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I remember growing up last century and watching football (soccer) games on TV every weekend. My brother and I would always watch all of the important soccer games on TV with dad, so in a way it's been kind of like a family tradition to watch sports on TV (also live at a stadium, but that's a different topic). Every four years, the FIFA World Cup is a great excuse to watch games every day for a whole month. Soccer isn't the only sport we've enjoyed watching, there's also baseball, basketball, hockey, the list goes on and on…. and let's not forget the Olympics.
Growing up, I also enjoyed playing video games, but back then there was no such thing as eSports, a fancy name for competitive video games. If you had told me that one day I'd be watching other people play video games live from the comfort of my home, I wouldn't have believed it. Now, it's become common to watch video games live on a PC and to cheer for your favorite player or team.
The latest trend for eSports is to broadcast your games while you play them, or even broadcast other people's games. Some of the top tournaments in recent eSports history have, in fact, been professionally broadcast with commentaries by broadcasters in multiple languages.
Broadcasting has taken off as sort of a separate entity that enhances the gaming experience. In fact, there are many casters (short for broadcaster) who have developed loyal fan-bases and are broadcasting games for a living. But let's focus on you, the Linux gamer, who may be interested in broadcasting your own games for others to see. Perhaps live broadcasting isn't your thing, but instead you would prefer to record your games and post them on Youtube or elsewhere. Whether you prefer recording or live broadcasting, Open Broadcaster Software will help you accomplish your goals.
I first found out about OBS by accident after going to http://www.twitch.tv/ while trying to watch a professional gamer's broadcast. While browsing through the website, I came across Open Broadcaster Software and just the name alone was enough to convince me to give it a try. Ever since, I have used it for a number of things, not limited only to broadcasting but also for recording my games and for taking screenshots of games that may not support the use of screenshots in Linux. On the twitch.tv homepage, if you scroll all the way down to where it says “Become a broadcaster” and click on the ‘Let's Get Started’ button, you'll be taken to the twitch.tv broadcasting software downloads page. There will be five broadcasting tools listed here, however the only one that's available for Linux is Open Broadcaster Software. Not only is it the only open source tool, it's also one of only two that you don't have to pay money to use. All of them provide a free-to-try option, but eventually they would ask you to fork over some money, except for OBS.
Instead of clicking on the Download button I suggest you click on the Setup Guide option. This will not only display a link to download the software from obsproject.com, but will also give you a much better set of instructions than the ones given at the obsproject.com website. This is the guide that I followed when I set up OBS immediately following initial installation.
To install OBS, you can go directly to the Open Broadcaster Project website at https://obsproject.com/ and click on the Linux option which will then take you to the Linux Download page. Here, you will find that there is an Official Ubuntu build as well as unofficial builds for Arch Linux, OpenSUSE and Gentoo, as well as the option to Build from Source. Upon downloading the official Ubuntu build, it should automatically go through the installing process via the Ubuntu Software Center.
Once installed, you should take the time to adjust the settings so that it runs properly. When you first fire up OBS, you'll need to set it up, otherwise it won't be able to do much without initial user input. Rather than try to explain to you how to set it up here, instead I recommend you read either the Quick Start Guide, the Overview Guide, or the one I mentioned from the twitch.tv website. Those guides are pretty simple and easy to follow, while at the same time they contain all you need to get started.
Don't be overwhelmed by looking at all of the options when you first look at the OBS interface. In a nutshell, you'll find the main screen taking up the biggest real estate in the main GUI. That's where you'll see what it is that you're recording/broadcasting. On the bottom, second from the left, you'll find a box that says Sources, which is a good place to get started and where you'll choose the source you'll be streaming/recording. Next to the Sources, in the middle, you'll find the Mixer which you may need to use from time to time. On the right are most of the important options – which are: Start Streaming, Start Recording, Settings, and Exit.
You'll first want to go to Settings and do everything that the guide requires you to do. Out of all the guides I've suggested, my favorite by far is the one provided in the twitch.tv website. Although I've read all three of them, I've found the twitch.tv guide the easiest to follow. If you are interested in streaming, you'll also need to create an account with twitch.tv, so that you have an outlet onto which you can stream your games. Having created your account, you'll want to go to the Dashboard on twitch.tv and click on where it says Stream Key, then click on Show Key, and follow the prompts until your stream key is revealed. Copy the stream key, and then, under the Settings of OBS, you'll go to the Stream tab and under Service, select Twitch, then, under Server, find the server closest to you. Finally, on the input box next to Stream Key, paste the stream key you copied earlier and you should be ready to go.
If you followed all of the instructions properly, you should now be ready to go. Now just hit the Start Streaming button on the main interface of OBS and double check on twitch.tv to make sure that it's working properly. Keep in mind that there is a slight delay in your broadcast so don't freak out if you don't see anything yet. Instead, wait a few seconds to account for the latency delay, and, if you followed the steps properly, you should see everything you have been doing a few seconds earlier on your twitch.tv channel. You're successfully broadcasting your desktop!
Now, just start up any game and it should automatically be streaming on your channel. When you're done playing, don't forget to click on the Stop Recording button. If streaming is not your thing, and instead you are interested in recording, then click on the Start Recording button to record your game (or whatever else you want to record), and, when you're finished, click the same button which should now say Stop Recording, go to the folder that you selected to store your recordings and find your recent recording, then double-click it to watch the video and make sure everything worked fine.
I've been using OBS for a few months now and I honestly think it's a great tool not only for gamers but also for anyone interested in recording their desktop. For example, say that you're going to make an instructional video for a friend, colleague, family member, or a stranger who may need help, then OBS is the tool that will make it very easy for you to show them exactly how to do it.
Under the Audio option, you can select to record yourself talking by choosing one of the microphones available on your PC, for example the one from your web-cam. This makes it very easy for you to explain everything while you're doing it so that, when the video is created, they can see what you've done while you also talk about it.
After using it only a couple of times I began asking myself how I managed to go so long without knowing about OBS and without using it. Go to twitch.tv if you haven't done so yet and look up any game you find to watch broadcasts of it, and, if you are so inclined, then try out OBS and begin broadcasting or recording your own games.
I've got some exciting video game articles planned for upcoming issues, so until next time, I hope you enjoy OBS as much as I did.