OBS Settings for Crisp Pixel Art Game Capture

Capturing pixel-art indie games in OBS Studio often results in unwanted blurriness due to default scaling algorithms. To achieve a perfectly crisp, pixel-perfect recording or stream, you need to adjust specific settings in OBS, primarily focusing on the scaling filter, output resolution, and bitrate. This guide provides the exact configuration needed to preserve the sharp edges of your favorite retro and indie titles.

Change the Source Scale Filtering

By default, OBS uses bilinear filtering to scale sources, which blends pixels together and causes blur. To fix this:

  1. Open OBS Studio and locate your game capture source (such as “Game Capture” or “Window Capture”) in the Sources dock.
  2. Right-click the source and hover over Scale Filtering.
  3. Select Point.

This changes the scaling algorithm to “Nearest Neighbor,” which duplicates pixels without blending them, keeping the edges of your pixel art perfectly sharp.

Match Canvas and Output Resolutions

Scaling your video twice (once at the source level and once at the output level) can introduce blur. To prevent this, match your canvas and output resolutions:

  1. Go to Settings > Video.
  2. Set Base (Canvas) Resolution and Output (Scaled) Resolution to the exact same value (such as 1920x1080).
  3. Set the Downscale Filter to Bicubic (though if your resolutions match, no downscaling will occur, which is ideal).

Use Integer Scaling for Low-Resolution Games

If you are playing a game with a low native resolution (like 320x240 or 640x480) and want to scale it up to fill a 1080p canvas:

  1. Right-click the game source, go to Transform > Edit Transform.
  2. Ensure the size is multiplied by a whole number (e.g., 2x, 3x, 4x) rather than an arbitrary stretch, which prevents pixel distortion.
  3. Combine this with the Point scale filtering mentioned above to keep the scaled pixels perfectly square.

Configure High-Quality Encoder Settings

Sharp pixel edges are highly susceptible to compression artifacts. Low bitrates will cause “color bleeding” and blockiness around individual pixels. Use these settings for the best quality: