Co-Stream Rehearsal with Jeremy

Yesterday I've spent about 4 hours with Jeremy in Singapore re-configuring my OBS for two camera sources. We've been co-streaming Raft for a bit last year, and we've been meaning to try this out with video. Such a workflow presents various challenges from a production point of view:

• the guest needs to see my presentation without delay to react, rather than having to wait for Twitch or YouTube
• my mic audio needs to be routed to two audio destinations: OBS for streaming, as well as to a phone call
• the guest's audio needs to be routed to a separate track in OBS for better mixing and potential audio delay, as well as into my headphones for monitoring
• a web cam can only connect to one app at a time, which means I can either send it to Discord/Skype or OBS but not both
• I need to capture the guest's web cam without it being connected to my computer

I do this with two PCs, which presents additional challenges. Let's just say... it's been a puzzle to make all of this happen. However, I'm happy to say that it looks like we've cracked the basics, and with a bit of work and practice I'll be able to have guests in my videos soon!

The timing couldn't' be better, because something rather remarkable has happened last week: remember that stream I did about landscapes in Blender, the one where I'm using True Terrain? I came into this completely cold and bought the add-on during the stream, because I really liked what it can do. Yet I felt there were so many features that it was difficult to grasp, despite its documentation. 

Turns out the author of the add-on Richard Traynor saw the stream and contacted me and said he's happy to talk me through the features I didn't understand during a stream! It's the perfect opportunity for my first 3D co-stream. 

I had planned to do remote interviews and collaborations in some shape or form for several years, but somehow it never got off the ground. Whether for gaming, knowledge exchange, collaborative 3D work or just a chat, both technology and how-to knowledge were holding me back. I kept digging into a viable way to make this happen, and the above test shows that it works in principle. Thank you so much for your time, Jeremy!

With a bit of luck, Richard will talk us through his True Terrain add-on next Thursday at 4pm EST on my Twitch channel. 😎