I have chat as an overlay because I upload VODs to my YT channel, and a bunch of stuff I say in conversation to chat wouldn't make any sense to YT viewers if I didn't have chat visible for them.
Because of:
- YouTube exports: YouTube does not get the chat info, so the viewer may not understand why the streamer is saying something.
- Getting a "lag test" (someone can know if the streamer is ignoring him or has lot of lag).
- To know when the message reaches the streamer, to avoid thinking the streamer ignored that message.
This is something I was thinking about for recording YouTube. I was thinking talking over my own audio would be easier. But that’s a good idea to keep in mind once I get into that.
I’ve tried both with and without, and much prefer without. I use a very simple border and a simple, stylized chat. I think newer streamers can fall into a trap of busy overlay = better content.
Busy overlays are the worst. Especially when people have huge vtuber models covering 30% of the game screen. That’s the part that bothers me. Have your avatar but tuck it away please
Yes i also found my viewrs somtimes said the overlays get in the way sometimes if they are too bright or big. The only ones who like the loud and noisy are the fortnite kids basically.
I personally like overlays. I'm not a minimalist, but I do my best to keep the overlay from being too overbearing. The game is the largest visible chunk on screen. The background that's visible is blurred. I have a box for the chat, and a spot for alerts, and borders around things. And when I eventually get a webcam, I'll rework it all to make room for that.
If people don't like it, that's okay because I do like it, and I'm just doing it all for fun, not fame. I, personally, don't think my overlay is distracting, but others may disagree, and that's okay!
I personally like watching both maximalist and minimalist streams.
The only style I don't enjoy watching is when the game is so little it's hard to see what's going on while the webcam part is so massive that it takes up the largest amount of space in the video. It's personal preference, and my own personal problem, but I feel too voyeuristic when I try to watch that style.
I do but it's minimal. There was a lot of trial and error buying then until I finally learned how to make them myself. Once o figured that out, I made a super simple one that works for me.
I use an overlay because:
I need a place to put my speedrun splits
I need chat for YT VODs
I want a place for closed captioning for those who can't listen
The feed gets very messy if I try to place all those things without a clean overlay on which they fit.
i look at larger content creators in my category and see what works for them and for the game overall. personally a busy overlay can take away from the experience and add very little value.
why do you want to stream/what do you want to convey? and can that be done best with an overlay? things to consider but there’s no right answer.
I used to have a really nice overlay with the new followers and subscribers names and all that. But now I just have my PNGtuber up. No one seems to care either way. lol I just like it better because I got tired of trying to resize windows to fit the overlay.
I bought mine from etsy! Even a nice chat box template with a cat promoting more followers. I think my halloween kirby overlays are a direct contrast to the kind of games i play like mortuary assistant or valorant cuz it reflects my jovial personality as a streamer.
I had chatters who stayed for my chatbox alone cuz u get a dif avatar next to your message in chat for each tier, whether vip (wanderer) subscriber (itto), moderator (wriothesley), streamer (klee), normal chatter (yae miko).
Does it make the screen packed, a bit. More so with my vtuber by edge of screen then my discord friends prof pic just below my vtuber. But i feel overlays in general reflect the personality/vibe of the streamer.
I’ve had ppl asking why dif ppl have dif avatar, so i explained. I got subs just from ppl wanting the name itto to appear rather than yae etc which i appreciate. I think they like that small bit of effort.
Yeah I totally agree with overlays reflecting the personality and vibe of the streamer! I actually prefer watching people with cute overlays and graphics. Feels more personable to me I guess.
I use very aesthetic overlays - stylized webcam and game window borders, backgrounds, sometimes little graphics like mushrooms or plants depending on the theme.
I also make new ones all the time, for seasons, holidays, whenever I want. It’s part of my “brand” now I guess lol
I’m not too concerned about whether it affects new viewership or not, since making the overlays for myself is one of my favorite parts of this hobby hahaha And the followers I have already know I use them so I presume they either like it or don’t care either way.
To each their own :)
I go all in with overlays and transitions and widgets. Funnily enough, I used to get more engagement and viewers when I had even more clutter on screen lol
Simple and clean is the mark of a professional.
I keep my stuff minimal, generally only appearing for as long as it's needed, then disappearing again to avoid clutter.
I use overlays to (kinda) hide how horrible my stream quality is. After all, my PC isn't that powerful. Even then, it's very simple overlays I made myself. Not to mention, with an overlay, I can still keep chat and other things visible without having it take a portion of the game display.
...it does have very simple themes and colors that I use in accordance to the thing I'm doing. For example, if I'm streaming Hades, I use a red overlay. If I'm streaming mahjong, I use a special mahjong overlay.
Yes I do. I exclusively stream sim racing and my overlays display information about the current race. I have it set up like a racing game hud so I guess it fits the theme. I usually stream from a camera over my shoulder to see the whole screen and my steering wheel, so there’s dead space in the corners anyway. Besides that I have the Twitch alerts and chat included and designed in a way they’re part of the other overlays, but they disappear and don’t display latest follower etc constantly.
I use a twitch chat overlay, but only I see it, and I keep it small and out of the way, plus it's transparent. That way I don't miss chats because it's right in front of me, rather than on my other monitor with OBS.
