Browser Layers/Twitch Overlays

chance_dj · May 21, 2021, 10:34pm

OBS supports browser layers which take overlays or other Twitch extensions and uses them to make audience engaging content. Is there a way to do this with MimoLive? At first I thought I could just use a browser source, however it’s not a transparent (true overlay source) for the feed from MimoLive.

I currently stream to Twitch, as well as YouTube and facebook, however I’m realizing more that the engagement on Twitch is dependent on these extensions and overlays.

I honestly can’t stand using OBS Streamlabs as it’s clunky and not intuitive.

Thoughts?

hutchinson.james_boi · May 21, 2021, 11:00pm

It would be nice to be able to pull a luma key.

Oliver_Boinx · May 22, 2021, 6:41pm

The mimoLive Web Browser Source supports transparency. However, the HTML needs to be actually transparent (no background).

chance_dj · January 3, 2022, 12:29am

I may post another thread @Oliver_Boinx , however I go this issue handled and I’ve been able to utilize all kinds of overlays on Twitch for my stream, however I recently upgraded to an Apple M1 Pro, and have subsequently had to use the Beta version to work out the kinks.

Almost all of my overlays work, except for one… it’s called KappaGen and it displays floating emotes using an HTML overlay that is truly transparent.

It works on my Intel Mac, it works on OBS, it works everywhere except for my Apple M1 Pro… I’ve changed display settings, I’ve tried FX options, I’ve turned the transparency button on and off on the web browser (which by the way wasn’t needed on the Intel Mac since it’s a true transparent HTML page), etc.

I’m really at a loss, and while I get that you don’t support Twitch per say, is there any reason why emojis wouldn’t display? I have the layer at the top, I’ve created new templates, I’ve literally tried everything. Other transparent overlays work fine, videos, GIFs, etc… just not emojis.

Anyone have any ideas why?

Thanks!
Chance

chance_dj · January 3, 2022, 12:33am

@JoPhi or @Kebbel might you have any insight on this? I’ve been reading through fort posts about the M1… making me regret my decision a little, or it’s going to force me to start using another streaming software, which is not ideal.

chance_dj · January 3, 2022, 12:44am

One more thought… privacy setting of some kind for Safari? Is it possible for another browser to be used when MimoLive opens a browser instead of defaulting to Safari? I mean, all other overlays work, so I don’t think this is it, however Chrome does sometimes have more functionality.

JoPhi · January 4, 2022, 5:44am

I’m sorry, I have no experiences with this overlay. I assume that it is optimized or made for Chromium. As I know, mimoLive’s internal browser is based on Apple technology. I’d write a feature request to the developers of the overlay to support Safari. I don’t think that they willingly exclude users.

With “it works”, did you mean “with OBS and on an intel device”, or “with mimoLive and on an intel device”?

chance_dj · January 4, 2022, 6:26am

Hello! Thanks for responding.

The overlay is called Kappagen and used on one of the largest platforms that provides content to Twitch called StreamElements.

“It works,” on:

my Intell 2014 MBP with OBS and MimoLive
my M1 Pro Mac and OBS

It does not work with my M1 Pro Mac and MimoLive

So, after having to download the last Beta for just the video to work properly, I assumed that maybe there were other features not completed.

The weirdest thing is that another overlay called Emote Cloud that makes use of emojis in a similar way does work, however it doesn’t cover the whole screen.

So, I can say it’s not a resolution issue, it’s not a compatibility issue with the type of graphics utilized, and I know the overlay is transparent because other things, I.e. animated GIF and other overlays like TriggerFyre work the same as they did on my Intel Mac, so what you’re saying makes sense.

I’ll reach out to Stream Elements and see if they have any ideas. Again, it’s just weird that the only thing that does not appear on screen are emojis that get posted and then flown around on the overlay.

Oliver_Boinx · January 6, 2022, 5:30pm

Hi @chance_dj What OS (and therefore Safari version) are you running on the Intel 2014 MBP and what on the M1?

I suspect it might actually be a problem with the Safari framework on Monterey.

chance_dj · January 6, 2022, 6:00pm

Ey @Oliver_Boinx thank you for the response.

The older 2014 Intel Man was recently upgraded to Big Sur latest version and works normally.

The M1 Pro Mac came with the newest OS Monterey.

I ran a stream last night and have added multiple overlays to test various things such as emotes and GIFs, and even alternate “emote wall’ overlays to find that they all work on OBS just not in MimoLive.

I was leaning towards the same thought which is why I was curious if there was an option to change browser sources from the native Safari one to another such as Firefox or Chrome.

