Cant activate AMD VCE hardware encoding :(

[fbb]

Hi everyone,

Im trying desperately to activate hardware encoding on my Radeon R9 280x for steam IHS. But it always uses software encoding. I tried installing new drivers (Crimson 16.1) and also reinstalled steam but nothing seems to help.

log file;

[2016-01-29 15:34:53] .
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] =====================================================================
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Game: Jazzpunk (250260)
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Recording system audio
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Changing record window: 0003045E
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Recording on device: Headphone (VIA HD Audio)
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Audio client mix format:
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] format: 65534
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] channels: 2
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] samples/sec: 48000
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] bytes/sec: 384000
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] alignment: 8
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] bits/sample: 32
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] channel mask: 0x3
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] data format: {00000003-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71}
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Initializing audio with 2 channels and 48000 samples/sec
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Audio mix: start=1124955840, returned=0
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Audio source [System Windows]: init=0, through=0, last_start=0, mixed=0, drop_before=0, drop_after=0
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CDesktopCaptureDWM: Reinitializing D3D for adapter 0x7111
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Video adapter: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series, vendor ID: 0x1002, device ID: 0x6798
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CDesktopCaptureDWM: desktop duplication enabled
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] >>> Switching video stream from NONE to Desktop_MovieStream
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CGameStreamVideoStageMFX: Couldn't init session index=0: -3
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CGameStreamVideoStageMFX: Couldn't init session index=1: -3
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CGameStreamVideoStageMFX: Couldn't init session index=2: -3
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] MFX - not supported
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Detected 4 logical processors, using 3 threads
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] >>> Capture method set to Desktop DWM NV12 + libx264 main (3 threads)
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] >>> Capture resolution set to 1920x1080
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CLIENT: Video size: 1920x1080, output size: 2560x1440
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] >>> Client video decoder set to libavcodec software decoding with 4 threads
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CLIENT: libavcodec software decoding with 4 threads
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] CLIENT: Video size: 1920x1080, output size: 2560x1440
[2016-01-29 15:34:53] Detected 4 logical processors, using 3 threads
[2016-01-29 15:34:56] CLIENT: Targeting 59.75 FPS
[2016-01-29 15:34:56] >>> Switching video stream from Desktop_MovieStream to GameOverlay_MovieStream_4608
[2016-01-29 15:34:56] >>> Capture method set to Game threaded D3D9 NV12 + libx264 main (3 threads)
[2016-01-29 15:34:57] CLIENT: Targeting 59.75 FPS
[2016-01-29 15:35:05] Changing record window: 00090492
[2016-01-29 15:35:05] >>> Switching video stream from GameOverlay_MovieStream_4608 to NONE

So maybe u guys can tell me some tips and tricks since im absolutely clueless about activating AMD VCE or installing codecs...

THX in advance*

[fbb]

forgot to mention: CPU is a Intel core i5 760 clocked at 3.8ghz, so no QuickSync for me*

[Tucu]

In the host, enter Big Picture Mode, then go to the settings panel ->Streaming->Advanced Host option. There enable Hardware encoding and AMD encoding.

[fbb]

Thanks for ur reply. It works now with the AMF encoder. But unfortunately Im stuck at 30 fps on the client. Tried hardware decoding and software decoding. Both delivered 30 fps with dips to 25 fps

[kreiselhoschi]

What´s your display refresh rate?

[fbb]

Its 60 Hz

[loud_colour]

AMF Encoder is pretty weak, thats why it's the only option not ticked in big picture mode settings.
I have a R9 270x and get far better results with software encoding, we have to wait until steam fixes the AMD hardware encoding... This sucks as i also cant use my i5 QuickSync with my Mainboard :(

[fiah]

fbb님이 먼저 게시:

Thanks for ur reply. It works now with the AMF encoder. But unfortunately Im stuck at 30 fps on the client. Tried hardware decoding and software decoding. Both delivered 30 fps with dips to 25 fps

Are you sure the hardware decoding actually worked? Because AMF encoding + hardware decoding has been broken for months (screen flickers terribly). What are the specs of your client?

[MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™]

Tucu님이 먼저 게시:

In the host, enter Big Picture Mode, then go to the settings panel ->Streaming->Advanced Host option. There enable Hardware encoding and AMD encoding.

Ah so that's where its hidden

[ShadowNate]

MA☝Omgwtfbbqstfu™님이 먼저 게시:

Tucu님이 먼저 게시:

In the host, enter Big Picture Mode, then go to the settings panel ->Streaming->Advanced Host option. There enable Hardware encoding and AMD encoding.

Ah so that's where its hidden

On top of being hidden, keep in mind that if you are using the beta client, the option will reset itself to the default value (back to being DISABLED for AMD cards), on the next client update. You will have to manually set it to enabled every such time, if you want to continue using the hardware encoding for in-home streaming. This is either bug or intended but it still happens months after they hid that extra options in Big Picture mode.

Also, if you want to use hardware encoding on the host AND hardware decoding on the client, then you're going to have the flickering issue as fiah mentions and as reported here:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/0/490125103633036841/
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/1/485624040227755700/

Others report frame drops and lag on specific configurations:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/homestream/discussions/1/490125103644076218/

Which is probably why the encoding option for AMD cards is "hidden" in the Big Picture mode and is disabled by default in the first place (the other possible reason is that people report that the hardware encoding for AMD cards is the worst among all available in terms of visual qualitiy).

[fbb]

Yeah, this flickering occured too while using hardware decoding on client.
But Im still wondering about framerates.
900p output works with "stable" 60 fps while 1080 only with 30 fps.
I read somewhere that GCN 1.0 is only capable of 1080 30fps. true story or urban legend?

[fiah]

fbb님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, this flickering occured too while using hardware decoding on client.
But Im still wondering about framerates.
900p output works with "stable" 60 fps while 1080 only with 30 fps.
I read somewhere that GCN 1.0 is only capable of 1080 30fps. true story or urban legend?

No this is not true, GCN 1.0 can happily do 1080p at 60 fps, in fact I still use it to record gameplay in games using PlaysTV, which has 0 performance impact as far as I can tell while recording at 1080p/60fps. It used to work alright in steam in-home streaming too, before they messed it up in November 2015.

What is true though is that GCN 1.0 does not support hardware encoding at resolutions above 1080p. The newer GPUs can do up to 1440p if I'm not mistaken

[mao_dze_dun]

Yup, I've struggled to enable hardware decoding on my Ubuntu client, only to find out the hardware encoding on the host is terrible, as well. Fortunately my i7 and QuickSync came to the rescue. I'm curious though - is there a big difference in quality between QuickSync and VCE in regard to In-Home Streaming? QuickSync looks pretty decent, actually, and there seems to be zero impact on overall performance.

[fiah]

from what I've seen, VCE is on the same level as quicksync

[huangzhiqian]

fiah님이 먼저 게시:

from what I've seen, VCE is on the same level as quicksync

but vce having issue with in home streaming that can not be hardware decode

[fiah]

huangzhiqian님이 먼저 게시:

fiah님이 먼저 게시:

from what I've seen, VCE is on the same level as quicksync

but vce having issue with in home streaming that can not be hardware decode

yes, the topic starter was aware of this:

fbb님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, this flickering occured too while using hardware decoding on client.
But Im still wondering about framerates.

but is also not familiar with how well VCE worked back when it wasn't broken.

What I'm saying is that VCE/AMF can work well as I've experienced with other software and Steam (before it broke), and there is no reason to believe that VCE/AMF is inherently inferior to QuickSync. It does encode H264 streams at 1080p/60fps with quality comparable to QuickSync and can do so with minimal performance impact. That said, in Steam the performance I get with QuickSync encoding is better than I ever had with VCE/AMF. In other applications (notably PlaysTV) VCE/AMF works great for me.