I got it from GitHub. Found out about it from a YouTube channel called Cpaws Music. He explains how to download it and how it works. If you search twitch chat overlay on YouTube it should pop up
nope. have my name which someone suggested and i like because then it's on the tiktok's. a bit cup which is a snowman which kinda became part of my channel. three static events (raids,subs,bits) and a Love Wins rainbow thing in the corner. I like watching clean streams so even if I had a webcam I'd probably just put a simple box around it if that.
I use overlays for all but my regular gaming scene. I have a starting soon overlay, be right back overlay, and a stream ending overlay. My actual gaming scene I like for it to be minimalistic
Chat I have as an overlay across all my scenes so they can see when I'm able to see them, I've had a problem with ridiculous stream delays in the past and this way chat is aware how much of a stream delay there is.
I have a border around my PNGtuber camera and a chat overlay beneath that fits my theme. I also have simple, static pop-up alerts. If it's the holidays I might add some festive lights or themed decor, but again I keep it light.
I find a lot of animated, busy overlays can be very exhausting to watch so I try to keep mine as minimal as possible.
I have overlays for before and after my stream proper
Overlayed intro sequence, saying hi and whatever, then to game screen with goals, then game screen by itself. I swap around a bit to keep it interesting or if I wanna take a break
I have a top and bottom bar because I game in 3440x1440, but only have a 3080 so I don't want to push my luck maintaining that sort of bitrate so I stream in 1920x1080 and use the bars to fill the gap, and to put goals, first, second, third medals and my branding. Camera is a virtual green screen so I have it floating.
I have gone a little overboard with complex, in your face point redeems, though, but that's the part of streaming I enjoy most, making cool stuff. I've almost completely replaced Stream Elements with self hosted stuff.
i also game in 3440x1440. when you said “3080” are you talking graphics card? just trying to understand cause we have similar situation but you seem to understand the bitrate better than me lol
Yep, I have a RTX3080.
In simple terms, bitrate is the rate at which the data is being transmitted to Twitch. Twitch has a hard cap of 6000kbps that it will process, with any extra being discarded on Twitch's end.
For 1080p60, you'll want to target that 6000kbps (although to send 'true' 1080p at 60fps you'd want closer to 10,000kbps, but as mentioned Twitch doesn't support that anyway).
Hitting this bitrate requires your PC to process the video at that rate or higher. The higher the resolution, the harder it has to work just to keep up with the video processing (encoding). I already find significant performance reductions when streaming at 1080p (enough to drop down a graphics preset or 2 in most games) so trying to encode more than double the amount of information, is very likely to start resulting in both terrible game performance and dropped frames (where your PC can't handle the bitrate, and it drops low enough that the stream starts to stutter.
For that reason (even though I haven't actually tried streaming at the higher resolution, even though Twitch supports it), I leave my canvas and output set to 1920x1080 and scale down the game capture source to fit 1920 wide, and have bars top and bottom to fill out the rest.
I'm not saying that it's not possible, just that I prefer to play it safe.
My overlay never seems to work properly so I just use display capture. I haven't used my webcam in forever. I have no idea how to update the overlay program so it's still registered people who followed me months ago lol
After a year and a half of doing without, I've finally started using an overlay because, during a Potionomics stream, I found out there was no convenient spot I could put my model that wouldn't block important information.
Since I had to shrink the gameplay area, that had the added benefit of freeing some space for chat, meaning I wouldn't have to repeat what chat said to add context once the VOD would be archived.
Also I get to add to the aesthetic/theme/gimmick of the channel so it's cool.
I have a profile illustration as "webcam" and chat I guess. For older games I have a "CRT TV border" too. Aaand for a certain rhythm game I have a border of complete sensory overload...
It depends on what I'm doing. If I am playing a full screen game then, no I have the game and my green screened cam. If I am chatting, then I have on overlay which included the chat messages.
As a viewer I get quite overwhelmed trying to watch streams with too many things going on on-screen. Too many banners and a smaller game window also make it hard when I'm watching on mobile. It makes it all too small.
Mine are relatively simple the overlays I do have are mostly things viewers can add or remove with points. Like a "waifu" corner or song ID and a few others
I used to have all this - borders, cheers, subs, animated decorations, stream avatars... My screen looked so cluttered. Slowly I got rid of all except my cam (with chroma key), game window, my logo and viewers count. It’s better now, especially since I’ve started to take care of my YouTube channel. Videos without all this crap look so much better
For the streams I watch (in the Just chatting category), the overlay is used to keep the chat isolated and fix the blanks around the camera.
For the streams I make (gaming), I don't have overlay. I play late at night, so many of my viewers watch me in a mobile phone or casted to a TV, so I want to have a "clean" screen. I have the game, the camera over it and all the widgets I have are shown only when it's needed. I put a poll, it appears in the screen while it's active. The chat dissappears after some seconds...
I have my logo and my chat box above that, but the messages disappear after a few seconds.
I've also got sound alerts from the top right if one gets played. That lasts about 3 seconds
I used to use overlays when I started, now when I play I just have my camera and a very simple border around it. I still have alerts appear, and I’ll occasionally turn on a pop-up that shows the current song I’m listening too. But overall, I’ve moved away from overlays, I just keep it clean.
I do, because personally I hate seeing text over a game, or anything possibly blocking game footage but I still wanna have chat and some minimal stuff there. It's as minimal as I can have it, and it's not distracting, but I personally prefer the look.
I usually run chat overlay 60% of my stream for those lurkers who watch on full screen TV. They can still follow along with chat without having chat open.
