Are you also facing the problem with OBS not capturing game? If you fall in this category, you are not alone. I have noticed lately more and more people having issue concerning OBS displaying a black screen instead of capturing a game or a window which led me to heavily research and find a solution to resolve this problem once and for all.
Stay with me.
Before I begin with the solutions, I have put together some of the most common reasons I can find to why OBS is not working as it should even after doing everything correctly.
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Why Is OBS Not Capturing My Game
These are the reasons:
1. OBS Was Updated
As this moment I am writing this post, the current version of OBS is the version 26 and this version doesn’t work correctly with some games like CSGO with Faceit, Division 2, For Honor, War Hammer, Minecraft with Lunar Client and much more. It is actually not the fault of OBS but the games themselves because they have Anticheat.
Understand that if your game was capturing well by OBS and then all of a sudden stopped capturing, it means your OBS was updated knowingly or unknowingly and to get it working again, you would need to uninstall the latest version and reinstall then previous working version to successfully capture your games. Click Here to learn how to uninistall programs.
2. Incorrect OBS Settings
Most people face this problem but aren’t always aware of this. It is very easy to change some settings in OBS without even knowing it which can be the primary reason as to why OBS in not capturing your games.
Launch OBS and go to your settings to review if there’s any mistake made or anything little to change that can resolve the problem. Pay attention to your settings so it won’t conflict with the solutions I will provide below.
3. Too Much Sources Inside OBS
You recognize that little section inside OBS where you create a source to either capture your screen, game or window? in that section, if you have too many sources created, they can conflict with each other causing OBS to glitch or not work properly. The simple solution is to delete unused sources and leave only the sources you need.
4. OBS is Not Launched as Administrator
There’s a possibility that OBS doesn’t have the right privilege’s needed to work properly from your computer.
The reason for this is that by default, your computer doesn’t fully trust any third-party application installed. But, by letting your computer understand that it can trust OBS, it will give OBS the full privileges’ it needs to work properly.
So, the next time you are trying to launch OBS to either capture or stream your games, launch it as an administrator.
5. Old computer
Ok, let’s be honest here, how old is your computer? let me know in the comment box below. If you are using an older computer, obviously that particular computer won’t have the requirement to handle OBS for capturing games.
The minimum requirements to run OBS on your computer is:
- RAM – 4GB and above
- Processor – Core i5
- Compatibility – Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- GPU – Intel, AMD or INVIDIA
Compare your computer to the requirements above to see if you pass the minimum test.
6. Outdate Drivers
The most important driver for OBS is your graphics or display drivers and if both are outdated. You might run into some trouble with OBS. Although this can be very rare, it’s still worth looking into. Follow this link to keep your drivers updated.
7. Closed Eye
Most people completely overlook this and never realize this could have been their what is causing their problem all along. The eye logo beside the source you have created can be toggled on and off.
When it is off, the color dims a little and forward slash is displayed over it. But when it is turn on, the eye logo becomes brighter and bolder. Look closely to inspect it either it is turn on or off.
8. Source Isn’t Stretched Out
Another mistake some people fail to notice is the expandable red dot display at the top left-hand corner of the screen inside OBS. The red dot displays after you have created a source in the sources section inside OBS.
Most people fail to realize that it doesn’t just end after a source is created, you would still need to expand the red dot to fit the screen to view what game or window you are capturing with OBS.
How To Fix OBS Not Capturing Game
1. Run OBS as Administrator
1. Right click on OBS shortcut and select properties.
2. Navigate to the shortcut tab.
3. Click on advanced.
4. Check the box to run as administrator and click on OK.
Anytime you lunch OBS with that particular shortcut, it will lunch with administrative privileges.
2. Use The Right Sources
1. Click on the plus icon in the sources section.
2. Select game capture among the list.
3. Click on OK.
4. Launch the game that OBS is not capturing and leave it running in the background.
5. In the mode section, click on capture specific window.
6. Select the window you want to capture in the window section.
7. Click on Ok.
8. Give it few seconds to display the windows you selected.
If this method doesn’t work, try the next method.
3. Test Different Power Options
1. Right-click on your desktop and select display settings.
2. Scroll down to the bottom and click on graphic settings.
3. Choose either desktop app or classical app in the graphics performance preference section. If OBS Studio is displayed below, delete it by clicking on it and selecting remove.
4. Click on browse.
5. Locate OBS file application by following this default path below:
C:\Program Files\OBS-studio\bin\64bit
You can copy and paste the path above to your windows explorer to search for it more quickly. Keep in mind that your computer can either be 64bit or 32bit.
6. Double click on OBS64 when you locate it. It could be OBS32 if your computer is 32bit.
7. Under OBS Studio, click on options.
8. Select power saving and click on save.
9. Restart OBS.
10. Click on the plus icon in the sources section.
11. Select display capture among the list.
12. At this stage, OBS should be capturing your display. If you can still see a black screen, go back to step 8 and switch between your graphic preference to test which will work
If nothing works, it’s ok, everyone is using different graphics card and processor which could be conflicting for OBS. Proceed to the next step.
4. Reset OBS
Scene
1. Click on scene collection at the top left-hand corner of OBS.
2. Select export.
3. Change the name to whatever you want and save to your preferred location.
Log
1. Click on file at your top right-hand corner.
2. Select show settings folder.
3. Copy and paste the logs folder to some other location just for backup.
4. Select and delete all the folders in the settings folder.
5. Close OBS studio and make sure it’s not running in the background. You can use task manager to close it properly.
6. Launch OBS Studio.
7. Click on the plus icon in the sources section.
8. Now, choose windows capture among the list.
9. In the window section, chose the window you want OBS to capture and click on ok. Make sure you have the program running before it can be displayed on OBS.
5. Downgrade to Previous Version
Save your user settings before you begin with this method.
1. Search for control panel in windows search and click on it.
2. Set view by to small icons by your top right-hand corner.
3. Click on programs and features.
4. Select OBS studio among the list of programs and click on uninstall/change at the top.
5. Select user settings and click on uninstall.
6. Open window explorer by pressing the Windows logo + E on your keyboard.
7. Type the following text below beside the search bar inside windows explorer:
%appdata%
8. Delete any folder related to OBS.
9. Click on AppData at the top and check both LocalLow and Roaming to delete any OBS folder found in them.
10. Open the Local folder.
11. Click on the tempt folder and delete everything inside it.
12. Paste the following command below inside windows explorer:
C:\Program Files
13. Delete Any OBS folder you can find among the list of folders.
14. Again, paste the following command below inside windows explorer:
C:\Program Files (x86)
15. Delete any OBS folder you can find.
16. Visit the link to download the previous version of OBS.
17. Scroll down to the Assets section and download OBS full installer which is the first two among the list. Pick either x64 or x86 depending on what your computer is running on.
18. Install the newly download OBS-Studio-24.0.3-Full-Installer.
19. launch OBS as administrator with the method I provide above.
20. Once you open OBS, ignore OBS from upgrading to the 25 version. DON’T UPDATE IT!!
