Month: June 2022

How to Stream to your Steam Game Page

A lot of developers and publishers have taken advantage of being able to stream directly to their game or sale page. Streaming on Steam allows you to show off your game in a live, or pre-recorded, manner directly on the buy page. While the steam client will enable you to stream raw, live gameplay directly, you’ll need software if you want to add some post-production or live elements like your camera. This is where XSplit Broadcaster can help!

How to stream to Steam

As we mentioned, we will be using XSplit Broadcaster as our software of choice. But before we get set up there, you’ll need some information from Steam. First, check your Steam page here where you can get your Upload Server address. You’ll need this later in XSplit Broadcaster. You will also need your RTMP Token, which can also be found on this page.

On this page, you will also need to enter your appID. Your appID can be found by heading to your games page. The appID is the series of numbers in the page’s URL. You will also want to check your Broadcast Permissions. This will be set to Friends Only by default, so you must set this to Public when you stream live to Steam.

A broadcasting PC set up with two key lights, two monitors, a gaming desktop PC and a microphone all on a desk ready to find out how to stream games to steam.
Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Setting up XSplit Broadcaster

The next step is setting up XSplit Broadcaster, so you’re ready to stream. Straight out of the box, XSplit Broadcaster will easily set you up for a stream with your gameplay and a camera source. You can, from here, easily customize everything to be exactly how you want it—easily importing alerts and anything else you might want from a live stream. We’ve detailed how easy getting started can be in the video below.

Next, you’ll want to set up your Steam broadcast using the info we gained above. For this, you’ll want to set up a Custom RTMP stream. So, first up, navigate to the Broadcast menu > Setup New Output > Custom RTMP. From here, you’ll want the bits of information we gathered above, so your Upload Server address will go in the RTMP URL box, and the Upload Token will go in the Stream Key link.

You can choose to change the settings for your broadcast, but XSplit Broadcaster will run checks before your first stream and set these for you based on your system and internet speeds. We recommend setting your bitrate to around 3500kbps for a 1080p stream, but the maximum you can use on Steam is 7000kbps, so it depends on your upload speeds.

You just need to click “Ok,” and you’re ready! It is that simple to stream your game to your steam page!

Introducing VideoCom

We have been delighted with the anticipation around both the newly released XSplit Presenter and the upcoming XSplit Capture. As the apps have grown and developed, based on users’ feedback, it has become clear that they need a dedicated team to focus on them. With that in mind, we are proud to introduce you to VideoCom.

The VideoCom team will continue their work with Presenter and Capture, focusing on allowing you to easily create and share screen captures or high-quality video presentations. The team at VideoCom has already refined and improved upon everything you love about Presenter and Capture, with both apps continuing development under that brand.

These new VideoCom versions of Presenter and Capture will be available soon, and you can register your interest by signing up here.

I’m very excited to see the team’s vision for the future of video communication develop while XSplit continues to focus on the future of XSplit Broadcaster, VCam, and Connect: Webcam.

What will happen to XSplit Presenter and Capture?

We will continue to develop maintenance updates for some time, but all future development and features will go into the new VideoCom apps.

I purchased a lifetime license for XSplit Presenter. What happens to that?

XSplit Presenter lifetime license holders will receive a free upgrade to a VideoCom lifetime license when it becomes available.

Using VSTs for Live Streaming

VSTs are a great tool for improving the overall production quality of your stream. I mean, the people need to hear you! So today we’re going to discuss how you can use VSTs for live streaming! VST stands for Virtual Studio Technology and enables you to create a digital studio with various options. We’re going to take a look at EQ, a compressor, and a limiter which can all be used in XSplit Broadcaster to make your microphone sound better.

How to Set Up VSTs for Live Streaming

Using VSTs with XSplit Broadcaster is easy. Go into your audio mixer, and click on the settings for your microphone to open the audio DSP effects. You’ll need to set the location where your VSTs are located. Usually, they’re in program files, common files, and then in the VST3 folder.

Refresh the list then add your VSTs. The settings icon will open the interface for each VST. From there you can start diving deeper and making some tweaks so let’s have a look at each in turn!

A digital mix desk showing you the sort of interface you can expect using VSTs for live streaming
Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash

EQ

The first VST you should use is an Equalizer or EQ. Basically, the EQ will be used to add or subtract certain frequencies that will improve the overall sound of your voice. This is of course, very subjective as everyone’s voice is different. However, here are some general suggestions that should get you started and you can change things from there.

First, apply a high pass filter around 70hz to remove any unwanted low frequencies like air conditioning. Then do the same for a low pass filter around 15khz. Then you’ll want to find the frequencies to remove. This differs from person to person, but you can start around the 1khz range and use a boosted bell curve until you find the frequency you want to remove.

