We get some version of "where do I even start with OBS" a lot, so instead of writing yet another wall of settings screenshots, here's a genuinely good beginner walkthrough worth watching first, plus a couple of things we'd add once you've got the basics down.
It covers the core concepts well: scenes, sources, and the basic capture setup. Where we'd point you next once you've got that down:
After the video: the three settings worth double-checking
- Encoder — hardware (NVENC/AMD HW/QuickSync) over software (x264) for most gaming setups, so recording doesn't eat into your actual frame rate.
- Recording format — MKV over MP4 for the recording itself, since it survives a crash mid-session far better. You can always remux to MP4 afterward.
- Audio tracks — decide up front whether you want game audio and mic audio on separate tracks. It's a much bigger hassle to fix after the fact than to set correctly on day one.
We've got a full breakdown of all three (with specific numbers, not just "it depends") in the OBS recording settings guide if you want the deeper version.
The part videos always skip: what to do with the file afterward
Almost every beginner tutorial ends the moment the red recording dot turns off. In practice, that's the easy part — the friction shows up afterward, when you've got a 15GB MKV file and need to get a 30-second highlight out of it in a format you can actually share. That gap is exactly why this site exists in the first place.