So have been doing some elma speedruns on twitch.tv lately and as I have promised I am going to tell you a bit about the shit that's going on behind the scenes, like how to set up this shit and how to make autosplitter work etc. With current technology even this old game can be properly recorded, mostly thanks to ddraw.dll so let's get at it.
Why elma speedruns? Well, it's a nice challenge and it's not as much of a weird battle against a set limit of time like 1htt (die in apple harvest --> impossible to get all levels finished; instead just lose that 25sec). I really enjoyed speedruns so far as I may have mentioned like a thousand times on stream. It is also really motivating to play when others are watching and reacting in real time, with the possibility to even answer them while playing almost real time. Plus, no one needs to shuffle levels while spying. Also, it's also nice that you can also see the speedrun later, not only spy during it.
My stream setup is as follows: I run elma windowed at some random small resolution (960x720) because my computer can't handle more. I use OBS for streaming, it's an easy-to-use, freeware software that really makes it easy for anyone. I capture elma through window capture. My stream resolution is 1280x720 so that the elma screen fits into one side of the stream and the rest of the shit can be stuffed into the rest of the area, which currently inculdes Livesplit, which I use as my splitting program and NohBoard for the on-screen keyboard. Neither of the two last mentioned programs are actually required but at least a timer is really appreciated, NohBoard I just put there because people requested it. If you only want to do timer, you can put just a timer on the screen using a program called WSplit which is a way more simplified version of livesplit basically. In addition to what's shown on stream, i use Chatty to see twitch chat without having my browser on, it also lets me see the list of chatters all the time.
OBS stuff: First off, I don't recommend a bitrate higher than 2000-2500 if you want everyone to be able to watch the possible stream without lag (bad internets in russia etc). Secondly, make sure you don't overuse your cpu during streaming or recording, make sure to test your whole setup and cruise around for a while. OBS will have a red text saying "high cpu usage" in the bottom, that's when you want to tune down your encoding settings. Encoding really can take a lot of your cpu's capabilities. What to do if this happens? Well, the most efficient way to do this is to downscale your resoltion (Settings --> Video --> Resolution downscale). Another way to do it is to set your cpu preset higher, the higher the less it uses your cpu (Settings --> Advanced --> x264 CPU preset). Mine currently is at veryfast. Both of these ways will affect the quality of the video negatively but better that than huge lag. Also, you need to dig up the stream key from twitch or an alternative site you stream to, you can also locally record and publish the vidio on youtube.
Livesplit stuff: I share my split file, layout, autosplitter so you can easily set up livesplit. The Autosplitter was made by me and bene with assistance of a few guys from speedrunning tool discord channel. What you want to do is start livesplit, open the splits file, edit the split names if you want. You can edit the layout as you wish of course, it doesn't really matter but linked mine if someone wants it. There are cool things like graphs etc if you want that kinda stuff, couldn't fit one for my layout. Autosplitter is going to be added to the layout. Left click the livesplit window, click "edit layout", click the huge "+" --> "control" --> "scriptable autosplitter". After that you double click on the "Scriptable Auto Splitter" thingy and add the .asl file i linked. You should instantly have the "start" and the "split" tickboxes available. Keep them active to make them work, you can disable either if you don't want it to start automatically or split automatically for some reason. In any case, the autosplitter should work, the timer automatically starts when you enter warm up and every time you touch the flower it splits and you continue to the next segment. Menu times and flower waits are included in the splits, that's just how it is. I also recommend testing out how the splits work.
You also may want to make sure you have your manual split hotkeys in good position. If for some reason you want to cancel a split, split manually and especially reset the run, you want to know how to do that. I have them on numpad -, +, * etc so that i don't accidentally control the splitter during a run or so. You can also edit the way the autosplitter looks as a whole from that same menu, just double click on any of the parts in the layout and you will be able to do whatever you want basically. Another thing that you may want to pay attention is what you are comparing to (right clicking on livesplit --> compare against, alternatively you can set a hotkey to change it). It is way easier to know if your run is shit or great if you compare against either your pr, your best splits, your average or whatever you perfer. I usually compare against my pr because the splits vary so much, a death on any level will push the average of some splits too far from a sensible comparison.
Remember that you can always reset your run but it will be really exhausting if you try to do all the levels perfectly straight away. Losing that 10 seconds on missing the first apple on over and under may feel like a hit in your butt but if you lose 3 minutes on lab pro it really matters way more. I don't recommend starting a reset fiesta from the beginning, it also eats your ability to perform at your best if you get stuck into resetting few levels in.
I play elma with my fps limiter set to 200 during the speedruns, because it helps me with levels like shelf life, freefall, etc. I'm not certain it's better overall, it could even have a negative effect on the run but in any case i will always have some lag when streaming so why make sure i'll get through that shelf hole. You can choose whichever fps amount you want or are able to use, it doesn't really matter in the long run. But remember, if you practise the run, practise with whatever setup you are gonna play with. Just use the "preview stream" or so and have all the lag you are gonna have when you do it if you have to suffer from any. Also remember that any time you die you are going to lose that much time. That's why you don't want to try something really hard that you won't be able to do often, you mostly want to do the hardest tricks in the run 80% of time or more unless you want to aim for a really good run. I have to point out that you are NOT supposed to try to make wr or shit on your first runs or maybe ever. Just try to enjoy the stuff and maybe beat your own expectations, withtout getting too angry at not being able to beat your best friend or so. I have already set quite a tough basetime, but don't let that let you down.
I think that's it, thanks to bene for helping with this post. If there are any questions, just contact me on irc, discord, whatever floats your boat osv.
Resources:
Splits
Livesplit Layout
Autosplitter
bye.
I guess we need other verification other than rec to ensure non tas
Didn't know it would fix the blue flashes 
Gonna go for some safe strats in a speedrun anyway so I expect time like 80 minutes 