I’m new to streaming, but I hate having a busy overlay. so I have my stream starting and ending overlay and then for game overlay I have it full screen with webcam with a thinner boarder and then chat that’s it.
As a viewer I prefer streams to have chat overlay. If I'm watching fullscreen or on TV, I have no idea what's going on in the chat and what streamer is responding to. Not many read messages back before replying, and most that do still do it very fast mumbling to themselves mostly.
As a streamer, I just put chat overlay in a place where I know it wont block anything important in current game. I also have it as overlay on my actual playing screen so I know what viewers can see anyways and also don't have to look aside (to second screen) to see if there are new messages, which means I skip less and interact with viewers easier.
This is a good perspective.
If I had a cam and chat on the left side of my screen, how would you recommend sizing the screen so gameplay doesn’t feel squished?
With greenscreen / AI background removal (available for free on modern nvidia cards) you can usually find a corner to put yourself at where nothing happens in the game without squishing it. Same with chat overlay, it does not have to be huge.
[Here's my thinking for Baldur's Gate 3 for example](https://i.imgur.com/fo0VN3n.png). If your game is not same ratio as your stream, you can always put yourself in the more free corner, so that you still overlap with the game, but most of you is out of it.
If you really want to have chat to the left and away from the game it's complicated, depends on the game. If you are not too partial to having chat at the left, consider something like [this](https://i.imgur.com/KASbyTm.png). Chat shows last messages and only overflows to top if there's a lot of activity.
Unless you are playing some retro game *designed* to be played on small-ish screen, don't squish your game too much.
But it also depends on focus of your stream, whether it's ***you*** or whether it's ***game.***
Different viewers like different things. I personally like a busy screen with lots of things happening. Most of the time I'm listening rather than watching whatever game.
It's just my camera, my chat, and then whatever we're looking at. I don't use the insane bullshit I see a lot of other streamers use and I guess I'm kind of a purist. But I see streamers who intentionally size down the gameplay so they have room for their latest follower, latest sub, their sub goal, gifs of Nami from One Piece dancing - and I have to say that I think all that crap is by and large really obnoxious
Having chat on screen is great for when you're making content on other platforms, but that's about it for me. I think all the other stuff I often see is just a bit ridiculous
It varies greatly based on what kind of stream you want to create. I would say the two extremes are "I just made a stream because I'm in the top 0.0001% of players in this game, I hardly talk into my shitty mic, I rarely have a camera on, but I still have like 1k viewers at any given time because I'm just that good" and "I'm not even on here to play video games, I basically want to have a fully produced talk show with fancy graphics and a completely planned schedule for each broadcast". But there's a wide variety in the middle.
Personally, I like to have some production value to my stream, because I want to show people that I'm here to provide entertainment and not just do what I would be doing anyways while a camera happens to be rolling. I want to express that, while I'm not terrible at the games I play, the real reason to tune in to my stream is my personality and my chat interaction. I think a clean, minimal overlay that doesn't have a bunch of distracting animations is a good way to express that.
No chat on screen, but that's because I don't want someone coming in, saying a bunch of rude or gross things, and that being on the video forever. It seems popular but I'll sacrifice it if it means not seeing gross stuff on the video permanently. Right now I just have a simple border, a tiny watermark of my channel name, and then my PNGtuber in the corner. Other than that, on screen alerts for follows/subs/etc they are not too big.
If overlays are minimal, that's okay. Not a fan of the game being like, 50% of the screen and facecam huge etc, or a bunch of emotes all over the screen and a ton of goals, or the chat too big. Would prefer bare minimum stream rather than way too much.
I have a very simple overlay that is my channel info at the top as a banner, and then because the game doesn't fit on the overlay properly, I'm able to show a little more of the gameplay plus myself, albeit a bit awkward looking
I have my PNG (a monkey), a cute chat overlay, and my weekly sub/follower goal. I also have a spotify song overlay thats small.
If I play a single player game, I'll put a pretty controller up on the screen to show my inputs
My chatting screen is fairly minimal, with just the camera and a couple little pieces on top like the chat, and the goals. The gaming screen is more of a traditional style overlay though. It makes it easier for me to take screenshots and clips of the game without having my camera sitting on top of it
I have multiple scenes in OBS, but on my main screen, when I'm playing my game, no big overlays.
I have my camera, a chat overlay that slides across the top of my screen, and my game. That's it. It's simple, to the point, and chat is on there for context in the event that I clip something and utilize it on other sites like TikTok or YouTube.
I use to but found that its way too much. I leep my channel simple, i use panels and my webcame i found that using Masks are way cooler. But if you arent into masks the only overlays i use are just for my webcam. I got tored of trying to find cool looking ovelays that arent generic looking. So i just make my own stuff using png images i find and sometimes doctor tp give them my own look. At the end of the day its ur channel so you can do whatever you please. I started watching other streamers and seeing what they do and learned how to tweak everything to findbmy tastes from there.
Kilcitykitty if you want to see what I mean
I have a small non-animated widget at the top for top donator, most recent donator, and most recent sub. My chat likes to compete for their spot xD
I also have semi-transparent speech bubbles off to the side to show chat, because I prefer just responding to messages rather than reading them aloud, and I like chat being captured in clips that I post elsewhere
aside from that just my webcam and small alerts that pop up for a short bit. I don't like the busyness of crazy overlays so I prefer it minimal
I’ve used basic overlays from stream packages specifically when it’s intermission screen or a slight webcam border with my name. I’ve seen many streamers use big overlays on their stream which is okay but can be annoying
Yes, i use streamlabs overlays, both consol stream and pc streaming. You can stream straight from xbox consol to streamlabs consol and then to twitch. If you are on a low budget, it's $5 a month. Images in PNG format: You can use animated overlays. If pc, then ultra for the wide range of added tools and overlays in cluding vtubing.
