Live visuals into OBS and a stream

How to put reactive visuals into a stream: capturing the scene as a source, which audio the visuals should listen to, and what to watch on the machine.

A reactive scene running in a browser is just a window, and a window is something a streaming application already knows how to capture. That is the whole trick.

The setup

  1. Open the stage and pick the audio input the visuals should follow
  2. Put the window full screen, ideally on a second display so nothing overlaps it
  3. In your streaming application, add a window capture or a display capture pointed at it
  4. Size it into the scene, behind or beside whatever else is in the layout

Which audio should the visuals listen to?

Whatever your audience hears. If the music plays on your machine, the visuals need a loopback input to hear it too, which your system has to provide. If the music comes from a mixer or an interface, point the visuals at that instead and they are hearing the real thing. See audio input.

Watch the machine, not just the scene

A stream is already encoding video in real time. Reactive visuals draw every frame in real time as well. Two real time jobs on one machine is where dropped frames come from, so leave headroom and prefer a simpler scene over a heavier one when both are on the same box.

Common questions

Can I get a transparent background for an overlay?

Window capture takes the picture as it is drawn. For an overlay look, build the scene dark and use your streaming application's blending, which is how most visualizer overlays are actually made.

Will it react to a microphone while I talk?

It reacts to whatever input you choose, so yes, if you point it at the microphone. For music, point it at the music.

Is this the same as a recorded visualizer?

No. Live visuals produce no file and never stop. If you want a video to upload afterwards, that is a render from one of the other studios.

Last updated 2026-09-15

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