First stream in some time, not great results...

First attempt to stream using the new PC (Windows 10) and the latest version of OBS...and the short version is quality came out pretty bad...  I got a mere 300p out of this stream, so unless it's my unfamiliarity with OBS Studio (using an old beta version on Windows 7, which is capable of at least 720p) & the settings may have been wrong, I'm going to need to get this resolved before I do any more long streams.  The last one can be found here (not going to attempt to embed it, this has been broken for close to a decade) & is over 6 hours, but ultimately it's something I'm going to have to research & see if I can get it resolved.  A possibility could be the screen ratio, which I know can sometimes drop quality when livestreaming (depending on the service streamed to), so I may need to spend some time redoing what I have to make it more compatible with Twitch's streaming expectations (or maybe consider installing the old beta version on this new PC using my backup of the isntaller & using that rather than the newer OBS Studio)...

Limited streaming will be starting again

As has been stated in the last post, my main PC is currently overheating & my newly-built PC (Windows 10) is still not up to my standards for streaming, but I'm noticing continually increasing toxicity in Warframe (the game I've been playing the most of lately) that often times results in solo missions when most of the team has dropped out, so I determined it's going to be necessary to start streaming so that toxicity can at least be made public to some degree (whether they are permanent additions to the internet or just temporary until they expire is still undetermined, however it will at least give the option to save them through one of two different methods if I need a more permanent documentation of something that happened in game).

There are currently 3 different things that are keeping this PC from being a normal streaming machine:

• Insufficient hard drive space:
  This means there is a lack of space to keep games installed, as well as recording of videos.  I should at least be able to stream to Twitch, but will need to find a way to disable consecutive recording while streams are running.  This ultimately means that if a more permanent version of a video is necessary, the video won't be as high quality as if I had uploaded a recorded video.  This PC currently only has about 2.75 TBs of space on it, I will need to purchase at least 2 decent sized hard drives (or 1 really large hard drive) to get it up to par for normal streaming/recording of games or leaving games installed for more variety (as it is now, I'm having to remove & reinstall games every so often when I run out of space).
• Single monitor:
  I currently don't have the preferred monitor set up, meaning at least 2 monitors so I can monitor chat on the same PC (although using my laptop might be an option for this, it doesn't mean it's going to be in my line of view while streaming games).  Without that second monitor & the ability to actively monitor chat while streaming, responses to chat will be limited to between missions.  I will still be embedding chat into streams regardless so I can still document harassment that is to be expected while streaming (especially with new followers that joined when the organized attacks from Steam trolls started in 2023; this seems to have mostly died down, but I don't expect it has fully stopped yet, especially when comments are still being made in that thread on Steam after Steam staff unlocked it & is allowing showing of those comments again).
• No webcam:
  While it might be possible to use the webcams I have on my Windows 7 PC (although I don't know I have a driver that will work with them on Windows 10), use of that webcam still won't be an option until I can get my PC where it should be (in the home office, on a desk; not in the front room using the frontroom TV as a monitor...although I will admit playing games on a 58-inch widescreen TV is a nice change once in a while).  This probably isn't going to be something that will keep me from moving the PC to my home office, but it will affect my ability to have a webcam panel in those streams until I can get one that will work with Windows 10.

Note that while chat won't be actively monitored, it will still be actively documented, still using an IRC client to log chat even when the channel isn't active (this also logs users that enter the channel in most cases, even if they don't chat while they are in it).  Embedded chat may be somewhat blurry in recorded/exported/highlighted videos, but I'll still have the IRC logs to back up what is said, with timestamps down to the millisecond of it being made if needed.

I expected a minimum of 2 more months (possibly longer, seeing as I have a yearly phone bill coming up next month) before I will be able to start streaming & responding to viewers as a normal streamer would, this will be when I have the hard drives & monitors on the new PC as necessary for streaming & recording.  I might consider using the laptop to be able to monitor chat, but I still don't expect that to be a normal standard, just a temporary workaround to not having active viewing of chat while streaming (if it's done at all).  The other option might be going back to the Windows 7 PC for streaming if I can get the overheating issue resolved (I have a new liquid cooling unit already delivered, I just haven't gotten around to installing it yet to see if it resolves the issue).

