Stream Overlay

[Daunt]

Alright thought I'd gather this here so we have it and can discuss a stream overlay for twitch streams. It will help viewers easily figure out what's going on, etc.

The best looking one I've found is the iRacing TV Overlay, here:
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/1351217.page
with the track map extension:
http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3250323.page

Seems pretty simple to set up. I would like to try this or something like this first instead of reinventing the wheel. Maybe we can take this and go from there, add or get rid of other aspects and design elements.

Here's a youtube video of the overlay in use.
[video=youtube;SVF9jUKtOoU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVF9jUKtOoU[/video]

 

[ElektroVodka]

Neat looking overlay there Daunt!

It does raise the bar a bit when looking for overlays for other games we stream

 

[Daunt]

Neat looking overlay there Daunt!

It does raise the bar a bit when looking for overlays for other games we stream

For sure! As a graphic designer, I cringe at some of the overlays people have, so I can't help myself! Especially when they have like fifty scrolling things all over the place and its just a major clusterfuck.

 

[Kenadian]

I think it's certainly time we consider implementing something like this for sure but we'll need to be cognizant of the fact that iRacing won't be the only game streamed.

This means we'll need to consider different overlays for different games.

Also, I'd like to have our sites name watermarked in one of the lower corners if possible. Nothing intrusive for sure but it would be nice to see it especially since some of these streams will likely find there way to YouTube via the Highlight/Upload System.

I've linked Moobot with our Twitch Channel and intend to loosely configure and use it this weekend. Part of Moobot's functionality is Poll's which I'll also add just to get viewer feedback on the overlays (among other things).

I think these overlays are very important but I'm hoping we can keep the video reasonably uncluttered.

 

[Daunt]

Well yes. We need to put it into two categories here. Something that will be on no matter what games is playing, and then game-specific overlays. The latter of which is game dependent; it varies. The one I posted uses iRacing's API to function... I don't know how other games would work, probably similarly but I have no idea.

Graphics-wise I can help out with anything needed. Perhaps first though we should nail down exactly what we want for our "always on" overlay. Obviously a Fragtard logo, etc. Anything else?

Then I will make a mockup of what it would look like and we can vote to see if we like it, decide if it's missing anything, get an overall feeling for it, etc. then go from there.

 

[Kenadian]

Aside from a watermarked Site Logo I'm not sure what else we'd want?

My guess is perhaps Twitter, Facebook, YouTube Icons may be a good idea however I'm not sure if that's just going to make the screen too busy?

I suppose we could just run a few trials and see what people prefer though, no harm in that.

 

[ElektroVodka]

How about a small chatbox as an addition to the overlay for full screen viewers instead of the Twitter as those can be added on the page itself if they aren't already.

 

[Daunt]

I've seen plenty of stuff but we should keep it simple and not cluttered. Especially if we'll have other overlays for games, too. I think if you advertise fragtard.net and the logo that should be good enough. The social media icons are nice and big here at the banner, so they can use those.

As I said I will throw together a mockup when I can to get a feel for it. What are the games that get streamed, in order of popularity?

 

[Kenadian]

How about a small chatbox as an addition to the overlay for full screen viewers instead of the Twitter as those can be added on the page itself if they aren't already.

Can that be done?

I've seen plenty of stuff but we should keep it simple and not cluttered. Especially if we'll have other overlays for games, too. I think if you advertise fragtard.net and the logo that should be good enough. The social media icons are nice and big here at the banner, so they can use those.

As I said I will throw together a mockup when I can to get a feel for it. What are the games that get streamed, in order of popularity?

Fair enough.

The games to be streamed is still undetermined at this time. I've finally figured out how to get Borderlands 2 streaming but haven't decided on whether or not that will be the game to play.

Initially I thought it may be a good idea as it gives me more experience with streaming a fast action FPS while at the same time stream a character most haven't played (the Mechromancer).

I may actually test Battlefield 4 and perhaps DayZ and maybe make up my mind then. My guess is though that these are already so saturated that it there wouldn't be much benefit in streaming them.

Playing niche games may also be a better idea than playing mainstream games so games like Spintires, Space Engineers, etc., may work better for us than any of the previously mentioned games.

I think in the upcoming weeks we'll start tackling some sort of scheduling and who wants to do what and when.

 

[ElektroVodka]

Good question, number 1 is easily iRacing but the order after that would be a wild guess.
Not everyone plays and streams the same games indeed and to prevent the stream going monotone we could make personalized overlays... Just a thought tho.

 

[Daunt]

Can that be done?

Yes it can be done. You can do like scrolling news / tweets, a lot of crazy stuff. Don't ask me how though, I'd have to do some research into it. Can't be too difficult but it is tough for me to say since I don't stream and I won't be the one streaming either so I don't have the software right where I can mess with it. Like I said though I'll help.

Playing niche games may also be a better idea than playing mainstream games so games like Spintires, Space Engineers, etc., may work better for us than any of the previously mentioned games.

