Screen flash¶

Flash an image on screen is a macro action that pops an image up over your own monitor for a moment, right over your game. Viewers love to trigger it with channel points or bits: a jump scare, a "GET GOOD" banner, a face filling your screen. It can play a sound too.

The flash never takes the keyboard focus, and every click goes straight through to the game, so your game keeps running underneath. When the time is up it fades away on its own. And if you ever need it gone at once, there is a panic button.

How it differs from an alert¶

Set one up¶

You'll need an image in your media library: PNG, JPEG, GIF (animated GIFs play) or WebP. A sound is optional.

1. Add the image (and sound) to the media library.
2. Make a macro. In the action palette on the right, type flash in Filter actions and click Flash an image on screen.
3. Pick the Image. The defaults are a good start: 1.5 seconds, on your main monitor, fitted inside the screen.
4. Save the macro.
5. Make a trigger that runs it, for example a channel point redemption called Jump scare. Set a cooldown on the trigger.
6. Click Test on the trigger (or Run in the macro editor) to see the flash for real.

You can also try the action straight away from the Actions page: open Flash an image on screen, fill in Try it and click Run now.

The tutorial Jump scare on channel points walks through the whole thing.

Every option¶

Good to know:

• Times are written like 1.5s, 400ms or 2s. If you leave both fades empty and Show for is very short, the fades shrink to fit.
• The two fades together can't be longer than Show for.
• Images can be up to 64 MB and 16384 × 16384 pixels; an animated GIF up to 1,000 frames.
• A sound that fails to play shows a warning in Activity; the image still flashes.
• Only one flash shows at a time.
• Monitors are numbered with the main one first (Display 1). A step set to one monitor remembers its number, so after you plug in, unplug or rearrange displays, open the step and check it still names the right one.

Recipes¶

Clear the screen flash¶

Clear the screen flash takes the image down at once. Set it up as your panic button in one or more of these places:

• Dashboard: the Controls panel has a Clear the screen flash button (it says Screen cleared after you click it). The pop-out Controls window has it too. See Dashboard.

  

• Tray: right-click the CroStream icon in the system tray and choose Clear screen flash. See Tray and desktop.

• Hotkey: make a macro with the Clear the screen flash action and a hotkey trigger for it, so one key press works even while you're in a game.
• Any macro: add the action wherever you need it.

Platforms¶

Safety and photosensitivity¶

A screen flash is fun when everyone is in on the joke. Some care keeps it that way:

• Keep it short and gentle. About a second is plenty for a scare. Avoid strobing GIFs, rapid light/dark changes and large areas of saturated red. Shake above 50 is intense; use it sparingly.
• Use a cooldown. Put a cooldown on every trigger that fires a flash, so chat can't chain them. With If one is already showing set to Skip this one, flashes that pile up are dropped instead of replacing each other.
• Mind the sound. A sudden loud sound in headphones can hurt. Start at a modest Volume and test with your headphones on.
• Know your panic button. Set up a hotkey before you stream.
• Think about your viewers. If OBS captures your whole monitor, viewers see the flash too. Warn them in your stream title or panels if you use flashing effects.
• Never in competitive moments. The flash covers your game. Turn the trigger off for ranked matches or anything you can't afford to lose.

If you or anyone watching has photosensitive epilepsy, don't use flashing images at all.

Troubleshooting¶

Related¶

• Actions reference
• Hotkeys
• Media library
• Alerts
• Tutorial: Jump scare on channel points