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Stuttering with Screen Capture via PipeWire on OBS
Hello fellow Linux Gamers.
recently I have been streaming from my main gaming computer, with the following specs:

CPU Vendor: AMD
CPU Model: Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core
GPU Vendor: AMD
GPU Model: Radeon RX 6900 XT
GPU Driver: Open Source (MESA release 24.0.8-1)
Monitors: 2
Resolution: 2560x1440
Refresh Rate: 144Hz
Kernel: 6.5.13-7-MANJARO

I experience some heavy stuttering when I'm adding the Screen Capture (PipeWire) source in OBS. The stuttering is actually already visible when displaying the item in the OBS preview, and it gets reflected in the video footage when either recording or streaming.

This issue happens just on PipeWire/Wayland. If I switch to Xorg and add a XSHM source, both preview and footage are pretty smooth.

I add also my OBS Output Settings here below, even though I don't believe they can have any relevance for the case:



and here below the Scene setup:



Is there anything I can trace and troubleshoot, as far as you know?

All the best,
Dave
Shmerl Jun 7
What version of OBS? And what Wayland compositor? Also, could be an issue with H264 encoder. I recently tried AV1 one (7900 XTX) and it worked very well.

Last edited by Shmerl on 7 June 2024 at 5:30 am UTC
Quoting: ShmerlWhat version of OBS? And what Wayland compositor?


OBS is at release 30.1.2-1 and compositor is Mutter for GNOME at release 46.2-1.0

Quoting: ShmerlAlso, could be an issue with H264 encoder. I recently tried AV1 one (7900 XTX) and it worked very well.


I tried a different encoder, but I got the same result. The reason why I felt to exclude the encoder was because the capture was already looking stuttering from the OBS studio preview.
Shmerl Jun 7
What about a different compositor then? I.e. Kwin / KDE? Could be a bug in Mutter.
I can try, but in the meantime I found another workaround just by chance: by putting the game display at the refresh rate 59.96Hz, I see no stutters. The game (ELDEN RING) is fixed at 60Hz with vsync forcely on (unless it's run with the patcher mod). Could it be a game Sync issue?
sim590 Jul 24
I have the same issue running the compositor Sway (Wayland).

When I run any game and start OBS with a screen capture on my monitor that is configured with the mode 2560x1440 @ 59.951 Hz, I have extreme stutters both in-game and on the stream. Shutting down OBS or changing from the scene with the screen capture to no screen capture goes around the issue.

Also, setting my screen mode to 2560x1440 @ 59.951 Hz eliminates the stutter. I also don't have any stutter on my other monitor configured with mode 1920x1080 @ 60.000 Hz.

I use Archlinux and the current kernel I use is labeled 6.10.0-rc6-1-amd-drm-fixes-gd0417264437a. It's a custom kernel that has some AMD fixes, but I confirmed that I reproduced the issue on the main 6.10.0 kernel.
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