I think in the upcoming weeks we'll start tackling some sort of scheduling and who wants to do what and when.

Bingo. I mean if you're playing it and want to stream BF that is one thing, but if you want exposure I don't think you're going to beat out the big name streamers on the major games. I would vote for niche games, it would be really cool to do some spintires, space engineers, and all that sort of stuff, too. I've been meaning to hop on those games!

 

[Shilka]

Did a test stream on space engineers singleplayer yesterday and found I can decently stream it. Got a decent steady 9 viewers too eventough its a game I barely streamed before. Streaming space engineers multiplayer is a no go for me unfortunately, especially when mining the constant voxel shape updates suck so much of my upload to the mp server it doesn't leave enough for obs and the broadcaster program gets backlogged with frames it wants to send and crashes But for example quick and produx can stream MP fine.) Got the same problem with World of Diving multiplayer, game isn't optimised yet and it sucks in more bandwith then obs likes.

Spintires had a lot of streamers, but now the novelty has worn off there's less again and you can get a decent amount of viewers quite fast again.

So far I streamed ETS2, Farming simulator 2013, Spintires, Space engineers, Windborne, Simcity 4, World of Diving (SP) and Minecraft without problems and still looking decently at the 420p I'm streaming in. At least it doesn't seem to bother the people that watch the stream (and I find that lots of people watch streams on tablet and even on their phone when they are away from their pc, then the resulotion matters a lot less anyway as it looks crisp on such small screens anyway)

I also streamed games like skyrim, but small details get lost then in my case, so when I put an arrow in a deer at 200 yard distance in the stream you can only see me shoot at a blurry pixel, just to find out later that theres a dead deer on the ground when I get closer.

Even better then niche games are newly released niche games, people want to see whats the game about, yet there often arent a plurality of streams around (contrary to streaming Destiny after release for example), so I'm definately streaming Life is Fuedal if/when I buy it for example.

I've been trying to go from a dedicated single game streamer (ETS2) to a multitude of games streamer, yet the last one is definately less easy. Streaming one game seems to get you a more steady crowd, streaming several games seems to get me less viewers per stream, yet a more diverse public, so the latter may eventually get more unique viewers in comparison eventually, as sticking to one game often leads to having the same people viewing over and over again.

 

[Shilka]

I've also been asking people why they are watching the stream to begin with, and here are some of the answers they gave;

• Liking the game, but pc/laptop can't run it, or currently don't have the money to buy
• Like and have the game, but currently not at home pc so watching on tablet/phone or work pc
• interested in the game (newly released or not), but wanted to check it out first before buying
• Just checking out games they don't own and see what it's about
• looking for inspiration, especially building games like minecraft looking for building styles, or games like space engineers, to see how you handle things in survival or what contraptions you can make out of function blocks
• looking for multiplayer server/ people to play with
• just chilling out so watching a stream / don't feel like playing myself
• liking the way I play the game (roleplay, using road rules when playing ets, building 'skills' in building games, 'serious' gameplay, playing games 'as intended', (in my case))
• regular viewer/follower
• Checking out specific custom map/mod I'm using (for example playing the Hungary map mod in ETS)

Sometimes I'm really surprised at how long people will watch the stream, when I streamed space engineers yesterday I was basicly spending hours on drilling a hole in a rock, yet I had a constant 9+ viewers, while what I was doing was only slightly more interesting then watching paint dry, lol.

It does really help putting specific info in your stream title, and on the page info, like what mods you use that game session, that you're having a specific playstyle (roleplay / driving road rules / working on rural development / using old farm equipment etc etc) Having a broadcast title like 'Coastmap, hauling wood with zil B-130 exclusively' attracts way more people then 'Playing Spintires' in my experience.

 

[Daunt]

I've also been asking people why they are watching the stream to begin with, and here are some of the answers they gave;

• Liking the game, but pc/laptop can't run it, or currently don't have the money to buy
• Like and have the game, but currently not at home pc so watching on tablet/phone or work pc
• interested in the game (newly released or not), but wanted to check it out first before buying
• Just checking out games they don't own and see what it's about
• looking for inspiration, especially building games like minecraft looking for building styles, or games like space engineers, to see how you handle things in survival or what contraptions you can make out of function blocks
• looking for multiplayer server/ people to play with
• just chilling out so watching a stream / don't feel like playing myself
• liking the way I play the game (roleplay, using road rules when playing ets, building 'skills' in building games, 'serious' gameplay, playing games 'as intended', (in my case))
• regular viewer/follower
• Checking out specific custom map/mod I'm using (for example playing the Hungary map mod in ETS)

Some nice marketing research!

 

[Daunt]

Alright so I was mistaken. This seems to be THE overlay everyone uses so F the overlay I posted before. While this is not as graphically beautiful, its meant more as a twitch stream overlay, rather than for broadcasting a race, so the usability should be much better.

http://members.iracing.com/jforum/posts/list/3244571.page


Maybe after setup I can take a look at trying to make it look better, but I think this is a great place to start.