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Atlas Help

Set up the Twitch overlay

The Atlas Twitch overlay shows a selection of your campaign over your stream's video. Here are the steps, from the subscription to your first publish: you install the extension on Twitch, then link your channel and prepare your campaign in the Atlas workshop.

What you need

Before you start, check that you have:

  • a JDR Ninja account and an Atlas subscription;
  • the Twitch channel you stream on;
  • a world and a campaign in the Atlas workshop.

For Atlas subscribers: the overlay from the Gobelin tier, character sheets from the Mimique tier. See the plans.

Install the extension on Twitch

The overlay is a Twitch extension: you install it once on your channel.

  1. Sign in to Twitch with your channel's account, then open the extension's page.

    Open the extension's page on Twitch

  2. Click "Install".
  3. In the Creator Dashboard, open the "Extensions" menu, then the "My Extensions" tab.
  4. Click the extension's "Activate" button, then "Set as Overlay 1". Twitch then shows "Extension is now Active!".

A channel has a single Overlay 1 slot. If another extension already holds it, Twitch shows "You are replacing an active extension": click "Replace" to put the JDR Ninja extension in its place.

The overlay only shows while you are live, over your channel's video.

Link your channel

In the Atlas workshop, open one of your worlds. In the world's menu, open the "Overlay Twitch" page, just above "Settings", then click "Connect my Twitch channel".

Twitch shows its authorization page for the account signed in on twitch.tv: check that it is the account of the channel you stream on (if not, switch accounts on Twitch), then authorize access. Back in the workshop, the "Twitch channel" box shows "Channel linked" and your channel's name.

You can only link one channel to your JDR Ninja account, and a channel can only be linked to one account. As long as no channel is linked, the same button also appears in each campaign's "Overlay Twitch" section.

Signing in to JDR Ninja with Twitch does not link your channel to the overlay: they are two separate connections.

Overview of your Twitch connections

The world's Overlay Twitch page: the Presentation settings box (overlay language, character sheet language, on-screen tabs) and, below it, the Twitch channel box, which shows Channel linked and the channel's name.
On the world's "Overlay Twitch" page, the "Twitch channel" box shows the name of the linked channel, below the "Presentation settings".

Set up the display

On the same page, the "Presentation settings" apply to all your campaigns:

  • "Overlay language": the language of the text your viewers see (French, English, Spanish, German or Italian);
  • "Character sheet language": "Same as overlay" by default, to change if your sheets are in a different language from your stream's;
  • "On-screen tabs": the tabs shown in the overlay (Campaign info, Arcs, Characters, Plot hooks).

Click "Save settings". If a campaign is already live, then click "Publish changes" in its section to apply the new settings.

Prepare the campaign

Open the campaign in the workshop: its "Overlay Twitch" section is in the campaign's menu, just above "Settings". While no campaign is live, the world's "Overlay Twitch" page also lists your campaigns, each with a link to its section.

The section shows the roster, in three lists: "Characters on air", "Arcs on air" and "Plot hooks on air". To add an item, search for it in the field under the list and click its name; click "Remove" to take it off. Drag the rows to change their order on screen. Each list can hold up to 25 items.

A campaign's Overlay Twitch section: the Session field, then the Characters on air, Arcs on air and Plot hooks on air lists, each row with a handle to move it and a Remove link, and a search field under each list.
The "Session" field and the three lists. Drag a row by its handle to move it.

Showing characters and their sheets is included from the Mimique tier. If a character has no portrait, its row shows an "Add a portrait" link.

With the "Session" field, you can show only the characters of one session. The default choice, "(none, whole broadcast)", shows every character on the list. If you pick a session, a character who did not take part in it is marked "Not in session" and does not appear on air; the "Edit the characters present" link opens the session. Arcs and plot hooks do not depend on the session.

Private arcs and plot hooks in Atlas still show on air if you add them to these lists. Check the lists before you publish.

Publish your campaign

When the lists are ready, click "Publish live" at the bottom of the section. The badge at the top of the section changes from "Offline" to "Live", and a green dot appears next to the "Overlay Twitch" entry in the campaign's menu.

A campaign's Overlay Twitch section while it is live: the Live badge under the title, the Publish changes and Stop publishing buttons, and a green dot next to the Overlay Twitch entry in the campaign's menu.
A live campaign: the "Live" badge, the green dot in the menu and the two publishing buttons.

The overlay does not update by itself. After a change (a list, the session, a setting, a character sheet), click "Publish changes": it shows in the overlay within a minute.

At the end of the stream, click "Stop publishing". The same button is also on the world's "Overlay Twitch" page.

Only one campaign can be live on your channel. If another campaign already is, the section says so: stop that campaign's publication first. You can prepare the lists in the meantime.

What your viewers see

While you are live, the overlay shows over the video in a collapsible card, with the tabs picked in "On-screen tabs". Your viewers can open each character's sheet from it.

The overlay over a stream: the card open on the Campaign tab, with the current arc and the campaign's summary.
The card opens on the "Campaign" tab: the current arc and your campaign's summary.
The overlay on a stream: the campaign card open on the Characters tab, with the party's row of characters and one character's sheet (classes, armor class, hit points, abilities, skills).
The "Characters" tab: the party's row, then the chosen character's sheet.
The collapsed overlay over a stream: only a small round button marked JDR remains, at the top left of the video.
A viewer can collapse the card: only a button remains, which opens it again.

As long as no campaign is live on your channel, the overlay shows a demo campaign, labelled "Demo". Your campaign replaces it within a minute of clicking "Publish live".

The overlay of a channel with no campaign live: the demo campaign Les Cendres de Valmorne, with the Demo badge and a sentence explaining that the channel's GM can show their own campaign.
The demo campaign in French, "Les Cendres de Valmorne": each viewer sees it in their own Twitch language.

Your campaign shows in the "Overlay language" you picked. The demo follows each viewer's Twitch language.

Troubleshooting

Your viewers still see the demo campaign
Check that publishing has started (the campaign's section says "Live"), that your Atlas subscription is active, and that the channel linked on the world's "Overlay Twitch" page is the one you stream on. In the Creator Dashboard, the extension's "Configure" button opens a page that tells you whether a campaign is being broadcast on your channel.
A change does not show on air
Changes are not sent automatically: click "Publish changes" in the campaign's section, then wait a minute. If the section shows "The last publish attempt failed", try again in a moment.
A character does not show
Check that the character is on the "Characters on air" list and not marked "Not in session", that the Characters tab is ticked in "On-screen tabs", and that your tier includes character sheets (Mimique and above). Then publish the changes.
The overlay does not show over the video
The overlay only shows during a live stream. If you are live, open the "Extensions" menu of the Creator Dashboard, "My Extensions" tab: the extension must be activated as Overlay 1, not just installed. If you later activated another overlay extension, it replaced the JDR Ninja extension: reactivate the JDR Ninja one with "Set as Overlay 1".
The overlay shows "Connection problem"
On a slow connection, the card can show this message while it loads, sometimes with the sentence "This channel has no active extension access." Your subscription is not the cause: click "Retry" in the card, or reload the channel page.

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