PC Gamer - October 2011

REINS TALL HOW TO...
HAVE MORE FUN WITH YOUR FAVORITE GAMES

Screencast your games online

GET STARTED
RICHARD COBBETT SHOWS THE WORLD HOW BAD HE IS AT GAMES

DIFFICULTY Easy TIME Two hours

VI TAL LINKS
See how it’s done
bit.ly/ePgNgs
Game replays
bit.ly/BylbW
Streaming with style
bit.ly/fM0izb
A very funny man
bit.ly/9GNxsm

Playing games with someone looking over your shoulder can be the most annoying thing in the world. When it’s a hundred chattering internet people though, it suddenly becomes one of the best.

Streaming your games is incredibly easy as long as you have a decent connection: the soft ware and hosting you need to get started are free. (If you want to make money

chattering internet people though, it

s

off it, expect to pay through the nose for commercial accounts. But you can cross that bridge when your expanding ego comes to it.)

You might long for a thousand-strong audience hanging on your every click, but you don’t have to be a celebrity or a comedian to make an interesting show. You may just want to sho w a friend exactly how to get past a tricky puzzle in Portal 2, or

an bu v a celebrity or a comedian to make an e hu

past a tricky puzzle in

demonstrate tactics to your Team Fortress 2 clan, or document your tireless excavating in Minecraft.

In either case, it’s as easy as pressing a button to start recording, then you can share a link to your stream with the world. Streaming your games is one of the most exciting things to do with your connection that we bet you’ve never tried. Here’s ho w to get started. demonstrate tactics to your

v
pressing a button to start recording,
h
your games is one of the most
i
o e
tried. Here’s ho w to get started.

Check your connection

Most home broadband is sold based on
its downstream, but for internet
streaming it’s far more important to know how
effectively you can upload. Head to www.speedtest.
net to get a rating on your upload speed. Over
700kbps is recommended, although not essential,
depending on the kind of games you plan to stream.
The slower-paced the game, the more forgiving
both it and your viewers will be of inconsistent
framerates and the occasional gap. I

Pick a service

You won’t be streaming from your PC Justin.tv and Livestream. Both are free to watch and start experimenting with, though they may put a ceiling on how many viewers you can have for free. v Justin.tv and Livestream. Both are free to watch and a 2

Meet Justin...

Justin.tv is the more indie of the two
services, and while simply connecting a
webcam and streaming your chattering face is easy
enough, it’s trickier to set up a direct stream from
your games. On the downside, Justin.tv’s advertising
is a little obtrusive and it can include banner ads of
the cheap “Naked Russian Girls Want To Talk To You”
variety, which you might want to steer clear of
depending on your audience.

variety, which you might want to steer clear of

3

www.pcgamer.com

...and Livestream

Livestream is more corporate, but still has
an excellent free offering. Livestream’s
main annoyances are long ( 60 second) ads that
often run before people can connect to your stream,
and that you can only stream SD quality video for
free. On the plus side, it offers an easy-to-use appli-
cation that hooks into DirectX games directly. That’s
why we’re using Livestream here, but most of what
follows is applicable to both services.

e

cation that hooks into DirectX games directly. That’s

4

Signing up

Visit www.livestream.com to sign up, as
well as create your channel’s name and
its “short” version, which will be your URL. After this,
there’s another form to fill in, including things like
your channel’s category, rating, and time zone. Fill
out one last form, after which you can have more
than 50 concurrent viewers. Ignore any Premium
settings—they’re $350 a month. You’ll only need to
look into those if you plan to make money. c u than 50 concurrent viewers. Ignore any Premium 5

Casting made easy

Download and launch the official
Procaster software and enter your login
details. If you have a webcam or other supported
video input source, it’ll detect this (and you can
switch to that from your screen via a shortcut).

Notice the screen and controller icons: the first streams your desktop, the second handles DirectX games. If a game doesn’t support DirectX, try Windowed mode and Desktop recording.