Livestream

Hey guys whats up what do you think about livestreams? Do you think they would be succesful in ZK? Would you take part in such stream, playing with or against a streamer? I think that they could be really useful in some stuff. They would be damn good in making the game more popular (if the streamer can attract viewers, that is) also it would be an awesome place to have fun, discuss and learn the game at once. What do you think?

I think either Floris or Shadowfury once said they'd cast live games if the timing was right. Based on this, maybe they'd play the game themself? This way it only takes one non-caster instead of two for the timing to be right.

If you do stream, do it right:

-Make sure you don't have microphone noise
-Have some sort of intro or at least screenshots on intro
-Have something for intermissions
-Most importantly, make darn sure you can actually handle the upstream load of spitting out ~2-3 mbps worth of video and audio, as well as the CPU load of compressing it on the fly.

I've found a lot of people get lots of lag from Twitch when I stream at the recommended maximum of 3500 kbps video, so I've dropped mine to 2250 kbps with a more processor-intensive h.264 profile (to reduce the motion artifacts at lower bitrate), but that's on a 3.8GHz i7-2600k (the stock OC settings) and even then it is only at 30fps.

Of course, the other side is commentary. My biggest tip is to avoid any audible pauses (ex. "uh", "um", "er", etc.). Beyond that is just a question of finding a style that is entertaining and natural to do.

As for advertisement, I'm not sure. I've been steadily growing a follower-base over the last few months, but I'm only up to 41 (most people seem to prefer YouTube at this point). I would imagine primary marketing would have to approach from a different angle for Zero-K streams to get good visibility, though after that streams would probably be a useful point of entry for people.

quote: I might get a better ISP soon

There is only one true ISP!

quote: What would be fun for you to watch? Is anyone interested in watching me play 1v1 2v2 at all? ^^

Pretty much anything from 1v1 to 4v4.

Thanks for the tips, Shadowfury333
I was thinking of doing some amateur streams mostly to share some knowledge, or some kind of "point of view" to other players who are less.experienced than me.

I've tried to stream ZK today, my ISP and upload speed are both horrible so i had it running on about 480p, from what i saw and my gf said, it was pretty smoith with occassional 1-sec freezes (lost frames i guess) at acceptable quality with decent sound.
My CPU was chillin though, so i might be able to tinker with some settings and make it better.

The main question is - would anyone participate in such stream?

@SpamSponsor: What is your stream channel and where is it (i.e. Twitch, Own3d, Livestream, YouTube)? Did you record the videos from your tests?

[2up]knorke: I can see what you mean about technical quality, though I have worked my hardest (and hopefully didn't damage my CPU in the process with my OC tests) to ensure that my stream quality wouldn't fall too far behind my previously DXTory-recorded footage when I switched to a pure-streaming setup. As for editing, that's not something likely to happen with a commentated match. I mean, you don't see sports games with bits chopped out because the players are busy or are otherwise not doing much interesting, the commentators just start getting into colour commentary. Better option is for the commentator(s) to have things to talk about in downtimes.

As for the replays, I have said this to others: The point is to be able to cast the games as they come. The replays are basically timeshifted live games. If I didn't cast replays as if they were live games, I wouldn't have the skills needed to actually cast live games. I'd have this crutch of editing and then suddenly I'm casting from a 1v1 room (or possibly something more competitive) and I'm all lost and flustered.

Did a stream today, realized that my commentary skills are far beyond terrible, and that my accent needs a lot of improvement but i was very surprised that no one complained about freezes, lags nor noises... so i guess i will do more of them sometimes, purely for fun and to practice :)

And i wanted to say thanks to those who watched, even though there were roughly 3 viewers i think xD

Sprung said he saw 11 at some point..

IMO could be popular but players (in the game) could cheat pretty easily using it xD