Hey Developers, have you always wondered how to livestream? Livestreams can be useful for Roblox communities, games, and showing off your development real-time to your followers! Livestreams can be used as an educational tool or simply for fun.
There are many different softwares/programs you can use to livestream, but the most popular free one is “Open Broadcast Software” or OBS for short.
Learning to use OBS:
When you initially open the OBS program, it’s pretty daunting and confusing to someone who hasn’t worked with it before.
Screen Preview is a preview of the screen your viewers will see. On the stream, whatever changes you make will instantly update real-time for your viewers.
Scenes are saved screens you can use for later. It’s a good idea to save a scene for livestreaming, and one for recording.
Sources are a list of objects that appear on the screen, such as screen captures, photos, slideshows, etc.
Controls is where you can start and stop your stream, as well as record and access settings.
Setting up OBS Settings
There are many different setting options on OBS for various purposes. For this tutorial, I will show how to set up a simple high-quality livestream for YouTube.
General Settings
None of these settings are important to the actual stream, but more of personal choices. If you prefer a dark theme, you can select that here.
Stream Settings
This is where you can actually “connect” your OBS to your livestream. On your YouTube live dashboard there will be a stream key. Press “Reveal”, and copy and paste it to the text box on OBS. Keep this key a secret, so random strangers can’t livestream on your YouTube channel.
Output Settings
After spending years livestreaming, I found these settings best work for me (I use a higher end computer/laptop). If you have a lower spec computer, you may want to change the resolution to 720p and change the bitrate to 2000.
Audio Settings
The Audio settings are very self explanatory. As long as the sample rate is 48khz and the channel is stereo, you don’t have to do much. Make sure to connect your computer’s speakers to “Desktop Audio Device” and your microphone to “Mic/Aux Audio Device”. If you want to use the push to talk/mute feature, you may do so.
Video Settings
The standard for livestreaming on YouTube is 1080p or 720p. If you have a high spec computer that can handle livestreaming 1080p, I suggest taking advantage of it and livestream at a higher resolution. If not, 720p is still great!
30 FPS is normal for YouTube videos and livestreams, but 60 FPS makes it a little sharper and smoother. Again, choose whatever you feel your computer can handle.
Hotkey and Advanced Settings
These settings aren’t essential for setting up the livesteam, and their defaults should be fine. Feel free to take a look though if you wish!
Creating your Scene
The first thing you should do to set up your scene is to add a Source. In most livestreams, you want to show your desktop screen. To do so, select “Window Capture”.
Then, a window will pop up prompting you to select what window you’d like to capture. For this tutorial, I selected “Photoshop.exe” to show on my stream. On the dropdown menu, you can select any program that is open.
Huzzah! The stream now shows my Photoshop window. Now let’s go to sources and add a text object to create a little message. You can select whatever font you wish, and you can select the size and position.
Press “OK” and it will appear on your screen. Make sure the Text source is above the Window Capture Source, so it appears on top.
Once you are satisfied with your screen preview, press “Start Streaming”.
Tips and Tricks
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Try Tweeting the link to your livestream so your friends can watch!
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Livestreaming your development can get players pumped and excited for what is to come!
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If you’re hosting a Roblox group event, livestreaming can be a great way for those who cannot attend still feel a part of the community.
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If you monetize your livestream, you can potentially earn quite a bit of money through adsense!
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Remember not to play copyrighted music on your livestream, or you may get a copyright strike.
Thank you ChipioIndustries for fixing my images to be compatable with the dark themed website
