OBS Studio
OBS Studio, formally known as Open Broadcaster Software, is a free and open-source application designed for live streaming and video recording.[1] It enables users to capture, composite, encode, and broadcast video content in real time, supporting platforms such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.[1] Widely adopted by content creators, gamers, and broadcasters, it integrates seamlessly with services like Twitch, YouTube, and other streaming providers.[1] Developed initially by Hugh Bailey in 2012 as a personal project to stream games like StarCraft, OBS Studio has evolved into a community-driven initiative under the OBS Project.[2] The software is maintained by over 650 contributors on GitHub and is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later, ensuring its accessibility and modifiability.[3] As of October 2025, the latest stable release is version 32.0.2, featuring enhancements such as a basic plugin manager and improvements to NVIDIA RTX filters.[4] Key features include high-performance real-time video and audio capturing with mixing capabilities, unlimited scenes supporting custom transitions, and an intuitive audio mixer with per-source filters and VST plugin support.[1] The interface offers a modular dock UI, Studio Mode for previewing and producing simultaneously, Multiview for monitoring multiple sources, and extensive hotkey customization.[1] OBS Studio also provides a robust API for plugins and scripting in languages like Lua and Python, allowing extensive customization and extension by users and developers.[1] Backed by sponsors including YouTube, Twitch, and Logitech, it remains a cornerstone tool for professional and amateur video production.[1]Introduction
Overview
OBS Studio is a free and open-source software application designed for video recording, screencasting, and live streaming.[1] It serves as a versatile tool for content creators, enabling the capture and broadcast of multimedia content across various platforms.[5] The core purpose of OBS Studio is to combine multiple video and audio sources into customizable scenes, which can then be output to popular streaming services like Twitch and YouTube or saved as local files.[5] Users follow a basic workflow by adding sources—such as screen captures, webcams, or media files—to scenes and adjusting audio and video mixers to produce a cohesive output.[5] The software supports key streaming protocols, including RTMP, HLS, SRT, RIST, and WebRTC, facilitating reliable transmission to diverse destinations.[6][7][8] Cross-platform availability has been a hallmark of OBS Studio since its initial release on May 21, 2014.[9] It supports Windows, macOS, and Linux.[10] The latest stable version, 32.0.2, was released on October 28, 2025, incorporating ongoing enhancements for performance and compatibility.[11]Licensing and Platforms
OBS Studio is released under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPL-2.0), which permits free use, modification, and distribution of the software for any purpose, including commercial applications, provided that derivative works adhere to the same licensing terms.[3][12] This open-source license fosters a collaborative environment where developers can integrate OBS Studio's codebase into their projects while ensuring the source code remains publicly available.[12] The development of OBS Studio follows a community-driven model hosted on the GitHub repository obsproject/obs-studio, where volunteers contribute code, report issues, and propose enhancements through pull requests.[3] Funding sustains this effort through platforms like Patreon, which supports key developers such as project lead Lain Bailey with monthly pledges totaling over $2,600 from more than 9,500 patrons, and Open Collective, which manages transparent donations and corporate sponsorships.[13][14] Corporate contributions, including Diamond-tier sponsors like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel (each committing at least $50,000 annually) and Gold-tier partners like Overwolf ($20,000 annually), help form an annual budget exceeding $500,000 as of 2025, enabling full-time developer support and project sustainability.[15] OBS Studio supports multiple platforms to ensure broad accessibility, including Windows 10 and 11, macOS 11 and later (with compatibility for both Intel and Apple Silicon processors), and various Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 20.04 and newer.[11][16] On Linux, installation options include official Flatpak packages for sandboxed deployment across distributions, AppImage for portable execution without system integration, and compilation from source for customized builds.[11] Experimental support exists for BSD variants like FreeBSD and OpenBSD, where users can build the software from source, though official pre-built binaries are not provided.[3] Installation is available via direct downloads from the official website obsproject.com, with additional integration on Steam for Windows and macOS users since March 2022, allowing seamless updates through the platform.[11][17] The software's cross-platform portability is achieved through a codebase leveraging the Qt framework for the user interface, ensuring consistent functionality and appearance across supported operating systems while minimizing platform-specific dependencies.[1][18] This design choice enhances developer efficiency and user experience by abstracting underlying OS differences, such as graphics APIs (DirectX on Windows, OpenGL on macOS and Linux).[16]User Interface