Then you want to boost the frequencies you like, such as the 100-200 range to add more bass to your voice or the 4000-5000 and 9-10k range to add more clarity to your voice.

I’m using the Fabfilter Pro-Q3 eq which is paid but has a free trial. There are a ton of free EQ plugins that you can find. They really do make a bunch of great VSTs for live streaming that we’re going to be checking out.

A person using VSTs for live streaming at a large Digital audio computer with two screens, a mic and a large musical keyboard.
Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash

Compressor

Compressors are always a tricky one to explain, but if you like to shout or whisper, they essentially help your viewers hear you clearly. Basically, any compressor will have you set a threshold, this is the level your audio will need to hit to trigger the compressor. This will be the highs lower and the lows higher.

You then set a compression ratio, safe ratios to start with are 2:1 or 3:1 for vocals. Then you’ll set an attack and release. You’ll want a fast attack and slightly slow release to start, you can adjust these over time. Finally, you’ll need to set the makeup gain. This is to make up for the overall loudness you’ve lost from compressing your audio. I wouldn’t set this too high, as this is something you can adjust with the next tool we’ll discuss.

That’ll get you started, but tweet the settings to your liking over time. There is a great compressor built into XSplit Broadcaster which should cover everything you need but you can, again, add different ones. There really are a lot of great VSTs for live streaming!

Limiter VSTs for Live Streaming

We all have hype moments when gaming, I mean that’s the whole fun of streaming right? However, nothing ruins the moment more than distorted, clipped audio. You can minimize this with a limiter. Unlike a compressor, a limiter is specifically focused on the higher audio levels.

So you basically set a threshold, something right before the audio will clip, like -2 or -3 DB. The limiter will then reduce the level anytime the audio hits that threshold, saving you from clipping.

More advanced limiters will also allow you to raise your overall audio level, so you make sure you’re hitting levels where you are just barely triggering the limiter from time to time. This really can be an essential VST for live streaming as you’ll have clear audio without worrying about clipping.

So those are the main VSTs you’ll want to get started with for live streaming.  They’ll greatly enhance your audio and if you look around you can find high-quality free versions. If you have any questions about how to use these VSTs be sure to let us know in the comments.

How to Run a Low Latency Co-Stream with Friends

Have you ever wanted to stream with your friends? And I don’t mean streaming with them coming in on a Discord call. I mean actually pulling in your friend’s face cam and gameplay feed in as separate sources and with low latency. This is the kind of thing that can make running an online tournament viable or having live head to heads between your friends streamed. Well, we’re here to talk about co-streaming so let’s get into it!

Co-Streaming with VDO.Ninja

We will be using VDO.Ninja, which is a free open source tool that uses webRTC to send low latency video and audio via your web browser. We created a guide on how to get started with VDO.Ninja, check out the video below to watch it. You’ll want to share it with your friends as well as they’ll need to understand the basics.

You’ll want to set up a room as you’ll need to manage multiple VDO.Ninja feeds. I recommend enabling pro-audio mode and up to 1080/60 video. This will require a lot of bandwidth, so make sure both you and your friends have good internet connections. 

After that is done copy the guest link and make sure to let your friends know they will be using this URL twice. One for their face cam and one for their gameplay.

Getting your guests set up

We will be using XSplit Broadcaster as a sort of video mixer and splitter to get everything to work. First, your guests will need to set up two scenes, one with their Facecam and one with their gameplay capture. This can be console via a capture card or game source captured directly on PC. Then they’ll want to set a virtual camera output to a face cam scene.

Then they’ll want to use the invite link and when asked set their camera to the XSplit Virtual Camera and set the microphone input as whatever microphone they’re using. Now for the gameplay, they’ll need to make sure the microphone source is muted and the system sound is set to the default device so that the gameplay audio is captured.

Next, they’ll need to create a projector output as a window. Then, go to another VDO.Ninja window, but this time instead of a video source they’ll be sharing a window. They can then share that projector window with you. Then in the audio input set XSplit Broadcaster as the microphone. Now your guest will be sending gameplay video and audio!

A person playing on a gaming PC co-streaming with RGB enabled headphones on.
Photo by Sean Do on Unsplash

Setting up the host

So as the host, you’ll have an easier time. You’ll see the feeds coming in from the director video feed in VDO.Ninja. Simply copy those links and add them as browser sources in XSplit Broadcaster. Arrange the sources however you like and adjust the audio levels.

You may want to set the audio to stream only, so you don’t hear your friend’s microphone and gameplay audio over your own. You can add as many of your friends as your internet connection can support as these are basically streams feeding into your PC.

If you have any questions on how this co-streaming setup works, be sure to leave them in the comments!