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authordec05eba <dec05eba@protonmail.com>2023-05-17 19:06:37 +0200
committerdec05eba <dec05eba@protonmail.com>2023-05-17 19:06:37 +0200
commite2d69a52015837e773d3a0a805ae5cb4eee1e9d0 (patch)
treebca1f2072648237d62469bee4544bea810fa05e0 /README.md
parent6cff1a49d2b124266f8da41065c471d80cdd32e2 (diff)
Cleanup readme how to use section
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@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ However this doesn't work if you want to start replay at startup for example. To
# Performance
On a system with a i5 4690k CPU and a GTX 1080 GPU:\
When recording Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild at 4k, fps drops from 30 to 7 when using OBS Studio + nvenc, however when using this screen recorder the fps remains at 30.\
-When recording GTA V at 4k on highest settings, fps drops from 60 to 23 when using obs-nvfbc + nvenc, however when using this screen recorder the fps only drops to 58. The quality is also much better when using gpu-screen-recorder.\
+When recording GTA V at 4k on highest settings, fps drops from 60 to 23 when using obs-nvfbc + nvenc, however when using this screen recorder the fps only drops to 58. The quality is also much better when using gpu screen recorder.\
It is recommended to save the video to a SSD because of the large file size, which a slow HDD might not be fast enough to handle.\
Note that if you have a very powerful CPU and a not so powerful GPU and play a game that is bottlenecked by your GPU and barely uses your CPU then a CPU based screen recording (such as OBS with libx264 instead of nvenc) might perform slightly better than GPU Screen Recorder. At least on NVIDIA.
## Note about optimal performance on NVIDIA
@@ -46,16 +46,24 @@ to install GPU Screen Recorder on non-arch based distros.
`libglvnd (which provides libgl and libegl), ffmpeg (libavcodec, libavformat, libavutil, libswresample, libavfilter), libx11, libxcomposite, libxrandr, libxfixes, libpulse, cuda (libnvidia-compute), nvenc (libnvidia-encode), libva, libdrm, libcap`. Additionally, you need to have `nvfbc (libnvidia-fbc1)` installed when using nvfbc and `xnvctrl (libxnvctrl0)` when using the `-oc` option.
# How to use
-Run `scripts/interactive.sh` or run gpu-screen-recorder directly, for example: `gpu-screen-recorder -w $(xdotool selectwindow) -c mp4 -f 60 -a "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor" -o test_video.mp4` then stop the screen recorder with Ctrl+C, which will also save the recording. You can change -w to -w screen if you want to record all monitors or if you want to record a specific monitor then you can use -w monitor-name, for example -w HDMI-0 (use xrandr command to find the name of your monitor. The name can also be found in your desktop environments display settings).\
-Send signal SIGUSR1 (`killall -SIGUSR1 gpu-screen-recorder`) to gpu-screen-recorder when in replay mode to save the replay. The paths to the saved files is output to stdout after the recording is saved (note that all other text it output to stderr so you can ignore that text).\
-You can find the default output audio device (headset, speakers (in other words, desktop audio)) with the command `pactl get-default-sink`. Add `monitor` to the end of that to use that as an audio input in gpu-screen-recorder.\
-You can find the default input audio device (microphone) with the command `pactl get-default-source`. This input should not have `monitor` added to the end when used in gpu-screen-recorder.\
-Example of recording both desktop audio and microphone: `gpu-screen-recorder -w $(xdotool selectwindow) -c mp4 -f 60 -a "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor" -a "$(pactl get-default-source)" -o test_video.mp4`.\
-A name (that is visible to pipewire) can be given to an audio input device by prefixing the audio input with `<name>/`, for example `dummy/alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor`.\
+Run `gpu-screen-recorder --help` to see all options.
+## Recording
+Here is an example of how to record all monitors and the default audio output: `gpu-screen-recorder -w screen -f 60 -a "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor" -o ~/Videos/test_video.mp4` then stop the screen recorder with `Ctrl+C`, which will also save the recording. You can record a single monitor if you change `-w screen` to the name of a monitor, which you can find if you run the `xrandr`. An example of a monitor name is HDMI-1.