Scenes and Sources
In OBS Studio, scenes serve as the primary organizational units for content creation, functioning as collections of sources that define distinct visual and audio layouts for streaming or recording sessions. Each scene represents a specific setup, such as an introduction segment, gameplay view, or outro, allowing users to switch between them seamlessly during live broadcasts or recordings to create dynamic productions. This structure enables efficient management of complex workflows by isolating elements into reusable configurations without altering the overall project setup.[19] Sources form the foundational building blocks within scenes, capturing or generating the individual video, audio, or image elements that comprise the output. OBS Studio supports a variety of source types to accommodate diverse input needs, including display capture for recording the entire screen (on Windows, Linux, and macOS 12.6 and prior; on macOS 13 and later, use macOS Screen Capture source), window capture for specific application windows (on Windows, Linux, and macOS 12.6 and prior; on macOS 13 and later, use macOS Screen Capture source), macOS Screen Capture source for displays, windows, or applications (macOS 13+), game capture (available on Windows) for direct game footage, video capture devices such as webcams, media sources for playing video files or playlists, image sources for static graphics, text sources for dynamic overlays, browser sources for embedding web content, color sources for solid backgrounds, and audio inputs or outputs for sound capture.[20] These sources can be added, arranged, and layered within a scene using the Sources panel, where their visibility, order, and positioning are controlled to compose the final composition.[5] Source properties provide extensive customization options to refine appearance and integration, including filters that enable precise adjustments. Common filters include cropping to trim edges of a source, scaling or aspect ratio adjustments to resize and reshape content while maintaining proportions, chroma key for removing a specified color (such as green screen backgrounds) to enable virtual sets, and color correction for modifying gamma, contrast, brightness, saturation, hue, and opacity.[21] These filters are applied directly to individual sources via the Filters dialog, allowing non-destructive edits that enhance visual quality without altering the original input. Additionally, sources can be nested within groups to organize complex arrangements, treating the group as a single unit that can be moved, scaled, or toggled collectively for streamlined editing in large scenes.[20] Scene collections extend this flexibility by allowing users to save and manage multiple sets of scenes tailored to different projects or contexts, such as separating streaming overlays from recording templates. Each collection encompasses all associated scenes, sources, and global audio settings, facilitating quick switches via the Scene Collection menu. Import and export functions support interoperability with other software like OBS Classic, XSplit Broadcaster, and Streamlabs Desktop, including automatic adjustments for cross-platform compatibility.[19] While OBS Studio imposes no strict hardcoded limit on the number of sources per scene, practical constraints arise from system performance, with complex setups involving numerous high-resolution sources or heavy filters potentially leading to increased CPU or GPU usage, frame drops, or instability on lower-end hardware.[20] Users are advised to optimize by minimizing active sources and leveraging groups for efficiency in demanding productions.Controls and Customization
