What you can do is set up the Chat Box widget on streamlabs.com, then take the URL it generates for you and add it as a Browser Source to OBS. No need to switch from OBS to Streamlabs OBS just for that one feature if you're already set up on it.
To be clear, you'd still be using the Streamlabs service, but you wouldn't be downloading their particular fork of OBS, which also includes hooks into their store and Premium services. Some people don't like having that stuff running at the same time they're streaming.
Streamelements has something similar too. I have even seen people pop out the chat box on twitch and use it's URL as a browser source and cut the bottom part.
Hey again GWJ streamers!
I did a test stream this morning and felt reasonably comfortable with how things went. There was a big oversight though: I don't have a chat overlay in my scene. So while I was interacting with my buddy via the OBS chat window and on-stream, none of that was actually visible. What is the easiest, quickest way to integrate a Twitch chat panel display source?
Thank you.
I actually don't have a chat overlay because I want as much of the game shown as possible. When replying to someone I try to repeat what they said and then respond to it.
That said Streamlabs is a great one. I use Restream chat my own self (since I multistream) and it has an overlay for OBS as well.
So if I was looking to livestream an improv/variety show in a few months, what's a good platform? Twitch I know decently well, but that seems like it's either limited to gaming or to people primarily known for gaming. YouTube is the king of prerecorded video and has streaming but whenever I see things simulcast on there and somewhere else, there's only a small fraction of the audience on YT. I stream my church service on Facebook every week and I don't much care for it, but the church already had a presence there. I have very little awareness or knowledge of any other platforms, but I can learn if there's a good reason to.
I do want a decent chat setup for audience suggestions and such.
It sounds like you're already familiar with and have a presence on Facebook, so I'd honestly suggest that. You can tie it into their event system and everything too I think.
Real quick is there a reason why the gameplay capture appears super zoomed in in OBS preview? And in the final video recording...
You can resize game capture and other elements like you might resize layers in Photoshop or other image editors. It's possible you have the capture layer larger than the set "screen", I suppose. Or the resolution of the game is larger than the resolution of the stream and you gotta size it down.
Real quick is there a reason why the gameplay capture appears super zoomed in in OBS preview? And in the final video recording...
Right click that element, then transform, then fit to screen. Should do it.
Big thanks everyone! I right clicked into the Transform menu and found the Fit to Screen option. Phew!
Did my first gameplay-with-webcam stream last night. Just a pilot episode for an hour but overall turned out well enough.
The stream newbie is back…
My stream died after 30 minutes. When watching the archive video I could see a disturbing amount of stutters and drops from both the gameplay and my webcam feed. As things were going south the Twitch stream manager recommended changing to low latency mode which I had already done.
My PC is very capable so wonder if it’s an issue of being on Wi Fi, not being on good enough internet or having a single PC streaming setup. My talk show/podcasts streams have largely been trouble free.
so wonder if it’s an issue of being on Wi Fi
This could be the case. If you go to someplace like speedtest.net, what are the upload speeds reporting?
Hey ccesarano:
Hrm, that upload should be more than enough. It's the download that's surprisingly low. What bitrate do you have Streamlabs set to?
The stream newbie is back…
My stream died after 30 minutes. When watching the archive video I could see a disturbing amount of stutters and drops from both the gameplay and my webcam feed. As things were going south the Twitch stream manager recommended changing to low latency mode which I had already done.
My PC is very capable so wonder if it’s an issue of being on Wi Fi, not being on good enough internet or having a single PC streaming setup. My talk show/podcasts streams have largely been trouble free.
This can be so hard to suss out. I'm wired and for a while was getting all kinds of drops and shit. Having my provider come out to tweak things helped, as did tweaking OBS and my router, and turning off anything before a stream that used bandwidth, like Dropbox and shit, but in the end Restream provided me with a tiny program that fixed everything.
I should say wifi isn't great for streaming, so if you can somehow get wired that'll likely help a lot. Keep tweaking though. Tweaking is part of the journey.
OH, one thing that helped me a lot was using OBS' auto config wizard, then uploading my latest log file and asking for help in the OBS Discord. Got some great tips there.
