Twitch Let’s Play

This mimoLive tutorial will explain how to configure the build-in Twitch Let’s Play template in mimoLive.

Prerequisite

In order to use the Twitch Chat layer in mimoLive, you need to login to your Twitch account in the mimoLive Preferences. Please refer to Accounts to learn how to do this.

Creating a new Document from the Twitch Let’s Play Template

• Launch mimoLive. The New Document window will open up and let you select either a Template or choose from recently opened documents. If you don’t see the New Document window please choose “mimoLive > New…” in the main menu.
• Find the “Twitch Let’s Play” template in the list of templates and select it. A sheet will open up at the bottom of the New Document window showing additional options.
• You need to specify the frame rate and the dimensions you want the video to be. It’s reasonable to go with 60fps and a 1080p dimension.

*High Quality means High Performance
For Let’s plays, it’s common to stream in high resolution and high frame rate because the audience expects to see the same as you do while gaming. However, it’s depending on your Mac model if is able to handle this amount of data for capturing, compression and streaming. If you see problems with the rendering or streaming you should consider lowering the framerate to 30 fps. If this still doesn’t work out you can lower the dimensions to 720p as well.

• Click on the “Create New Document” button in the lower right corner. A new mimoLive document window will open up with lots of pre-configured layers.

Configuring the New Twitch Let’s Play Document

In order to make the document work you need to set up some things:

• Find the Main Camera source in the Sources Repository on the left side of the mimoLive document window and select it.
• Make sure that the Video Source is set up correctly. The Main camera should be visible in the upper left corner of the Program Out.
• Make sure that the Audio Source is set up correctly, too. You should be able to see a peak in the volume indicator below.

• Below the Main Camera source you will find the Screen Capture Source. Please refer to Screen Capture Source on how to set it up. It should capture the part of the screen where your gameplay is happening.

*Get more screen real estate with a second display
It’s often hard to play a game and control mimoLive at the same time if you try to control both from the same display. If you connect a secondary display to your Mac this will be much easier!

• Find the Twitch Chat layer in the Layer Stack and select it. A yellow border will indicate that you are editing its parameters in the column right next to it.
• Make sure that your Twitch account is selected in the account popup “Content > Account”. If you don’t find your account here you probably didn’t log in to it yet. Please read the Prerequisite section of this document!
• On the far right you can see the Live Streaming Output Destination.
• Make sure that the Service popup shows your Twitch account. If it doesn’t please select it.
• You may need to adjust the “Ingest Server” popup to a server located near you.

Streaming a Twitch Let’s Play

Now everything should be set up for your first Let`s Play to be streamed to Twitch.

• Find the Start/Stop Show Button at the top of the mimoLive document and click it. The Live Streaming Output Destination should turn red to indicate its streaming to Twitch.
• Click on the Live button right next to the Face Cam layer in the Layer Stack. These let fade away the face cam from the Program Out. Switch it live again whenever you like.
• Engage your audience to write some comments in the Twitch chat. Those messages should appear in the Program Out.
• Once the Let’s Play is over click on the Stop Show button at the top of the document window again. The Live Streaming Output Destination will turn to green.

!Stopping the show may end your live stream immediately
Your live stream usually has a delay of 10 to 20 seconds between you creating it and the audience seeing it. This is due to video buffers at the streaming services. Unfortunately, some streaming services shut down the live stream immediately once you close your stream so that the audience won’t see the lasting 10 to 20 seconds buffered video.
It makes sense to close the event with an outro of any kind (e.g. fade to black), mute the audio and wait 20 seconds before shutting down the live stream.