Could we get a cool alternative to OBS studio?

Lanah Tyra · 2024-05-30T12:26:39.960Z

OBS is the king of streaming software, and even though there are alternatives, with all the plug-ins OBS has I think we are safe to say you can do (almost) anything in it. But it can be very intimidating to new streamers, especially if you have never used such a software before. I remember my first time opening it and having to go through guides then call a streamer friend to help me set it up right. Twitch Studio is a nice alternative for beginners as it looks very simple and it's very easy to set up, but simple means just that... the basics what you need. And only for Twitch. What if you want to stream at another platform? I haven't tried Meld Studio yet, just came across this video from Nutty, and the UI definitely look very simple and easy to use. I will probably wait a until more features will be added to it, but at first look it is promising....

Sturmer 5/30/2024, 1:17:47 PM

I'm using Streamlabs, another software I've tested was a proprietary from Avermedia for their capture streaming cards

Lanah Tyra 5/30/2024, 1:45:31 PM

Sturmer

I was told not to use Streamlabs as it uses more resources than OBS apparently. I'm not sure as I see quite a few creators use it. I have Stream Elements but most of the time I find it either useless, complicated or not really sure what to do with it, as my overlays are commissioned from elsewhere so I manually import them, and I do tipping via Ko-Fi

Kane Carnifex 5/30/2024, 1:18:36 PM

I am eying with "Streamlabs" which is an premium fork of OBS Studio. It comes with all the feature you see in the high tier creators. but therefore it cost 19€ per month or 12,4€/m -> 149€ per year

There is a free version which i may want to dip into. The Setup of OBS with "Streaming Feature" is not user friendly.

https://streamlabs.com

Lanah Tyra 5/30/2024, 1:47:18 PM

Kane Carnifex

I do like some of the features in the paid version, but my creator earnings at the moment are only from JA so I'm trying not to use too many monthly subscription stuff. So I got OBS with Stream Elements and a multistream plug-in and botrix for showing multichat. Thinking to try Restream if that would make multistream and combining chat a bit easier.

Kane Carnifex 5/30/2024, 2:20:18 PM

Lanah Tyra

I am sure with enough effort you can make everything for free. Also i keep a list of stuff i want to offer "my" community.

Ranks for followers for example( based on time) -> Display of an GIF/VID + Name + Rank
The mentioned Chat Game for some interaction.
Funny Story RNG Raffle for give aways

Comes time, comes passion, comes ideas or so.

Lanah Tyra 5/30/2024, 5:07:33 PM

Kane Carnifex

My channel is not monetised yet so don't have things for channel points set. Also because I only have a couple of viewers on my streams yet, I don't really see a use for games and such. That's one of the reasons why I find Stream Elements a bit useless for me, as I tried to set up the bot for some basic announcements and things but got overwhelmed by all the different games and other stuff it can do, which are irrelevant for me at the moment.

FirestormGamingTeam 5/30/2024, 1:52:02 PM

Hey Lanah

I use OBS myself, I have tried others but, I find others to be lacking in user-friendly interface, they are not as diverse and adding filters and such on other platforms is very hard to do. I also find other platforms to have issues with "screen grabbing" as well.

IMO OBS is still supreme in this area.

Lanah Tyra 5/30/2024, 5:14:48 PM

FirestormGamingTeam

I don't have problems with OBS itself, it is fairly user-friendly and you can adjust a lot of things to your liking (sometimes too much.... not sure about EVE Online, but for FFXIV it's a pain in the backside to get the right encoding so it won't break into pixels)

What I struggle with it is all the extra features you get via plugins and sites offering the bots, widgets, alerts and all that.

Got the multistream plugin working, that was very easy to set up, and works automatically, so I press one button and go live on all my channels, cool.

Display chat: to be able to display a combined chat of all my channels I either have to use Restream and stream via that, or Botrix. Now Botrix is anything but user friendly. It's filled with so many unnecessary stuff, I struggle to find the things I need. And if I want to change the font size for example I need to do it via the Botrix website and can't just press some buttons in OBS.

Alerts: what to use for it? Because both Stream Elements and Botrix are offering them in different ways.

Chat bot: again it could go both with Botrix and Stream Elements but I need to set them up for all the different channels I want to stream to and can't just do something at one place and apply it to everything.

So to put it short I don't like all the extra software / website I need to use with OBS to get things look nice and have useful features.

Kane Carnifex 5/30/2024, 2:14:15 PM

I can´t name it neither find it on search.

If you play a game via the chat like for example a doungen fight. Other chatters can join the raid. You level up etc and maybe you able to defeat the boss to get some channel points or so.

But i am unable to name it. I find games which interact with the chat, but i would like to have this "Standalone" uhh i could google interactive raffle.. mom.

L

Lynicx 5/30/2024, 2:56:13 PM

i believe there's a bunch of open source software as alternatives but obs still rains supreme in my opinion because its very user friendly and a bunch of tutorials for people who are new to it and its easy to find and more secure from viruses

Horror and Cats 5/30/2024, 4:13:11 PM

I’ve used OBS until literally my most recent stream where I used Streamlabs. I got the Stream Deck app on my phone and didn’t want to futz with the OBS plugins. Streamlabs works right out of the box with the Deck.

I’m playing a souls-like and if I don’t beat a boss on stream I record finishing it as a let’s play and wanted to just hit the buttons to bring them up as a recap at the start of streams rather than clicking around to open files, etc.

I like it. It’s basically the same software with a slightly easier UI, but only slightly.

Lanah Tyra 5/30/2024, 5:18:49 PM

Horror and Cats

I'm thinking to give Streamlabs another chance. Since I have a dual-PC setup it shouldn't be an issue if it's using a bit more resources than OBS (this is what I was told why I shouldn't use it)

I just want something which can easily handle a combined chat for multistreaming and not having to mess about with different web-based stuff to set up alerts and a simple chatbot.

Sturmer 5/30/2024, 7:14:09 PM

Lanah Tyra

i recommend to test it youself

Lanah Tyra 5/31/2024, 9:44:29 AM

Sturmer

I'll check if they have a free trial on ultra, because the multistream features I would need are locked behind that, unless I go with Restream. Turned out Stream Elements now has a feature to show combined chat for you in OBS, but to display it on chat for viewers you still need to use something else. If Streamlabs can get all the features for me I might consider the monthly price worth it for ease of use. I did try Restream before, my only issue with it was for Youtube scheduling streams as it was using a different stream key for each stream so it was a bit complicated to schedule streams with thumbnails and everything.