I may consider adding new information to the channel (possibly through a goal, not that I expect to gain enough to even make a dent towards finishing the PC any sooner) to give a status on where I'm at in regards to getting this Windows 10 PC up to my streaming standards, at which point I'll be able to have active discussions with viewers again (not just limited discussions between missions).

New videos & streams on hold

While I was intending on getting back into streaming on Twitch & have been uploaded semi-regular videos to YouTube, these are going to have to be put on hold for a couple of reasons.  My main PC (running Windows 7) is currently having overheating issues & my new PC (running Windows 10) still isn't fully built, so that negates both of the main gameplay media sharing functions I have been doing for some time (even while health issues continued to be a factor that kept me from streaming to Twitch, even when I did have a decent enough upload rate to continue doing so).

I'm currently looking for a replacement liquid cooling unit for the CPU to deal with the overheating issue (given it's been running on overdrive lately & running higher powered games on it results in a full PC shutoff when it gets too hot, unable to get the PC running again until it cools off naturally), I'm expecting this is the first place to start with getting that PC game-worthy again (at least with older games that don't require a Windows 10 or higher OS to run them).  This PC is still run as a server for other devices in my home (and potentially over the internet if needed).

While I do have a Windows 10 PC now (my friend finding a deal on Facebook that included a motherboard, CPU, liquid-cooling, RAM & wireless network card combo; I still had to purchase one of my friend's older video cards, a new case & R2 chip for the OS drive), it's still not in the same position as my other PC was for recording & streaming, but is at least semi-functional for gaming (including the ability to play the majority of games I owned on other platforms that wouldn't run on Windows 7).  This system is still going to require a decent capacity hard drive, a second monitor & a second battery-backup surge-protector before I expect to be using it normally).

While streaming to Twitch & uploading videos to YouTube will not be an option for at least a few more months, I am considering possibly streaming over my Discord server (seeing as this is an option with full functionality now that I have a Windows 10 PC; streaming over Discord used to cut audio on Windows 7, so I disabled streaming in most of the channels on my server, exception being the hardware, software & app troubleshooting channels).  Of course my Discord server is still set as private due to organized attacks from the Steam troll community starting in 2023 (attacks that Steam management supported through additional penalization actions against a targeted victim of those attacks), so currently only the people that are still on the server will have access to it (as well as other people I may know already that I may give private invites to the server, but public joining is still locked down because of those ongoing attacks & won't be lifted until 2 years after the last documented attack, that date given on my Twitch channel) if I do start doing them (which will probably only be on request or if voiced that they have an interest in it; people still on the server are relatively low, so I doubt any interest will be voiced).

An additional note is in addition to now having a Windows 10 PC, I've opened up what games I am willing to support on Twitch while they are being streamed by channels I follow (watching of other channels on YouTube that show ads still being avoided due to YouTube's support in those same attacks coming from Steam & lack of action to take down misinformation videos down on other YouTube channels publishing slander).  There are still other games that will not be supported due to other running boycotts, but the minimum OS of anything higher than Windows 7 is no longer a restriction that will keep me from entering those channels while they are streaming those games.

The actions by Epic Games that forced accumulated V-Bucks (roughly 37,100 over a period of over 4 years forced to a mode I don't even play & no option to switch them back to the mode I did play) in Fortnite still keeps me from doing much on Twitch in regards to watching other channels (anything published or developed by Epic Games, developed using the Unreal Engine or exclusive to their PC platform & not on a Nintendo system), but there have been rare instances where I've followed new channels that got raided by the official Warframe channel.  One stipulation in regards to channels I will stick around in is if they are displaying Patreon links on their channel however (which has played more of a factor on YouTube than it has on Twitch), going back to he boycott that started against Patreon after the incident that happened in 2021 (which made it clear that "supporting Patreon creators" changed to a "blacklisting Patreon creators" standard in response to their management's actions & not giving an option to appeal it, not to mention some of the most childish actions I've ever seen on any business page on Facebook).  Of course when it comes to raids from the official Warframe channel, it's more a matter of whether I even stay until the stream ends, because lack of acknowledgement of you being the channel (ignoring what you are saying in chat) is a pretty good reason I'll take off, not to mention will usually negate any chance of being followed or subbed to (the reality if it is if the official Warframe channel didn't have drops, I wouldn't even be messing with it).