Game crashes when I try to record gameplay.

[PaleoGhost]

I've been recording gameplay of RDR2 for a year now, and over the past month, recording has become a pain. The game keeps freezing and/or crashing whenever I hit record on OBS Studio. The issue started with the Nvidia update in mid-October, but today, after recording a single hour-long episode of gameplay, RDR2 now crashes every time I try to record. I have rolled back, reinstalled, downgraded, and upgraded various Nvidia drivers. I've tried using their GeForce software to reconfigure my settings, but RDR2 refuses to even load while GeForce is active. I have uninstalled and reinstalled OBS Studio, but the game is still crashing upon recording, and I am not getting any error logs to try and figure out what's going on. I have deep-cleaned my hardware and scanned my software, and I am getting absolutely no answers. I have over 350 gameplay episodes recorded, but now, I can't record at all.

I'm afraid I'll have to uninstall and reinstall the game, but I don't want to lose my progress. I'm currently in Chapter 6 for a Low Honor series and Chapter 4 for another series, and I also have my original series file still saved because I'm trying to 100% the game on that particular save.

Any advice on what to do next or a different recording software to use (not Nvidia's Shadowplay, since GeForce won't even allow the game to open) would be appreciated. If I have to uninstall and reinstall the game, I will... but it's still a ton of progress to lose.

Thanks, and sorry about the whiny ranting.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Have you tried turning down some game graphics settings; as maybe your CPU/GPU barely good enough to do both.

Uninstalling Steam games is dumb; all that does is delete files and redownload them.
Just delete PlayRDR2.exe and RDR2.exe in the game folder; then go to Steam and do the verify process. It can take a good 30-40 mins on some systems. Let it go without interruptions. If any files missing or corrupted it will download them fresh again.

OBS can be tricky because of its overlay methods; some games straight up don't get along with it.

Are you using the CPU or GPU to record?
If you use the GPU to record then you might want to cap the game FPS to around 60 area to help allow enough CPU/GPU resources for the recording program.

[PaleoGhost]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Have you tried turning down some game graphics settings; as maybe your CPU/GPU barely good enough to do both.

Uninstalling Steam games is dumb; all that does is delete files and redownload them.
Just delete PlayRDR2.exe and RDR2.exe in the game folder; then go to Steam and do the verify process. It can take a good 30-40 mins on some systems. Let it go without interruptions. If any files missing or corrupted it will download them fresh again.

OBS can be tricky because of its overlay methods; some games straight up don't get along with it.

Are you using the CPU or GPU to record?
If you use the GPU to record then you might want to cap the game FPS to around 60 area to help allow enough CPU/GPU resources for the recording program.

I've been adjusting graphics settings for weeks trying to fix stutters and momentary freezes. I'm running a Nvidia RTX 3070 and 32GB RAM. Like I said, everything was running fine up until some mid-October updates. I've been running the same OBS settings: 60FPS, same rate control, keyframe interval, tuning, multipass, etc since last November.

I just verified the files (Thanks!) and adjusted some Windows Performance settings to hopefully fix GPU memory allotment issues, but I don't have time to assess if these changes have helped tonight.

(I wish my favorite YouTube gamers used something other than OBS or Streamlabs, because I've heard both have issues repeatedly.)

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Are you playing and recording at 1080p?
3070 is barely enough to run RDR2 well enough as it is.

It should work with GeForce Experience but do not Optimize the game with that. Simple launch Steam + Rockstar Launcher via the Run As Admin options. Then launch the game from Rockstar Launcher. You shouldn't need to launch the game from GFE, as long as the NVIDIA overlays are enable and you enable the options for video recording and configure that; it should work in most games.

[Sagittarius A*]

Originally posted by PaleoGhost:

I'm afraid I'll have to uninstall and reinstall the game, but I don't want to lose my progress.

You don't have to lose your progress to reinstall the game. Just pull out your save files from
"C:\Users\<Userame>\Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Profiles" and put them back in once you've reinstalled.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

But again a reinstall of a Steam game doesn't "do" anything. Its not like installing a game from a CD/DVD in Windows. Steam just downloads the files and you run the game, that's it. If there is a problem, it's usually elsewhere. Like with drivers, OS config, gpu shader cache ( you can dump that via %LocalAppData% > NVIDIA ) or perhaps with the 3rd party launcher.

Many who have had odd issues with GTA5 or RDR2 usually have been able to clear up stability or launch issues by uninstalling Rockstar Launcher + Rockstar Games SDK + SocialClub. Once all gone, go to the %LocalAppData% and Documents folders and look for Rockstar Games folder; if anything inside for Launcher or Social Club; delete them. Then reinstall the Rockstar Games Launcher + SDK. Run the launcher and configure it. Then run your game.

[PaleoGhost]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Are you playing and recording at 1080p?
3070 is barely enough to run RDR2 well enough as it is.

It should work with GeForce Experience but do not Optimize the game with that. Simple launch Steam + Rockstar Launcher via the Run As Admin options. Then launch the game from Rockstar Launcher. You shouldn't need to launch the game from GFE, as long as the NVIDIA overlays are enable and you enable the options for video recording and configure that; it should work in most games.

Running RDR2 in 3070 isn't bad. I can run it with Ultra settings on the graphics if I'm not recording just fine. Remember, this is a console game first and foremost that is six years old now, and consoles never have the same graphics capabilities as PCs.

I think I figured out the issue now. Seems it was a graphics memory error. I had to force the game to crash without OBS running in order to get the message to pop up. When I went in to check my PC's Performance settings options, it seems like some Windows update screwed with the configurations and was basing things off of a much lower RAM.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

RDR2 is also one of those rare games where it can toss up the error regarding out of memory or out of vram when the Windows PageFile is set to Auto. It helps to set tbat manually set a minimum of around 8GB and then a max of around 1.5X your installed RAM. So if 32GB RAM set the max to 48GB. Entries have to entered in MB values so for example 8192 = 8 GB

Once set, restart Windows apply the change.

Disable the HDD Sleep Timer in your Windows Power Profile.

Disable Fast Startup + Hibernation via CMD (Run As Admin) > POWERCFG -H OFF

[PaleoGhost]

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

RDR2 is also one of those rare games where it can toss up the error regarding out of memory or out of vram when the Windows PageFile is set to Auto. It helps to set tbat manually set a minimum of around 8GB and then a max of around 1.5X your installed RAM. So if 32GB RAM set the max to 48GB. Entries have to entered in MB values so for example 8192 = 8 GB

Once set, restart Windows apply the change.

Disable the HDD Sleep Timer in your Windows Power Profile.

Disable Fast Startup + Hibernation via CMD (Run As Admin) > POWERCFG -H OFF

Yeah, that's exactly what happened... except the auto setting was at ~4900. Don't ask me where it came up with that number. It doesn't make sense with any math. I now have my custom range set for my 32GB RAM and things work fine again.

[Draekus2]

i too use OBS Studio to record gameplay footage.
so this interested me greatly

specs:
RTX 4080 w/ 12 GB Vram
32GB system Ram
recorded @ 1920 x 1200

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp4Wx2kaqfg

works fine for me.

[Draekus2]

it would seem you're in good shape, carry on.