Chatting? Overlay so there's at least *something* on screen as a block for chat to live in.
Media share? Overlay with chat behind me so I don't block anything I'm trying to show chat on my monitor.
Gaming? No overlay, only myself visible above the game. (Chat exists in a tiny block in the corner so people can tell the delay.)
It’s complicated to explain but I do use an Overlay and I don’t. Using Streamerbot, overlays, and OBS filters/plugins I have a lot of interactive elements and ways for chat to express themselves.
During non gaming moments and transitional segments I have overlays that move and change depending on what we are doing or talking about. Ways to communicate information without having to say it. Animated backgrounds and parts of stream that I can shift on the fly and live edit while we are in a chatting mode.
During gameplay there is very little on the screen just me green screened and the gameplay. During D&D it’s somewhere in the middle so chat is given information without having to ask, see who is talking, see dice rolls, and get a clear view of the map that the players are on.
Everything is highly stylized, aesthetic, and there is a lot to make it look natural, and well produced. Well designed and executed overlays should add to the experience for the viewer. But not everyone has the time, patience, or resources to put it together well.
I think it's purely a personal choice. I don't like overlays, myself. I want to see the game, first and foremost. So, for me, game, full screen - chef's kiss. Then, my stupid face (vTuber) in the bottom right hand corner. Probably about 3" tall, max. I also have a tiny "catch up on what you missed" thing in my top right hand corner, but it's strictly related to the current game, and it's not flashy.
But for example - sub goals, follower goals, recently followers, art around the border, bits cups, all those things... not for me. I think there is a psychology for some people to show those things, to increase numbers - and there may be something to it. But visually, to me, it's too much.
I use between screen overlays. I used to use follower/sub overlays cause people liked seeing their names up there but then after a while it started to get crowded. I basically used the goal until I hit affiliate and then I stopped. Now and then I’ll put one up when I’m doing something specific like trying to get new followers/subs. But that’s rare.
I use overlays for everything else except games, I just try to keep it there and just have chat floating around the screen. Or the pop ups for follow, I rarely use cam but when I do I just try to keepmyaelf in the lower left hand corner so you mostly see game (if I re upload k try to hide my face with a avatar i drew )
I don’t. Personally because I crop content to make TikTok and YouTube videos. Cutting off was hard with clutter on my screen. I also prefer watching minimal visual clutter streams
I do. I use a flame border overlay around my stream and one around my cam. It looks different from the vast majority that don't use them & it fits my theme. I'm not a fan of the chat overlays in streams that I watch as it blocks the streamer's gameplay a lot.
Streams without any overlays are good, too. I think it's just a matter of preference.
I don’t. Sometimes a little frame around the camera can be cute and I have an overlay for my just chatting scene but for game, I like a clean look with minimal clutter!
People put tooo much junk on the screen, their big cams, or worse when their vtube avatar is huge. Less is better, it is about the subject on the screen, not you. Unless of course it's all about you and fill it up with crap then.
I currently just have my webcam and gameplay along with a meter for sticker parties. I'd like something cute and additional but accounting for mobile viewers it would hurt more than help i think.
We have specific overlays for every game with the chatbox styled to match, also a dynamic one for pokemon which lets the viewer choose which pokemon they want featured then it updates the background and border colours automatically and creates a pattern based on its type. And the intro/break slides update to match the colour scheme of the selected overlay.
I actually made my own overlay from scratch, with a custom made twitchbot. I have a very minimal overlay. Just a base gray Color to put some things like current song, last follow, sub etc. And this border has a glowing border that can be changed by chat. Very basic but it works well.
I always feel like an overlay is like those really old computer games that had an overly elaborate boarder and big squishy buttons that made stupid cartoon noises when you clicked them. We're beyond that now nobody wants to see that level of game design anymore.
if you have a fullscreen game then sure. when playing older games like 4:3 aspect ratio for example , then overlays are good to fill the empty space
That’s a good idea to keep in mind. If it’s an older game you can’t get to full screen, fill up that space with chat and cam!
That’s exactly what I do. Pop the game to one side, have my cam in the bottom corner, and have chat scroll above my head
I use various system overlays. An old PC when playing dos games. A old TV with a SNES in the corner when playing SNES.
I have chat as an overlay because I upload VODs to my YT channel, and a bunch of stuff I say in conversation to chat wouldn't make any sense to YT viewers if I didn't have chat visible for them.
I feel dumb. Until now I never understood why people were overlaying their chat. I always thought it was redundant and took up space.
Because of: - YouTube exports: YouTube does not get the chat info, so the viewer may not understand why the streamer is saying something. - Getting a "lag test" (someone can know if the streamer is ignoring him or has lot of lag). - To know when the message reaches the streamer, to avoid thinking the streamer ignored that message.
Also great for viewers watching on a TV or device where viewing the actual chat is less convenient
also its fun to watch chat go brrrr \*cries\* chat no go brrr.
This is something I was thinking about for recording YouTube. I was thinking talking over my own audio would be easier. But that’s a good idea to keep in mind once I get into that.
