Vegas Pro 13 – Constantly Loading Frame – High CPU Usage

[Thomas Ames]

Here’s my whole build: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/I3reeze/saved/vwpWGX

My hope is that at some point I could record in my native 1440p at 60fps.
I changed my Vegas settings to use 8GB of RAM (I think) instead of the default 4. If allowing more would help with this inconvenience, I’d be more than willing.
My build currently has 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and I’d be willing to upgrade/buy more if it would help.

I have messed with preview settings in the past, it’s currently pretty low quality, but I haven’t messed with them recently. Currenlty, I think I use Preview>Auto

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Wayne Waag]

In my book at least, you have a very high-end system–I’m a bit envious. That should not be an issue. All along, it’s sounded to me like a codec issue. Does OBS support Intel Quick-Sync which I know doesn’t have an issue inside of Vegas? Mirilli’s Action supports QS plus its own avi which imports well into Vegas. May not make a difference, but given all the problems with OBS, it might be worth a try. I’ll have a look upon return to my editing system, hopefully this weekend sometime. In the interim, perhaps someone else might have a look.

wwaag

[Thomas Ames]

Hey Wayne,

Did you get a chance to try out those video? I’ve been just using the Handbreak’ed versions of them and it’s been going much better. My CPU has a rough time when I try to preview/RAM-preview velocity edited footage – especially negative velocity – but it’s better than before.

I’m interested to hear your analysis!

[Wayne Waag]

Glad you reminded me. Returned just this weekend to my editing station. Just downloaded your dropbox files and tried them.

First, your original file. It plays OK in MPC-HC and Windows Media Player. However, I get the same problem in Vegas. It just hangs and I have to end Vegas in Task Manager. I also tried opening the file in VideoReDo and TMPGEnc’s Smart Renderer, both designed to smart-render AVC files. In both cases, the file would not open. VideoReDo gave an error message and TMPGEnc just hung like Vegas. Again, my suspicion is that your file was recorded using a variable frame rate. I found another thread of mine where I tried recording to an MP4 using Mirillis Action with their Quick-Sync option. The result was also a variable frame rate file which would not open in Vegas, but had to be re-rendered in Handbrake. Files recorded to an AVI were OK. The bottom line is that you need to find some recorder that produces constant frame rate files which can be directly imported into Vegas. Otherwise, you are stuck with transcoding using Handbrake or something similar.

Your second project using the Handbrake file opened without issue. Render preview on Best/Full was pretty much pegged at 60 fps, even that portion where there were changes in the velocity envelope. In other words, no problem at all.

My suggestion is that you continue a search to find something that “works” for direct import into Vegas. I would try recording to an AVI, since it is my understanding that an AVI is always a constant frame rate. Having said that, I’ve seen some posts about problems with AVI’s using OBS. As I’ve said before, this problem seems to be very common and as of yet, I’ve seen no solution, other than transcoding. If you do find something, please post back. Good luck again.

wwaag

[Thomas Ames]

Thanks for that Wayne,

What I’ve found to work best for me so far is tweaking some options in OBS.
I’ve seen you respond to a lot of OBS/Vegas issues so I figured you could pass along this information in the future.

First off, my GPU is an AMD R9 290x (2 in crossfire, but I don’t think that matters here). I think my issues came from using the AMD VCE codec in OBS instead of the x264. I did this in hopes that my card would do the bulk of the work hardware-side instead of software-side. I also was using the OpenCL renderer instead of the DirectX11 (11 or 12, I’m not sure), because OpenCL seems to be AMD’s baby and I thought it would be best to have as much of this done through AMD software since I have an AMD card.

I’ve only edited one video thus far with these OBS settings, but it ran much better using the regular x264 codec (encoder?) and DirectX11 renderer.

I haven’t looked into it – and don’t really care to since the quality I’m recording at now seems pretty great to me – but perhaps there’s a way to include an AMD decoder plugin to Vegas to make using that encoder more viable. (I keep using terms like “encoder” and “decoder” in reference to codec, sorry if that’s inappropriate.)

I have another question for you though: If I am recording at “60fps”, with Dxtory, it told me what my write speed actually was, and it wasn’t a consistent 60, it jumped around from 58-62 usually. How can I tell the exact FPS when editing in Vegas? Or should it be exactly 60 due to Constant Frame Rate. I understand what CFR means, but my thought process is that maybe it’s just shooting for constant but can’t quite keep it stable.

