Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style
Earlier this week I posted about Second Life artists and designers who have been streaming their work process live for anyone interested to watch. There are people designing mesh fashion, editing snapshots, and even painting avatar portraits, and the fact that they're streaming means that there's a valuable opportunity to pick up a few new tricks from them.
But what if you have a few tricks of your own that you want to share? It might seem like a complicated and troublesome thing to set up, but these days it's incredibly easy to stream your screen out to dozens (or even hundreds) of viewers. Here's how to get started:
1. Choose Your Hosting Service
Every streaming site has its intricacies. There are some that only allow video game content to be streamed, and if you're caught deviating from that too often you may be banned. Developing assets for a game live is a bit of a grey area, but it's still not without risk. Other sites have limits on how long stream archives can be saved for, but make exporting those archives to YouTube a breeze. Most of these services are free, but some offer premium memberships that give you access to more features. Twitch.tv remains the most popular choice among Second Life streamers because it's free and has a lot of momentum in the tech and gaming communities, but it's not without its drawbacks. Don't be afraid to shop around. If you just want to share your process with a few friends, then something like Google Hangouts might be all you need.
2. Choose Your Streaming Software
As usual there are far more options for streaming on a PC than on a Mac. Some programs are free, some are not. You may even have received a streaming program bundled with your graphics card drivers. My personal recommendation is OBS (Open Broadcaster Software), an open source program available for both Mac and PC that offers a lot of functionality in a pretty straightforward (but expandable) package.
3. Set Up Your Software
The details of your streaming setup will vary heavily depending on the quality of both your computer and your internet connection, so finding the best configuration might take a little leg work. OBS' popularity means that there's already a wealth of information available about setting it up properly, including Twitch.tv's very thorough guide. Most services will have something similar to walk you through hooking program X up to platform Y, but when all else fails: Google.
4. Get Acquainted With Your Streaming Software
If you've looked at OBS yet then you may have noticed that there's a lot going on in that main window. Here's a shot of my current OBS setup:
It's kind of a jumble, but let me walk you through the important parts. The big empty top part is where a preview of what you're broadcasting will appear. On the bottom left is the Scenes window, which lets you set up a few different scenes to switch between. I use these to keep track of different specialized layouts that I use for my gaming streams -- but most people just need the one. The Sources window you see just to the right of that will show you what's going on in a scene. Right clicking in here will let you add a source, everything from a program to a picture to some scrolling text. Window Capture will do the trick for most programs, but if you're streaming something that has multiple overlapping windows (like Photoshop) then you may be stuck doing a full Monitor Capture instead.
The audio scales on the right hand side of the window show you how loud your microphone and computer audio are independently, and you can click them to adjust or even mute those respective devices. Most of the buttons on the right should be self-explanatory, though it's probably safe to ignore Global Sources and Plugins for now. Worth mentioning is that while you're broadcasting or previewing, Edit Scene will let you click and drag your sources around the scene if you want to do a slightly fancier streaming layout. The Start Recording button will also allow you to record without streaming, so bye bye Bandicam. Finally, although it's empty when you're offline, the very bottom of the window OBS will give you information about your connection strength when you're live.
5. Save Your Archives! Please!
Why? Well, because I want to link your work, of course! Time zones and work schedules and, y'know, life make it hard to catch livestreams sometimes, so archives can be pretty crucial for people who want to watch you working your magic. Certain streaming services (including Twitch) do no save your streams by default. You need to go into your settings and opt-in to saving archives, and even then many sites (including Twitch) will not save them forever. If you want to build a more permanent public archive of your streams, exporting them to YouTube is still the best answer.
Of course if you have any questions about how to start streaming that I haven't managed to answer, leave them in the comments below and I'll be glad to help!
[Thanks to Molly Montale for the header image of Nylon Pinkney's most recent stream.]
TweetJanine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.
Be careful streaming 'non-games' on Twitch. I actually had my account banned for 24 hours today while I was streaming myself scripting things in Second Life. Granted, I think that happens when someone reports you and my screen probably didn't look like I was 'playing', even though I know there wasn't anything questionable on my screen. I've submitted an appeal, but since it's only 24 hours, I doubt anything will happen before tomorrow.
Posted by: Jessica Pixel | Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 09:02 PM
Though there isn't an official Linux OBS build yet, it also works on Linux if you compile from source. I had to fiddle a bit to get the library path set and the colors right. But it's a heck of a lot easier to use than fiddling with ffmpeg's x11grab feature on the command line or in a shell script. AND it can record both application output AND mic-in at the same time easily, which X11grab can not do.