+## Streaming
+Streaming works the same as recording, but the `-o` argument should be path to the live streaming service you want to use (including your live streaming key). Take a look at scripts/twitch-stream.sh to see an example of how to stream to twitch.
+## Replay mode
+Run `gpu-screen-recorder` with the `-c mp4` and `-r` option, for example: `gpu-screen-recorder -w screen -f 60 -r 30 -c mp4 -o ~/Videos`. Note that in this case, `-o` should point to a directory (that exists).
+To save a video in replay mode, you need to send signal SIGUSR1 to gpu screen recorder. You can do this by running `killall -SIGUSR1 gpu-screen-recorder`.
+To stop recording, send SIGINT to gpu screen recorder. You can do this by running `killall gpu-screen-recorder` or pressing `Ctrl-C` in the terminal that runs gpu screen recorder.
+## Finding audio device name
+You can find the default output audio device (headset, speakers (in other words, desktop audio)) with the command `pactl get-default-sink`. Add `monitor` to the end of that to use that as an audio input in gpu screen recorder.\
+You can find the default input audio device (microphone) with the command `pactl get-default-source`. This input should not have `monitor` added to the end when used in gpu screen recorder.\
+Example of recording both desktop audio and microphone: `gpu-screen-recorder -w screen -f 60 -a "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor" -a "$(pactl get-default-source)" -o ~/Videos/test_video.mp4`.\
+A name (that is visible to pipewire) can be given to an audio input device by prefixing the audio input with `<name>/`, for example `dummy/$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor`.\
Note that if you use multiple audio inputs then they are each recorded into separate audio tracks in the video file. If you want to merge multiple audio inputs into one audio track then separate the audio inputs by "|" in one -a argument,
-for example -a "alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor|bluez_0012.monitor".
+for example `-a "$(pactl get-default-sink).monitor|$(pactl get-default-source)"`.
-There is also a gui for the gpu-screen-recorder called [gpu-screen-recorder-gtk](https://git.dec05eba.com/gpu-screen-recorder-gtk/).
+There is also a gui for the gpu screen recorder called [gpu-screen-recorder-gtk](https://git.dec05eba.com/gpu-screen-recorder-gtk/).
## Simple way to run replay without gui
Run the script `scripts/start-replay.sh` to start replay and then `scripts/save-replay.sh` to save a replay and `scripts/stop-replay.sh` to stop the replay. The videos are saved to `$HOME/Videos`.
You can use these scripts to start replay at system startup if you add `scripts/start-replay.sh` to startup (this can be done differently depending on your desktop environment / window manager) and then go into hotkey settings on your system and choose a hotkey to run the script `scripts/save-replay.sh`. Modify `scripts/start-replay.sh` if you want to use other replay options.
@@ -70,7 +78,7 @@ Nvidia drivers have an issue where CUDA breaks if CUDA is running when suspend/h
# FAQ
## How is this different from using OBS with nvenc?
OBS only uses the gpu for video encoding, but the window image that is encoded is copied from the GPU to the CPU and then back to the GPU (video encoding unit). These operations are very slow and causes all of the fps drops when using OBS. OBS only uses the GPU efficiently on Windows 10 and Nvidia.\
-This gpu-screen-recorder keeps the window image on the GPU and sends it directly to the video encoding unit on the GPU by using CUDA. This means that CPU usage remains at around 0% when using this screen recorder.
+This gpu screen recorder keeps the window image on the GPU and sends it directly to the video encoding unit on the GPU by using CUDA. This means that CPU usage remains at around 0% when using this screen recorder.
## How is this different from using OBS NvFBC plugin?
The plugin does everything on the GPU and gives the texture to OBS, but OBS does not know how to use the texture directly on the GPU so it copies the texture to the CPU and then back to the GPU (video encoding unit). These operations are very slow and causes a lot of fps drops unless you have a fast CPU. This is especially noticable when recording at higher resolutions than 1080p.
## How is this different from using FFMPEG with x11grab and nvenc?