Live-Stream Gaming on Parallels Desktop: Part 2
The following is the first in a series of posts by guest blogger Patrick Schoof—or, as he’s known in gaming circles, Unexceptional, a popular Twitch streamer using Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac. Read on to learn about his experience choosing and using Parallels Desktop to live-stream games.
One Twitch Streamer’s Setup with Parallels Desktop
Last week, I talked about my journey to becoming a Twitch streamer using Parallels Desktop. Today, I’ll take the next step and share my full setup using Parallels Desktop 10 and Windows 8.
When I decided I wanted to be a live-streamer, I thought, “What’s the first thing you’ll need?” The answer: streaming software. So I looked for the cheapest, best option and found a program called OBS (Open Broadcasting Software). It was free to download and generally well reviewed, and it claimed Mac compatibility.
Next I had to figure out how to get my console games to stream. I did more research and found that the El Gato Game Capture Card would work well. I‘ve always been a console gamer, so I figured I would play those the most. Once I got the El Gato set up and working with OBS, I got online and started streaming!
After a while (and zero viewers), someone was nice enough to point out that they couldn’t hear the game sound or the music I was listening to. Weird—everything seemed to be set up correctly. I’m the first to admit my lack of tech savvy, though, so I figured I’d watch some YouTube videos to sort out what was going on.
Hours later, I found out it was an OBS on Mac problem. So I surrendered. I finally got Parallels Desktop, installed it, installed Windows 8, re-downloaded everything for Windows, and got it all set up—efficiently and without issues.
The Windows version of OBS is about a million times more customizable, with about a billion ways to improve my stream quality. Next time I went live, it was incredible—like night and day. My sound and video were synched up, viewers could hear my game, and, most important, OBS worked.
With Windows running through Parallels Desktop, I stream primarily PC games now. I even downloaded a driver that lets me use an Xbox 360 controller for PC games that I couldn’t use on my Mac alone. Now it feels like I’m playing on a console, but I get to try those long-denied PC games.
Parallels Desktop does struggle a bit when I’m streaming and Skyping and doing a bunch of other things at once, but I highly recommend it if you want to play PC games or live-stream but don’t want to buy another computer. Improving performance is as easy as assigning more disk space to your virtual machine, or simply closing a few windows. In a nutshell, I have to work smarter so the computer doesn’t have to work harder—and that’s what gaming is all about.
Stay tuned for Part 3 of my guest blog series next week, when I’ll show you my full streaming setup using Parallels Desktop 10 and Windows 8. Until then, you can catch my stream on Twitch as Unexceptional, or follow me on Twitter at @UnexceptionalTV!
P.S. Don’t forget—you can see Parallels Desktop in action at the #LANVegas14 event at Skillcon with Mountain Fortune and other big names in gaming! It starts December 26. Here’s more info: http://bit.ly/1yb4uqr.
Patrick Schoof is a popular live-streamer with the handle of Unexceptional on Twitch, as well as a guy with a writing degree who uses it to say (hopefully) witty things while gaming. Catch his stream weekdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. You can also follow him on Twitter @UnexceptionalTV. Happy gaming!
