Streaming manual (your overlays in OBS)

PRO

Your overlays in OBS, to stream on Twitch, Kick or YouTube: an exact copy of the ones on your screen, with a single address, and you place them wherever you want with the editor. A tool of the PRO plan of Raptor Racing Overlay.

Streaming puts your overlays in OBS with a single Browser source. That source is a page with one box per overlay, plus the stream chat, the setup cover and two OBS alerts. What shows and where each thing goes is decided in the editor, which opens in your browser.

Each box carries an exact copy of the overlay: the same font, background, opacity and zoom as on your screen. It only works while OBS is connected, and opens nothing extra for the overlays you already have on screen.

What you arrange for the stream doesn't move anything you see while driving: the overlays on your screen stay where they were. The settings, on the other hand, are the same on both sides: if you change the Standings columns or the Spotter color, they change in OBS too.

The same layout works at any resolution: 1080p, 1440p, ultrawide or triple screen. Each box is saved as a proportion of the canvas height, not in pixels.

The editor with the mouse over the TC light. Driver names are blurred.

1. 1The preview: your stream canvas. What you arrange here is exactly what goes out in OBS.
2. 2A box that is on: drag it from anywhere; it snaps to the edges and the center. While the overlay isn't drawing, it shows its reference image, dimmed; once the live image arrives, you see that instead.
3. 3The corners: pull any of the four to resize without distorting. Hold Shift to stretch it freely.
4. 4The bubble: on hover, the overlay's full name and why its reference image is showing. If the name doesn't fit, the label on top is shortened (ABS, TC, LED LEFT).
5. 5A box that is off: dimmer, with its name. It keeps its place for when you turn it on.
6. 6WHAT IS SHOWN: one switch per box, with a thumbnail of each overlay. Hovering a row highlights its box, and the other way around. By default they're all off.
7. 7OBS EXTRAS: Stream chat, Setup cover, Microphone muted and OBS stats.
8. 8DEMO IN OBS: SHOW DEMO shows in OBS each overlay that is on, in its place, even with the game closed.
9. 9STREAMING PROFILES: save the layout with a name. Default layout puts every box back in its default place. Further down, FROM MY APP brings in the positions of an app profile, plus PREVIEW and OPACITY.
10. 10SAVE: nothing reaches OBS until you press it; then OBS picks it up within a second.

Every screen

Streaming has two parts: the app's STREAMING window, with the OBS and EXTRAS tabs, where you turn it on and set up the stream chat, the cover and the alerts; and the editor, in your browser, where you choose what shows and where.

Before you start

• It's a PRO plan tool. Without that plan, the menu shows a lock and offers to upgrade the license.
• You need OBS Studio on the same computer where you run iRacing (or see If you stream from another computer).
• Each overlay decides whether it's shared with its See it on my phone or tablet switch, in its settings screen. It's on by default; if you turn it off, that overlay shows neither on the phone nor in OBS.

Step by step: your overlays in OBS

• In the app menu, TOOLS group, pick STREAMING and press OPEN STREAMING. Turn on the switch at the top: the light changes to On.
• Press COPY THE ADDRESS. It copies a page saved on your computer (it starts with file:///) that waits on its own for you to open the program and then switches to the stream: it doesn't matter whether you open OBS before or after.
• In OBS: in Sources, the plus sign, Browser. Paste the address in URL, without ticking Local file.
• In Width and Height enter the size of your OBS canvas (Settings, Video, Base (Canvas) Resolution): for example 1920 x 1080, 2560 x 1440 or 3840 x 2160. Don't leave the 800 x 600 that OBS puts by default: the page is drawn small, OBS enlarges it and it looks less sharp.
• Tick Refresh browser when scene becomes active (recommended) and leave the Custom CSS as it comes: it's what removes the page background, so the game shows behind it.
• Keep that source above the game capture in the sources list.
• Press OPEN THE EDITOR: it opens in your browser. Turn on the overlays you want, drag them into place and press SAVE. Within a second they show like that in OBS. To see how it looks in OBS without opening the game, press SHOW DEMO.