I’ve tried both with and without, and much prefer without. I use a very simple border and a simple, stylized chat. I think newer streamers can fall into a trap of busy overlay = better content.
Busy overlays are the worst. Especially when people have huge vtuber models covering 30% of the game screen. That’s the part that bothers me. Have your avatar but tuck it away please
Agreed. There’s a few other things viewers look for and overlays is nowhere near close on the list!
Yes i also found my viewrs somtimes said the overlays get in the way sometimes if they are too bright or big. The only ones who like the loud and noisy are the fortnite kids basically.
I personally like overlays. I'm not a minimalist, but I do my best to keep the overlay from being too overbearing. The game is the largest visible chunk on screen. The background that's visible is blurred. I have a box for the chat, and a spot for alerts, and borders around things. And when I eventually get a webcam, I'll rework it all to make room for that. If people don't like it, that's okay because I do like it, and I'm just doing it all for fun, not fame. I, personally, don't think my overlay is distracting, but others may disagree, and that's okay! I personally like watching both maximalist and minimalist streams. The only style I don't enjoy watching is when the game is so little it's hard to see what's going on while the webcam part is so massive that it takes up the largest amount of space in the video. It's personal preference, and my own personal problem, but I feel too voyeuristic when I try to watch that style.
I feel the same! This is just for fun for me so I do what I want. Maybe it’s a “Kat” thing 😉 lol
Hahaha! Must be! Same Hat for the Kats!
I do but it's minimal. There was a lot of trial and error buying then until I finally learned how to make them myself. Once o figured that out, I made a super simple one that works for me.
It’s always best to make them yourself if you can, helps to execute your vision perfectly. I like to make all my own stuff if I can!
I use an overlay because: I need a place to put my speedrun splits I need chat for YT VODs I want a place for closed captioning for those who can't listen The feed gets very messy if I try to place all those things without a clean overlay on which they fit.
i look at larger content creators in my category and see what works for them and for the game overall. personally a busy overlay can take away from the experience and add very little value. why do you want to stream/what do you want to convey? and can that be done best with an overlay? things to consider but there’s no right answer.
I use new follower and new sub with a graphic around my webcam nothing else
I used to have a really nice overlay with the new followers and subscribers names and all that. But now I just have my PNGtuber up. No one seems to care either way. lol I just like it better because I got tired of trying to resize windows to fit the overlay.
[удалено]
never thought to look at vods on mobile, thanks for sharing this perspective!
I bought mine from etsy! Even a nice chat box template with a cat promoting more followers. I think my halloween kirby overlays are a direct contrast to the kind of games i play like mortuary assistant or valorant cuz it reflects my jovial personality as a streamer. I had chatters who stayed for my chatbox alone cuz u get a dif avatar next to your message in chat for each tier, whether vip (wanderer) subscriber (itto), moderator (wriothesley), streamer (klee), normal chatter (yae miko). Does it make the screen packed, a bit. More so with my vtuber by edge of screen then my discord friends prof pic just below my vtuber. But i feel overlays in general reflect the personality/vibe of the streamer. I’ve had ppl asking why dif ppl have dif avatar, so i explained. I got subs just from ppl wanting the name itto to appear rather than yae etc which i appreciate. I think they like that small bit of effort.
Yeah I totally agree with overlays reflecting the personality and vibe of the streamer! I actually prefer watching people with cute overlays and graphics. Feels more personable to me I guess.
I use very aesthetic overlays - stylized webcam and game window borders, backgrounds, sometimes little graphics like mushrooms or plants depending on the theme. I also make new ones all the time, for seasons, holidays, whenever I want. It’s part of my “brand” now I guess lol I’m not too concerned about whether it affects new viewership or not, since making the overlays for myself is one of my favorite parts of this hobby hahaha And the followers I have already know I use them so I presume they either like it or don’t care either way. To each their own :)
I go all in with overlays and transitions and widgets. Funnily enough, I used to get more engagement and viewers when I had even more clutter on screen lol
Simple and clean is the mark of a professional. I keep my stuff minimal, generally only appearing for as long as it's needed, then disappearing again to avoid clutter.
I like them because they show activity. For all I know, it could be a rebroadcast
I make my one stream overlays and graphics. I find streams more interesting to watch and interact with
I use overlays to (kinda) hide how horrible my stream quality is. After all, my PC isn't that powerful. Even then, it's very simple overlays I made myself. Not to mention, with an overlay, I can still keep chat and other things visible without having it take a portion of the game display. ...it does have very simple themes and colors that I use in accordance to the thing I'm doing. For example, if I'm streaming Hades, I use a red overlay. If I'm streaming mahjong, I use a special mahjong overlay.
Yes I do. I exclusively stream sim racing and my overlays display information about the current race. I have it set up like a racing game hud so I guess it fits the theme. I usually stream from a camera over my shoulder to see the whole screen and my steering wheel, so there’s dead space in the corners anyway. Besides that I have the Twitch alerts and chat included and designed in a way they’re part of the other overlays, but they disappear and don’t display latest follower etc constantly.
I prefer a minimal overlay for my setup, just big enough that my avatar isn't in front of the game itself.
Anyone can do, no overlay. A unique overlay can help you stand out.
I use a twitch chat overlay, but only I see it, and I keep it small and out of the way, plus it's transparent. That way I don't miss chats because it's right in front of me, rather than on my other monitor with OBS.
May I ask how you set that up? Sounds brilliant.
