Connect OBS · Crossfeed docs

Crossfeed reads audio levels, output stats, and program preview frames from OBS through OBS WebSocket. OBS Studio 28 and later include OBS WebSocket, so there's nothing extra to install.

Crossfeed reads from OBS and never changes scenes, sources, or settings. It starts and stops the Virtual Camera for the live preview, and stops streaming when you end the stream.

Turn on the WebSocket server

In OBS, open Tools and select WebSocket Server Settings.
Select Enable WebSocket server.
Keep the default port, 4455, unless another program uses it.
Select Show Connect Info and copy the server password.
Select OK.

Connect Crossfeed

In Crossfeed, open Settings and select OBS.
Turn on Connect to OBS.
Check that the address is ws://127.0.0.1:4455. Change the port if you changed it in OBS.
Paste the password from OBS.

Crossfeed connects as soon as you change these settings. The OBS section shows the connection status, and the Mixer module shows program output within a few seconds. When the connection fails, the Mixer and Health modules show the reason.

What Crossfeed shows

Mixer: The program output level in dBFS for the left and right channels, a waveform, and a level meter for each audio input. An input appears once OBS picks up sound from it. Muted inputs show as silent.
Preview: Your OBS program output on the stream.place screen until you go live. See Preview sources.
Health: Whether OBS is streaming, the frame rate, keyframe interval, dropped frames, render lag, and network congestion.
Go-live checklist: Whether OBS is streaming and whether audio is coming through.

Preview sources

The stream.place screen in the Preview module shows the first source that works, in this order:

Your stream.place stream, while you're live on stream.place.
Your OBS program output through the OBS Virtual Camera, while OBS is connected. This is the live preview.
A snapshot of the OBS program scene about once a second, while the Virtual Camera is off or fails to start.

stream.place only plays your stream to viewers once you're live, so before that the screen always shows OBS. Until you go live, the screen is marked OBS · Not public yet.

When the Virtual Camera fails but snapshots arrive, a Showing snapshots note names the reason. Select Try again to start the camera again, or Use snapshots to turn the live preview off. When neither the camera nor snapshots work, the screen shows OBS preview unavailable with the reason and a Try again key.

The stream.place player shows Connecting to the player while stream.place sets up the video. When the video fails or doesn't arrive within 15 seconds, the player tries again up to three times, 3 seconds apart, and shows Retrying the player with the reason in the meantime. After that, it shows Player unavailable with the reason stream.place gave and a Try again key.

The bitrate in the corner of each screen is the rate OBS sends. The Twitch screen shows it only while Twitch is live.

Live preview

The live preview is on by default. When OBS is connected, Crossfeed starts the OBS Virtual Camera if it isn't running yet and opens it in the browser.

Connect OBS. Crossfeed starts the Virtual Camera.
When the browser asks for camera access, allow it. Crossfeed picks the OBS Virtual Camera by name.

The live preview has no audio. The Mixer shows your levels. Select Stop live to switch to snapshots, and Live preview to switch back. Crossfeed remembers the choice for next time.

When you go live or select Stop live, Crossfeed stops the Virtual Camera. It only stops a Virtual Camera that it started itself, so a camera you started in OBS keeps running.

The video never leaves your computer. The browser reads it straight from the Virtual Camera.

The OBS address and password stay in this browser. Settings sync and settings exports never include the password.