[X-Chat/XSplit] How to Overlay Chat on Your Live Stream

bwana

Hello all, 

I've written a tutorial on how to embed chat on your live stream using XSplit.  It's fairly lengthy and is too long for this forum (character limit), but it shows you how to:

• Configure X-Chat WDK to connect to JTV irc
• Embed a transparent IRC chat on your existing XSplit stream

If you're interested in this setup, read the full tutorial here:

http://bwana.tv/forums/index.php?threads/how-to-overlay-chat-on-your-live-stream.42103/

Fire

Edited your title for you to make it clearer which app it's for (from the thread directory listing). There's different/better ways to do it with mIRC, for example. Nice guide though B-)

bwana

I stated that in the tutorial.  I'll edit the title for XSplit as well because I've done it with Wirecast/Camtwist and they can be more efficient in many ways. Personally, I loathe mIRC.

Fire

Aye, mIRC has flaws but I've gotten too used to it's scripting system to switch to anything else at the moment. It's pretty easy to have it write recent chat lines to a file, then have XSplit (using one of the enhanced title plugins since the built-in one is crap) read that file in and display it like that. No screen regions are needed, so you can still use Aero (Gamesource has higher performance in Aero mode) and generally higher performance.

It's still aggravating that there isn't an IRC plugin for XSplit itself yet, though I realize writing a stable JTV compatible IRC client in flash could be aggravating

bwana

Yeah, you're right.  Parsing a log file is definitely more efficient than screen grab.  The developer title plugins are great for this.  Perhaps that'll be a good topic for a new tutorial.  I imagine those with a single screen setup would benefit.

Fire

Most definitely. There already exists a single-line method and plugin for mIRC, but being a single line (with no line wrap support) because it uses the default title plugin kind've kills it's usefulness. I may write up a simple tutorial on the mIRC side of things, and eventually toy around with xchat if you haven't written your own by that point (I heard XChat supports ruby as a plugin language?)

bwana

Take your pick: 
http://xchat.org/docs/  - C/C++, Perl, Python, TCL, Lisp, Javascript, Ruby

Tends to be easier to get going on Linux, but you'll probably have to install Windows dependencies to get plugins to work there.

oshimoshi

Hello I still need some help here. Can I use that chat to directly chat with my viewers on the Twitch.TV chat ? Sometimes my browser doesn't work so i can't chat with them there so I feel bad.

Also, I use the screen region to pick an area of the chat, but it keeps picking the whole window.

Fire

@oshimoshi yes actually, the IRC connection is a direct connection to the chat servers.

As for the screen region, click and drag, don't just click the window. Alternatively you can click the window and then use the crop tools to crop down to what you need, this will allow the window to be moved anywhere without having to add a new screen region (since the first screen region is tracking the window and simply cropping it's output)

oshimoshi

How do I crop it out ? Using the position stuffs under settings ?

Fire

Yes, there's crop options under positioning

oshimoshi

Will this be good for a single monitor ? Because when I get into my game, the chat window is gone.

Fire

No, this is a dual monitor guide. There may be a way to capture via layered windows, but I don't remember what the process would be at the moment.

andehx

tried this.  When I try to connect, I get the error:  Disconnected (Remote host closed socket)

 

Thats it, it just repeats....

Fire

@andehx are you sure you're connecting correctly?

andehx

yes,  server is andehx.jtvirc.com/6667 but I get that disconnected message

Fire

@andehx andehx.jtvirc.com:6667 with your username and password? (try lowercase username)

Do you know if you're on the beta chat or not?

andehx

my stream is running right now, you can see the error on it.

Fire

Looks like you are connected to the server, you just need to join a channel. I think the server kicks you out if you don't join a channel within a certain amount of time.

andehx

i have it set to automatically join #andehx though.

Fire

All your stream was showing was that you were connected, it never actually joined a channel after connecting.

andehx

Ok I worked it out.  My nickname was set to "Andeh" and not "AndehX"... pretty dumb really.

Fire

Makes sense though, can't log in with something that's not your username :P

mrgreaper

fire do you have a link to your mirc method?

otogario

I think your post is a scam, the screen region you had with your chat was a photo file with ".png" in the end. What I had been struggling with and other people are chat overlay in live stream. Not a chat over lay a "screen shot" of a game. If I made mistake somewhere. plz correct me as this method feels like a scam to me.

Fire

@otogario what on earth are you talking about, the process is the same regardless of what media is underneath the chat overlay, screenshot, video, screen capture, camera, it doesn't matter.

To top it off, this is a tutorial, there's no way it could possibly be a scam as you are not paying for anything. Especially not paying Bwana anything.

doandroidsdream

I just set this up for my own stream pretty easily, thanks to this guide. For the area you want inside the window, hold down your shift key while selecting your screen region.

The only issue I've run into is that I have a single moniter. May have to start saving up for that 2nd moniter if I can't find a work around :)

andresopeth

thanks for the tutorial mate!!!

ophelisionx

* Looking up ophelisionx.jtvirc.com

* Connecting to ophelisionx.jtvirc.com (199.9.253.199) port 6667...

* Connected. Now logging in...

* Disconnected (Remote host closed socket).

Help :(

Fire

@ophelisionx is your name lowercase when connecting?

ophelisionx

Yes