I personally would advise against streaming SL to Twitch, it may fall under the same issue as the PS4's Playroom application,being technically not a game but "something else" Ustream should be fine though.
Quick note to PS4 owners, while the PS4 Live app only shows streams from PS4's, you CAN watch non-PS4 streams using the PS4's web browser.
Posted by: CronoCloud Creeggan | Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 10:15 AM
Streaming Second Life itself should be fine. It's not in the same category as Playroom (and there were other issues with Playroom specifically that lead to its exclusion). SL is an MMO, so it would be reasonable to contest it if you get banned. It's in Twitch's own game database, after all.
This does not account for Photoshop/3D modelling programs and such, however. Lots of game devs stream stuff like this on Twitch (especially during game jams) and a lot of admins seem to look the other way on it, but I'd be surprised if they extended that same courtesy to someone putting together a shoe for SL. So, like I said, there's still risk.
Posted by: Janine/Iris | Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 11:50 AM
As a follow up, my account has been unsuspended from Twitch (after 24 hours), but I have yet to hear back from someone regarding the actual reason for my suspension.
I'm going to refrain from streaming anything but obvious games until I do hear from them because I'm pretty sure if you're suspended a few times, you're eventually perma-banned.
Posted by: Jessica Pixel | Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 01:46 PM
Twitch bans Second Life because of adult content I believe, regardless if a person is actually showing adult content. I don't have any source of Twitch stating this I just know Second Life content has been devoid there years, and unexplained ban incidents like Jessica Pixels' aren't uncommon.
It'd be nice if Linden Lab explained to Twitch that banning streaming of the viewer makes as much sense as banning streaming Google Chrome. Adult content isn't automatic, it requires explicit unfiltering for, searching for and navigating to.
In the meantime, Twitch is not a good place for Second Life content.
Posted by: Ezra | Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 03:45 PM
As another follow up, Twitch has finally responded to my email about my 24 hour ban for streaming Second Life. Their reply was that Second Life is not permitted to be streamed. Here's the email I sent along with their reply:
-----
FEB 24, 2015 | 03:34PM PST
Ryan Kennedy replied:
Hello liftedpixel,
Your account was suspended for streaming Second Life, which is not permitted for streaming on our services. Do not do this again.
FEB 23, 2015 | 11:49AM PST
liftedpixel replied:
My email is not about a site suspension. Please respond to my question.
FEB 23, 2015 | 10:35AM PST
Original message
liftedpixel wrote:
Hello staff,
A few days ago (2/18), my channel 'liftedpixel' was given a 24 hour ban for 'other'. The ban was lifted after the 24 hours but I need clarification on streaming Second Life.
At the time I was suspended, I was streaming as I was creating objects in Second Life. This is a very major part of the game. I was mostly scripting, so maybe at first glance it would not look like I was 'playing'. I have read things online today that say things like 'Second Life is banned from being streamed on Twitch' but I have seen others streaming the game as well as it being a game you can pick to be playing.
I would like to continue streaming Second Life when I play it, but not if I'm going to be banned for it. Can you please give clarification on whether streaming Second Life is permitted or not? Will I be banned again for 'playing' the game, even if it doesn't look like playing from someone who is not familiar with the game? Is it possible to know if someone reported my stream as inappropriate when I was within the terms of service?
I also find it off putting that my page shows that my account is suspended for a terms of service violation when that is certainly not the case. There are many people that stream as they work in modeling software or drawing (twitch.tv/anuxinamoon for example). Writing scripts in Second Life should fall in the same category.
Thank you for your help,
Jessica / liftedpixel
Posted by: Jessica Pixel | Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 11:54 PM
I'm surprised their stance on it is that strong, to be honest! I've streamed SL myself in the past without incident, but I was wandering around and assumed that Jessica's ban was more to do with the appearance of the scripting process not looking like a game. Maybe this is a newer policy, or maybe their enforcement's just spotty. I'll do some leg work and follow up. Thanks for letting me know!
Posted by: Janine/Iris | Wednesday, February 25, 2015 at 01:02 PM
According to my investigating (aka furious Googling and asking friends who stream on Twitch), Twitch do not allow Second Life streaming since January 2014. There are no rules about it, but people who have streamed it (as in exclusively and using the category) since then seem to be getting suspensions.
My advice for content creators for SL, is to make sure to use the correct category for Game Development, you are after all developing content for a game.
Putting yourself in the Second Life category on Twitch these days seems to result in bans and suspensions.
Posted by: Cyclic Gearz | Sunday, March 01, 2015 at 05:03 PM