Thanks again.

[Wayne Waag]

Thomas,

Couple of comments. First, I think you mean openGL rather than openCL. From a search, it appears there isn’t a major difference between using openGL and Direct 3D 11 in OBS. AFAIK, there is no codec that can be downloaded to enable use of the AMC VCE codec in Vegas. It would seem that with installation of the AMD software, it would include the proper decoders. Regarding Dxtory, another recording software I haven’t used, that sort of jumping around would indicate to me it was a variable framerate recording. Or it may be that frames are being dropped. I really haven’t a clue.

Since OBS is such a constant topic on this forum, I decided to download it and give it a try on my system. I have a i7 3770k overclocked a bit that drives two monitors. I use the Intel HD4000 to drive one display and an Nvidia 650 to drive the 2nd montor. Both are relatively modest display adapters, but sufficient for my needs in Vegas. Using OBS to record the screen on my first monitor driven by the HD4000, here’s what I found. Using QuickSync did not work at all. The resulting file would not load into Vegas–it would show audio only. Using the X264 option, there were no problems importing the rendered file into Vegas. The only problem was that CPU usage was up to 60-70% during recording. I then tried the avi option. It uses FFMPEG and saves the file as lossless using the UT Video codec. That worked very well as far as importing the rendered file into Vegas. The audio was also lossless although limited to a single channel. Moreover, the CPU load was only around 15%. Since I have the Nvidia card, there was also an NVENC option which also imported well into Vegas. Moreover, CPU load was only around 5% during recording.

All in all, I’m really surprised about how well the OBS rendered files imported into Vegas. It’s certainly changed my opinion about using this freeware. From my experience, quite honestly, I can’t understand why so many are having problems.

Why don’t you try the avi option, see how it works for you, and report back. You will have to download and install the UT Video codec package–its freeware also. The advantages of lossless video and audio, low CPU impact, and easy import into Vegas seems a real plus. The only downside was that Best/full preview was only around 53-55 fps, rather than 59 when using the mp4 files, not a real biggie as far as I’m concerned. Your R290 should have it pegged at 59 without missing a beat. Also, the files will be much larger. Let me know what you find.

wwaag

[Thomas Ames]

Hey Wayne,

It’s great that you tried out OBS! Did you download the Studio version or the original?
I thought I had downloaded the UT Video codec when I used Dxtory (https://imgur.com/a/CMDAQ) but it doesn’t get picked up by OBS (https://imgur.com/a/dSvY4). Perhaps you could link me to the download site you used.
I’ve also looked at FFMPEG specific options: https://imgur.com/a/azQ8e
Unfortunately, I just don’t have enough of an understanding to know what my best option would be.

I’m all about lossless recording, I’d just like the option to edit audio strips separately due to volume peaks, music editing, etc. but I would certainly give it a try.

Could you show me the settings you’re using for your recordings?
From searches, I’ve found that using a “bigger” “CPU Usage Preset” means that the CPU is used less, but when I have the preset lower than “ultrafast”, the highest option, the game I’m playing jitters.

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[Wayne Waag]

I used the latest studio version. I’ll post some screenshots of settings tomorrow.

wwaag

[Thomas Ames]

So I guess I lied.
I hadn’t messed with my CPU Preset in a while, but I found that using “Veryfast” does work with my system. It is explained as the “sweet spot” by an admin on this OBS forum and, though my CPU has high usage (sometimes skims just below 99%) when running the high-CPU-usage game (Overwatch) and OBS Studio at Veryfast, it doesn’t max out for noticeably long periods of time, meaning that I am able to record at higher quality without the game freezing up (too much).

I don’t fully understand the other settings on the Video Output tab, though, so I’m not sure if I should be using CRF or some other option.

Just figured I’d correct myself in the case that you find “anything short of Ultrafast gives me issues” to be odd.

Thank again.

P.S.: I can’t imagine that anything using a preset lower than “Fast” could be used by a system not running multiple processors. I’m not sure how outdated by CPU is, but it was pretty high end at the time of purchase. Granted, that was about a year ago and PCs grow old at like 6 months, but still.

[Wayne Waag]

Just posted my screen shots in a new thread.

wwaag