So I'm really thinking of starting up a steam to stream some streams; however, I'm quite unsure of a few things, so I thought I'd pop in here to get some questions answered before I went through all the brou-ha-ha of setting things up only to have no viewers and let it die.

1: How do I market my stream?
I've seen a lot of streamers for other games advertise on their affiliated site's page, such as Smite's Hi-Rez players on Smite's Facebook and the like, but as an individual I'm not quite sure where to start with this.

2: Exactly how good do am I expected to be?
I definitely feel like I'm good, but I can't churn out S-ranks. I can complete many of Val0108's maps without too much trouble if I practice a little bit, as well as some Skystar maps and songs by other high-praise, high-difficulty mappers. But songs like Val's "Scarlet Rose" and Blue Dragon's "Can't Beat Airman" evade me, while I can get through "Mythologia's End" and "Recommended Spell." What is the threshold here?

3: How good does my equipment need to be?
I just recently picked up a very high-quality laptop to replace my old one, an IdeaPad Y510P by Lenovo. SLI-Graphics card, high-end processor, etc. It has what seems to be a very good integrated camera and microphone; is this enough, or do I really need an auxiliary camera and mic?

4: What screen-capture software should I use?
I've done some digging, but in no way do I think I have any sort of a handle on what's good and what isn't. I've heard that Twitch has this software built into the site; is that true? If not, what should I look into? Are their any free versions I can use while I test the popularity of the stream and upgrade, pending success?

5: What are some general tips?
I'm familiar with streams, but not with streaming. I have a personality I think should be good for streaming, but I've never done it before. What do?


Any and all feedback is helpful. I haven't been particularly active in the osu! community, but I would like to start. I've been doing a little mapping on the side, and if this stream kicks up I hope to do more in the future.

P.S: I saw no better forum to post this, so I put it here. Apologies if I'm in the inappropriate forum.

I wouldn't say you need to be good to start-up a stream. I spent a couple hours last night on a twitch chat where the streamer was worse than me (and i'm god awful).

For streaming software i'd suggest you get Open Broadcasting Software (OBS). As for the camera, if it's of a decent resolution then I imagine it'd be fine.

Can't really help with anything else, sorry to say.

EDIT: You also seem to be really really fast for your rank. I'm ~13k ranks higher than you and I can't even touch your top rank with my current skill level.

Not important but it kinda surprised me so I had to mention it >.>

Well, you can post in the subreddit to market, but I'm.not too sure about that working.

And the only way that you will figure out if your personality is good is if you start streaming and see if people like you.

For OBS: 1280x720 60fps 3000 kb/s or 852x480 (downscale from 1280x720) 60fps 2500 kb/s
If you must include a handcam I would recommend a C920 ($67) as you can set it to 320x180 60fps and it looks nice.

For the content of your stream you should talk on microphone consistently; I've noticed a lot more people tend to watch streamers who interact with the chat with a microphone. If your personality doesn't pull viewers then you have to get insanely good or be somewhat osu!/twitch famous in a way.

I've been streaming since 2008 and can say that it's going to be very very difficult with the standards there are today. Everyone is trying to broadcast a variety of games and the streaming market is kind of cluttered. You really need something to set you apart from others, and give them a reason to come back. Try not to rage on stream neither, people will not take you seriously if you get flustered and whiny.

I've never really tried to market my stream, but if you're shameless/moneybags then do giveaways. People flock to channels to get free stuff. osu! supporter rewards for every x interval of followers is a common and easy one to do.

Dexus wrote:

For OBS: 1280x720 60fps 3000 kb/s or 852x480 (downscale from 1280x720) 60fps 2500 kb/s
If you must include a handcam I would recommend a C920 ($67) as you can set it to 320x180 60fps and it looks nice.

For the content of your stream you should talk on microphone consistently; I've noticed a lot more people tend to watch streamers who interact with the chat with a microphone. If your personality doesn't pull viewers then you have to get insanely good or be somewhat osu!/twitch famous in a way.

I've been streaming since 2008 and can say that it's going to be very very difficult with the standards there are today. Everyone is trying to broadcast a variety of games and the streaming market is kind of cluttered. You really need something to set you apart from others, and give them a reason to come back. Try not to rage on stream neither, people will not take you seriously if you get flustered and whiny.

I've never really tried to market my stream, but if you're shameless/moneybags then do giveaways. People flock to channels to get free stuff. osu! supporter rewards for every x interval of followers is a common and easy one to do.