If the OBS source is empty

• Check that the program is open, with Streaming On, and that you're in a session: overlays don't show in the garage or in the iRacing menus, unless you ticked that in each one's WHERE IT SHOWS.
• In OBS, open the source's Properties and press Refresh cache of current page.
• If you set up the source before version 6.32 with http://localhost:7620/transmision, replace it with the new address from COPY THE ADDRESS. The old one still works, but only if you open the program before OBS.

When each overlay shows in OBS

Every overlay you turn on in the editor shows in OBS, even if it isn't turned on in the menu: in that case the program opens it only for the stream and it doesn't appear on your screen. Like the others, it opens when you join an iRacing session. In the editor, one that isn't running yet has a gray label and shows its reference image.

It hides just like on your screen: whatever the overlay hides by itself (outside the session, or in the garage and replays unless you ticked them in WHERE IT SHOWS) is hidden in OBS too. The stream shows no waiting sign: it simply isn't visible.

On the other hand, if you hide them all with Ctrl+O while streaming, they keep showing in OBS: they disappear from your screen, not from the stream.

SHOW DEMO: your layout in OBS without the game

• In the editor, DEMO IN OBS group, press SHOW DEMO: OBS shows each overlay that is on in its place, even with the game closed. That way you arrange things while watching the stream.
• While it's live, the button says TURN OFF DEMO, in red, with the minutes left.
• It turns off by itself when you go out on track or after 10 minutes; with the game in the menu or the garage it stays on. An overlay that is already running shows live.
• The ABS light, the traction light and the spotter bars show too, even if they aren't showing anything at that moment.
• If you don't see the demo in OBS, press Refresh on the source once; since 6.53 it refreshes by itself.
• The setup cover doesn't show in the demo.

The editor boxes

• Each box keeps its exact size. The overlay takes the width of its box: one that grows with more rows, like the Standings, grows downward instead of shrinking.
• When you pull a corner, the box fits what it shows (the live overlay or its reference image) and the opposite corner stays put. Hold Shift to stretch it freely. The stream chat and the cover always stretch freely.
• The LED bars go in two boxes, one bar each: LED bars - left and LED bars - right. With One bar (in HOW MANY BARS, in their settings), the right box stays empty.
• The Spotter bars also go in two boxes, left and right, each with its side written on top (LEFT and RIGHT). They move separately.
• MAP ON OBS, below the list: Same as the overlay, Full map or Flat map. OBS shows that mode even if the overlay has the other one.

Streaming profiles

• Type a name and press Save as profile (or Enter). It saves the position, size, visibility and opacity of each box; it doesn't save the chat channels or the OBS key.
• To use one: pick it in the list, Load, then SAVE. Loading only changes what you see in the editor.
• Saving with a name that already exists replaces it. Delete asks for confirmation. To rename, save it with the new name and delete the old one.
• If two boxes that are on overlap, a golden note appears: Some overlays overlap: Default layout sorts them out.

The chat on your stream

Twitch, Kick and YouTube go together in the STREAM CHAT: a single list, drawn by us, in a single box. It's set up in the EXTRAS tab, and in the editor it's the Stream chat box.

STREAM CHAT

Twitch, Kick and YouTube messages in a single list: the platform icon, a ★ for subscribers (members on YouTube), the name in its color and the message with its emotes. No frame and no typing box: you reply on the platform. Type your channel in the Twitch, Kick or YouTube box and the Stream chat box turns on by itself in the editor. It's read with no account and no key.

YouTube

Its box takes your @channel or your stream link. No account or key: messages show up when the stream is live. Never paste your password or your YouTube Studio stream key there. The program has to be open. It arrives a few seconds late and doesn't show Super Chats.

