Last updated: December 5, 2011
Level 3 update on January 5, 2011 (XSplit improved some, segmented section 3, Procaster crashing details noted, other extra details added)
1 The live broadcast
Watch live streaming video from ulillillia at livestream.com
2 Announcements
As of December 5, 2011, I'm back in business... mostly. Outside knowing what to do with advancing game stories outside cutting the stream temporarily, and Livestream Procaster crashing every 2 to 5 hours, I have no known issues. If you encounter other problems, let me know. Contacting me on YouTube is faster than E-mail as I check YouTube much more frequently than I do my E-mail.
3 About the live broadcast
3.1 Streaming times shift constantly
The times I stream constantly shift forward roughly 1 2/3 hours (100 minutes) each day. Thus, it makes no difference where you are in the world as everyone will otherwise get an equal chance of seeing my broadcast. Some days you'll be able to watch 12 hours of my live gaming and others, typically a week later, you won't see anything.
3.2 Some things may get boring
I'm an extreme powerleveler in RPGs (and their similar counterpart, SRPGs), so some things may get very boring. Skill mastery in Disgaea 2 and powerleveling are excellent examples of this.
3.3 Livestream's chat feature
Livestream has a chat feature available. I can only type while I'm waiting for the game to load or effects to finish. I cannot follow links in the chat. If I do, you'll only see the contents of the links instead of the game video (and I won't be able to see what I'm doing in my game either).
3.4 Why no voice?
One thing you may notice that's completely absent is my voice. This is mostly Windows' fault as Windows won't let choose both wave (for the game's audio) and microphone (for my voice), considering they're mutually exclusive input sources.
This is the Windows audio configuration settings. If I click the check box for microphone, the one for wave disappears. If I click the check box for wave again, the one for the microphone disappears. Thus, I'm forced to have to choose between the game's audio and my voice. I rarely speak otherwise so you're not missing out on much, though there are a few cases where I could make use of speaking. Until a solution is found, you'll only get the game's audio.
"... But you have both the game's audio and your voice in your YouTube videos!" The only way this is possible is if I record using my TV tuner's program (which gets the game's audio) and Audacity for the microphone. In other words, it's not possible unless somehow there's a way to get the game's audio from the TV tuner outside the use of "Wave".
4 Troubleshooting
If you don't see anything, there could be one or more of these cases applying.
- I'm simply not streaming.
- If there's no streaming for several days, this is due to either working on Platform Masters or being on vacation. While on vacation, what rare times this happens, I have no access to a computer (console games don't count).
- If there's no streaming for a few weeks, there's a very high chance I'm working on Platform Masters. Platform Masters's development will not be streamed for confidentially reasons. Check PM's screenshot archive to see if any recent screenshots are present. If so, you'll know I'm working on PM. You'll see a heightened amount of activity on YouTube as well while doing this, a slight motive booster.
- If there's no streaming for several days, this is due to either working on Platform Masters or being on vacation. While on vacation, what rare times this happens, I have no access to a computer (console games don't count). Thus, when on vacation, you'll notice a sudden and abrupt stop with activity on YouTube and E-mail replies.
- If there's no streaming for a few days, this is due to either working on Platform Masters, being on vacation, or my computer is out of order. In the latter case, a very rare case, there's no way for me to stream. In the latter 2 cases, you'll see no activity on my YouTube. The former case will lead to more activity on YouTube than normal as it's a slight motive booster.
- If there's no streaming for a few hours, then it could be because I'm sleeping (the times I sleep shift constantly, about 100 minutes forward every day), eating my second time (this takes about 60 to 90 minutes, depending on what I eat), grocery shopping (typically about 2 hours), my parents got me into cleaning or construction stuff, or something else that's very rare that I have no control over such as my ISP going down or a power outage.
- Either my ISP or your ISP is down. Should either of these happen, the stream will be cut off. To rule out your ISP as the culprit, try viewing other sites, especially your ISP's site.
- The streaming server is down. Should Livestream go down for some reason, streaming is not possible. Try back in a few minutes or, in the worst case, a few hours.
- Your Flash Player is out of date and/or buggy (glitched). Try updating it or use a non-beta version.
- Your firewall or security software is blocking Livestream. Add Livestream to the white list.
- Your parental control software is blocking access. Speak with your parents about it and ask for permission.
- Procaster crashes. This happens once every 2 to 5 hours for about 90% of the time and it's something I have no control over. I get an "invalid thread" error. Just wait a minute and I'll be back, 3 minutes at the most extreme if I have to restart my computer. I will let you know when I'm done streaming - you'll see Notepad over the video when I'm done. This screenshot shows what I see when this happens (click it to view the full-size image at 1920x1440):
- Some other rare issue is present. If you feel that none of these apply, feel free to contact me. You'll get a faster response on YouTube than by E-mail as I check YouTube 2 to 3 times more frequently than my E-mail.
5 Other notes
Why did I return to Livestream from Veemi? First, Veemi's embedded player doesn't work and I have no idea how to fix it. Livestream's embedded player works without problems. This, however, is a minor issue and almost doesn't count.
Second, and most importantly, I won't be able to make any use out of the unlimited quality Veemi offers. With my 768 Kbps upload speed, I don't get any real benefit over Livestream's 512 Kbps limit. If I pay 33.5% more, I'll only get a 33.3% faster upload speed (1 Mbps). If I pay 110.4% more, I'll get a noticeably greater 166.7% faster upload speed (2 Mbps), but at $70 a month, that's very expensive and not worth it (and I don't care at all for download speeds much beyond even 4 Mbps as it's ever-so-rare that I get downloads of much more than 50 MB any way). 30 Mbps download is rather ridiculous in my opinion and it does no good for streaming. This is a fairly strong determination factor.
Third, I can monitor how active my broadcast is in almost real time and also see what users are thinking, of which I can't do with Veemi. This is a somewhat strong determination factor.
Making Veemi better than Livestream is the lack of advertising. However, for only 2% of the stream, there's not much of an impact so that's relatively minor as well. I've heard AdBlock blocks the ads, but I'm too uncertain of it.
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