Thanks!

Chance

Oliver_Boinx · January 7, 2022, 11:34am

We’ve considered adding Chromium in the past. It would more than double mimoLive file size, add significantly to the memory footprint and costs a lot of performance.

However, since it seems that Safari is getting worse, we will consider it again after we’ve looked at the recent issues with Safari and what can be done about it.

chance_dj · January 23, 2022, 9:08pm

@Oliver_Boinx I just wanted to drop a note and let you know a couple of things…

First, I love MimoLive’s GUI, ease of use and functionality. I’ve been a subscriber and user for 2 years and I have not wanted to change to anything else just because of these things, however there are a few things I have realized and wanted to share as I leave for now until an Optimized M1 version comes out in full.

First, I’m replying here as this is what started the issue after I got my new Mac, but I have also realized a couple of the things now that I’m running my stream on Streamlabs OBS. While the user interface on OBS is clunky and not nearly as pretty, it has a tremendous amount of functionality, it’s less resource intensive and the audio quality even using my older 2014 Intel Mac is far superior in all aspects.

I honestly hate using OBS because it’s a time waste setting up even the most simple of tasks, however the end result is a stream that sounds great, looks great, has tons of modifiers and overall doesn’t make either of my Macs (Intel of M1) want to run at a snails pace.

I have literally tried everything I can in order to made MimoLive the choice for what I want to do, but running multiple browser overlays, and adding more integrations to increase an overall user experience, I just don’t think it’s designed for what I need. My M1 Pro Max runs like it’s a 10 year old computer when I add even the simplest of transparent overlays using the built in Safari browser, and the other thing that’s been driving me nuts has been a gurgling audio noise that I finally figured out was the software.

I have for months tested everything from all my cables, musical instruments, mics, and even went so far as to purchase a new mixing board and test my USB ports to make sure they were carrying the right voltage just to get rid of this gurgling noise post mixer. I needed a new MacBook anyway, but this was simply my only final answer to why I was the only streamer i could find with such issues. Constant searching and changing of audio settings and late nights making no sense stream after stream, all came to a stop by simply using something other than MimoLive. This has been happening for over a year and my refusal to leave the interface I love to use, cost me a better quality stream in the end.

This is not a complaint, and I’m not asking for anything, but I look forward to what a fully realized update for M1 chips looks like and I’ll try it again, but after all the headaches and tweaks, I was starting to feel hopeless about a brand new Mac with the best processor money can buy with 12 cores, an 18 core GPU and 64GB of RAM.

Moving to a simpler program, even if it’s more labor intensive has changed everything for the better, and I’m sorry that I will be leaving. I hope you find this useful as new builds and a final product gets released, but I can’t imagine that a single video source, and audio mixer and a few transparent overlays would be the demise of my favorite stream software. I guess i don’t understand enough about video to know, but if this is giving me so much trouble, how do large scale productions (news broadcasts, etc) make it happen without having a problem?

I suppose it has to do with the amount of processing and maybe number of computers it would take to run a single broadcast, but my new Mac is top of the line and could probably run NASA, so I just can’t figure it out.

Best of luck, and I’ll stay on the lookout for something in the future, but for now, due to the issue first posted in this thread and the other issues mentioned here in my replay, I’m leaving my subscription.

Sincerely,

Chance Munsterman
chancemunsterman@gmail.com

JoPhi · January 24, 2022, 7:42am

Large productions do not use beta-software to do productions. We use this for testings and simulations only. This is also valid for first generation hardware.

This isn’t exclusive to Boinx. Apple, Blackmagic Design, Sennheiser, PreSonus and lot’s of others do have to get into… Especially macOS has lots of troubles which are irrelevant for private or semipro users.

I personally hope that development progresses that good. Even these bugs though, the beta is promising.

Oliver_Boinx · January 24, 2022, 1:05pm

Hi @chance_dj Thank you very much for taking the time to let us know of your thoughts and experiences. I appreciate all the effort you have invested in mimoLive and I’m very sorry to hear that it isn’t working for you as you expect. Of course, ease of use is costing some performance, but of course it shouldn’t be as much as you experienced.

We think we fixed the gurgling noise last week and this will be in a new beta about to be released today or tomorrow. Also in this beta will be some fixes to other issues that might slow the M1 Max down. And of course we’ll continue to work on optimizing performance on M1.

(Note to others reading this thread: any mimoLive version 5.11 and earlier is using Rosetta 2 to run on M1 processors which is bound to cost a lot of performance overhead. We recommend to use mimoLive 6.0b on M1 computers.)