Scenes and OBS

Each scene is one Browser Source in OBS, with the actions you choose. The pencil beside its name renames it there and then (Enter keeps the new name, Esc the old one), and its address never changes, not even then.

Size

Give the Browser Source the profile's resolution (Settings, Profile). Actions are the same size at any resolution: 4K shows them sharper, not smaller. Only the shape changes, as on a vertical live. The resolution is OBS's canvas too: pre-flight says when the two differ. For screens of unusual shapes, such as ultrawide, there is a size of your own, in pixels, from 320 to 8192.

Sound

Tick "Control audio via OBS" on the Browser Source: the overlay's sound gets its own fader in OBS's mixer.

Preview

"Preview" opens the scene in a window of Vovó's, for you alone. It does not count as an open overlay and does not reach the live. The arrow beside it opens the same preview in your browser instead. Overlay's icon, in the middle of the status bar, opens it from any tab: at once with one scene, and with more, from the list of them, where the one in the window is checked.

Another profile

New profile, in the profile menu, goes through steps like the first run's: its name and colour, its Twitch account, its OBS (the same one as the profile you were on, in one press, or another) and its scene's address for OBS; Twitch and OBS can wait. It starts with a scene and an empty group, Buttons, to put its first buttons in. The scenes of a profile that is not active stay transparent, so one channel's overlay never shows on another's live. In Settings, Profile, a profile can be duplicated (the copy gets new scene addresses for OBS; paired devices and the Twitch sign-in stay with the original) or deleted, and the history can bring it back.

OBS preview

With one monitor, the "OBS preview" switch in the OBS card (or OBS's icon in the status bar, the tray, or vovo pip) shows what OBS is sending, in a small window always on top: the scene on air, before and during the live, with no wait. It opens whenever OBS is connected and goes when OBS does. OBS hands Vovó pictures, not video: 10 a second until you choose otherwise, and fewer by itself while OBS says it is missing frames, so the preview never costs the live. Nothing of them is kept. Drag it by the picture itself and size it by its edges: it keeps the shape of OBS's canvas, never smaller than 160 × 90 nor wider than half the screen, and opens where it was left. Captures never see it and it makes no sound of its own, so nothing of it reaches the stream; its X turns it off.

Whoever helps from their own Vovó may see it too, with the permission "See the OBS preview", and only on the same network as this computer: the pictures never go through the internet. Before the live, OBS may be showing your desktop, so give that permission to whoever may see it. Remote access says who is watching.

The preview's pictures

Under the "OBS preview" switch, OBS's card has two ceilings, both yours to choose: "Pictures a second" (1, 5, 10, 15 or 30; 10 until you choose) and "Picture size", by the picture's shorter side in the shape of OBS's canvas (360p, 540p or 720p; 360p until you choose, which is 640 × 360 on a 16:9 canvas and 360 × 640 on a vertical one). They are the most, never what is always sent: a small window gets a small picture, and while OBS says it is missing frames, the pictures step down by themselves (15, 10, 5, 2, then 1 a second) and back up after half a minute at ease, never past what you chose.

Each picture is OBS drawing the scene on air once more, beside your game, and waiting for the graphics card to hand it back. With nothing else running, that took about 2 ms at 320 × 180, 3 to 4 ms at 640 × 360 and 6 to 7 ms at 960 × 540, and the two choices multiply: 30 a second at 360p costs about what 15 at 540p does. Beside a game that fills the graphics card, each costs more: raise one choice at a time, and keep an eye on OBS's Stats for frames missed due to rendering lag. 60 is not offered, since OBS would draw each of its frames twice.

One picture serves every window watching, yours over the game and those of whoever helps from their own Vovó, so these are their ceilings too, and they are yours alone to choose: what your computer spends during the live is yours to decide. On this network, at 30 a second, a picture of 640 × 360 is roughly 5 to 10 Mbit/s for each helper watching, and more at 720p; none of it goes through the internet.

A camera

An action can show a camera of this computer: the "Camera" example puts it in a frame at a corner of the scene. Which camera is yours to choose. The action has a camera among its settings, and Customize lists this computer's cameras, with None first: nothing is chosen until you choose, and the camera is opened only while an open scene shows the action. The line under its name says how it is.

Windows gives a camera to one program at a time. Once Vovó shows it, take the camera out of OBS, or switch its source off there: while OBS or any other program holds it, Vovó says so and shows it as soon as it is free. The picture reaches the live through the scene's Browser Source, a few hundredths of a second after OBS's own camera source would show it: if your voice comes ahead of your lips, give the microphone a sync offset in OBS's Advanced Audio Properties.

While an action shows a camera, its icon is in the middle of the status bar: a press switches the camera off, and another on. A "Camera" button of the pad (Show or hide) does the same, with a hotkey of your choosing. Off, it stays off, through a restart too, until you turn it on; panic turns it off, and it does not come back by itself. The pictures never leave this computer and are never kept, and no action sees them.