OBS Studio provides a range of intuitive controls for managing audio, video transitions, and the overall user interface, enabling users to adjust scenes and sources in real-time during streams or recordings. The audio mixer serves as a central hub for audio management, featuring real-time volume sliders (faders) that allow precise adjustments to individual sources, displayed in decibels or percentages, with the ability to exceed 100% gain through advanced settings.[22] Visual meters accompany the sliders, using color-coded indicators—green for normal levels, yellow for peaks, and red for potential clipping—to monitor input levels, VU-meter averages, peak programme meter (PPM) for loudness, and peak holds over 20 seconds.[23] Users can apply per-source filters directly from the mixer, including noise suppression to reduce background hum, gain to boost low-level signals, and compressor to even out dynamic range by setting thresholds, attack, release, and ratio parameters.[22] Advanced audio properties, accessible via the Edit menu, support routing options like mono mixdown for stereo sources and monitoring modes to preview audio output without affecting the final stream.[22] Scene transitions facilitate smooth switches between scenes, with built-in effects such as Fade, Cut, Swipe, Slide, Fade to Color, and Luma Wipe available from the transitions dropdown menu.[5] These can be customized by adjusting duration—typically ranging from 100 to 2000 milliseconds—and specific settings, like direction for Swipe or color for Fade to Color, to match production needs.[5] Quick transitions allow predefined overrides, such as a faster 500ms Fade, triggered via hotkeys or buttons during live sessions for efficient scene changes.[5] Studio Mode enhances live editing by displaying dual preview windows: the "Safe" area on the left for preparing and modifying scenes without interruption, and the "Program" output on the right showing the live feed sent to viewers.[5] Activation via the toolbar button separates editing from broadcasting, allowing real-time adjustments to sources or transitions before swapping with a single click or hotkey, ensuring seamless productions.[5] The interface supports extensive layout customization through dockable panels for Scenes, Sources, Audio Mixer, and Stats, which can be dragged to new positions within the main window or undocked into separate floating windows for multi-monitor setups. Starting with version 32.0 (September 2025), a Plugin Manager dock provides in-app tools for installing, enabling, disabling, and updating plugins directly within the UI.[4] This flexibility accommodates varied workflows, such as dedicating a secondary display to the preview or mixer for better visibility during streams. Themes control the application's appearance, with the default Yami dark theme providing a navy blue scheme optimized for low-light environments; users can switch to alternatives like Light or System via Settings > General, or install community-created themes in the user directory for further personalization.[24] Hotkey assignments, configurable in the Settings menu, enable quick actions such as scene switching (e.g., Ctrl+1 for Scene 1) or starting/stopping recording (Ctrl+Shift+R), streamlining operations without mouse interaction.[25] The Stats window, accessible via View > Stats or as a dockable panel, offers real-time monitoring of system performance, including CPU and GPU usage percentages, dropped frames due to network or encoding bottlenecks, and rendering lag from GPU overloads.[26] Indicators highlight issues like rendering lag (e.g., frames delayed beyond 2% threshold) or dropped frames (e.g., over 1% indicating bitrate adjustments needed), helping users diagnose and optimize for stable outputs.[26]Features
Streaming and Recording
OBS Studio provides robust built-in capabilities for live streaming and local recording, allowing users to broadcast scenes to online platforms or save high-quality video files directly to their system. These features are configured primarily through the Settings > Output menu, where users can select between simple and advanced modes to tailor outputs to their needs. Streaming supports direct integration with popular services, while recording offers flexible format options to ensure compatibility and reliability.[5] For streaming, users configure connections to platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook by selecting the service from a dropdown menu in the Settings > Stream panel and entering the provided stream key, which authenticates the broadcast. This setup enables RTMP-based ingestion, the standard protocol for most services, ensuring seamless transmission of video and audio. OBS Studio includes native support for SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) outputs, added in version 25.0, facilitating low-latency streaming over unreliable networks, alongside RTMP compatibility.[5][27] Recording functions enable local file saving with options for formats including MP4, MKV, and FLV, selected in the Output settings. MKV is recommended for its robustness, as it prevents total file loss if a recording is interrupted, unlike MP4 which may become unplayable. Post-recording, OBS Studio features a built-in remuxing tool (accessible via File > Remux Recordings) that converts MKV files to MP4 without re-encoding, preserving quality while improving compatibility with editing software and social media uploads. Timer-based stops are supported through the core Output Timer tool, while scheduled starts and more advanced automation require plugins.