Alright, so I decided to give this F1 streaming thing a go. Been playing the F1 games forever, you know? Figured, why not put it out there? Seemed straightforward enough at first thought.
Getting Started – The Gear Check
First thing, had to see what gear I actually had. My PC is alright, not brand new shiny stuff, but it runs the game okay. Dug out my old steering wheel and pedals, gave ’em a good wipe down. Found a webcam I bought ages ago and a pretty basic microphone. Nothing fancy, just the bits and pieces I had cluttering up the place.
Sorting the Software Side
Everyone kept talking about OBS, so I thought I’d try that. Downloaded it. Opened it up and man, it looked a bit full-on. Loads of settings and menus everywhere. Took me a minute to get my head around it.
Okay, so I needed to set up a ‘scene’. Then add the game itself, which took a few goes to actually get F1 23 showing up right. Then added the webcam feed. Spent a while resizing that little box with my face in it, making sure it wasn’t covering up anything important on the game screen. Added the mic too. Did a quick test, “testing, testing”, seemed to be picking up sound.
Next step was linking it to Twitch. Made an account, found that stream key thingy. Copied and pasted that into OBS. Felt a bit technical, like I was docking spaceship modules or something.
The Test and The Real Thing
Before going fully public, I hit ‘Start Streaming’ just to see what it looked like. Pulled it up on my phone. It was… watchable. Maybe a bit blocky sometimes? Sound was there. Game seemed to run okay on my PC while streaming, maybe lost a couple of frames but nothing major. Good enough, I thought.
So, time for the real show. Fired up the game, double-checked OBS one last time. Took a gulp of water, felt slightly nervous for some reason. Hit ‘Start Streaming’. Typed in a simple title, something like “Just racing F1, come hang out”.
How It Went Down
Felt super awkward talking at the start. Like, talking to my monitor. Tried explaining what I was doing in the race, messed up a few corners, obviously blamed the car setup – standard procedure, right? Then, someone actually typed in the chat! Just a simple “hello”. Felt good to reply, less like I was just yelling into thin air.
Did a few online races. Had one really close battle, got totally focused on the driving and kinda forgot I was even streaming for a bit. That was pretty cool.
Things I Noticed:
- My internet connection blipped out once, stream probably froze for viewers for a second or two. Annoying.
- Someone mentioned my mic was a bit quiet. Need to boost that gain or something next time.
- The webcam is definitely showing its age. Picture wasn’t the sharpest.
Wrapping Up and Thoughts
Streamed for about an hour, maybe a bit more. Felt like a good place to stop. Thanked the couple of people who dropped by. Hit ‘Stop Streaming’. Felt surprisingly tired afterwards, but also kinda satisfied, you know?
So yeah, that was my first proper go at streaming F1. It wasn’t perfect, far from it. Definitely got stuff to improve – need to sort the mic level, maybe figure out better lighting so I don’t look like I’m broadcasting from a cave. But hey, I actually did it. Got the tech working, put myself out there, shared some racing. It’s a starting point. Might even do it again. Was kinda fun just driving and having a bit of interaction.
