How did the game streaming start?

How did the game streaming start?

Mass game streaming began with Twitch. The platform has been around since 2011, and by 2012, the monthly number of viewers exceeded 15 million. Within a year, the site had 45 million unique users. In 2014, Amazon bought the company for almost a billion dollars. In 2018, the service had 2 million streamers and 15 million daily viewers. By the beginning of 2022, the overall activity on the platform had grown to 14 million content creators and 27 million visitors.

Stream (from the English Stream, flow) - this word refers to the streaming of data. In our case, streaming is real-time video that is broadcast to a certain number of viewers through a server. That is, the video file, which is output to the viewer's computer, is stored remotely and transmitted over the Internet in real-time (which may have a delay of several seconds).

Twitch created conditions for monetization and the opportunity to showcase oneself to a million-strong audience. The service removed the last barriers for players who wanted to showcase their game. The modern player is in paradise for streamers:

• Free services;
• Ability to monetize through advertising, subscription, and a range of other services;
• Several video encoding options to adjust to any computer;
• Fast internet - a law, not a luxury;
• A huge, well-fed audience eager to watch all kinds of games.

How does streaming video work?

• The computer captures video from the screen. This does not require a lot of power. The videos are bulky. A couple of minutes of FHD video can weigh several gigabytes;
• The processor or graphics card reduces the size of the video and audio, this is called encoding;
• The recoded version is sent to the server;
• The media file is transmitted from the server to the viewers' screens.

Which service is the best to choose?

The world of game video streaming is based on three "pillars":

• Twitch.tv - a global giant with a million-strong audience. It is difficult for newcomers to fit in, and the competition is huge;
• YouTube.com - a very large audience, but most people just watch videos.

A computer for streaming on Twitch is no different from one for YouTube. The methods of video encoding and capture are determined by the program, not the service. So the requirements are the same.

Which program is best for capturing video?

• OBS Studio – the most popular program, completely free;
• XSplit Broadcaster – conditional free, adds its logo to video if a license is not purchased. The main advantage is the ability to send video to several services at once;
• GeForce Experience – software for NVIDIA graphics cards. The disadvantages are that it only works with "native" cards and does not support webcams;
• FFsplit – a complete analogue of OBS in functionality, but with a different interface. The advantages include easier output of video statistics for control;
• Wirecast – the most powerful software, used by some TV channels to process reports from the scene. There is a very large selection of settings that goes beyond game streaming. The disadvantages are that it costs around $500, requires powerful hardware and skill.

The program also has little impact on hardware selection. They all support hardware and software encoding to varying degrees, you just need to set the appropriate settings.

What is the difference between hardware and software encoding?

The video needs to be compressed before sending. If left in its original state, uploading it to the server will be problematic. Hardware encoding is of lower quality but faster, it is done by the graphics card. Software encoding is the work of the processor, its quality depends on the power of the hardware.

What is the bitrate of a stream?

This indicator determines the number of bits that can be used to store one second of recording. If the quality is too high, there may be lags due to fluctuations in internet speed. At low bitrate, the video quality will be terrible. You need to find a balance.

At a stream bitrate of 2000 kilobits, one second of video will weigh 250 kilobytes. There are eight bits in one byte.

What kind of computer do you need for streaming?

For successful activity, you need good content, live atmosphere, and high-quality picture. Hardware in the system unit will not help with the first two points. But clear picture is within their power. The viewer is spoiled, people pay for good internet to see a good picture. Let's take 1080p quality with 60FPS as a benchmark for choosing components.

Not all streamers can offer such clarity to their audience, let alone with a high bitrate. The table below shows information about the hardware of popular English-speaking streamers.

This is the summit. Professionals who earn millions from their activities buy cool toys. Their computer configuration for streaming is excessive, as such power is rarely needed in everyday life. But when such a moment comes, these gadgets work perfectly.

To choose a computer for streaming, you need to outline the genre and type of games that interest you. If you plan to play modest indie games, that's one thing, but if your plans include reviewing AAA projects on release day, that's a completely different story.

Processor for streaming

For simple games and a very budget build, an Intel Core i3-13100(F) will suffice. You can easily show a 1080p60 picture to the world in small indie games and undemanding online projects.

For a medium-duty build, Intel Core i5-13400(F) or Intel Core i5-13500 will work well. They will be enough for more advanced games at high quality. Some settings will have to be turned off. If you plan to use a video capture card or hardware encoding, these processors are sufficient for all modern games in very good quality.

A more powerful streaming computer is better based on Intel Core i7-13700K(F). It will cope with software encoding even in the most complex game. Problems may only arise at ultra-high resolutions. But in case the processor can't handle it, it can be overclocked. It should handle FullHD and even 1440p (QuadHD) in the most demanding games.

A professional streaming computer must be able to send 4K video to the network without choking on a powerful game. Intel Core i9-13900K(F) will easily handle these tasks, with 16 cores and 24 threads. Even the most sophisticated game will take up no more than half its power. The rest can be used for re-encoding. Using more powerful processors makes sense if you have special tasks.

Video card for streaming

The card determines the power reserve for game graphics settings. For ordinary games, the GeForce RTX 3050 is sufficient, and it is also great for most online projects. This is a budget option for a 2022 streaming computer. You can easily connect a couple of monitors to it.

To be able to overclock in more powerful games at FHD resolution, you will need the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti with 8 GB of memory. It will allow you to run the latest games at high graphics settings. This is much closer to what viewers want to see. The video card is also suitable for democratic streaming in 1440p resolution.

To play confidently in 2K, you need the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. It will provide comfortable FPS in all modern games and improved hardware video encoding. A card of this power can easily handle three monitors.

An extreme solution is the GeForce RTX 4080 and higher. These models are designed for their owner to forget about freezes and lags. They are capable of delivering sufficient power for gaming at ultra settings in all modern games. In most cases, with such a card, you will hardly feel the bad optimization of a fresh game - what a streamer needs.

RAM for streaming

A 2023 streaming computer should have at least 16GB of DDR4 memory with a clock speed of 3600 MHz or higher. More is needed for future complex tasks and new heavy games with high entry requirements. Frequency matters, it determines the speed of memory. The higher the indicator, the faster it works. The limiting factor may be the motherboard or processor, make sure everything is compatible, and no element will drag the system down.

SSD for streaming

This PC element is very important, as your viewers don't want to watch the location loading screen for long. You need the fastest and most capacious SSD possible. The preferred speed will be write and read speeds of 4500 and 5000 MB/s, respectively. And the optimal volume is from 500 GB. It is best to pair it with an HDD to store your videos. The more volume, the better.

Case and cooling system

These two elements may only seem like details at first glance. But streaming is live communication with users. They should not hear the whine of fans and the rattling of the system unit walls, the entire cooling system and case should be as quiet and high-quality as possible.

Under load on the computer during parallel gaming and streaming, liquid cooling will be the winning option. Firstly, unlike air cooling, it is several times quieter, about 20-30 dB, and secondly, it much more effectively removes heat from heating components.