When starting out streaming on Twitch it can be daunting to know how to get everything you need set up.
We have set up our streaming using the OBS software that can be added in the Steam gaming client, or downloaded directly from https://obsproject.com/download.
The basics needed for setting up OBS require adding a scene and choosing a name for it. This name will be used to describe the layout and should refer to the way you intend to use that scene.
Some examples of scene uses are when you are just chatting and only want the camera and chat being displayed.
If you are showing your gameplay on screen, then your main screen will show the game being captured, with an area for the video and chat to the sides. This setup will be in a different scene so it is easy to toggle between setups.
You can also create scenes that show you will be starting soon, brb or any other type of scenes that you can think of.
Some streamers will only show the game they are playing and not worry about including a video of themselves or the chat. If this is the case, the only sources you need to add to the scene is the device capture and a microphone source.
You can edit and adjust the sources by double clicking them, or by right clicking and selecting properties.
This can all be done from OBS without needing any third-party provider software or other imported overlays.
If you want to improve the look of your stream, it can be fairly easy to use existing overlays that other people have already designed for streaming purposes.
OBS Studio does not directly provide the facilities to show the stream chat in your stream. If this is something you want to include, then selecting a third-party alert provider will be the way to go.
Our quick search online showed a couple of main choices of third-party providers to use for adding overlays and chat to your stream.
Streamlabs and StreamElements appeared at the top of the list.
Steamlabs is software that you download to use. It can be used for multistreaming on different platforms, while StreamElements does not allow multistreaming, it is cloud based which uses less of your computers CPU.
The implementation of Streamlabs is said to be easier, while StreamElements offers more customisation and creative control.
A more comprehensive comparison between these two can be found at https://castr.com/blog/streamlabs-vs-streamelements/.
We have chosen to set up our streaming with StreamElements.
This was in part due to it using less CPU, while it also gave us something more advanced to learn and customise.
At the end of the day, if you pick one and do not like it then it is easy to change and implement the other option.
As they can both be used for free, the only real cost is the time used in setting up and connecting the different apps to Twitch and learning how they operate.
Once you have chosen a provider, you will then be able to select an overlay to use.
The screen size to use when entering the overlay into OBS will usually be;
Width of 1920 and Height of 1080.
There is an option to select the checkbox “Shutdown source when not visible”.
Selecting this reduces the required computer resources. The drawback from this is it requires a short transition until it loads again when you are moving between scenes.
If you are displaying the chat on stream with this checked, then all the prior comments will stop showing on stream once you change scenes.
When the overlay is in place, you can add the display capture to show your screen.
If you are using a camera to record yourself, you will add the video capture device and move it to the section of the overlay that is made for the video.
You will then want to order the different sources to tidy up the layout by moving the overlay theme to the top. This is done by right clicking on the source name, selecting Order and Move to Top (Ctrl + Home).
Don’t forget to also add the microphone into the scene source so people watching Twitch can hear you!
Please leave a comment below if you found this helpful or if you feel we can add more information to make the process easier to follow.
If you want to follow a step-by-step guide for creating a brb screen in OBS, then this is a handy guide here. These steps can also be used to create other scenes in OBS as mentioned earlier.
https://obsproject.com/kb/stream-tutorial-3-brb
Here is a very handy youtube tutorial on how to import a StreamElements overlay into OBS, which is less than 2m30 secs! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEyZRzb_2E
A short, simple and easy to follow tutorial on how you can get your chat showing on your stream channel in under 5mins! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcrnZLamDiE
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.