[SOLVED] ShadowPlay recording quality degraded by a lot for some reason

[ilikegirls]

I've recently noticed my ShadowPlay recordings are coming out really grainy and the quality is way worse than what it was producing a few weeks ago. Here is an example - https://gfycat.com/SaltyFantasticHypsilophodon

The first image is straight out of the game. The second one is from the video output at 30fps. The third is the video output of 60fps. this makes no sense why at the same bitrate of 45, the 30fps looks worst lol

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

[helpstar]

less fps = less images = less quality?

 

[Frag Maniac]

I've recently noticed my ShadowPlay recordings are coming out really grainy and the quality is way worse than what it was producing a few weeks ago. Here is an example - https://gfycat.com/SaltyFantasticHypsilophodon

The first image is straight out of the game. The second one is from the video output at 30fps. The third is the video output of 60fps. this makes no sense why at the same bitrate of 45, the 30fps looks worst lol

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

Whole lot of info left out there. It looks to be Minecraft you're playing, but from chat I've seen that game can get fairly bogged down if you use a lot of mods, especially if playing the latest version with enhanced lighting and HDR. You also gave no mention of what spec you're playing on, what FPS you're getting while playing, or if you're experiencing any lag.

What I'm saying is any capture tool can yield poor results if your struggling to get good performance while capturing. And on that note, you also didn't even mention whether this is a manual recording, or an Instant Replay cached recording.

45Mb is also an odd setting to use, most would just bump it to the max 50Mb. Another thing you didn't mention is if the graininess only appears after uploading to a hosting site (YouTube, etc), or is noticeable right after capture before doing so.

If it's only noticeable after uploading, it's often due to the hosting site, especially YouTube, using a disproportionately low conversion bitrate for 1080p uploads compared to 1440p uploads. They literally use 3 - 4 times the bitrate for 1440p, even though it's only 78% more pixels. If you only have a 1080p display like me and can't capture at 1440p, it's a problem.

I get around that problem on YouTube by resizing to 1440p as I compress, but also use 30,000 bitrate, which is what YouTube recommends for 1440p. That's only necessary for a highly detailed game like Ghost Recon Wildlands though, where you're often moving fast over detailed foliage. In simpler graphics games with slower motion like The Evil Within, 20,000 bitrate has worked fine. You may even be able to use less with something as simple as Minecraft.

I also use a simple tool to compress and edit called Avidemux. It only has fade in/fade out for effects, but being streamlined it's faster at compressing. It also has a very good two pass Average Bitrate otion, which I find yields better results than Variable Bitrate or even one pass Constant Bitrate.

Here's a couple examples of the same mission in GRW using a 1080p upload, vs a 1080p resized to 1440p before uploading. As I said, the resized upload can make use of up to (and was given) 30,000 compression bitrate. The 1080p upload was only given 12,000 bitrate, as that is all YouTube can make use of for that res. Make sure you set them to 1080p and 1440p vs the default Auto, and the difference is mostly noticeable on the drive out while escaping, especially when viewed fullscreen. If you can spot graininess easily, you'll definitely see the difference. These are both captured and compressed at 60 FPS btw, which I recommend.

1080p Upload

1080p Resized to 1440p Upload

 

[ilikegirls]

Whole lot of info left out there. It looks to be Minecraft you're playing, but from chat I've seen that game can get fairly bogged down if you use a lot of mods, especially if playing the latest version with enhanced lighting and HDR. You also gave no mention of what spec you're playing on, what FPS you're getting while playing, or if you're experiencing any lag.

What I'm saying is any capture tool can yield poor results if your struggling to get good performance while capturing. And on that note, you also didn't even mention whether this is a manual recording, or an Instant Replay cached recording.

45Mb is also an odd setting to use, most would just bump it to the max 50Mb. Another thing you didn't mention is if the graininess only appears after uploading to a hosting site (YouTube, etc), or is noticeable right after capture before doing so.

If it's only noticeable after uploading, it's often due to the hosting site, especially YouTube, using a disproportionately low conversion bitrate for 1080p uploads compared to 1440p uploads. They literally use 3 - 4 times the bitrate for 1440p, even though it's only 78% more pixels. If you only have a 1080p display like me and can't capture at 1440p, it's a problem.

I get around that problem on YouTube by resizing to 1440p as I compress, but also use 30,000 bitrate, which is what YouTube recommends for 1440p. That's only necessary for a highly detailed game like Ghost Recon Wildlands though, where you're often moving fast over detailed foliage. In simpler graphics games with slower motion like The Evil Within, 20,000 bitrate has worked fine. You may even be able to use less with something as simple as Minecraft.

I also use a simple tool to compress and edit called Avidemux. It only has fade in/fade out for effects, but being streamlined it's faster at compressing. It also has a very good two pass Average Bitrate otion, which I find yields better results than Variable Bitrate or even one pass Constant Bitrate.

Here's a couple examples of the same mission in GRW using a 1080p upload, vs a 1080p resized to 1440p before uploading. As I said, the resized upload can make use of up to (and was given) 30,000 compression bitrate. The 1080p upload was only given 12,000 bitrate, as that is all YouTube can make use of for that res. Make sure you set them to 1080p and 1440p vs the default Auto, and the difference is mostly noticeable on the drive out while escaping, especially when viewed fullscreen. If you can spot graininess easily, you'll definitely see the difference. These are both captured and compressed at 60 FPS btw, which I recommend.

1080p Upload

1080p Resized to 1440p Upload

That was a lot of good detail and you are absolutely right, I had all the info in my head and stupidly assumed you would as well 🙁 It's been a long day sorry!

So, to start, this happens in every game I record regardless of performance. This is also an issue with the raw video file. I used the images to show what the issue is, but this is consistent in all videos regardless of settings or games.

This wasn't an issue a few weeks ago, the recordings just suddenly started looking worse for an unknown reason. Any help you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ilikegirls]

less fps = less images = less quality?

Right? Lower FPS should mean less data needed, so I don't understand how recording at a lower fps with the same bit rate ends up with worse quality 🙁