Challenges Overlay

Installed separately, as part of the Carousel bundle: this module does not come with the app installer. Open Module Catalog → Add-ons and press Install on the Carousel card, and the bundle installs all of its modules at once.

What this page is

Challenges Overlay is the list of challenges as the viewers see it — "The list of challenges for OBS: counters and live countdowns". It lives at Carousel → Challenge list overlay. What is on the list is decided on the Challenges page; this page decides how it looks, how long names behave and what is heard when a countdown reaches zero.

How to set it up

The page opens on the list of widgets, not on the settings. Create widget sits above it; the first widget is called Main and a new one arrives as New widget. Each row has an On air switch, the widget's name, a one-line summary of its settings and the buttons Copy link, Duplicate, Delete and Configure. Delete appears only once there are two, because the last widget cannot be removed. Configure opens the settings described below and takes you back to the list. Every widget keeps its own link and its own look, so two of them can stand in different scenes at the same time.

On air off takes that list off the stream at once, without Save: it leaves every scene and stops ringing, highlighting, scrolling names and counting down on screen, and the row is marked Off. The challenges themselves keep going: timers run, the carousel adds new ones, and the other lists and the Carousel: Challenges tile still see them. Switched back on, a timer that ran out meanwhile does not ring, its row just stays highlighted, and a challenge that came up meanwhile appears without a flash. A list deleted from the widget list goes dark the same way, even if its link is still in OBS.

1. Open Carousel → Challenge list overlay. Copy in the header copies the address, and the message confirms it: "The link is copied — paste it into a Browser Source in OBS". A size of 420 x 600 suits it.
2. The preview sits in the middle. Show my list swaps the sample for what you actually have on the Challenges page (the button then reads Show a sample), and Time is up makes the last row finish, so you can see and hear that moment without waiting for it.
3. The sections are listed down the left: Backdrop, Row, Material, Outline effect, Challenge name, Number, Time is up, Edge padding, Sound and Long names.
4. Backdrop is the list as a whole: Background, Corner radius, Padding, Gap between rows. Row is one line of it: Background, Border, Corner radius, Padding, Shadow.
5. Material dresses every row in one of the twelve themes. While a theme is on, Border in Row is hidden, and under some themes Shadow too, because the theme draws them itself. Outline effect runs around every row: in Plays, All the time keeps it going and On event flashes it when a new challenge appears on the board. Loading or refreshing the source does not flash. How themes and effects work in general is in the guide "Styling an Overlay".
6. Challenge name holds Font, Size, Weight, Color, Letter case and Shadow. Number holds Font, Size, Color and Shadow for the count or the countdown on the right of the row.
7. Time is up is how a finished row is marked: Color and Glow. It applies to the row's border and to its number, so the row stands out without changing shape. Under a theme the border belongs to the theme, and the colour goes into the theme's trim instead; under Clear glass and Frosted glass that trim colour does not show, and under some themes Glow is hidden. Event effect set to Electric runs a lightning border around the row when its time runs out, with Effect Color, Effect duration, Effect Speed and Effect Chaos; None turns it off.
8. Edge padding has Top and bottom and Left and right, in pixels: the space between the source edge and the list.
9. Sound is the slot for the sound played when a countdown reaches zero: ▶ plays it, clicking the slot opens the Choose a sound window, and Volume sets how loud. Any folder can be opened in that window; the chosen file is copied into the app's sounds folder (Settings → Sound).
10. Long names decides what a name that does not fit does. Scroll the name: "A name that does not fit stands still, then slides across and comes back. The number stays where it is." Pause before it moves is 0 to 10 seconds and Speed is 10 to 200 pixels a second, each with its number shown beside the slider.
11. Ready-made looks and your own saved templates sit in the Styling card above the section list. Open "-- Choose a template --", take one from Built-in (Neon, Minimal, Retro and the twelve themes), Mine — this overlay or Mine — from other overlays, and press Apply. Template name with Save keeps the current look, Delete removes one of yours.
12. Press Save in the page header.

When the board updates on stream, because a challenge came up, a timer ran out or you marked something done, only a new row slides in. The other rows change their number in place and do not slide in again when they swap places.

After an update of this overlay

The list in OBS does not reload itself when the overlay is updated: it keeps running the previous version until the source is reloaded. After an update, refresh the source once by hand: open its properties in OBS and press Refresh cache of current page. After the update to strAImer 0.25.0 this is what brings the On air switch and the themes to the stream.

What it cannot do

• The overlay shows what the Challenges page holds. An empty list in OBS means the list itself is empty, not that the link is wrong. A list missing from OBS altogether may also be switched off with On air or deleted from the widget list.
• Whether a finished challenge stays on screen is not decided here. That is Keep finished challenges on screen, on the Challenges page.
• Nothing on the overlay can be pressed. It shows; starting, pausing, editing and marking done happen on the Challenges page or on the Carousel: Challenges tile on the Control Panel.
• There is one sound, and it plays only when a countdown reaches zero. A counter of times or percent never rings, and a sound cannot be set per challenge.
• The Done history is not shown. Only the current list goes to the stream.
• Rows cannot be filtered, sorted, limited to the first few or hidden one by one — the whole list goes out as it stands.
• Scrolling applies to the name only. A number that will not fit is not scrolled, and the row does not grow to a second line.
• Where the list sits and how wide it is come from the Browser Source in OBS; this page has no position or width fields.
• Each list in the widget list has its own link, and it is a separate Browser Source from the carousel ribbon and from the pool bar: adding one does not add the others.