So I heard that Microsoft really improved Windows 10's built in game DVR and broadcasting, but can you 1) stream your N3DS's screens to your computer and then broadcast that live to the internet? Let's find out!
My setup:
- Surface Pro 4 i5 4GB model
- TP Link Archer C3150 dual channel
- N3DS White with Luma and NTR CFW
The N3DS connects using 2.4GHz (no support for 5GHz) and the Surface Pro 4 connects using 5GHz. Both the 3DS and Surface Pro was about 10 metres away from the router with 4 walls in between.
So I started my 3DS up, booted into NTR CFW, then started Pilotwings Resort (A 3DS game based on the plane game on Wii Sports Resort) free flight. On my Surface Pro 4 I started streaming using Kit Kat Slim.
Recording Game Play
This was honestly quite easy. On the Kit Kat Slim streaming software, I pressed Win + G and clicked on 'Yes this is a game'. Then after waiting a few seconds, the game bar popped up, and I click on the big red button to start recording.
And... it's recording? Nice! No frame rate drops, staying in the 35-40 range (using Pilotwings Resort).
To stop recording I pressed the red button again, and it saved to User\Videos\Captures. The video quality naturally wasn't going to be great as the 3DS makes no apparent effort to anti alias games and the resolution of the screens aren't exactly great. We can apply post processing anti aliasing filters and upscale but that's another story.
Broadcasting/Live Streaming to the internet
This was... again quite easy! To set it up, you will need a Microsoft Account with an Xbox Live profile as it is used to create an account on mixer.com to where it is live streamed to. I started the Xbox app, signed into the app (this is required, otherwise broadcasting won't work)
Pressing Win + G on Kit Kat Slim brought up the game bar again and this time I pressed the broadcast button (you can hover your mouse over each button to see what it does). I was greeted with a bunch of info on what to stream like camera, microphone, etc. to which I left unchecked, and then hit the start button... It's live streaming?
Took me a while to figure out, you need to sign into mixer.com using your Microsoft Account and you can see your live stream from there. You should also select the option on the website to keep live streams recorded.
Anyway, on their website I could see my live stream... it was actually working pretty smoothly. You did get a few stutters and all, but actually the quality wasn't too bad and it was definitely at a presentable quality. The frame rate didn't seem to be affected by this as well which is quite nice.
Here's my attempt to live stream: https://mixer.com/Wizkoer?vod=28370988
So there you have it, live streaming using Window's 10's built in Game DVR and Kit Kat Slim. I gotta give it to Microsoft for this Game DVR, it was quite buggy when first released but now it actually works quite well even on a mid-lower end laptop/ultrabook with integrated graphics.
A few thoughts I'd like to share
- Use 5GHz or ethernet to connect your computer to your router.
- My internet connection is 100mbps/20mbps, but streaming used a grand total of... 0.5-1.5mbps up. So anyone can stream as long as your internet connection isn't as shit as the standard Australian one.
- If you're recording game play, use handbrake software to re-encode video to a constant 30fps, then you can use interpolation software to 'upscale' your frame rate to 60 fps
- If you're recording game play you can also upscale your recording using Xmedia Recode to a higher resoltuion. It uses post processing anti-aliasing techinques to make the upscaled video look better.
My setup:
- Surface Pro 4 i5 4GB model
- TP Link Archer C3150 dual channel
- N3DS White with Luma and NTR CFW
The N3DS connects using 2.4GHz (no support for 5GHz) and the Surface Pro 4 connects using 5GHz. Both the 3DS and Surface Pro was about 10 metres away from the router with 4 walls in between.
So I started my 3DS up, booted into NTR CFW, then started Pilotwings Resort (A 3DS game based on the plane game on Wii Sports Resort) free flight. On my Surface Pro 4 I started streaming using Kit Kat Slim.
Recording Game Play
This was honestly quite easy. On the Kit Kat Slim streaming software, I pressed Win + G and clicked on 'Yes this is a game'. Then after waiting a few seconds, the game bar popped up, and I click on the big red button to start recording.
And... it's recording? Nice! No frame rate drops, staying in the 35-40 range (using Pilotwings Resort).
To stop recording I pressed the red button again, and it saved to User\Videos\Captures. The video quality naturally wasn't going to be great as the 3DS makes no apparent effort to anti alias games and the resolution of the screens aren't exactly great. We can apply post processing anti aliasing filters and upscale but that's another story.
Broadcasting/Live Streaming to the internet
This was... again quite easy! To set it up, you will need a Microsoft Account with an Xbox Live profile as it is used to create an account on mixer.com to where it is live streamed to. I started the Xbox app, signed into the app (this is required, otherwise broadcasting won't work)
Pressing Win + G on Kit Kat Slim brought up the game bar again and this time I pressed the broadcast button (you can hover your mouse over each button to see what it does). I was greeted with a bunch of info on what to stream like camera, microphone, etc. to which I left unchecked, and then hit the start button... It's live streaming?
Took me a while to figure out, you need to sign into mixer.com using your Microsoft Account and you can see your live stream from there. You should also select the option on the website to keep live streams recorded.
Anyway, on their website I could see my live stream... it was actually working pretty smoothly. You did get a few stutters and all, but actually the quality wasn't too bad and it was definitely at a presentable quality. The frame rate didn't seem to be affected by this as well which is quite nice.
Here's my attempt to live stream: https://mixer.com/Wizkoer?vod=28370988
So there you have it, live streaming using Window's 10's built in Game DVR and Kit Kat Slim. I gotta give it to Microsoft for this Game DVR, it was quite buggy when first released but now it actually works quite well even on a mid-lower end laptop/ultrabook with integrated graphics.
A few thoughts I'd like to share
- Use 5GHz or ethernet to connect your computer to your router.
- My internet connection is 100mbps/20mbps, but streaming used a grand total of... 0.5-1.5mbps up. So anyone can stream as long as your internet connection isn't as shit as the standard Australian one.
- If you're recording game play, use handbrake software to re-encode video to a constant 30fps, then you can use interpolation software to 'upscale' your frame rate to 60 fps
- If you're recording game play you can also upscale your recording using Xmedia Recode to a higher resoltuion. It uses post processing anti-aliasing techinques to make the upscaled video look better.
