I do believe you should add a way to delay the broadcast? We don't want things like Dota 2 stream sniping right?

Hi, thanks a lot for include the broadcast option as a feature on Steam ! So, I´ve been testing with my friend and both of us couldn´t watch nothing, just the first scene (I mean: when I load his broadcast, I can only see one picture from his game, nothing more). However, I don´t know if the problem is the new feature or the brazilian upload rate (it´s really low :/). Of course I didn´t expected to much because its a new thing and I´m gonna wait for the next new updates !

Originally posted by TGdakoslug:

I do believe you should add a way to delay the broadcast? We don't want things like Dota 2 stream sniping right?

- First thing that I thought, totally agree with you. It would be good if they add an option to customize if the broadcast will have a delay (like: 10 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes) or not. To avoid 'cheaters'.

- Option to hide who is watching you.

a delay option would be great, forcing a delay kinda sucks tho

so far so good the only thing i would like to see is option to have chat window ope while you are in fullscreen mode. At me it worked nice until there was just me watching my friend after someone else joined it became buggy and started to constantly reload on my side. Maybe that is hardware issue on the host side (i doubt it he has a really good computer) or a connection problem on my or his side (i doubt it is on his side also he has a really great connection)

Watching my own steam, on 50/5 Internet, I noticed a lot of "skipping" or stuttering, at 3000kbps. Other than that it works good so far!

@caminhoneiro
Maybe you guys should reduce bitrate or resolution to get it going.


I think it's kinda sad that linux is still waiting for broadcast, but since I know the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ needed to get stuff working on linux <_< i'm not really surprised.
Will there be a special driver/implementation to stream from X11 on Linux or will you guys use
something similar to ffmpegs x11grab ?
I think performance will be a real issue there.

First thoughts on this...

• Encoding settings should be initially "auto adjusted" to available bandwith, so that unexperienced users can start off with something useable for their connection.
  
• Browser client is working good so far.
  
• A feature which would be awesome is overlays and or pip for people who like to show-off themselves ;)
  
• Another usefull thing for many gamers is the possibility to chose the recording audio device.
  That's something many are missing in games and streaming services.
  Most people use TeamSpeak™, Mumble or Ventrillo to play competetive games with there friends and prefer to be able to put friends on Headphones only and Games etc. on stream... without having to change their primary recording device. (Won't be a problem on linux as long as you support pulseaudio).
  
• Being able to kick people off a stream would be nice
  
• Maybe for later, moderators for chat?
  
• Far future stuff...export videos to YouTube
  
• Image quality and recording performance seems worse than those to comparable services
  
• Subscribtions (show if someone you subscribed to starts streaming)

I might add some stuff later. Just some first impressions.

Originally posted by SoJa:

Watching my own steam, on 50/5 Internet, I noticed a lot of "skipping" or stuttering, at 3000kbps. Other than that it works good so far!

The bitrate is dependent on the FPS streamed at and the resolution.

• 720p 30FPS should be approximately 2000 ~ 2200kbps
  
• 720p 60FPS should be approximately from 2300 ~ 2700kbps
  
• 1080p 30FPS should be approximately 3200 ~ 3500kbps
  
• 1080p 60FPS should be approximately 4000 ~ 5000kbps

Seeing as I don't have anyone that uses Safari or Chrome, I can't have anyone test my games for me, and thus I don't know how the streaming on Steam works or if you can choose output resolution or specific bitrates. If you can, try those and see if they help.

I'm gonna do a high low list, first, let's start with my issues.

• I saw no way to turn streaming off, short of making my stream invite only, an option to disable it period would be good assurance
  
• Streaming at 720p lags pretty much every game, even ones that aren't very intensive. When I streamed at 480p, the framerate drop was gone, but it turned out the main issue was actually input lag, which remained even when I streamed at 480p
  
• I would like more control over chat
  
• Lack of broadcast delay option, not a commonly supported feature, but one I'd love to see from you guys.
  
  Now, these aren't really big issues, but as this is only in beta, I'd love to see this be improved on, things I really liked were
  • Quick and easy setup, with plentiful privacy options
    
  • the ability to stream my desktop
    
  • The fact it worked with non-steam games PERFECTLY.
    
  • Being able to see easily how many people were watching
    
  • The fact I can invite friends to watch
    
  • This is the best one for me, the fact that it doesn't capture overlay, I'm glad to be able to stream, but also have my privacy.
    
    One thing I did notice was that I didn't see the chat window in game, do people actually have to chat for it to pop up, or is it only in overlay?

Beat Hazard - crashed with 2 viewers. Freezing, fps drawdowning.
intel core i3 4000m
NV GF740m 2gb
8 gb ram
On nvidia much less freezes.

My first impressions:

1. I don't mind the quality, as long as the stream doesn't stop to load. (The loading seems to happen a fair bit depending on who you watch, but it's hit and miss)
2. There's no quality setting, but that kind of goes into my first point.
3. You can't tag people in the chat like in twitch. (Example: @FutureGameDev)

Other than that, it's pretty exciting.

2000kb\s - 720p

Originally posted by Vladimir:

Originally posted by SoJa:

Watching my own steam, on 50/5 Internet, I noticed a lot of "skipping" or stuttering, at 3000kbps. Other than that it works good so far!

The bitrate is dependent on the FPS streamed at and the resolution.

• 720p 30FPS should be approximately 2000 ~ 2200kbps
  
• 720p 60FPS should be approximately from 2300 ~ 2700kbps
  
• 1080p 30FPS should be approximately 3200 ~ 3500kbps
  
• 1080p 60FPS should be approximately 4000 ~ 5000kbps

Seeing as I don't have anyone that uses Safari or Chrome, I can't have anyone test my games for me, and thus I don't know how the streaming on Steam works or if you can choose output resolution or specific bitrates. If you can, try those and see if they help.

You can actually have other friends in the steam beta watch you through steam's client.

-What did you see

I loaded straight into a linked stream posted by someone else on an external sight and was linked straight into a great quality stream with chat, very similar to twitch as I expected

-what do you expect

I was sure that there would be problems since my connection at the current place only peaking at 320kb/s. So what I was hoping to see was a youtube like quality setting to change the broadcast quality to suit my connection. Maybe set it to 480p or 360p and just enjoy watching and using the chat function

-What actually happened

Within 20seconds I encountered buffering issues, but with no way to change the quality of the broadcast, I was stuck with the constant stopping and starting. Interestingly this happened with increasing interludes of lag and buffering to the point when it simply was only buffering, and I could not continue :(

-Request
Include the ability to choose broadcast quality for viewers (I am aware the client has settings for hosting a broadcast) - usually on youtube I can handle 480p and 720p on occasion, even 480p 60fps for the vids that support that. Twitch works at medium or high on occasion. Bearing in mind my connection is 320kb/s

60fps streams would be awesome.
Being able to privately stream to a select few friends
Get this going on the mobile Steam App eventually

It looks great for what chance I had to use it. Hope it keeps getting better!

Firefox is not supported - please work on this issue and figure something out.