OBS Studio

The OBS Studio integration connects Macro Deck to OBS through the WebSocket server that is built into OBS (obs-websocket 5). Once it is connected, your buttons can control almost everything you do in OBS during a stream, and OBS reports back what changes so your deck always shows the current state.

What you can do

• Switch the program scene, the studio-mode preview scene, the profile or the scene collection.
• Start, stop or toggle streaming, recording, the replay buffer and the virtual camera, save a replay, pause a recording, split the recording file or add a chapter marker.
• Show or hide a source in a scene, enable or disable a filter, mute an input or change its volume in percent or dB.
• Change a setting of a source, for example the text of a text source, the file of an image or media source, or the URL of a browser source.
• Start and stop any OBS output by name, including outputs that plugins add.

Some example setups:

• A BRB button that switches to your BRB scene and mutes your microphone.
• A Record button that toggles recording and shows whether OBS is recording, paused or stopped.
• A slider bound to the obs_<input>_volume variable of your music input, so moving the slider changes the volume in OBS.
• A flow that runs when OBS reports Streaming Started and sends you a notification.

How it behaves

Macro Deck listens to the events OBS sends, so variables such as the current scene, mute states and filter states update within a fraction of a second after you change them in OBS. Toggle buttons light up while their state is active, also when you change it in OBS itself. Statistics like FPS, CPU usage, bitrate and dropped frames are read every one or two seconds.

Besides the fixed variables, the variable picker lists each input, scene, scene item and filter of the connected OBS, with its volume, mute state, visibility or enabled state. Triggers react to scene changes, recording and streaming changes, saved replays and screenshots, inputs becoming active, and custom events that your own OBS scripts broadcast.

You can add more than one configuration, for example one for your streaming PC and one for your gaming PC. Each configuration gets its own set of variables, and every action has a Configuration field to choose which OBS it controls. When OBS closes or the network drops, Macro Deck keeps trying to reconnect and fires Disconnected and Connected triggers.