Looks like Twitch might be getting some competition, which it sorely needs. If you're one of TXR's streamers, be sure to check this out. My internet is too slow to stream anymore, but if you use this and like it, please consider doing a write-up for the rest of us.

http://steamcommunity.com/updates/broadcasting

If I could get a good computer and a good, solid connection I would do some streaming.

Checking out the broadcasts now… all the top ones are either Hentai are Porn being streamed. (NSFW Screenshot)

I opted in and set up a connection last night. I have it set to friends right now, but haven't tested the stream yet.

I'm [TXR]Magnifiscent on steam if you want to add me and watch what I'm doing at some point.

I'm hoping the performance hit is a little less noticeable with twitch. There are games that I just can't stream on twitch because of my limited upload speed. Steam Broadcast is using different code though, so it might be a little better optimized.

yup that's hentai and porn alright

Tested it last night with some War Thunder.

Laist tried to watch (and thank you, sir), but I screwed up the request approval process and didn't realize it until much later. My settings allowed friends, but required approval.

When I got it up and running later I experienced the following:

On Twitch - I stream at 480p with a 2500 bit rate. This takes my PS2 ping from under 100 to ~180m/s with infrequent, but noticeable packet loss spikes (connection=bad) that sometimes result in the stream going offline without me knowing it. To see my viewers I run twitch on my second monitor with the stream paused. I am unable to stream War Thunder at all on twitch - the ping spikes from 100's to 300's with a 50% packet loss and FPS drops below 15. WT is not optimized well at all…

On Steam Broadcast - I didn't mess with too many settings after I signed up and was set for 720p with a 2500 bit rate. My War Thunder broadcast spiked my ping from 80 to low 100's with a 15% packet loss, but no drop in FPS (aside from connection stuttering from PL). Dropping the bit rate to 2000 dropped the Packet loss to 5% which was entirely manageable. Steam Broadcast used the normal steam overlay to let me make changes (able to change settings on the fly). I did not see a way to tell who was watching, but that might just be my fault. The stream chat was overlaid in the upper left (can move elsewhere in settings).

The biggest thing I noticed was that even though I was streaming at 720p and sending something like 4 times the amount of information through the stream than I normally do, I was not only able to play War Thunder, but able to play it with fewer issues than even 480p planetside. With some bit rate adjustment, and an upload speed better than 5mb/s (assuming my ISP gets around to it), steam broadcasting would be nearly flawless, I think. I much prefer this, and it doesn't even require shadow play.

I will probably be downloading the steam planetside client for future PS2 streaming.

Thanks, Mags! Great review. I don't particularly like Twitch (though I do really like what they've done for the gaming community), so if this also has the capacity to broadcast from a webcam, I could see it as a twitch-killer.

My wild speculation is your OBS CPU encoding is being put at faster or even fast, which uses a lot of CPU power whenever you try to stream.

Whenever I try to stream with OBS, 720P 30fps @3300kbps my frames would drop by 5-7 fps and there will be slight input lag. There are no spikes in ping however (praise seattle's internet)

Wierdly enough, steam hasn't put out information about what kind of encoding system they're putting for steam broadcasting although i really really hope they would implement Nvidia's NVENC and AMD's VCE (the encoding system we use in shadowplay and RAPTR respectively) just to avoid some people screaming about frame drop

Thanks, Mags! Great review. I don't particularly like Twitch (though I do really like what they've done for the gaming community), so if this also has the capacity to broadcast from a webcam, I could see it as a twitch-killer.PencilStick

two key issues with the twitch killer thing

1. As it stands there is no way to monetize it at all as far as I'm aware so the guys who make money or a living off of twitch who really bring in the big money well they won't switch over so people will still go to twitch over steam.

2. It's really bare bones and I mean really bare bones as it stands I don't know if it will be any more advanced, t as of now twitch is the prime streaming platform for tournaments and multi-cam streams which is invaluable to those groups to make an impressive viewing experience

those two are the big dogs on twitch at the moment but that is all subject to change as it develops but it still is another platform for streaming which I see as a good thing and it also is convenient for demoing games that other people are playing and porn I guess.