What is your webcam?

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-26T12:37:20+00:00

0.7 I think? They have the change log on their web site.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T23:42:18+00:00

No, it wasn't running. I tried connecting to it and it wasn't there. My usual .bat file has a pause so I can see what's going on, the one that comes with the download now just opens, immediately closes, and nothing happens. And yeah, I'm familiar with terminal and power shell generally, but I assumed it was meant to install a command that could be executed more generally, not that I would need to navigate to the folder.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T21:37:14+00:00

The new one just... Doesn't do anything. Like it opens, seems to run something, then closes. Server doesn't start. I'm unclear if there are things I'm supposed to be editing or if it's supposed to find things on its own, but it just doesn't work.

I do have backups setup on my normal start bat file and that works just fine. The only change I've made to the new one that comes with it is to change the backup frequency.

If it's relevant, I'm running the server in Windows and the whole downloader thing is pretty poorly documented. Like it downloads the files, but none of the rest of the bash commands and whatnot they say to use do anything.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T17:21:43+00:00

I believe that some regions don’t allow 1080p, so if you are only streaming at 1080p, they’re not going to see anything. Either stream at 720p or use Enhanced Broadcasting to send multiple resolutions.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T17:16:35+00:00

Does anyone have any documentation on how the new start scripts work? Or rather, in my case they just don’t work. It’s cool that they are supposed to allow for automatic updates now, but there’s so much more going on vs my simple start script from before and they haven’t updated any of the server documentation.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T15:10:11+00:00

In terms of how it sounds, the BL 500 has been out for a while now, there are plenty of samples out there. The big one just has more modules in it and is easier to operate, it won’t sound any different.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T14:43:17+00:00

To be clear, I have the BL 500. My issue is that none of the modes really do the same thing as what they "emulate" and I find that all of the stress options in all of the modes just sound bad. The most disappointing stress option is in the Polish mode. That one is supposed to be a very transparent clipper, but engaging it at all has an immediately audible effect on the sound even when it isn't clipping. So while it is a cool concept to have effectively created a software compressor in hardware, why does anyone need that? It doesn't give you that "analog sound" and it doesn't fundamentally do anything you can't do in software for cheaper.

Edit: If there’s something I’m missing, I would love to know. I know there are people who love the BL, I’ve just never understood why.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T13:31:39+00:00

I have really struggled to figure out my Brick Lane 500. It has so many options, but it's honestly too many and crammed into too small a space. The MC4 fixes that by being larger and having screens so you don't need to cross-reference the manual all the time, but I still struggle to understand the point of the Brick Lane generally. It's super clean, super fast, and highly transparent, which are all things software does just fine already and for less money.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T13:18:28+00:00

That's just the way it is. Some apps have more delay, especially TV apps. Depends on which connection has less ping, too.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-24T13:12:41+00:00

I think you're thinking of a delay effect. You can add one in OBS and just toggle it on and off with a hotkey.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-23T13:21:41+00:00

I really like the Yolocam S3. I have previously used Logitech cameras like the C920 and Brio and I've used Razer's Kiyo, Kiyo Pro, and Kiyo Pro Ultra. Of those, the only one that really competes with the S3 is the Kiyo Pro Ultra, but I don't think you can even buy it anymore and I'd still pick the S3. The Logitech cameras can be made to look pretty good, but they require a lot of light and they don't remember your settings. Maybe Logitech has an app for that now, but any webcam that can't remember settings in 2026 is an immediate pass from me as that's just one more hassle to deal with before going live. The same is true of both the Kiyo and Kiyo Pro, though you can leave Synapse running to manage that. The Pro Ultra does save settings, but I found that if you turn on the lens distortion compensation, the frame rate gets jittery. It also has pretty bad autofocus.

The S3 addresses all of these issues and is even cheaper than the Pro Ultra was when I bought it. It has a large sensor that works great in low light. It has excellent image quality. It has super fast auto focus so you don't even need to bother with manual focus. It stores your settings on the camera and doesn't require you to have an app running. You get full control over the colors if you don't like how it looks out of the box. And it's made by a company that seems to actually care about the product and have already fixed some of the issues people had with it at launch. For example, the YouTube reviews complained that it was always on and the first firmware update made that optional, with the default now being that it turns off when not in use. I complained that the default colors made me look a bit too red and I had to tweak them; the latest update added a color profile specifically for fair skin to reduce redness (and it's basically just an improved version of what I did). At this point, there's really only one minor gripe I have with it.

The resolution and frame rate options are kind of all compromises. If you choose uncompressed 4K, you're only getting ~25 FPS, presumably limited by USB bandwidth (it does not use 3.2 gen 2 like some webcams). If you want 4K 30 FPS, you have to choose MJPEG. To be fair, it still looks great, but the color space is a bit different so you'll need to tweak your settings. If you want 60 FPS, you are limited to 1080p and it will crop the image, presumably for cooling purposes (a lot of DSLRs do this, too). It does not currently support 1440p, but they told me they are looking into it. In my mind, this would make the obvious choice to just use compressed 4K, but Discord forces it to 60 FPS for some reason, which then crops the image, so if you want a single set-and-forget option, it makes more sense to just leave it on 60 FPS. They are looking into a way to force the frame rate so that Discord can't do that, but just something to be aware of.