The options

Show the platform icon, Subscribers only (members on YouTube), Hide bot messages, Hide commands (the ones starting with !), new messages at the top or bottom, the font size (measured for 1080p: if you stream bigger, it grows by itself), remove old messages after X seconds (at zero none are removed) and the dark background behind the messages. Show the viewers of each stream adds a row above the chat with how many are watching on each platform and the total.

If you already had it set up

What you had before version 6.42 carries over on its own: the multi chat channels stay in their boxes, and if you used the platform's chat page inside a box (or YouTube as a separate source), its channel goes to that platform's box if it was empty. The separate YouTube source you may have created in OBS isn't needed anymore: you can delete it.

Over the game and on your phone

SHOW THE CHAT OVER THE GAME turns on the Stream chat overlay: the same chat, with the same channels and filters, on your screen on top of iRacing. It also shows on your phone or tablet. More in the Stream chat manual.

Sound on every message

• In the EXTRAS tab, SOUND ON EVERY MESSAGE: one for you on your PC, which the stream doesn't hear, and one inside the stream. Each has its own switch and volume. Both are off by default.
• THE SOUND: Drop, Bell or Pop. TEST plays it on your PC.
• Your own messages and the replies to commands don't make a sound.
• In OBS, in the source properties, tick Control audio via OBS: the sound shows up in the Audio Mixer, where you turn it up, down or mute it.

Chat commands

• Each row in CHAT COMMANDS is a command (what goes after the !) and its reply. + ADD COMMAND adds one; the x deletes it. !overlay comes as an example.
• When someone types it, the reply shows up in your Stream chat (in OBS, over the game and on your phone) with your channel name. Nothing is written on Twitch, Kick or YouTube.
• In the reply, {usuario} puts the name of whoever asked.
• Each command replies at most once every 10 seconds.
• Reply with the list if the command does not exist (on by default): for an unknown command, it shows the available ones, at most once every 30 seconds. You can turn it off.

The setup cover

An image that covers your screen on the stream while you're in the garage, so nobody sees your setup. It appears by itself when you open the garage and goes away when you leave. By default it's the brand logo; with CHOOSE IMAGE you set your own (png, jpg, webp or bmp) and Back to the default one brings back the logo.

You turn it on and place it in the editor with Setup cover. There it looks faded and sits behind everything so it doesn't get in the way: move it by dragging its label.

Microphone muted and OBS stats

Two alerts that come from OBS itself. To make them work, in OBS open Tools, WebSocket Server Settings, keep the server enabled, press Show Connect Info and paste the password in OBS ALERTS, in the EXTRAS tab. The key stays on your computer.

Microphone muted shows a red sign only while your microphone is muted in OBS (the Mic/Aux, or if there is none, your first audio input capture). OBS stats shows FPS, CPU, dropped frames, RAM and the live and recording time.

If you stream from another computer

The address the button copies is a file on the gaming computer: it doesn't work from another one. On the OBS computer use http://, the address of the gaming computer on your network and :7620/transmision, for example http://192.168.1.50:7620/transmision (the EXTRAS tab shows yours). With that address the program has to be open before OBS; otherwise, press Refresh cache of current page.

Windows will ask whether to allow the connection: Private networks and Allow. The editor only saves from the gaming computer.

OBS Window capture works too: each overlay is called "RaptoRacing - " plus its name, and that name doesn't change with the language.

Tips

1. Before going live, press SHOW DEMO and check in OBS that each overlay sits where you want it.
2. Put your Twitch, Kick and YouTube channels in the STREAM CHAT: they show together in a single box, clean and without any platform's background. If you used a separate source for the YouTube chat before, you can delete it from OBS.
3. Build one profile per race type (for example, one for sprints and one for endurance with the calculators) and switch between them in seconds.
4. An overlay doesn't show in OBS? Check that it's on in the editor, that its See it on my phone or tablet is on, that you're in a session and that the browser source is above the game capture. If none shows, see If the OBS source is empty.
5. Give the OBS source the same size as your canvas: otherwise the boxes end up shifted from what you see in the editor, and with a smaller size they look less sharp.
6. Test the setup cover by going into the garage before you go live.