Hi everyone!
We are developing a stream game with a couple of friends for fun. For now we are working on the proof of concept prototype. We are software engineers but not experienced in streaming. Like in many streaming games, in this game viewers vote for a certain decision/move. We are fetching the votes by reading the IRC channel.
We are aiming to bring a (relatively) fast paced action like game, so viewers wont get bored while waiting for the next move. However I am not sure about the length of delay between moment an action occurred in the game and the moment viewers see it. I think I am talking about the “stream delay” in here. When I tested it by watching the game from the streaming PC I noted the following delays:
~13.45 secs when streaming with 800 kbps
~9.90 secs when streaming with 250 kbps
I have a few questions about this issue:
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Why encoding bitrate effects the delay?
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How can we reduce the delay apart from reducing the bitrate?
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Does people in different locations have different delay lengths (i.e. delay in Amsterdam vs. delay in LA)? The answer is probably yes but what is the scale?
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Do you recommend a voting interval duration (i.e. spare 1 min for collecting votes)?
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If we finalize our game, can Twitch support our game (like hosting our game in a server, help us to reduce the delay etc.)?
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We are not utilizing the twitch’s API, just reading from the IRC channel. How can we benefit from the API for our game?
Best,
- Lab.