Hey again. Here's what I get from the Stream section of the OBS Studio settings menu:
Max video bitrate: 6000 kbps
Max audio bitrate: 320 kbps
@Veloxi: Thanks for that. How do you get the log file from the auto config wizard? I re-ran it and grabbed a screenshot of the results window before applying:
Just joined the OBS community discord. Need to do some digging because it is really bothering me!
EDIT: Oh, what's the Restream tool you referenced? I have an account with them but haven't really done anything with it yet. Figured multi-streaming is in my future but I need to learn how to walk before running.
Help -> Log Files -> Upload Current Log File will upload a log file and give you a URL for it, which you can then paste into both the Discord channel and this Log Analyzer:
https://obsproject.com/tools/analyzer
Which is SUPER helpful in narrowing down problems.
Also the Restream thing is called an amplifier and it's still in alpha, so I think you'd have to contact them directly for it. They only sent it to me because I kept Female Doggoing and moaning about drops. Using that thing fixed it, proving it was pretty much entirely on their end. It's so stable now I was using it when I was solely streaming to Twitch too. Now that I multi-stream I've come to rely on it even more.
Wi-fi is generally an unstable connection. While a speedtest will tell you how you are doing at a particular instance, if someone microwaves some food, or a dryer turns on it can cause packet loss. Also, you are using 4-6Mbps upload just for the stream. If you are on voice, someone is watching Netflix, playing an online game, it will take some of that upload away from you, so 8Mbps might not be enough.
If you want to rule out your PC, record using the same settings instead of stream. If your PC has a hard time, it will show up in the recording as well.
Edit: Looking at your latest stream, the webcam issue is unrelated to network connectivity. If it is a USB camera, maybe try plugging it into another USB port (don't use a hub)?
Thanks for checking out my stream, kazar, doubly so for helping to investigate the problem! I like your suggestion about testing things out in a local recording & will give that a shot.
I ran the log as Veloxi suggested and came back with this:
Eeep, that's a lot of dropped frames. I've already taken care of updating OBS. The next thing I'm exploring is the recording test.
Thanks to Veloxi for dropping by the stream last night. What a treat! +1 for the follow as well. I also noticed a SeanBeanland began following my channel yesterday. Forgive me if I don't recognize you and you're from the GWJ community...but: thanks!
Going ethernet direct into my streaming PC solved the frame dropping and instability issues. Things now seem silky smooth for the most part. Now I don't think I'll start streaming something like Apex Legends and expect the same results but for less network-intensive stuff like Inquisitor Martyr this will do just fine.
I'm now trying to troubleshoot some OBS issue with the Game Capture source in that the game won't appear in the OBS preview nor in the actual recording or stream output unless I am focused on the game itself. Tabbing back to OBS will either result in a black screen or seizure-inducing flickering between the game footage and pure black.
Are you telling game capture to capture any fullscreen application, or are you telling it to capture the game window directly? Some games, the fullscreen thing doesn't pick it up, but specifying it to OBS does.
If that doesn't work try window capture. If THAT doesn't work, display capture is your last resort.
Usually if game capture doesn't get it, window capture will. Thankfully. Display capture is the worst.
Are you telling game capture to capture any fullscreen application, or are you telling it to capture the game window directly? Some games, the fullscreen thing doesn't pick it up, but specifying it to OBS does.
If that doesn't work try window capture. If THAT doesn't work, display capture is your last resort.
Usually if game capture doesn't get it, window capture will. Thankfully. Display capture is the worst.
Yup, this is the Game Capture source type in OBS Studio, on the default settings:
This bug appears to have popped up after the latest OBS update. My previous gameplay streams of Synthetik and Ninja Gaiden Sigma did not run into this issue. I can try designating the specific window to capture in the dropdown menu as you suggested. Or I'll give windows capture a try and let you know how it goes. Thanks!
I always do Game Capture and I specify the application. The downside is that you need to start the game before you select the drop-down. Unless there's some trick I missed (in Streamlabs at least, which is built off of OBS), if you open a game after you open the drop-down, the list won't update. It caches or something for some reason.
If that happens I have Window Capture as a back-up, but still specify the game, which ought to be running full-screen.