[28][29] Output settings across both streaming and recording include resolution scaling (e.g., downscaling from a base canvas to output resolutions like 1080p or 720p while maintaining aspect ratios), frame rates up to 240 FPS (configurable in Settings > Video), and bitrate controls such as Constant Bitrate (CBR) for stable streaming or Variable Bitrate (VBR) for optimized recording. Quality presets for encoders range from ultrafast (for speed-priority scenarios) to veryslow (for maximum compression efficiency), adjustable in advanced configurations to balance performance and file size.[28][5] The software offers two output modes: Simple, which provides streamlined presets like "High Quality" or "Lossless" for quick setup, and Advanced, which separates streaming and recording configurations for independent bitrate, encoder, and format choices. In Advanced mode, the replay buffer feature captures a rolling window of recent footage (e.g., the last 30-60 seconds) to disk, enabling instant saving of clips via a hotkey without full re-recording.[5][30] Integrations extend output versatility, including a virtual camera feature introduced in version 26.0, which outputs OBS scenes as a webcam feed for applications like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, selectable in those programs' video source menus. For low-latency streaming, WebRTC support via the WHIP protocol (added in version 30.0) allows direct browser-based ingestion with sub-second delays, ideal for interactive broadcasts.[31][32] Error handling mechanisms include automatic reconnection for dropped streams, configurable with a delay (e.g., 2-5 seconds) in the Output > Streaming settings to resume without manual intervention. Additionally, a bandwidth test mode (enabled in Settings > Stream) simulates connections to evaluate network stability and recommended bitrates before live use.[33][34]Plugins and Extensions
OBS Studio employs a plugin architecture that supports dynamic loading of modules via DLL files on Windows and shared objects on Linux and macOS, enabling seamless extension of core functionality without recompiling the application.[35] Plugins are categorized into types such as sources (for input capture), filters (for processing audio/video), tools (for utility features), and UI extensions (for interface modifications), allowing developers to target specific aspects of the software.[35] In version 32.0, released on September 22, 2025, OBS Studio introduced a built-in plugin manager that facilitates browsing available plugins, installing them directly, updating from designated repositories, and managing their activation at startup.[4] This manager streamlines the process previously handled manually, though it requires administrative privileges on some platforms for full functionality.[36] Several popular plugins enhance OBS Studio's capabilities in targeted ways. StreamFX provides advanced visual effects, including blur filters, 3D transforms, and shader-based customizations for streams and recordings.[37] OBS WebSocket offers a remote control API, enabling external applications to interact with OBS via WebSocket protocol for automation and integration.[35] The Move plugin animates source movements during scene transitions, creating smooth positional shifts between scenes sharing similar elements.[38] Advanced Scene Switcher automates scene changes and other actions through configurable macros based on conditions like time or media playback.[39] Plugins can be installed manually by downloading from the official OBS forums at obsproject.com or GitHub repositories and placing files in platform-specific directories, such asC:\Program Files\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit on Windows or ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins on Linux, followed by compatibility verification against the OBS version.[35] Automatic installation occurs via the built-in manager in version 32.0 and later, which handles downloads and placement while performing basic compatibility checks to ensure alignment with the current OBS build and platform architecture (e.g., x86_64 vs. ARM64).[35] These methods support cross-platform compatibility where applicable, though some plugins remain limited to specific operating systems.[35]
The OBS community has contributed hundreds of plugins as of 2025, hosted primarily on the official forums' resources section, fostering an ecosystem of user-developed extensions. Additionally, OBS supports scripting for lighter custom tools using Lua (via Luajit 2, compatible with Lua 5.2) or Python 3, accessible through the Tools > Scripts menu, which allows quick implementation of features like hotkey actions or source manipulations without full plugin compilation.[40]
Despite these benefits, plugins carry limitations, including risks of application crashes due to incompatibilities, such as mismatched dependencies or platform-specific issues.[41] Starting with version 32.0, OBS enforces a policy preventing the loading of plugins built for newer OBS releases on older versions to avoid compatibility conflicts and ensure stability.[42]