How To Stream Second Life to YouTube Gaming

Streaming Second Life™ to YouTube Gaming (YTG) is easy. This is a tutorial based on my first successful try. It is not complete or as detailed as it could be and I’ll probably come back to it and add more or write another tutorial. Now lets get into the basic what we need to do.

The only geekie part is you may need to know your upload speed. You can find your actual speed by using SpeedTest.net. Mine averages 6.6mbps. A safe value for me to use is 80% of 6.6 = 5.3mbps. But, I never HAD to know that to make my first stream.

Go to YouTube Gaming (YTG) and create a channel. (You can search on Second Life to see what channels are already there. To do that, click the GO LIVE link (button?) in the upper right of the page. It is an odd button, which is really a drop down. The first time you click it opens and gives you two choices, GO LIVE and UPLOAD Video. Click GO LIVE again.

YouTube Gaming - Upper Right of Home Screen

YouTube Gaming – Upper Right of Home Screen

From there walk your way through the  instructions. You’ll enter your name and possibly a phone number, if your new to YouTube (YT).  Whatever name you enter for the account will be displayed on the channel.

At the bottom of the page is a section labeled Encoder Setup. You need to copy the Channel URL and Key shown here and save it. You’ll possibly need that information later, depending on the encoder you pick. 

In the Live Streaming Checklist is the link you need to download the encoder software. Or click here. From the help page you can download an encoder. They are free and they have paid versions. The encoders work with more services then just YTG. I got the XSplit Gamecaster.  Then I found that it doesn’t STREAM to YouTube Gaming, only YT Live. It also records a video and later uploads it. It seemed odd to me that they would list an encoder for streaming that doesn’t stream to YTG. But, as I did more with YTG I noticed lots of the stuff in HELP is ONLY YouTube oriented and not yet updated for YTG.

Maybe I needed to get XSplit Broadcasting (good streaming tips). I’ll try it later. For this try I used Wirecast.

Note: It seems Broadcasting and Gaming both have problems with YTG. See their forum here. PS: After writing this I find there is supposed to be a BETA version (8/30/2015) of XSplit available. XSplit recommended it to those having a problem with YTG. I found XSplit Gaming 2.5 Beta 2 dated 9/4/2015. Check the page previous to this one by using the bread crumbs link BETA/RC VERSIONS for newer Beta versions.

If you go for XSplit Broadcasting, know there is a video that explains how to setup the XSplit encoder. It opens right after install (link) and it gets really geekie… Don’t freak out. If you try it, you can just use the settings they show. It may be tedious, but there is little brain damage.

Oh, you’ll notice in the video the speed determines what size  image you can stream. Don’t push the limit. Go for 70 or 80% or less of the speed you got from the test. You are likely to have problems, if you push the limit.

Once I realized the lack of streaming to YTG problem, I went back and got WireCast from TeleStream.net. It comes in free, US$279, and $549 versions. The site has listed the features for each version. I got the free one, of course.

It downloads as a zip file with 32 and 64 bit versions. The install is simple, click the right version and go. If you don’t know whether to install the 32 or 64 bit version, try the 64-bit first. If you need the 32 bit version, you’ll get an error message. No damage.

The tutorial for using it is here.  But, it isn’t much help. TL:DR… Launch the program and you’ll see a screen like this:

Wirecast - Opening Screen

Wirecast – Opening Screen

When WireCast runs, notice the grey circled + at the right of the images at the bottom. Your row of ‘Shots’, the images at the bottom, may differ depending on what you do after opening XSplit. Hover your cursor over it and select the icon that looks like a computer screen. Next pick a Local Presenter. In the image below I have monitor selected. That makes it a full screen presenter. Whatever is on the screen goes… Or I can pick ONLY a part of the screen to send. There is an option to pick a ‘window’ too. I could have gotten better performance, if I had made a smaller viewer window and used the ‘window’ option. BUT… the ‘window’ option does not seem to work with the SL Viewer, at least I never got it to work.

Better news is there is a ‘game’ option and that works. Once ‘game’ is selected you can pick the game’s name from a list.

Wirecast Setup

Wirecast Setup

Once setup, just close the window. Next click the + again and select the monitor icon again. When you click you will see your new ‘presenter’ is at the bottom of the drop down. It reads “Add [whatever you named your presenter] Shot”. Once you add it, click it.

Next click STREAM in the top menu and they’ll ask you to enter your YouTube Gaming info. You basically just log into your YouTube Gaming account. Make sure you get the right one, if you have more than one. Wirecast figures out the URL, Key and settings. I didn’t have to enter them, just my password. There are other settings under the top menu’s OUTPUT item. Something I missed for my first attempt.

Once the connection to YTG is done, you are streaming. It takes a minute to show up on YouTube and come back to your browser. In the video I made you’ll see me switching back and forth to see if things are working. If one were doing this for real having the viewer, streamer, and YTG page all running is a bad idea. I had an SL stream from the SL Servers, I was uploading to YTG, and downloading video from YTG. That is a lot of data moving. Plus having to process all that getting into and out of my video card.

You can see this is a pretty rough video. I need to learn a lot to get it working well… and I missed doing the output settings. I also have the problem that my computer is really not up to running all the stuff I had open. My viewer was making 5 FPS. So, things are jerky and laggy. I’ll add more later.

Streaming Media West has 42 minute lecture on streaming media.  This is about high end streaming, way above what hobbyists need. It is worth the time if you want to go pro or to understand where streaming is going.

Here is a tutorial that gives us information on all the settings I skipped dealing with, which is partially why I have a crappy stream. See: How to Webcast with YouTube Live. The video is a little out of date, pre-YTG, and some of the pages look different, so you’ll have to find your way through the settings on YTG.

To stop streaming, just click STREAM again. It stops. YTG then goes to work archiving the stream. It takes a few minutes. Eventually the streamed video is published as a YTG/YT video. You will likely need to go back and select a better thumbnail image.

Recording

You’ll likely notice there is a RECORD button near the STREAM button. By default it puts the videos in the Windows default Video folder (C:\Users\[Windows_login_ID]\Videos\MyStream_[#].mp4). You can use this to test if Wirecast is working with your viewer.

More pages, links below…

3 thoughts on “How To Stream Second Life to YouTube Gaming

  1. I am going to try this with Open Broadcast Software which is free and open source. I’ve used it to record video from SL, but not yet got around to trying it with streaming.

    I have found that on older equipment like mine, you need to turn down the settings in the app and not go too mad in SL with the settings either.

    Good tutorial here and interesting to see how people get on with other streaming and recording solutions.

  2. WORTH NOTING: Streaming with YouTube Gaming is not enabled in some countries due to YouTubes fear of local copyright laws.

  3. Pingback: Does FRAPS work on Windows 10? | Nalates' Things & StuffNalates' Things & Stuff

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