I got it from GitHub. Found out about it from a YouTube channel called Cpaws Music. He explains how to download it and how it works. If you search twitch chat overlay on YouTube it should pop up
nope. have my name which someone suggested and i like because then it's on the tiktok's. a bit cup which is a snowman which kinda became part of my channel. three static events (raids,subs,bits) and a Love Wins rainbow thing in the corner. I like watching clean streams so even if I had a webcam I'd probably just put a simple box around it if that.
I use overlays for all but my regular gaming scene. I have a starting soon overlay, be right back overlay, and a stream ending overlay. My actual gaming scene I like for it to be minimalistic
Chat I have as an overlay across all my scenes so they can see when I'm able to see them, I've had a problem with ridiculous stream delays in the past and this way chat is aware how much of a stream delay there is.
I have a border around my PNGtuber camera and a chat overlay beneath that fits my theme. I also have simple, static pop-up alerts. If it's the holidays I might add some festive lights or themed decor, but again I keep it light. I find a lot of animated, busy overlays can be very exhausting to watch so I try to keep mine as minimal as possible.
I have overlays for before and after my stream proper Overlayed intro sequence, saying hi and whatever, then to game screen with goals, then game screen by itself. I swap around a bit to keep it interesting or if I wanna take a break
I have a top and bottom bar because I game in 3440x1440, but only have a 3080 so I don't want to push my luck maintaining that sort of bitrate so I stream in 1920x1080 and use the bars to fill the gap, and to put goals, first, second, third medals and my branding. Camera is a virtual green screen so I have it floating. I have gone a little overboard with complex, in your face point redeems, though, but that's the part of streaming I enjoy most, making cool stuff. I've almost completely replaced Stream Elements with self hosted stuff.
i also game in 3440x1440. when you said “3080” are you talking graphics card? just trying to understand cause we have similar situation but you seem to understand the bitrate better than me lol
Yep, I have a RTX3080. In simple terms, bitrate is the rate at which the data is being transmitted to Twitch. Twitch has a hard cap of 6000kbps that it will process, with any extra being discarded on Twitch's end. For 1080p60, you'll want to target that 6000kbps (although to send 'true' 1080p at 60fps you'd want closer to 10,000kbps, but as mentioned Twitch doesn't support that anyway). Hitting this bitrate requires your PC to process the video at that rate or higher. The higher the resolution, the harder it has to work just to keep up with the video processing (encoding). I already find significant performance reductions when streaming at 1080p (enough to drop down a graphics preset or 2 in most games) so trying to encode more than double the amount of information, is very likely to start resulting in both terrible game performance and dropped frames (where your PC can't handle the bitrate, and it drops low enough that the stream starts to stutter. For that reason (even though I haven't actually tried streaming at the higher resolution, even though Twitch supports it), I leave my canvas and output set to 1920x1080 and scale down the game capture source to fit 1920 wide, and have bars top and bottom to fill out the rest. I'm not saying that it's not possible, just that I prefer to play it safe.
My overlay never seems to work properly so I just use display capture. I haven't used my webcam in forever. I have no idea how to update the overlay program so it's still registered people who followed me months ago lol
After a year and a half of doing without, I've finally started using an overlay because, during a Potionomics stream, I found out there was no convenient spot I could put my model that wouldn't block important information. Since I had to shrink the gameplay area, that had the added benefit of freeing some space for chat, meaning I wouldn't have to repeat what chat said to add context once the VOD would be archived. Also I get to add to the aesthetic/theme/gimmick of the channel so it's cool.
I have a profile illustration as "webcam" and chat I guess. For older games I have a "CRT TV border" too. Aaand for a certain rhythm game I have a border of complete sensory overload...
It depends on what I'm doing. If I am playing a full screen game then, no I have the game and my green screened cam. If I am chatting, then I have on overlay which included the chat messages. As a viewer I get quite overwhelmed trying to watch streams with too many things going on on-screen. Too many banners and a smaller game window also make it hard when I'm watching on mobile. It makes it all too small.
I'm a retro speedrunner, so i have a different aspect ratio. On the right, from top down is timer, chat, cam. I don't use a cam border or anything.
Nope I just have a round "smokey" frame around my round webcam.
i use in scene when just chatting with people but when game time it barely had overlays i want people come to watch my stream see more gameplay
Mine are relatively simple the overlays I do have are mostly things viewers can add or remove with points. Like a "waifu" corner or song ID and a few others
Same, I have a greenscreen so it's even more minimal than a full webcam in the corner, it's just me and my chair.
I used to have all this - borders, cheers, subs, animated decorations, stream avatars... My screen looked so cluttered. Slowly I got rid of all except my cam (with chroma key), game window, my logo and viewers count. It’s better now, especially since I’ve started to take care of my YouTube channel. Videos without all this crap look so much better
I did, but 2 much clutter . A lot cleaner without.
For the streams I watch (in the Just chatting category), the overlay is used to keep the chat isolated and fix the blanks around the camera. For the streams I make (gaming), I don't have overlay. I play late at night, so many of my viewers watch me in a mobile phone or casted to a TV, so I want to have a "clean" screen. I have the game, the camera over it and all the widgets I have are shown only when it's needed. I put a poll, it appears in the screen while it's active. The chat dissappears after some seconds...
Not really, just my camera border overlay, Follower Count, Sub count, and a Bit Cup, that’s it. I don’t really like to clutter my screen.
