A computer-implemented method for determining encoder settings, comprising the steps of: recording one or more playthroughs in a game environment, each playthrough comprising a plurality of video frames and a player location for each frame, wherein the player location is represented in a map and wherein the map is segmented by a grid into cells; sorting a plurality of frames from the one or more playthroughs into a plurality of cells on a heatmap by player location, each cell in the heatmap corresponding to a cell of the map, wherein said sorting results in a list of sorted frames associated with the heatmap; collecting the list of sorted frames at a renderer; for each cell in the heatmap, encoding a collection of frames belonging to the cell from the list of sorted frames to calculate an average encoded frame size for the cell; calculating an average frame size for the heatmap from the average encoded frame size of each cell in the heatmap, determining, for each cell in the heatmap, an associated per-cell encoder quality setting by re-encoding one or more frames from the list of sorted frames to generate an average encoded frame size for the cell of a size comparable to the average frame size for the heatmap; normalizing the per-cell encoder quality settings using a map-wide average encoder quality setting to generate per-cell normalized encoder quality settings; storing, at the renderer, the per-cell normalized encoder quality settings in the heatmap, and during gameplay subsequent to the playthroughs: selecting a per-cell normalized encoder quality setting from a cell of the heatmap corresponding to a current player location; and transmitting the selected per-cell normalized encoder quality setting to an encoder in order to override encoder-selected settings. recording one or more playthroughs in a game environment, each playthrough comprising a plurality of video frames and a player location for each frame, wherein the player location is represented in a map and wherein the map is segmented by a grid into cells; sorting a plurality of frames from the one or more playthroughs into a plurality of cells on a heatmap by player location, each cell in the heatmap corresponding to a cell of the map, wherein said sorting results in a list of sorted frames associated with the heatmap; collecting the list of sorted frames at a renderer; for each cell in the heatmap, encoding a collection of frames belonging to the cell from the list of sorted frames to calculate an average encoded frame size for the cell; calculating an average frame size for the heatmap from the average encoded frame size of each cell in the heatmap, determining, for each cell in the heatmap, an associated per-cell encoder quality setting by re-encoding one or more frames from the list of sorted frames to generate an average encoded frame size for the cell of a size comparable to the average frame size for the heatmap; normalizing the per-cell encoder quality settings using a map-wide average encoder quality setting to generate per-cell normalized encoder quality settings; storing, at the renderer, the per-cell normalized encoder quality settings in the heatmap, and during gameplay subsequent to the playthroughs: selecting a per-cell normalized encoder quality setting from a cell of the heatmap corresponding to a current player location; and transmitting the selected per-cell normalized encoder quality setting to an encoder in order to override encoder-selected settings. selecting a per-cell normalized encoder quality setting from a cell of the heatmap corresponding to a current player location; and transmitting the selected per-cell normalized encoder quality setting to an encoder in order to override encoder-selected settings. <EOS>