This is a quick guide (with photos) on how to create and share CM video clips, using OBS’s replay buffer.
The method in this guide does NOT clip the chatbox or preferences menu unfortunately. You’ll have to figure out that one on your own if you want it. It’s pretty unnecessary for CM though, since bubblechat exists.
(If you know how though, feel free to put your method in the thread for da rest of us… … …)
This is all very easy to learn, however can look menacing to someone who hasn’t done any of this before. So this guide will help those people hopefully. It doesn’t take more then like, 5-10 minutes to setup at max, and maybe a small bit of googling if your computer is shit.
Clips have become a big part of cm’s community culture, and I want to see more of them!!!
And it doesn’t take up much system resources, so no reason not to
What is OBS replay buffer?
Replay buffer is like Shadowplay, if you know what that is.
Basically, it “replays” or “clips” the last X amount of seconds. X being what you set it in settings.
It allows you to record clips without needing to record a whole round.
Recording a whole round also takes up a whole LOT of storage - which most people don’t have or want to expend. In comparison, replay buffer uses no storage - unless you save the clip.
It’s real easy to setup, and doesn’t take much system resources to just run in the background.
Prerequisites // Programs used
You only need 2 external programs to do this.
- OBS (the clipper)
- an editing program.
- This guide will use Shotcut. Free, open source, and great for simple things like this.
part 1 – Replay buffer with OBS
Step 1: Settings Needed
Summary
Open up your OBS. This is about setting up the Replay Buffer, which replays whatever amount of time you set it to.
Settings → Output → Replay Buffer
You can set it to 60 sec, the default is 30, but setting it to 60 doesnt take much more memory from my experience.
If you have bad hardware, the replay buffer probably still works, even if it says it doesn’t - you may need to tinker with other settings to make it work if your computer is shit.
Then you set a hotkey for Save Replay (i set mine to ctrl q, which is easy in game)
Step 2: Setting up the Interface
Summary
OBS makes this part pretty easy.
All that matters here is the sources section. The rest do not matter for clips.
Create a game capture source, then use the cog to open the properties.
Select your game from the list of windows.
If your computer is bad like mine, the capture may stop working sometimes. Most of the time you can just close other windows to make it work. Or tinker with settings to have it work better.
Using Replay Buffer
Once you have it set up, the rest is a cakewalk. Just make sure to activate replay buffer, make sure your game capture is working, and play da game. Then you can save video clips whenever something interesting happens.
part 2 - Editing with Shotcut
Now for editing. If you save as .mkv instead of .mp4, you will need to edit in order to turn it into .mp4 so that you can share the clip. It also lets you cut out extraneous parts, to make the clip easier to watch.
How to do da Edit
Summary
Open up Shotcut
Create a video track
Drag and drop a clip onto the video track
If you want to cut off some part of a clip, use the split at playhead, then delete the part of the clip you want to get rid of
If you want to add music to a clip, and you don’t want to save the song. You can easily also just clip the music using your replay buffer, and then stack it in on a second track.
How to do da Export (the hardest part, but actually quite easy if you know what to do)
Summary
Right click default, click export file. This exports your edited clip as a .mp4 file.
And boom, you can now share your clip with the world.
Use this knowledge for the good of CM (or evilly, if you prefer that.)