Twitching the night away: how to stream your gaming broadcast from your laptop
The rise of online gaming brought with it a new pastime: video game spectating. Rather than play the game, you watch a live stream or pre-recorded episode as a player guides you through their actions. Imagine watching football, but being able to hear what the managers are saying as they direct the flow of play. With video games, you can tune in to see speed run attempts, epic boss fights, or because you enjoy the commentary of the often witty and insightful hosts.
But why stream yourself playing a game? Some do it for the recognition of being the best player. Others are incentivized by the money they receive for having their fans watch their channel. Most, however, just do it for the sheer fun.
Platform
So what do you do if you want to go from viewer to live broadcaster? First, you want to find a solid platform to stream your gaming prowess. While there are many options, including YouTube Gaming or Hitbox, the most popular and well-recognised is Twitch. Simply sign up for a free account, create a broadcast handle, adjust the settings to suit your needs, and then play away.
Still from PewDiePie video, courtesy of YouTube
Software
Now that you have your feet firmly planted on the Twitch platform, you'll need to download some software to send your signal to the 'verse. Twitch recommends a small selection: Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), XSplit, and Gameshow. The latter two have limited free versions with paid upgradeable options, though ASUS graphics cards offer a 1-year premium license for XSplit. OBS is 100% free and open-source, and a solid choice to start with. Should you find yourself enjoying fame and success as a gaming god or goddess, and need more features to keep the baying mobs content, you can always upgrade to a paid option in the future. Here's a guide to streaming and recording on XSplit Gamecaster.
Hardware
In order to stream a game, you'll need a moderately powerful laptop or PC to run both the broadcasting software and the game itself. Many hardcore gamers choose a highly powerful desktop PC, but for those gamers who travel, or are constantly on the move, there are super-fast laptop options as well. For those that want an overclocked gaming leviathan, the new ROG G-series of laptops are VR Ready, reaching speeds of up to 4.0 Ghz. They are fitted with the latest Pascal graphics cards and some even have dedicated streaming buttons.
Best settings
While both laptops and desktops will be able to stream the game, broadcasting may increase input lag. This is the time taken for the game to react to the player’s input. There is no point in streaming a game to an audience if it renders you unable to play at your best and win their approval.
To counter this, and to optimize the broadcast, many gamers use a second machine. If you do it right the first time, you'll only need one machine to do it all!
By Andrew Rainnie
