How do I set up a Replay Buffer?

This guide covers how to set up a Replay Buffer using OBS Studio. Other methods such as Shadowplay are acceptable but OBS is generally preferred by the community for its simplicity and ease of use.

Note: This guide covers using OBS with NVENC. NVENC is more efficient than recording x264 via CPU. Using X264 puts a heavy strain on the CPU and will affect your game performance. You should have at least an Nvidia GTX 970 or 1060 6GB to use NVENC efficiently. AMD GPUs are applicable as well.

Note2: This guide also assumes you're uploading the replays to Youtube. Please follow Youtube's bitrate guide if you intend to record and upload at different resolutions or FPS.

1. Download and install OBS from: The OBS Project
2. Launch OBS
3. Press the "Settings" button

Output Mode Make sure you select "Advanced" under the "Output Mode". We won't be using "Simple" for this tutorial.

Streaming Tab

• Encoder: Nvidia NVENC H.264/AMD HW H.264/AV1 (Select the encoder of your choice)
• Rescale Output: 2560x1440
  Recording at 1440P tricks Youtube into using the VP9 codec instead of the lossy AVC codec. VP9 is vastly superior in terms of quality compared to AVC.
• Rate Control: CBR
• Bitrate: 25000 Kbps
  Youtube recommends 24Mbps for 1440p at 60fps.
• Keyframe Interval: 0
• Preset: Quality
• Profile: High
• GPU: 0
• Max B-Frames: 2

Recording Tab

• Type: Standard
• Recording Path: Select a folder on your hard drive to save the recordings to. To reduce stuttering, it's recommended to use a different hard drive than the OS or where you're have any Game Data stored.
• Recording Format: MP4
• Encoder: Nvidia NVENC H.264/AMD HW H.264/AV1 (Select the encoder of your choice)
• Rate Control: CBR
• Bitrate: 25000 Kbps
  Youtube recommends 24Mbps for 1440p at 60fps.
• Keyframe Interval: 0
• Preset: Performance
• Profile: High
• GPU: 0
• Max B-Frames: 2

Replay Buffer Tab

• Tick "Enable Replay Buffer"
• Maximum Replay Time (Seconds): 60
  30-60 seconds should be enough to report an incident with. Your preference may vary.

Video

• Base Canvas Resolution: 1920x1080
  If you have a 1440p or higher monitor, set it to match what you have.
• Output (Scaled) Resolution: 2560x1440
  Recording at 1440P tricks Youtube into using the VP9 codec instead of the lossy AVC codec. VP9 is vastly superior in terms of quality compared to AVC.
• Downscale Filter: Bicubic
• Integer FPS Value: 60

Hotkeys

• Start Recording: Assign a key on your keyboard to control the "Start Recording" action.
• Stop Recording: Assign a key on your keyboard to control the "Stop Recording" action.
• Save Replay: Assign a key on your keyboard to control the "Save Replay" action.

Advanced

• Make sure that the "Replay Buffer Filename Prefix" is "Replay" or any file prefix you intend to set.

Setting up a Scene

1. Make sure FiveM is running. You may connect to the Testing/Events Server for this step.
2. Click the + Button under "Scenes" and input "FiveM"
3. Click the + Button under "Sources" and select "Game Caputre" or "Window Capture".
4. Under the Capture settings select the following:
5. Mode: Capture Specific Window
6. Window: FiveM_GTAProcess.exe
7. Window Match Priority: Match Title, otherwise find window of same executable
8. Make sure the Eye icon is not crossed out.

If you've done this correctly, the game should be displayed on the OBS Preview viewport. If not, you may ask in the Discord for assistance.

Make sure to press "Start Replay Buffer" every time you run OBS.