It may seem strange to some, but one of the largest and most popular online video sites in the world is Twitch, heir to Justin TV, a kind of Youtube specialized only in video game videos. Those who are subscribed to Twitch can thus share and publish the recordings of the games to video games (called in jargon " Gameplay ") or they can also play in live streaming, allowing anyone to see his game as if he were beside him. The nice thing about these videos is that usually, in addition to the game, the player's face is also framed (with a webcam) in a bottom corner or in the background in transparency, to see his reactions during the game and that he can talk describing what it does.
This type of video has made famous, on Youtube, many good "broadcasters" who with video-reviews, games live to the games of the moment and comments or videochat, have conquered millions of fans becoming true celebrities.
Even without aiming to become famous, those who want to transmit live video from the PC of games to video games or talking on the webcam or, simply, those who play often and want to have fun recording their games in order to upload videos to Youtube or on Twitch, can use several very powerful and complete free programs.
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1) XSplit
Among the many paid programs to record videos or broadcast live games to PC games or even on the Playstation and XBox consoles, there is a free one , very easy to use, designed for this purpose and which interfaces with Twitch and Youtube directly.
The program is called XSplit which exists in two versions: XSplit Broadcaster and XSplit Gamecaster and you can download it you can download for free from the official website . It is worth downloading and installing both, using one or the other depending on what you find most comfortable. Both programs are free in a limited version, lacking some advanced functions to record videos with more quality, but still usable for free to share games and gameplay. After downloading, for installation, you need to register for the service.
Optionally, it is also possible to connect a Twitch account or a Youtube account to the XSplit program in order to then choose to upload the videos directly or even to broadcast the gameplay live on your streaming channel.
The power of XSplit lies in the ability to record or stream (broadcast) a video consisting of two or more sources which can be the video game window, an external video reception card (in case you want to record from a console video games ), from the webcam or other external devices.
From the main interface of XSplit Broadcaster you can add sources from the Add Source menu and then arrange them on the screen as you wish, activating or deactivating them from the checkboxes at the bottom left. Note that if a video game is open, it is automatically detected and immediately selectable from the source menu.
From the Broadcast menu you can start recording or stream the video online on Twitch, Youtube or UStream. From the View menu you can configure the quality of the video while from the Tools menu, in addition to the general settings, you can review the recordings saved on a PC. The program is not only specific for video games, and also works well for recording from the webcam, the desktop, the use of a program or to make a tutorial or presentation. Although there are many configuration options, the program is easy to use to start recording games to 3D video games immediately, whatever they are.
With XSplit Gamecaster, on the other hand, video recording or streaming of video game games or " Gameplay " can be rendered immediately with a click. Upon startup, you can immediately configure access to an online video platform which can be Twitch, Youtube live, UStream, Dailymotion or any other RTMP server. Pressing Skip skips this step. At this point the GameCaster requires nothing more than to remain open (you can hide it by pressing the _ button at the top right).
On the video game it will then be possible, at any time and even when viewed full screen, to press the CTRL-TAB keys to bring up the program menu directly on the video game. At that point you can set the microphone, the volume of the video, the shot of the webcam, share the live on Facebook or Twitter, configure the Twitch account and also write on the video as if you used a marker on a sheet. You can then press the video recording button to save the video on the computer or the streaming video to play live showing the game to friends and interested parties.
The video quality of the recording can be configured from the XSplit Broadcaster settings. With this program you can also record from video games for XBox or Playstation consoles, connecting them to a video capture card.
Although in English, on the XSplit website there is a whole section for support with all the instructions for the optimal configuration and recording of videos and gameplay.
2) OBS Studio
The completely free alternative to XSplit is OBS Studio, also mentioned among the best programs to record the screen . Open Broadcaster Software is open source, free without restrictions for Windows, Mac and Linux. This program is very similar to XSplit and allows you to record games to games and also to broadcast them live on Youtube or Twitch.
OBS Studio is probably the most powerful, very stable online video transmission software that gets continuous updates. Configuration can be a little tricky, but there are fairly clear instructions. You can stream the streaming from multiple sources such as the webcam or the desktop, directly to YouTube, Facebook, Twitch and various other platforms, even simultaneously.
3) NVIDIA ShadowPlay
The program for streaming games online is NVIDIA ShadowPlay, which is preferred by players for its performance. The software encodes in the GPU unlike other software that encodes in the CPU, which helps broadcast games without the slightest delay in performance. This software is therefore dedicated to gameplay, to record or go live. NVIDIA ShadowPlay is bundled with drivers on a GeForce graphics card, GeForce Experience . This is the best way to use this software. You can also use NVENC encoding with OBS if you want more flexible streaming options.
4) OBS Streamlabs
Streamlabs OBS is very similar to OBS Studio, a simpler to use and more flexible variant, with automatic optimization and a smoother interface. Currently, both OBS Studio and OBS Streamlabs are on par with each other in terms of performance. However, Streamlabs OBS is still in its beta phase.
5) Windows 10
Without downloading other programs, Windows 10 includes the Game VR tool which activates automatically when you start a video game and allows you to record games. This recording mode can be configured from the Windows Settings, in the games section. In another article, the guide to the Windows 10 game bar that can be used to record the screen, game games and also to stream live.
On the Twitch website a list of all the programs supported for broadcast and gameplay .