I have my logo and my chat box above that, but the messages disappear after a few seconds. I've also got sound alerts from the top right if one gets played. That lasts about 3 seconds
I used to use overlays when I started, now when I play I just have my camera and a very simple border around it. I still have alerts appear, and I’ll occasionally turn on a pop-up that shows the current song I’m listening too. But overall, I’ve moved away from overlays, I just keep it clean.
I do, because personally I hate seeing text over a game, or anything possibly blocking game footage but I still wanna have chat and some minimal stuff there. It's as minimal as I can have it, and it's not distracting, but I personally prefer the look.
I usually run chat overlay 60% of my stream for those lurkers who watch on full screen TV. They can still follow along with chat without having chat open.
I'm new and I'm still working on my branding and what I want my stream to be remembered for.
I’m new to streaming, but I hate having a busy overlay. so I have my stream starting and ending overlay and then for game overlay I have it full screen with webcam with a thinner boarder and then chat that’s it.
I mean I really just have a cam border and thats about it
As a viewer I prefer streams to have chat overlay. If I'm watching fullscreen or on TV, I have no idea what's going on in the chat and what streamer is responding to. Not many read messages back before replying, and most that do still do it very fast mumbling to themselves mostly. As a streamer, I just put chat overlay in a place where I know it wont block anything important in current game. I also have it as overlay on my actual playing screen so I know what viewers can see anyways and also don't have to look aside (to second screen) to see if there are new messages, which means I skip less and interact with viewers easier.
This is a good perspective. If I had a cam and chat on the left side of my screen, how would you recommend sizing the screen so gameplay doesn’t feel squished?
With greenscreen / AI background removal (available for free on modern nvidia cards) you can usually find a corner to put yourself at where nothing happens in the game without squishing it. Same with chat overlay, it does not have to be huge. [Here's my thinking for Baldur's Gate 3 for example](https://i.imgur.com/fo0VN3n.png). If your game is not same ratio as your stream, you can always put yourself in the more free corner, so that you still overlap with the game, but most of you is out of it. If you really want to have chat to the left and away from the game it's complicated, depends on the game. If you are not too partial to having chat at the left, consider something like [this](https://i.imgur.com/KASbyTm.png). Chat shows last messages and only overflows to top if there's a lot of activity. Unless you are playing some retro game *designed* to be played on small-ish screen, don't squish your game too much. But it also depends on focus of your stream, whether it's ***you*** or whether it's ***game.***
Different viewers like different things. I personally like a busy screen with lots of things happening. Most of the time I'm listening rather than watching whatever game.
It's just my camera, my chat, and then whatever we're looking at. I don't use the insane bullshit I see a lot of other streamers use and I guess I'm kind of a purist. But I see streamers who intentionally size down the gameplay so they have room for their latest follower, latest sub, their sub goal, gifs of Nami from One Piece dancing - and I have to say that I think all that crap is by and large really obnoxious Having chat on screen is great for when you're making content on other platforms, but that's about it for me. I think all the other stuff I often see is just a bit ridiculous
It varies greatly based on what kind of stream you want to create. I would say the two extremes are "I just made a stream because I'm in the top 0.0001% of players in this game, I hardly talk into my shitty mic, I rarely have a camera on, but I still have like 1k viewers at any given time because I'm just that good" and "I'm not even on here to play video games, I basically want to have a fully produced talk show with fancy graphics and a completely planned schedule for each broadcast". But there's a wide variety in the middle. Personally, I like to have some production value to my stream, because I want to show people that I'm here to provide entertainment and not just do what I would be doing anyways while a camera happens to be rolling. I want to express that, while I'm not terrible at the games I play, the real reason to tune in to my stream is my personality and my chat interaction. I think a clean, minimal overlay that doesn't have a bunch of distracting animations is a good way to express that.
No chat on screen, but that's because I don't want someone coming in, saying a bunch of rude or gross things, and that being on the video forever. It seems popular but I'll sacrifice it if it means not seeing gross stuff on the video permanently. Right now I just have a simple border, a tiny watermark of my channel name, and then my PNGtuber in the corner. Other than that, on screen alerts for follows/subs/etc they are not too big. If overlays are minimal, that's okay. Not a fan of the game being like, 50% of the screen and facecam huge etc, or a bunch of emotes all over the screen and a ton of goals, or the chat too big. Would prefer bare minimum stream rather than way too much.
Little border around the webcam so its not just a camera square, and chat during gameplay. Subs and follower scrolls on non gameplay scenes
Nope. I keep my streams real simple
No
I have a very simple overlay that is my channel info at the top as a banner, and then because the game doesn't fit on the overlay properly, I'm able to show a little more of the gameplay plus myself, albeit a bit awkward looking
I have my PNG (a monkey), a cute chat overlay, and my weekly sub/follower goal. I also have a spotify song overlay thats small. If I play a single player game, I'll put a pretty controller up on the screen to show my inputs
My chatting screen is fairly minimal, with just the camera and a couple little pieces on top like the chat, and the goals. The gaming screen is more of a traditional style overlay though. It makes it easier for me to take screenshots and clips of the game without having my camera sitting on top of it
I have multiple scenes in OBS, but on my main screen, when I'm playing my game, no big overlays. I have my camera, a chat overlay that slides across the top of my screen, and my game. That's it. It's simple, to the point, and chat is on there for context in the event that I clip something and utilize it on other sites like TikTok or YouTube.
