How To Set Up a Steam Broadcast With RoboStreamer

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You should definitely use RoboStreamer if you are going to be broadcasting your game during a festival like Steam Next Fest. RoboStreamer is made by a guy named Chris and it's fairly easy to setup. Chris is also very helpful should you run into any problems. On his site he has a couple of great guides, which I will link to here as well.

Why should you use RoboStreamer you may ask?
From Chris's website: "With RoboStreamer, you can upload videos and have them streamed in loop as long as you wish. Forget about fiddling around with OBS to set up your stream. Forget about leaving your computer on and don't worry if your internet may break down. Marketing automation is king, because as a game developer your time is very limited."

Now let's get to it!

Video Preparation

1) This is not a guide on how to make your video, that you will have to take care of yourself. A tip, however, is to use the free video recording and live streaming software "OBS". I recorded my video in HD quality and 60 FPS, which was later converted to 30 FPS though.

2) I used the free video editing software DaVinci Resolve to edit my video. In my case I cut away some footage at the beginning and at the end and added a brief fade in and fade out. You might want to apply some color correction as well.

3) You'll need yet another free software called HandBrake to encode the video. Chris has a great guide for this, as well as a preset that you can download and import into HandBrake. Follow his guide here: https://robostreamer.com/blog/encode-broadcast-video-with-handbrake/ It's pretty straightforward. 

Be aware that you might have to install .NET (I had to) for HandBrake to work. Go ahead and do that. Just click "Yes" in the box that pops up, and it will download.

Click "Yes" and to download .NET.

Steam Preparation

4) You need to whitelist your Steam account. Go to the store page for your app, and under special settings you have to click on "Add me as a Broadcaster" under "Steam Broadcast (Beta)". Save and publish the page.

Set up RoboStreamer

5) Chris made a guide for setting everything up at robostreamer.com, which you will find here: https://robostreamer.com/blog/how-to-upload-a-video-as-steam-broadcast/ You can start at step two if you have already prepared your video.
  • I will add this, when configuring your broadcast, you'll find the broadcast URL under "QUICK LINKS", and you'll get a unique upload token when generating an RTMP token.
  • You will also have to provide your "Broadcast App ID" which is the same as your game app ID, and can be found in SteamWorks.
  • And finally, you'll want to set "Viewer Permission" to "Public" when everything is set up and working, for it to actually stream to everyone.

Tips

  • Do not stop your video during Steam Next Fest! This will cause the viewer count to reset to zero. In other words, make sure your video is final before you start streaming during the event.
  • It might be a good idea to go into your local Steam client settings under "Broadcast" and disable broadcasting. I had to do this because SteamVR was running and apparently being broadcast.

    Disable Broadcasting in Steam settings.



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