I fully understand that my computer choice is going to continually push me to spend more than I might to get the performance I want, but I just can't force myself to buy a desktop computer. But that's for another conversation. Thanks for the specs on OBS, that will undoubtedly come in handy. I don't get flustered but I do curse at and insult my computer nigh constantly, which I've been told is funny. So whatever that's worth.

I'm not particularly moneybagged up, but I am quite shameless when I need to be XD. Everyone needs to start somewhere, ne?

asmit10 wrote:

I wouldn't say you need to be good to start-up a stream. I spent a couple hours last night on a twitch chat where the streamer was worse than me (and i'm god awful).

For streaming software i'd suggest you get Open Broadcasting Software (OBS). As for the camera, if it's of a decent resolution then I imagine it'd be fine.

Can't really help with anything else, sorry to say.

EDIT: You also seem to be really really fast for your rank. I'm ~13k ranks higher than you and I can't even touch your top rank with my current skill level.

Not important but it kinda surprised me so I had to mention it >.>

I'm not really sure what the number intervals on ranks actually mean, how much skill/time played they correspond to, etc. But I do know that when I play with players around 10k I'm right on pace. So whatever that means.

In response to 2: It doesn't matter how good you are. People will recognise if you're a good/bad player and that will be be that, people won't have expectations. Although, generally speaking, the worse you are the "better" your stream has to be to make up for it if you expect viewers. Whether your means of creating a better livestream is a cleavage cam or being entertaining, that's up to you.

I suggest using OBS.

I don't really have any tips for streaming. Look into the bots available for use like http://mikuia.tv/

Being good is not a requirement at all, however because of this reason you have to be very active with the chat, if your monitor is big enough or if you got dual monitors, put the twitch chat next to osu! so you can see what people are saying. For livestreaming osu! I'd suggest using either OBS or xSplit which both work very well. OBS is less performance heavy but you can do so much more with xSplit (see their website). For settings I'd suggest you work them out by trial and error. Good luck streaming

GET A PSEYE CAM FOR A HAND CAM, IT'S CHEAP AS HELL AND 120FPS. To add the that, if you're not a pro at the game you NEED to talk otherwise people will get bored fast when there are pros out there they can watch and other people who talk/interact with viewers. When there are pros that talk you'll have a hard time matching their stream unless you have some quirky trait or came from having a viewer base on say youtube. Use OBS to stream with.

in case you didn't know, your stream will be displayed at https://osu.ppy.sh/p/live, assuming you set osu! as the game you're currently streaming on twitch

just pray that people will click on your stream and hope that something starts from there

jesus1412 wrote:

GET A PSEYE CAM FOR A HAND CAM, IT'S CHEAP AS HELL AND 120FPS. To add the that, if you're not a pro at the game you NEED to talk otherwise people will get bored fast when there are pros out there they can watch and other people who talk/interact with viewers. When there are pros that talk you'll have a hard time matching their stream unless you have some quirky trait or came from having a viewer base on say youtube. Use OBS to stream with.

what about pros that talk to the chat, sing while they play, and have quirky traits?

jesus1412 wrote:

GET A PSEYE CAM FOR A HAND CAM, IT'S CHEAP AS HELL AND 120FPS.

Why have I never heard of this thing. It almost seems too good to be true.
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-PlayStation- ... B0072I2240
I guess I can throw out my C920.

640x480 @60hz
320x240 @120hz

Getting the pc drivers seems kinda shady though.

I didn't disappear!

Just a few days after posting this I found out that the job I had been working was seasonal - and my season ended. Things have been a jumble of getting stuff together and getting a new job, which I have now secured.

Thank you all for all your advice! I'll definitely check out all of the things you've sent me, and post again in this thread when I have everything together.

1: How do I market my stream?

Your osu stream should automatically be on the osu stream page if your main game is osu!. Just set game to osu! (?), not entirely 100% sure.

2: Exactly how good do am I expected to be?

Doesn't matter, just have fun and interact with the players. As long as you're not struggling on easy/normals, you should still get viewers.

3: How good does my equipment need to be?

i7 minimum (multi tasking), 8gb ram minimum and at least a high end graphics card like the gtx 670m or gtx 770m series above (for laptops). You also need a fast upload speed (around 2-3mb/s up). Lastly, you have to make sure you set all your settings with OBS or Xsplit correctly. If your settings aren't perfect, shit can happen. Personally, a livecam and mic is best, but it doesn't matter too much.

4: What screen-capture software should I use?

OBS or xSplit. OBS seems better.

5: What are some general tips?

Listen to viewers at first. Be fun.