OBS Studio received several new features, including Artificial Intelligence-based virtual backgrounds from Nvidia Broadcast, which allow you to change the virtual environment without using a green screen. This feature is not yet perfect and definitely won’t replace the quality of a physical green screen just yet. However, tests show that it works well.
Sure, there is some flickering and peppering when moving, but for streamers who scale down their webcams to a small broadcast corner, these problems will not be very noticeable. Quality can also be improved with strong lighting and clear backgrounds.
Streamers often use OBS on Twitch or YouTube. OBS used to have special plugins that allowed you to use a virtual green screen, but Nvidia Broadcast will make this feature much more accessible. Those who use an Nvidia RTX graphics card probably already have it installed, and Nvidia Broadcast also integrates with many popular hardware and streaming apps.
Virtual Backgrounds is the only Nvidia-specific feature added in the latest OBS update. However, other features not related to Nvidia Broadcast appeared in the program as well. One of these is support for HEVC or H.265 and HDR. This should improve video compression by about 15% and provide higher quality streaming to supported services.
Room echo removal is also being implemented in OBS to help reduce unwanted echo during streams. Although it is worth noting that this feature isn’t part of Nvidia Broadcast’s background noise suppression list, and is likely to be a direct feature of OBS, rather than a third-party integration.
The new version of OBS is available in beta, but you can already upgrade in full today.
