This weekend I tried out something new, streaming live game footage. I've always enjoyed it when Mykiel did it for WAR, so I figured I should see what it is all about. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I've only done the very basics, but you have to start somewhere.
I like doing videos for the games I play, but usually they are only for special occasions. Streaming, if practical, seems like a simpler way to do video work. To host the streams, I chose Own3d.tv. I picked that mainly because I saw fellow blogger Tarelther use it a few days earlier. Looked nice and clean from a design standpoint.
To do the actual streaming, I downloaded XSplit. It is very easy to use and doesn't involve any virtual webcams. It's free in beta at the moment. It's also what Own3d primarily uses, so it worked like a charm. After fiddling with the settings, I was up and going. The first thing I streamed was WAR, of course.
On the sidebar, you can see an indicator whether the stream in online or off. I put this together with some javascript, so it should change automatically when I start streaming. The stream itself can be found at: http://www.own3d.tv/Werit
Below is the stream, which was easily uploaded to youtube. The first few seconds are garbled, but it clears up.
Overall, what do you think about the quality (be sure to try HD)? It's pretty much the same as seen live. I don't plan on uploading every stream to to youtube, not sure anyone wants to watch an hour of someone play a game.
I'm not quite sure what I want to do with streaming. I see two possibilities. One is to just stream on special occasions. PTS sessions or new games would be a good time to stream. The other option is to stream whenever I play a game. I've been watching my bandwidth and both seem feasible.
In the future I plan on hooking up the microphone to give some commentary. I'm also thinking about streaming some non-traditional games, like the strategy game Sengoku. Not sure how fun it will be to watch though.
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