Runner Setup Guide

Comms Through Runner

Intro

This guide will get you set up to send your game footage, audio, and camera/vtube model (if being used) to your event's live stream. Please read these instructions carefully and complete your set-up well ahead of time.

Portable OBS

You'll use STUK's portable version of OBS that has the required scenes and sources prepared - you'll just need to apply your game capture, mic, Discord and camera/vtube feeds to it. To get started:

Download the zip file which will have been shared by the marathon organisers.
Extract the files to a suitable location.
You can now delete the zipped folder.
Run the file 'OBS Start'. If Windows asks if you're sure you want to open the shortcut, click 'Yes'.

Settings

You'll be streaming to a dummy Twitch channel and as such the OBS package uses Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting to determine your optimal streaming settings. You should not need to touch any stream or output settings unless told to by this guide, or a tech volunteer.

If your GPU isn't compatible with Twitch Enhanced Broadcasting, you can use one of the alternate profiles available from the "Profiles" menu at the top:

NVENC or x264?
- If you have an NVIDIA graphics card you should select an 'NVENC' profile.
- If you don't have an NVIDIA graphics card you should select an 'x264' profile.
Bitrate
Each profile sets your bitrate to 6, 4.5 or 2.5Mbps and you need to select the bitrate your computer and internet can handle. If you have fantastic internet, choose 6Mbps. If you struggle with uploading, choose 4.5 or 2Mbps; the latter also drops to 30fps and 720p. If you're unsure, check your internet upload speed at https://www.speedtest.net/ and use a profile with a lower bitrate than your internet upload speed.

One setting you'll need to change is the Stream Server. Navigate to the Stream menu in the settings area; "Twitch" will already be selected as the Service. Click "Use Stream Key" and in the Server dropdown that appears, select the Twitch server closest to your location. A volunteer will advise your Stream Key when they are ready for you to go live. Leave the other settings as they are.

If you'd like to make a local recording of your run, please also go to the Output settings and select a 'Recording Path' in the 'Recording' tab. We don't want any long ending cutscenes or credit sequences playing out on stream, so if any are included as part of official timing you should make your own recording to use as a PB submission.

Scenes and Sources

Game Setup

To prepare your sources, select the 'Game Setup' scene, and edit one of the green sources.

PC Game: if you're playing your game on your PC (including an emulator) use this source.
PC Window: only use this source if PC Game does not work for your game.
Capture Card: use this source if you're running on a console or external PC via a capture card.

Your gameplay should stretch to the edge of the screen. If your game feed has some sort of border, e.g. you're seeing black around the edges, right-click on the source you set up, click 'Filters' and use the 'Crop' filter to crop each edge as necessary so that only the game is showing.

Capture Cursor is disabled by default, so if you're playing a game where the mouse cursor should be seen, right-click the source, click 'Properties' and then tick 'Capture Cursor'.

For all sources, audio will automatically be captured and shown on the Audio Mixer. You're welcome to hide any unused audio sources in the mixer. You should notice that the audio for the game is only being picked up in one channel on the Audio Mixer; this is intended as your mic and Discord audio will be sent down the other channel.

You should adjust your game sound and/or the OBS sound level so that normal gameplay audio peaks towards the top of the green area (-30 to -20) - occasional loud sounds hitting the orange area are fine as long as it's not consistent. If you've already adjusted your in-game volume and the OBS volume and gameplay audio is still too quiet, you can right-click on the game source, click 'Filters' and adjust the 'Gain' filter until the volume is correct. Please do not touch any of the other filters.

Second Screen

If you're playing a game with more than one screen, such as a DS/3DS game, a bingo run, or playing two games together, set this up on the Second Screen scene the same way as the Game Setup. Ensure you've let Staff know you plan to use this if it wasn't obvious in your submission.

Mic, Discord & Webcam/Avatar Setup

Audio

You will be capturing and streaming your own microphone, as well as all commentary and host audio via Discord. This ensures that you are all synced with your gameplay and webcam. To start, make sure the Discord source is pointing at your instance of Discord and the same with the Microphone source. As with gameplay, you'll see both of these sources only picked up in one channel.
The audio levels for both of these sources should be peaking in the orange area of the audio meter - occasional raised voices or shouting peaking just into the red is fine as long as it's not consistent. Whilst you can sort out your own microphone now, you'll have an opportunity before your run starts to balance your commentators/host Discord audio.
If you're in a race or co-op run and not the first player, you should still set these up as normal. Player 1's audio will used to capture all voice comms for the whole run, but it's handy to have yours available too in case there's an issue. Gameplay audio is usually captured from whichever player is in the lead.

Webcam/Vtube/Avatar

Set up your Webcam, Vtube Model or Avatar with one of the green sources. Ensure your webcam or Vtube model is set to a 16:9 resolution, such as 1280x720 or 1920x1080.
If you're using a green screen background, right-click on the source you've used, click 'Filters' and adjust the 'Chroma Key' filter as necessary.
You can ignore this step if you don't want to use a webcam or image. The marathon logo will instead fill the space on the stream.
These scenes are only used during setup. During the event, you will stream the scene that matches your game's layout. Your game's feed should fill the space. If it doesn't, you'll need to go back and crop any borders as outlined before. You do not need to make any changes to the scene you are streaming.

If you are in a race, your feed will show up multiple times on the race layouts (as shown below). Decide with your opponent(s) who will which players, and hide the folders in the source list for the players you won't be. Please let the tech team know once you're setup which player you will be.

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