How to monitor your FiveM players live without losing FPS

The problem with traditional solutions

Many ways to "watch player screens" on FiveM rely on capturing the image and relaying it through the server, or on external processes that record the screen. Both approaches have a cost: they either load the server with video traffic, or consume CPU and drop the player's FPS. When you have dozens of people connected, it shows.

How FiveMonitor does it: client-side capture

FiveMonitor flips the approach. Instead of processing video on the server, capture happens directly on each player's client. The resource accesses the game texture via WebGL inside FiveM's built-in browser (CEF) and encodes it to VP8 right there, on the player's machine.

Because all the capture and encoding work is done on the client and not on the server, the impact on your FXServer is 0%: your server doesn't encode, doesn't relay and doesn't store any video.

The stream doesn't go through your server

The key detail is that the video travels directly from the player's client to our backend, without passing through your FXServer. That means zero extra bandwidth consumed on your VPS and zero additional load on the server machine. Your server keeps dedicating all its resources to the game, not to monitoring.

Smart mode: thumbnail vs. live

To avoid wasting the player's bandwidth, FiveMonitor only streams live video when it's needed:

• Thumbnail mode (idle): when nobody is watching a player, their client only uploads an image every 10 seconds, roughly ~1 KB/s of upload. With 100 idle players, total consumption stays below 100 KB/s.
• Live mode (on demand): live video activates only when an admin opens that player's stream. At that point it rises to between 60 and 125 KB/s depending on the configured quality.

You control the player's bandwidth usage

From the panel you can adjust the resolution (up to 720p), the FPS (5 to 30) and the bitrate of the capture. A player at 360p and 15fps uses about 60 KB/s of upload; at 720p and 30fps, about 125 KB/s. You decide the balance between image quality and client bandwidth, based on your community's profile.

How to start monitoring live

1. Create your account on FiveMonitor and download the script preconfigured with your API Key.
2. Drop it into your FiveM server's resources folder and start it. No need to open ports or install external dependencies.
3. Open the monitor panel: you'll see a grid with all connected players and their thumbnails.
4. Click a player to open their live stream on demand and watch their screen in real time, with low latency.
5. Create sub-users for your moderation team if you want more people to supervise without exposing your configuration.

Combine it with playtime

Live monitoring is even more powerful alongside playtime tracking. While watching a player, you also see how many hours they've spent on your server. To enable that data, read our guides on how to track playtime and how to enable allow-fs-read for txAdmin.

Try it on your server

The best way to verify the 0% impact is to see it on your own server. Start your 7-day free trial with no card and monitor your players live in a matter of minutes. Check out our plans and pricing too.