Effects & Overlays

Effects are everything VPE puts on your stream: overlay animations, sound effects, music changes, and text notifications. When something exciting happens, VPE fires the right combination of effects to match the moment.

A single effect can do multiple things at once. A 'Big Donation' celebration might show a confetti overlay, play a celebration sound, and display the donor's name as a ticker — all triggered together as one composite effect.

VPE comes with 40 pre-built effects out of the box, covering alerts, reactions, celebrations, transitions, and tickers. You can customize them, create new ones, or install effect packs for complete themed setups. No cloud overlay service required — everything runs locally on your machine.

Stop paying for StreamElements or Streamlabs overlays. VPE manages all your overlays, alerts, and effects locally — no cloud dependency, no per-event fees, no latency from round-trips to a remote server.

Import your existing style or build from scratch with the visual layer editor. Every effect you create runs through OBS directly, so what you see in preview is exactly what your viewers see on stream.

Your effects are yours. They live on your machine as portable pack files you can back up, share, or move between setups. No account lock-in, no widget gallery limitations.

Effects are organized into four channels, each handling a different type of output: overlay (videos, images, and textures displayed on screen), sound effects (short audio clips), music (background audio), and text (tickers and notifications).

Each channel manages its content independently. An overlay playing doesn't block a sound effect from firing, and a text notification doesn't interfere with the music. They all work in parallel.

You can also use a custom channel to send arbitrary commands directly to OBS — useful for advanced setups like controlling specific scene items or triggering OBS scripts.

VPE automatically manages what's on screen so your stream never looks chaotic. Each channel has smart rules about how effects interact when multiple arrive at the same time.

Overlays work on a 'newest wins' basis — when a new overlay fires, it cleanly replaces the current one. If the current overlay is marked as protected (like a major celebration), it can't be interrupted until it finishes.

Sound effects queue up and play in order, up to 4 deep. This means rapid-fire events like a donation train produce a satisfying sequence of sounds rather than a cacophonous blast. Text notifications can stack, so multiple messages display simultaneously without conflict.

Every effect has a priority from 1 (subtle) to 10 (showstopper). When two effects compete for the same space, the higher priority wins.

You can mark critical effects as 'protected' so they can't be interrupted no matter what. A raid celebration with protection enabled will play to completion even if a higher-priority event comes in — the new effect waits its turn.

For sound effects, higher-priority items jump ahead in the queue but won't cut off whatever's currently playing. This gives you responsive reactions without jarring audio cuts.

VPE does not just fire the same alert every time. When an event arrives, it flows through the AI Decision Engine: the event is scored against current chat velocity, audience mood, and recent activity. The engine then selects the right effect and intensity for the moment.

There are three selection paths. AI-ranked selection uses Thompson Sampling to learn which effects get the best audience response — after a few streams, VPE knows your audience's favorites. Mood-pool fallback picks from 10 mood pools (happy, hype, calm, tense, and more) with dozens of assets each, matching the effect's mood to your stream's current vibe. Manual fire lets you trigger any effect directly when you want full control.

AI needs 3 or more observations before it overrides pool selection (0.55 confidence gate). Until then, mood-pool fallback handles selection. A $5 donation gets a subtle alert; a $500 donation gets a full-screen celebration with confetti and a custom stinger. The AI learns the difference.

Build multi-layer effects that combine video overlays, sound effects, text animations, and stinger transitions into one trigger. Each layer has its own channel, timing, and priority — they fire together as a single orchestrated package.

Open the Effects tab, create a new effect, and add layers. Layer types include video, image, audio, Lottie animation, SVG, text, and browser source. Each layer specifies its channel (overlay, sfx, music, stinger), time-to-live, priority, and whether it can be interrupted by higher-priority effects.

Example: a donation alert as a composite effect — an overlay layer (Lottie confetti animation), an sfx layer (celebration sound), and a text layer showing the donor's name and amount. All three fire simultaneously when the event triggers, each on its own channel so nothing collides.

The Effects tab in the dashboard is your visual editor. Create new effects by choosing layers (overlay, sound, text), uploading assets, setting durations, and assigning priorities.

You can preview any effect before it goes live. Hit the preview button and VPE shows you exactly what it will look like on stream — without actually broadcasting it to viewers.

Fire effects manually at any time using the 'Fire' button. This is great for testing, for manual celebrations, or for moments when you want to trigger something outside of automation.

Effects ship as packs — install community packs or create your own. Each pack bundles overlays, sounds, animations, and automation rules into one installable package.

Installing a pack gives you a complete themed setup instantly. A 'Halloween Theme' pack might include spooky overlays, eerie sound effects, and themed text styles — all pre-wired to the right triggers.

Multiple packs can be active at once. If two packs define effects for the same trigger, VPE's priority system resolves the conflict automatically. Switch your active pack to change your entire stream's visual identity in one click.

Effects reach your stream through the OBS integration. VPE sends commands to OBS via its WebSocket connection, controlling scenes, sources, filters, and audio in real time.

You can connect multiple output tools simultaneously. For example, OBS receives the visual effects while a debug console logs everything that fires — useful for troubleshooting your setup.

VPE handles all the timing. When an overlay's duration expires, VPE hides it automatically. When a queued sound finishes, the next one starts. You don't need to manage any of this manually.