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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > YouTube & Streaming: way more work than just switching the camera 'on'
 
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

 I just started streaming for the first time. I feel like my audio/video setup isn’t half bad but I’m not really sure where to go from here - I don’t know what I don’t know yet. Anything obvious I’m missing?

I think the obvious next step is to decide on a schedule and post it.

I’m planning to play just for fun like normal and if anyone wants to watch then that’s great.

twitch.tv/rootreducer

Edit: If my average viewers chart looks like this, that means people were basically coming in, watching for just a minute or two, and leaving, right?

Harriet Carker fucked around with this message at 02:56 on Sep 10, 2022

* # ¿ Sep 9, 2022 17:39
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

Leng posted:

Oh awesome, a DDR player! Okay so I could only watch the highlight you clipped, which is just of a song which is not much to critique. No idea what your actual stream is like since the full VOD isn't up.

Specifics on the snippets and your questions:

1. Your cam feed has a slight delay compared to your screen feed; I'd try and manually compensate for that in your streaming software settings so that the visual of you playing actually lines up with when your game screen registers the feet presses.
2. Are you doing banter? When the highlight started, I wasn't sure because it opened straight on the song, but then at the end you talked. FWIW, it's hard to get an idea of you as a streamer from the highlight, because without an opening segment of banter and commentary while you're playing, I don't have any way to get to know you.
3. And yeah, viewers will blip in and out of streams, that's normal, they're just popping in to check it out to see if they'll like it. If you want them to stick around, you need to give them an immediate sense of the vibe of your stream. You have about...1-3 seconds to hook them, or they're gone. So uh, play just for fun like normal and if anyone wants to watch then that's great" probably won't get you anybody watching.

So the big question you have to answer before we can provide any useful advice is this: what do you want to get out of streaming?

Thanks for the feedback! I will post here the next time I'm live, or publish a VOD once my setup is perfected.

1. I am not sure how to edit the video delay - I only see options for audio delay. But I will investigate and see if there's anything I can do here.
2. Yes, I am doing banter between songs. Even though nobody's watching! I will try to come up with a highlight idea where I can show off my personality a bit more.
3. Makes sense. It's tough because I can't really talk during the song, so whoever is watching has got to like DDR as sort of a baseline. But I do chat between songs and hope this can set the tone of the stream. I'm going for chill, relaxed vibes.

Hmm, what do I want to get out of streaming? I am a pretty high-level DDR player and I have very ambitious goals for my progress. It's plain and simple more fun if people are watching - it makes me feel like I have a crowd at the arcade. Having spectators makes me feel like I can push harder toward my goals. So ideally, I'd love even a small group of people to watch and be impressed because it strokes my ego and feels good. Even just 2-5 people watching with the occasional commenter would be wonderful.

* # ¿ Sep 10, 2022 05:03
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

 Thanks for the advice! Putting my goals up on screen seems like such a great idea, like “Today’s AAA goal 3/5” or whatever. I love it!

Leng posted:

also was there a specific reason why you picked Twitch over YouTube?

No real reason. But Twitch Studio made getting started ridiculously easy. I am actually really impressed how good that program is for getting set up.

* # ¿ Sep 10, 2022 14:24
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

Vizuyos posted:

If you're focusing in on DDR streaming specifically, it might be a good idea to take a look at the other DDR streamers and see what they do, to get some ideas on how to handle things on stream.

Also take a look at the categories for other dance games - for example, I see that Stepmania is much more active than the main DDR category, and just from a glance it looks like there might be a fair few people streaming original DDR under the StepMania category instead of the DDR category, something that you could consider trying as well.

In OBS Studio, you can use the Render Delay filter on a source to delay its video by a given amount. I've never used Twitch Studio and I've never heard from anyone else using it, so I don't know if it's possible there - most people use OBS or SLOBS.


Thank you for the awesome advice! I changed my game to Stepmania and checkout some other streamer's layouts and stole a few things from them (and also got some helpful advice and a few followers!)

I also tweaked the audio timing (still can't get the video 100% synced but I think it's close and there might not be anything I can do about it) and added some highlights from today's stream. I'm mostly just really happy that the music, the game, and my footstep sounds are all synced very well. I took the advice in this thread and added some daily goals - so far so good. I am routinely getting a few viewers and actually got my first chat message today! Thanks for all the advice. I'm having an absolute blast.

twitch.tv/rootreducer for for any more critique. I could publish a whole VOD but DDR VODs tend to get copyright strikes pretty easily.

Harriet Carker fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Sep 16, 2022

* # ¿ Sep 16, 2022 04:48
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

Leng posted:

Had a quick look at your last two highlights and the improved overlays are great. Whatever lag remains on the video is negligible now, I'd have to really be looking for it to notice.

Re: chat—once you start getting more regular chat, you may want to include an overlay to show it on the screen.

Thank you for the continued feedback. I actually did add a chat overlay - it's just invisible when there are no messages. I did just get my first message from a random viewer though, so that was exciting!

Leng posted:

And then in terms of cameras...I don't know if this might be camera overkill, but I wonder if you could consider a third just as a devoted facecam to help build connection, because one is a footcam and the other is a bodycam, which means unless you're deliberately making an effort to do so, you never make eye contact with the camera. A lot of streamers don't do the thing that YouTubers who do talking head vids do (which is looking directly in the camera to fake direct eye contact with the viewer) but you usually still see at least 3/4s or 4/5ths of their face, and sometimes they will look at the camera from time to time to help build that connection.

This is an excellent idea. I'll have to consider the camera positioning.

My current struggle seems to be keeping people in the stream. I get about 15 people dropping in during a one hour stream, but rarely does anyone stay for more than a minute or so. I checked out some other streamers with 10+ viewers and a lot of them had trash audio quality and were also not very good at the game and I really couldn't understand why people were staying there. Maybe just a long time streaming has developed a community? Anyway I will keep streaming even if nobody watches so I guess we'll see if people come over time. I added a schedule so I hope that will help.

Edit: can anyone recommend a microphone I can attach/clip on to the top of my TV? I could probably home brew something instead. I watched some of my recordings and my voice quality is definitely not great especially as I get farther away from the onboard webcam.

Harriet Carker fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Sep 19, 2022

* # ¿ Sep 18, 2022 20:56
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# ¿ May 14, 2024 01:29
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Harriet Carker
Jun 2, 2009

 I wanted to say thanks for all the advice in this thread. It took a long time and a lot of experimentation, but I'm closing in on 100 followers and regularly have a handful of regular chatters. I have improved my stream quality in nearly every way and I'm super happy with it now.

How it started (unfortunately I just started automatically saving VODs so this is the oldest bit I have - I wish I has some recordings from the first few streams!)
https://twitch.tv/videos/1750904804

How it's going:
https://twitch.tv/videos/1819164091

* # ¿ May 31, 2023 15:15
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The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > YouTube & Streaming: way more work than just switching the camera 'on'