Thanks to Veloxi for dropping by the stream last night. What a treat! +1 for the follow as well. I also noticed a SeanBeanland began following my channel yesterday. Forgive me if I don't recognize you and you're from the GWJ community...but: thanks!
Yeah, that was me 
I’ve noticed different games behave differently with game capture, especially if they play separate videos or aren’t really designed to play in windowed mode (which I prefer for streaming). Most modern games do okay with it, but anything more than five years old and it’s a toss up as to whether or not I’ll have to work around any jankiness. This is with SLOBS.
Thanks for the suggestions, all. Game Capture + Inquisitor Martyr in OBS continues to be a bit jank. Luckily it is workaround-able jank that I'll live with for the short term.
Veloxi wrote:Are you telling game capture to capture any fullscreen application, or are you telling it to capture the game window directly? Some games, the fullscreen thing doesn't pick it up, but specifying it to OBS does.
If that doesn't work try window capture. If THAT doesn't work, display capture is your last resort.
Usually if game capture doesn't get it, window capture will. Thankfully. Display capture is the worst.
Yup, this is the Game Capture source type in OBS Studio, on the default settings:
This bug appears to have popped up after the latest OBS update. My previous gameplay streams of Synthetik and Ninja Gaiden Sigma did not run into this issue. I can try designating the specific window to capture in the dropdown menu as you suggested. Or I'll give windows capture a try and let you know how it goes. Thanks!
Okay try specifying the window next, then game capture. If you still have problems, output a current log (from the help menu) and ask on their discord. They are VERY good at responding.
Thanks for the suggestions, all. Game Capture + Inquisitor Martyr in OBS continues to be a bit jank. Luckily it is workaround-able jank that I'll live with for the short term.
Gah, just saw this. Never really had a problem capturing Inquisitor. Have you run OBS' auto-config wizard before?
Usually if game capture doesn't get it, window capture will. Thankfully. Display capture is the worst.
HARD disagree. I've been using "display capture" consistently for years now and it's the only setting I don't have to fiddle with every time I play a different game. Yes, it will pick up EVERYTHING, so you have to ensure you don't have notifications or anything else pinging annoyingly, but it does the trick, and records everything flawlessly. And I don't have to have the game launched, which leaves some runtime for the intro. Granted, this also works because I have two monitors, but I feel like a lot of people do now, maybe? And it's really, really handy for streaming.
Veloxi wrote:Usually if game capture doesn't get it, window capture will. Thankfully. Display capture is the worst.
HARD disagree. I've been using "display capture" consistently for years now and it's the only setting I don't have to fiddle with every time I play a different game. Yes, it will pick up EVERYTHING, so you have to ensure you don't have notifications or anything else pinging annoyingly, but it does the trick, and records everything flawlessly. And I don't have to have the game launched, which leaves some runtime for the intro. Granted, this also works because I have two monitors, but I feel like a lot of people do now, maybe? And it's really, really handy for streaming.
Hey if it works for you that's great, but Display Capture is the least efficient way OBS uses to capture anything, resulting in more GPU, RAM and CPU usage than Game Capture. It's why the OBS people recommend it only when the other two methods fail.
Maclintok wrote:Thanks for the suggestions, all. Game Capture + Inquisitor Martyr in OBS continues to be a bit jank. Luckily it is workaround-able jank that I'll live with for the short term.
Gah, just saw this. Never really had a problem capturing Inquisitor. Have you run OBS' auto-config wizard before?
Hey no worries. To answer, yes I have run the OBS auto-config wizard a number of times now. Prioritized for streaming and all that jazz. I'll experiment with some other games. Thinking I may do an unscheduled one mid-week so we'll see how it goes.
Overall my switch to gameplay has been enjoyable. There's definitely that thing of killing two birds with one stone, where I'm carving out time to play some games while learning new multimedia skills along the way. I tried out the podcast format for 9 episodes and it started to feel too much like work preparing material in advance. Also no co-hosts or an established audience to interact with really makes it hard to keep a running commentary going. I'd love to be in a position to take another crack at it but from a different angle next time.
Here's a question: anyone play a game that inexplicably has a ton of frame drops, even at moments or for games that aren't very system intensive? And if you have, do you remember if that game had Denuvo?
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