Edit: Here's an outline of what I will cover in my "D&D Streaming for Dummies"

I. Intro

creating an overlay
using OBS
applying your overlay/graphics to OBS
using roll20 for webcams/audio and music
streaming tips & tricks - like video bitrate and audio quality, resolution etc.
extra credit: setting up twitch alerts (for follow/donation/subscribe alerts), setting up your twitch channel.



each of these topics I will go into detail about everything you will need to know to get started. Now I will be using photoshop but you can download gimp for free which works almost the same.. at least enough of it does for this tutorial.

[Xorn]

I have a lot of PMs asking about my stream setup, so I'll put together a tutorial, and try to post it tonight. :)

The crash course version is that I'm using two computers when I stream--so I have a player view. I could do it with just my desktop, but I like to have my DM client spanning two screens.

On the desktop, I have the FG client (host) running, along with a Chrome browser on Roll20 with a video/audio feed. The "map" on Roll20 is just a black background--we use it because we can put Player (Character) under our webcams. I also have a program called "Chatty" running, which connects to my Twitch chat in an IRC like window.

On the laptop, I have the FG client (demo) running, along with a Chrome browser on Roll20 as well, with audio/video turned off, and the FG Logo for an avatar. I also have a program called TeeBoard running, which has a bunch of Twitch utilities, one of which is a chat window feed that fades when chat isn't active. I think it adds something to the video-on-demand when you can see what chat was saying at the time. Finally, I have OBS running, which is a free alternative to XSplit.

(For anyone interested, I don't have great internet where I live, so my stream is 1080p @ 15 FPS set to 1382 Kbps video / 128 Kbps audio. That's 1920 x 1080 x 15 x 0.06 bits per pixel) 0.1 bpp is for FPS/fullscreen motion, 0.08 bpp is for RTS/fixed perspective motion, and 0.06 bpp is for turn based/low motion.)

For the FG observer setup, I connect as a player named Observer, and don't claim a character. I put the Party Window in the top left, the combat tracker below it, and make the chat window fill the remaining space to the left. The rest of the screen is for maps/images. On the DM side I just "Sync Client View" to adjust the image on the laptop. Only time I need to touch the laptop is to reposition initially shared maps.

My scene in OBS is comprised of the following (from top to bottom)
1. Crawl
2. Cards
3. Roll20
4. Twitch Chat
5. Fantasy Grounds

1. This is the crawl across the top of the page. It's a Text element, with custom extens (1080x50 iirc) and I put our Welcome to EugeeTV blah blah D&D blah blah no spoilers please... up there. This goes at the top of the stream.

3. The cards that cycle are an Image element which is set to cycle through a list of cards that I made. I have a template in GIMP that I can paste a portrait to and add some text for new characters (since I've killed off several of them now). This is placed in the bottom right and scaled tall enough so the top edge matches the Roll20 feed.

3. I use a Window Capture element for this, set to Inner Window and a custom Screen Region. There's a little border on the region and I set that to just be outside the top, left, and bottom of the Roll20 webcam feeds--and I run it out as far as it will go to the right. This is placed in the bottom left, and then expanded until it borders the bottom of the chat box--viewers don't need to see the modifier stack or hotkeys after all. Note that as long as you don't minimize the Roll20 window, you can cover it up and OBS will still capture it correctly.

4. This is a webpage feed thingee (from TeeBoard--the install docs explain it) that I size to fit on the right side, between the Crawl and Cards, the same width as the Cards. It's 50% opacity, and fades after 30 seconds of inactivity.

5. Then Fantasy Grounds is full screen on the bottom layer. I like the Party Window showing to give a nice summary of the party at a glance to viewers, the combat tracker shows the current turn and recent/upcoming turns, and the health state that players see. The chat window is big enough to show off dice rolls, and there's lots of room for a big map.

The only real problem I have right now is my laptop is only 1600x900, so I'm using /scaleui 83 to get the same "screenspace" as 1920x1080 would be, and upscaling the stream to 1080p. I want to get another 1080p monitor to hook up to the laptop and then have FG at a native 1080p resolution, but this works right now.

Hmmm... that's actually a pretty thorough explanation of how I stream--maybe I don't need to put up more than that.

P.S. If you really got down to the nitty gritty, a 640x360 stream @ 15 fps should need 207 kbps @ 0.06 bpp, and to upscale that to 1080p with the Rule of .75, that's (((1920*1080)/(640*360))^0.75)*207 = 1077 kbps, but most people just apply a flat bpp regardless of resolution, even though codecs get more efficient at resolutions past SD.

[ddavison]

OBS looks like it basically does the exact same thing that XSplit does, but is free. I'm sure there are subtle differences, but that looks pretty nice. Thanks for sharing.

[Vishera]

I don't want to thread steal, but here is a link to the video series I am working on walking you through how to create the overlays and insert cams, using OBS.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24282-How-to-make-an-overlay-and-setup-OBS-for-streaming!

[JeffKnight]

This info would be welcomed in the Adventure League section.

[Art Wendorf]

I don't want to thread steal, but here is a link to the video series I am working on walking you through how to create the overlays and insert cams, using OBS.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?24282-How-to-make-an-overlay-and-setup-OBS-for-streaming!That is fantastic, Vishera! Thank you so, so much.