Sharing some of your gameplay exploits with friends, family and perhaps one day, adoring fans is a great way to show off your in-game skills and entertainment chops in one smooth move. But in order to kick off your professional streaming career, you need to know how to stream on YouTube Gaming. Fortunately, we’ve got a handy guide for teaching you just how to do that.
There are plenty of streaming video platforms out there, with Twitch being one of the most famous for gaming. But as the most prominent video viewing platform in the world, YouTube still draws in huge numbers of viewers, and YouTube Gaming and its feature set is always growing.
To get you started, here is our guide on how to stream on YouTube Gaming, broken down into several easy steps.
Setting up your stream
Step 1: Sign in to your Youtube account using the “Sign In” button in the top right-hand corner of YouTube’s homepage.
Step 2: To live stream video on YouTube you need to have a verified account. Go to youtube.com/verify and give up your mobile number, to which YouTube will send a code. Input that and your account is ready to begin setting up your stream.
Step 3: Go to your account’s Creator Studio page and under the “Live Streaming” drop-down menu on the left-hand side, select “Stream Now.” You’ll be presented with a lot of different options for your stream. You can input a name and description in “Basic Info,” and choose a category and game title. You can also decide whether you want the video to be “Public”, “Unlisted,” or “Private.”
It’s worthwhile getting at least these basic settings right before proceeding.
Other options you might want to go over include what sort of stream you want — one designed for viewer interaction, or better visual playback — whether you want to monetize the video or not, and you can change the thumbnail if you want something more specific to the game you’re playing.
For additional stream set up information, you can view the “Live Streaming Checklist” on the right-hand side of your Stream Now page.
If you want to learn how to change your YouTube name to help draw in more viewers, we have a guide for that too.
Setting up your encoder
Once the stream itself is set up, you need to set up the encoder software you’re going to use to actually record and send the in-game footage to YouTube Gaming. To do that, you need to pick from the list of supported encoders. Our preference, because of its strong feature set for free users and expanded feature set for subscribers, is XSplit Gamecaster.
Step 1: Download XSplit Gamecaster from its official site and install it as you would any other software.
Step 2: Verify your YouTube Live account through XSplit. If an automated popup doesn’t give you the option, head to the “Accounts” tab in the XSplit Window and “Authorize” your account for live streaming to YouTube Live.
Much like verifying your YouTube account, it will involve sending a code to your mobile device. Input that into the pop-up window and then click “Allow” on the following screen to give XSplit access to your YouTube account.
Step 3: In the “Settings” menu, tweak any aspects of your stream that you consider important. Link your social media accounts, customize your “BRB Graphics” if you step away from the stream, and decide whether you want viewers to see things like your mouse pointer.
Two important options to configure are your microphone and camera. If you want your viewers to see and hear you correctly, make sure your headset microphone is selected, and that your camera works properly. You can test it looking at the video in the top left-hand corner.
Bringing it all together
With your YouTube live stream set up and your encoder software organized properly, it’s time to actually start streaming.
Step 1: Boot up the game you want to play.
Step 2: Press “Ctrl” and “Tab” keys together to bring up the XSplit Gamecaster overlay.
Step 3: Click “Stream”.
Step 4: One final window gives you a few choices before your stream officially begins. It lets you preview elements such as your title and description, as well as whether the stream will be public or not. You can adjust other settings from the overlay during play, and view your own livestream through the Creator Studio, or via its live link, to confirm it looks as intended.
When you’re finally ready to begin, hit “Start Broadcast.”
Step 5: Stream away!
Step 6: When you’re finished streaming, you can shut down the game itself, at which point you’ll be prompted whether you want to end the stream, or use the XSplit Gamescaster overlay to shut down the stream manually.
Although any live streams you do will be automatically saved as recorded streams by YouTube, you can download them, or others, using these simple methods.
[“Source-digitaltrends”]