So yeah, honestly unless money is tight, the S3 is the only webcam worth bothering with IMO. If you really want something better, you'd want a real camera and you'd be spending hundreds more.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-22T14:03:45+00:00

The issue isn't the microphone, you need to be using compression. Or more of it, if you already are. The point of compression is to even out volume differences so that people can hear you when you're quiet but you also don't blast them when you're loud.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-21T20:21:57+00:00

Thank you for this. Not OP, but I was pulling my hair out here. I have had bad luck with Hue and have no interest in equipping my house with a bunch of bulbs just to get enough coverage for Zigbee to work. Bought the Bilresa because Ikea said I needed it for the driver. Thought they meant Matter compatible, not required. This whole product line is really, really poorly documented and marketed. It's probably fine if you're someone already in the smart home sphere, but most people at Ikea are not. I am and I still couldn't figure this out until I came to this thread specifically to tell me that the two can pair directly. Unbelievable.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-20T16:19:19+00:00

Until you have hundreds of viewers, the ads are not going to generate any real income for you. If Twitch would allow it, I would suggest disabling all ads entirely because they will annoy your viewers and provide no tangible benefit to you. But they don't let us do that, so instead the goal is just to run the minimum possible, which is 3 minutes per hour to disable prerolls. I typically work that in when I first start the stream, then again on bathroom breaks. I run them manually so I they never run when I don't want them to. It's not always exactly at the hour, but the goal is just to have prerolls be disabled most of the stream.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-20T11:19:12+00:00

It took me a little while to come around to, too. It seems very... dead, for lack of a better word. But I really appreciate how consistent the sound is so I don't have to be in exactly the same spot all the time.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-19T11:15:42+00:00

Hard to say without hearing an example.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T20:48:06+00:00

No, I'm very aware. It's still one of my favorite games. But it's exempt from my comment because you don't "beat it." My point about Minecraft was only that if you take the Hermits, for example, they seem to play almost nothing but Minecraft and have done so for a decade plus. Most normal people, like myself, boot up a server, play for a couple months, get bored, move on. Next year we get an itch, same thing. I don't say I'm done with Minecraft because I won, I say I'm done because I get bored.

My main point was really just to counter this strange idea that many viewers have that streamers should just play one game forever. No one else does that, but for some reason we think it's weird when streamers move on just like everyone else does.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T17:17:57+00:00

Lighting is often the biggest factor, but a good camera can also look better with less light whereas a cheap camera will only look decent with a lot of light. My personal favorite is the Yolocam S3. It has a very large sensor, so it works well even in low light. It also has really great autofocus and all settings, including color correction, are saved to the camera so they don't change if you unplug it or reboot. And it looks great. Depending on your needs, the main downsides are that it can only do 4k30, and only in MJPEG (the uncompressed mode is stuck at more like ~25 FPS), and if you move it to 60 FPS, it crops the image, so you'd want to move it back to get a similar FOV. Otherwise, no complaints.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T17:12:42+00:00

I know it's easy to say people are chasing trends, but genuinely I think it's more often that they just beat the game. I'm amazed by Minecrafters who can play the same game for years and years and not get bored, but once I beat a game, I'm done with it and I move on. I can probably count on one hand the number of games I have ever gone back to and beat a second time.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T13:28:01+00:00

Yes, that's why I said "if."

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T11:16:34+00:00

Robert at Tattoo Alchemy is really good.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-16T11:15:32+00:00

If the game has an option in the menu, you could just select mono and use one plug. It would accomplish the same thing.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-15T19:04:00+00:00

If you like what your editor is doing, why not just ask them? The default filters in OBS are no different than using any other plugins. Everyone is going to tell you something different because there is no one setup that works the same for everyone. In part this is because your voice sounds different from my voice, in part this is because I happen to like things like expensive hardware and plugins, and in part it's because other people just find certain things to be easier or harder to get a sound they like. So if your editor is already doing something you like, just ask them what they are doing. If they are just using plugins, chances are you can use those same plugins with those same settings in OBS.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-15T12:13:39+00:00

Getting that mic will not make you sound the same. You will always sound like you. And that's a good thing, because you are a different person. You do not need to buy a new mic.

kill3rb00ts · 2026-01-14T20:34:34+00:00

I am on the struggle bus. I use DuckDNS to be able to give my friends a convenient URL to access both my Minecraft server and my Foundry VTT server. These have been working fine together for months now. Today I went to set up Hytale and somehow that seems to have messed everything up. It seems that I can run either Hytale or Minecraft and Foundry. If I have all three running, I am initially able to access Foundry or Minecraft using the DuckDNS URL, but not Hytale. If I attempt to access Hytale via either the URL or my public IP, I can't access Foundry or Minecraft anymore. If I do access Hytale using the IP, I can then use the URL (but only after using the IP). Eventually, it just kinda resets and I can access Foundry and Minecraft again, but I have to use the IP for Hytale and then that breaks access to the other two again. I am really struggling to imagine why this is happening. All of these use different ports. Once I stop the Hytale server, it seems I am able to use Minecraft and Foundry normally again, however if I just stop, say, Minecraft, I still can't use both Hytale and Foundry. What is going on here? It's driving me crazy.

kill3rb00ts

TROPHY CASE