What Are Overlays?

An overlay is a transparent web page you layer on top of your stream using a browser source. VMSC hosts each overlay on a local web server and gives you a URL to paste into OBS Studio, Streamlabs, or TikTok LIVE Studio. Overlays push live updates over a WebSocket connection during your stream — a gift lands, a viewer follows, your subathon timer ticks — and every connected browser source updates instantly.

Free Tier Limit: The free plan supports 1 overlay. Upgrade to Pro for unlimited overlays.

Rather than starting from a blank canvas, the Overlay Gallery is a curated catalogue of 23 pre-built widgets — things like a gift cannon, a subathon timer, a prize wheel, or a live chat feed — each already wired to real stream data. Every gallery card previews the widget live with ambient demo data, so you can see exactly how it behaves before installing it. Each widget ships with two distinct visual styles you can switch between after installing, and its own dedicated set of customization options (colors, text, thresholds, timing).

WidgetWhat it doesStyles
ChatLive chat from every connected platform, color-coded by source.Glass Cards / Neon Minimal
Gift FeedNewest gifts first, with real gift art and coin values.Glass Rows / Compact Rows
Coin JarA jar that physically fills with real gifts and bursts when full.Classic Glass / Neon Goal
Like FountainLikes burst into a rising fountain of hearts, rate-driven by likes-per-minute.Solid Hearts / Glow Outline
Points AnimationFloating +/− point totals pop over the action.Avatar Pops / Coin Pills
Gift CannonGifter avatars and gifts launch across the screen with real projectile physics.Cannon Arc / Comet Trail
Top GiftersYour biggest supporters, ranked live.Podium / Leaderboard
Coin MatchA timed gift auction / showdown between viewers.Auction Panel / Neon Arena
Event AlertA simple spotlight popup for follows, subs, and gifts — no per-event customization. For per-event sounds, conditions, and animations, use Alert Studio Pro instead.Spotlight / Lower Banner
Goal TrackerAnimated progress toward any goal.Liquid Bar / Segmented
Battle ScoreTwo teams race by gift value, with customizable team names and colors.Versus Bar / Arena Split
Wheel of FortuneA prize wheel that spins on the !spin command, drawing from your Points & Rewards prize list.Carnival / Retro Arcade
Emote WallEmotes slide across the screen; gifts rain down.Slide Across / Gift Rain
Currently PlayingNow-playing info — title, artist, and progress — sourced from Spotify or any other media player.Now-Playing Card / Disc Bar
Last EventsYour latest follower, subscriber, gifter, and liker at a glance.Stacked Chips / Lower Third
Subathon TimerA countdown that gifts extend in real time.Glow Ring / Flip Clock
Gift ComboRapid-fire gifts build a visible combo multiplier.Combo Meter / Streak Flames
Live StatsViewers, likes, and followers at a glance.Stat Pills / Corner HUD
Gifter Level UpGifters rank up and get a banner moment, with a configurable minimum level to trigger.Badge Burst / Rank Banner
CelebrationConfetti bursts on milestones, with the live headline and value driven by the actual triggering event.Goal Smashed / Milestone
Announcement TickerA scrolling marquee for a custom message, with per-event-type templates.Glass Bar / Neon Strip
Dice RollGifts trigger a dice / slots minigame, with a manual “Roll Now” control.Lucky Die / Jackpot Slots
Starting SoonA full-screen intro / be-right-back scene with a live countdown.Intro Scene / Be Right Back
Live data, not fake numbers. Every gallery widget is driven by your real stream events once it's placed in a live overlay or the served output — the animated demo you see on the gallery card is only shown there, to keep the gallery lively when you're just browsing. Each widget's Widget settings tab has a Live only toggle (show nothing until a real matching event fires, instead of any placeholder content) and a Clear data button that resets that widget back to a fresh, no-history state — handy right before you go live for real.

Overlay Editor Pro

For building a layout from scratch — or fine-tuning an installed gallery widget's position, size, and animation — VMSC uses a compositor-grade editor modeled after tools like OBS and After Effects, not a basic drag-and-drop canvas.

2D and 3D Canvas Modes

The editor supports both a standard flat 2D canvas and a full 3D scene mode, where widgets exist as planes you can position, rotate, and fly a camera around in space — useful for depth-of-field style layered overlays. Both modes share the same widget library, inspector, and live data.

Resolution Presets

PresetAspect
1920 × 108016:9 Landscape
1080 × 19209:16 Portrait
1080 × 10801:1 Square
720 × 12809:16 Mobile
1440 × 10804:3 Classic

Editor Layout

Common Widget Properties

PropertyDescription
Position & SizePixel-accurate placement on the canvas (or 3D-space transform in 3D mode).
RotationRotation angle in degrees.
OpacityTransparency from 0 to 100.
Fade In / Fade OutDuration for the widget to fade in when it appears and fade out when hidden.
Live onlySuppress all placeholder/demo content — the widget shows nothing until a real matching event arrives.
Clear dataReset the widget's accumulated state (counts, history, current leader, etc.) back to a fresh start.

Using in OBS Studio

  1. Copy the overlay URL

    In VMSC's Overlays tab, click Copy URL next to your overlay.

  2. Add a Browser source

    In OBS Studio, add a new Browser source to your scene and paste the URL.

  3. Set the resolution

    Match the width/height to the resolution preset you built the overlay at (1920×1080 for the default).

  4. Done

    The overlay updates live — any change you make in the editor appears in OBS immediately, and any real stream event you receive plays out on the widgets right away.

Using in TikTok LIVE Studio

TikTok LIVE Studio requires an HTTPS URL for browser sources, so a plain localhost link won't work there. VMSC solves this with a built-in Cloudflare Tunnel that creates a secure public URL for your overlay — see the Cloudflare Tunnel guide for setup, including a persistent-subdomain option so the URL doesn't change every restart.

Real-Time Updates & Reliability

Best Practices