Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 in 4K UHD: The Journey Begins

​January 2026 will mark the launch of our Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 series on YouTube, and it’s set to be one of our most ambitious undertakings yet. Every episode will be presented in 4K UHD, capturing every detail of Bohemia’s medieval world—from the subtle flicker of sunlight on armor to the dynamic weather and environmental effects.

​Behind this polished final product lies hundreds of hours of production work, meticulous planning, and careful management of massive digital files.

Recording in 4K UHD with Nvidia ShadowPlay

​The journey begins with recording gameplay, which runs approximately 1 hour and 31 minutes per episode. We use Nvidia ShadowPlay for game capture, which allows:

• High-quality 4K UHD capture with minimal performance impact.
• Instant replay and manual capture options, ensuring no gameplay moments are lost.
• Efficient handling of large files, though raw files still range from 50–70 GB per episode.

​Simultaneously, we capture microphone audio tracks for commentary using a high-quality condenser mic. This separate audio track allows:

• Clean voice capture without background noise from the game.
• Independent processing during editing, so volume, compression, and EQ can be adjusted precisely.
• Dynamic mixing with in-game audio for a balanced, immersive listening experience.

​Each session requires careful monitoring of both the game and microphone tracks to avoid clipping, interference, or dropped audio

Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro

​Once recording wraps, the editing phase begins using Adobe Premiere Pro, which handles multiple 4K UHD video and audio tracks efficiently. Editing takes roughly 45 minutes per episode and involves:

• Video trimming and sequencing – Removing downtime, smoothing transitions, and structuring gameplay into a coherent narrative.
• Audio mastering for the microphone track – Applying a multiband compressor with the Broadcast preset at -2 dB specifically to the mic track, ensuring consistent levels across the series and blending it perfectly with in-game sounds.
• Balancing audio tracks – Microphone commentary is carefully mixed with game audio, music, and sound effects to maintain immersion.
• Branding overlays – Adding logos, captions, and other visual elements consistent with WhiteWolves Gaming Studios’ style.

​High-performance hardware—fast CPU, GPU, and SSD storage—is essential for smooth editing of multiple 4K video and audio tracks.

Encoding with Adobe Media Encoder

​After editing, we encode the final product in Adobe Media Encoder:

• Duration – Roughly 2 hours per episode for 1 hour 31 minutes of gameplay.
• Compression without loss – Ensures both video and microphone audio remain high fidelity while producing a file size suitable for YouTube.
• System load – Encoding fully utilizes CPU and GPU resources; stability is critical.
• Verification – Ensuring video and audio, including the mic track, remain perfectly synchronized and free of artifacts.

Encoding is not simply “shrinking a file”—it’s about preserving every pixel, every frame, and every sound nuance captured during recording.

Uploading and YouTube Processing

Even after encoding, the workflow continues:

• File size – Each episode is roughly 28 - 35 GB.
• Upload duration – Can take hours depending on internet speed, followed by YouTube processing before 4K is available.
• Scheduling – Uploads are carefully timed to ensure each episode is live on schedule.

Thumbnail Creation with Canva, Bing Image Creator, and ChatGPT

​Thumbnail design is an essential part of attracting viewers. Each episode requires roughly 30 minutes of focused effort to create visually striking, branded images:

• Design tools – We use Canva for layout and text styling, Bing Image Creator for AI-generated visuals, and ChatGPT for concept ideas and copy suggestions.
• Consistency – Every thumbnail aligns with WhiteWolves Gaming Studios’ branding while highlighting key moments of the episode.
• Optimization – Thumbnails are tested for clarity, contrast, and impact at small sizes to maximize click-through rates.

This combination of tools ensures thumbnails are both professional and attention-grabbing.

Storage with Synology 30TB NAS + 2TB NVMe SSD

​Storing 4K UHD footage and audio tracks is a major technical challenge. A single episode is 58 GB, so a 20-episode run results in roughly 1,160 GB (≈1.16 TB) of raw footage. Add in project files, renders, thumbnails, and mic audio backups, and total storage requirements approach ~1.3 TB.
We rely on a Synology 30TB NAS, which includes a 2TB NVMe SSD cache drive to speed up read/write operations. This setup provides:

• Fast access for editing, encoding, and rendering large 4K files.
• Reliable, centralized storage for raw and processed video/audio files.
• Redundancy and data protection to safeguard months of production work.

The NVMe SSD cache ensures that large file transfers and editing tasks are smooth, minimizing delays that would otherwise occur when working with massive 4K UHD files.

The Series at Full Scale

​The series will run 20–30 episodes, each requiring 6–7 hours of production work. This totals over 150 hours before the series is complete, in addition to managing terabytes of storage, uploads, and backups.

Why Go This Far?

​Because quality matters. Capturing clean microphone audio, editing it with professional multiband compression, encoding with Adobe Media Encoder, and producing high-quality thumbnails with Canva, Bing Image Creator, and ChatGPT ensures viewers experience Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 in full cinematic fidelity.
When January 2026 arrives, the audience will experience crystal-clear 4K UHD visuals and pristine commentary, fully immersed in Bohemia’s medieval world.

Looking Ahead: 8K Experiments

​While 4K UHD remains our standard, we’re exploring 8K recording and encoding for select experimental projects. These trials will push visual fidelity further while keeping 4K as the reliable format for the main series.
Every step—from Nvidia ShadowPlay recording, microphone capture, Adobe Premiere Pro editing with multiband compression, Adobe Media Encoder encoding, Canva/Bing/ChatGPT thumbnail creation, to Synology NAS storage with 2TB NVMe SSD and YouTube uploads—represents the blood, sweat, and tears of production work.