Many streamers would love to be proud owners of top-of-the-line systems, audio setups and other equipment as soon as they decide they want to share their gameplay with the rest of the world. But all that can be expensive, especially for a newcomer. So it's not hard to imagine a streamer having just one PC monitor to use for interacting with their audience. That's why Streamlabs is introducing Streamlabs Game Overlay.
Streamlabs has developed streaming tools, broadcasting software, a website builder and many other products made specifically for streamers. It even publishes reports about the streaming market. The company has competitors, of course, but there's a good chance at least one streamer you've watched uses something from Streamlabs.;
In its announcement today, the company said it developed Streamlabs Game Overlay, which is accessible via the Streamlabs OBS broadcasting software, because its metrics indicate that 64% of Twitch streamers only have one monitor. That means they have to either Alt-Tab out of their game to interact with their audience or rely on another device that can only show limited information.
That's where the Streamlabs Game Overlay comes in:
"Streamlabs Game Overlay is completely customizable," the company said. "Set the position of the chatbox and recent events to your liking. Customize the opacity of the overlay to remain unobtrusive to the game, and set hotkeys to adjust the positioning of the overlays while you are broadcasting. You have the option to make the overlay visible or invisible to viewers depending on how you choose to capture gameplay."
People using game capture sources to broadcast their gameplay don't have to worry about the Streamlabs Game Overlay being visible to their viewers. Those who are simply using display capture, which shows everything happening on-screen, will also broadcast the overlay. We suspect the vast majority of Streamlabs Game Overlay users will opt for the former so they can keep their streams uncluttered.
Streamlabs noted that the overlay currently works best when games are played in borderless window mode (as opposed to full screen or, for the monsters out there, windowed mode). The company said the Streamlabs Game Overlay "is an experimental feature" and it's "actively working to improve it over time." Streamlabs OBS can be downloaded from the company's site.
