How to make an overlay and setup OBS for streaming!

[jcoman1]

Thanks Vishera, the multicam quandry is now resolved. In my primary group I will be turning over DM duties in January which will allow me to don my Tech cap and delve into streaming the game properly. I have a stream but found the riggers of DM'ing and maintaining the Twitch/OBS to be more than I cared to tackle. We will see how it goes. We might be better suited for a podcast

[Bilbotorm]

Thanks a lot for this turorial, I'll have to try but my skills kinda sux.
Just 2 questions basically:
1/ Would you advise your players to connect to the stream even if there's probably a delay ? or it's better to have them trying to connect to FG as usuall and put the webcam images somewhere on their desktop (using what video software ?)
2/ to FG staff, I like how simple and great your adventure game league stream on youtube are, with a simple theme and name using the same theme as FG. Just wondering if you're using OBS as described here and using an overlay of your own ? would it be possible to it as well ?

thanks everyone, to make this software even better & better

Quoting myself to bump a bit my question and see if someone around knows for 1/ ?
(and for 2/, still hope templates could be shared one day, it rox and looks neat on youtube, need the same ! (but i have no skills :/))

[jcoman1]

Quoting myself to bump a bit my question and see if someone around knows for 1/ ?
(and for 2/, still hope templates could be shared one day, it rox and looks neat on youtube, need the same ! (but i have no skills :/))

I'll help you bump this. I too have inquired how they are managing the video for the stream. I have some experience with Twitch streaming. That in mind, my group will all be in FG and let the delay be as it wants to be. Ppl are aware of it and just accept it.

[Bilbotorm]

Just wondering if there's any chance to have some input on how FG crew achieve their net streaming + overlay ?

thanks !

[ddavison]

David, our DM, uses OBS for setting up the different views and the overlays and then we use Skype for the VOIP.

[jcoman1]

David, our DM, uses OBS for setting up the different views and the overlays and then we use Skype for the VOIP.

With all due respect unless David knows something about Skype not known to the general population, using it for capturing video is a trick. Skype does not anchor video chat frames. They appear at random and will move if a person is dropped from a call. I guess it is possible that David pulls everyone into the call, then sets the frames manually each time in the overlay. That's a lot of fuss.
There is a way to do it but I will not divulge it here - it's not through Skype.

While I don't want Smiteworks to "gum up the works" if supporting its own audio/video chat client would "gum up" Fantasy Grounds. I don't want to suggest anything that could cause problems for what is otherwise nearly perfect in my mind. FG is a fantastic piece of software. My hats off to you guys. You have resurrected my Tabletop gaming. BUT...if you find a way for support an unobtrusive audio/video module that allowed for fixed webcam frames, plus the Syrinscape integration piece that we already have...well, I would nominate you all for sainthood.

[ddavison]

With all due respect unless David knows something about Skype not known to the general population, using it for capturing video is a trick. Skype does not anchor video chat frames. They appear at random and will move if a person is dropped from a call. I guess it is possible that David pulls everyone into the call, then sets the frames manually each time in the overlay. That's a lot of fuss.
There is a way to do it but I will not divulge it here - it's not through Skype.

While I don't want Smiteworks to "gum up the works" if supporting its own audio/video chat client would "gum up" Fantasy Grounds. I don't want to suggest anything that could cause problems for what is otherwise nearly perfect in my mind. FG is a fantastic piece of software. My hats off to you guys. You have resurrected my Tabletop gaming. BUT...if you find a way for support an unobtrusive audio/video module that allowed for fixed webcam frames, plus the Syrinscape integration piece that we already have...well, I would nominate you all for sainthood.

David actually does get us into the call first and adjusts the layout. Skype has a couple different views and dynamic is one of them. You want it to be as fixed and predictable as possible and not change your actual window size either. I haven't actually set up an OBS overlay yet, but I suspect you could create a series of layouts to automatically work with Skype for 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 participants and then only turn on the one you want at the time that you want them. You might have to do some similar shenanigans for labels as well.

[jcoman1]

Yes, prefab layouts would do it. Dave is the man.

[Galach]

Recently, my group discovered VSee, a communication software much like Skype or Hangouts, but with a huge advantage when used in conjunction with OBS: in VSee, each camera opens a new window.

Those windows can be resized at you pleasure, can be pinned on specific parts of your desktop, and you can save where they are, so when you open VSee again, the windows will be right there on that exact spot.

When configuring OBS, you can assign that windows to a place on your layout, so each time you open OBS, VSee and Fantasy Grounds, everything will be in place as the last time you used them. Better, since each person have it’s own window, if someone enter or leave the conference, it won’t mess up your layout.

The only issue I noticed in VSee is that, when more than six people get in the conference, the cameras start to lag a lot, but this could be my own connection, because I am recording the games and also usually DMing them.

VSee can be found here (it is free): https://vsee.com/

And here are some examples of my recorded games using this setup (sorry, they are in portuguese... lol)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L2DzNc4VVg&t

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4akyB39sN8

(this one don't have cameras on, but shows how I had improved the previous layout)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4TNCrA2Trs&t

[Bilbotorm]

DDavison : thanks for confirming =)