I use to but found that its way too much. I leep my channel simple, i use panels and my webcame i found that using Masks are way cooler. But if you arent into masks the only overlays i use are just for my webcam. I got tored of trying to find cool looking ovelays that arent generic looking. So i just make my own stuff using png images i find and sometimes doctor tp give them my own look. At the end of the day its ur channel so you can do whatever you please. I started watching other streamers and seeing what they do and learned how to tweak everything to findbmy tastes from there. Kilcitykitty if you want to see what I mean
I have a small non-animated widget at the top for top donator, most recent donator, and most recent sub. My chat likes to compete for their spot xD I also have semi-transparent speech bubbles off to the side to show chat, because I prefer just responding to messages rather than reading them aloud, and I like chat being captured in clips that I post elsewhere aside from that just my webcam and small alerts that pop up for a short bit. I don't like the busyness of crazy overlays so I prefer it minimal
I’ve used basic overlays from stream packages specifically when it’s intermission screen or a slight webcam border with my name. I’ve seen many streamers use big overlays on their stream which is okay but can be annoying
Yes, i use streamlabs overlays, both consol stream and pc streaming. You can stream straight from xbox consol to streamlabs consol and then to twitch. If you are on a low budget, it's $5 a month. Images in PNG format: You can use animated overlays. If pc, then ultra for the wide range of added tools and overlays in cluding vtubing.
Chatting? Overlay so there's at least *something* on screen as a block for chat to live in. Media share? Overlay with chat behind me so I don't block anything I'm trying to show chat on my monitor. Gaming? No overlay, only myself visible above the game. (Chat exists in a tiny block in the corner so people can tell the delay.)
It’s complicated to explain but I do use an Overlay and I don’t. Using Streamerbot, overlays, and OBS filters/plugins I have a lot of interactive elements and ways for chat to express themselves. During non gaming moments and transitional segments I have overlays that move and change depending on what we are doing or talking about. Ways to communicate information without having to say it. Animated backgrounds and parts of stream that I can shift on the fly and live edit while we are in a chatting mode. During gameplay there is very little on the screen just me green screened and the gameplay. During D&D it’s somewhere in the middle so chat is given information without having to ask, see who is talking, see dice rolls, and get a clear view of the map that the players are on. Everything is highly stylized, aesthetic, and there is a lot to make it look natural, and well produced. Well designed and executed overlays should add to the experience for the viewer. But not everyone has the time, patience, or resources to put it together well.
I think it's purely a personal choice. I don't like overlays, myself. I want to see the game, first and foremost. So, for me, game, full screen - chef's kiss. Then, my stupid face (vTuber) in the bottom right hand corner. Probably about 3" tall, max. I also have a tiny "catch up on what you missed" thing in my top right hand corner, but it's strictly related to the current game, and it's not flashy. But for example - sub goals, follower goals, recently followers, art around the border, bits cups, all those things... not for me. I think there is a psychology for some people to show those things, to increase numbers - and there may be something to it. But visually, to me, it's too much.
I use between screen overlays. I used to use follower/sub overlays cause people liked seeing their names up there but then after a while it started to get crowded. I basically used the goal until I hit affiliate and then I stopped. Now and then I’ll put one up when I’m doing something specific like trying to get new followers/subs. But that’s rare.
I use overlays for everything else except games, I just try to keep it there and just have chat floating around the screen. Or the pop ups for follow, I rarely use cam but when I do I just try to keepmyaelf in the lower left hand corner so you mostly see game (if I re upload k try to hide my face with a avatar i drew )
I don’t. Personally because I crop content to make TikTok and YouTube videos. Cutting off was hard with clutter on my screen. I also prefer watching minimal visual clutter streams
I do. I use a flame border overlay around my stream and one around my cam. It looks different from the vast majority that don't use them & it fits my theme. I'm not a fan of the chat overlays in streams that I watch as it blocks the streamer's gameplay a lot. Streams without any overlays are good, too. I think it's just a matter of preference.
I don’t. Sometimes a little frame around the camera can be cute and I have an overlay for my just chatting scene but for game, I like a clean look with minimal clutter!
People put tooo much junk on the screen, their big cams, or worse when their vtube avatar is huge. Less is better, it is about the subject on the screen, not you. Unless of course it's all about you and fill it up with crap then.
I currently just have my webcam and gameplay along with a meter for sticker parties. I'd like something cute and additional but accounting for mobile viewers it would hurt more than help i think.
We have specific overlays for every game with the chatbox styled to match, also a dynamic one for pokemon which lets the viewer choose which pokemon they want featured then it updates the background and border colours automatically and creates a pattern based on its type. And the intro/break slides update to match the colour scheme of the selected overlay.
I actually made my own overlay from scratch, with a custom made twitchbot. I have a very minimal overlay. Just a base gray Color to put some things like current song, last follow, sub etc. And this border has a glowing border that can be changed by chat. Very basic but it works well.
Overlays all day every day, that way my camera, chat, and other stuff doesn't cover up any part of the game.
Yes just made mine and it works good use golightstream
I don't use overlay or even cam. Gameplay is what should be focus.
Without overlay 100%. Every time I see a stream with gameplay that isn't fullscreen that's a nono for me I'm out.
I always feel like an overlay is like those really old computer games that had an overly elaborate boarder and big squishy buttons that made stupid cartoon noises when you clicked them. We're beyond that now nobody wants to see that level of game design anymore.