Streamer Companion Pro: Interactive Cards & OBS Stream Widgets

Streamer Companion Pro is a free, browser-based companion built for live creators who want to spend less time tuning settings and more time engaging their audience. The platform brings together three core capabilities — an interactive prompt-card engine, a stream settings calculator, and a transparent OBS browser-source overlay — and wraps them in a single, lightweight interface that runs entirely in your browser with no downloads, no plugins, and no sign-in required.

How the tool works is straightforward. The prompt-card engine draws from curated decks of Truth, Dare, and Would You Rather prompts. Each deck is shuffled using a Fisher–Yates algorithm so cards distribute evenly, and viewer-submitted prompts pass through a moderation queue before they ever reach the rotation. The stream settings calculator translates your upload speed, target resolution, and encoder choice into safe OBS output values, applying a conservative 75% upload-headroom rule and clamping results to each platform's published bitrate cap. The overlay mode strips away the page chrome and renders the prompt card on a transparent background so it composites cleanly as an OBS Browser Source.

Why accurate data matters is the whole point of the calculator. Bitrate that exceeds what your connection can sustain is the single most common cause of dropped frames, stutter, and transcode artifacts. A wired speed test, the right encoder, and a 2-second keyframe interval are the difference between a smooth, watchable feed and one that buffers for viewers on slower connections. The tool surfaces platform-specific caps — 6,000 kbps on Twitch, 8,000 kbps on Kick, and 9–12 Mbps on YouTube Live — so your settings match what each destination actually accepts rather than a generic guess.

Navigating the process takes four steps. First, run a wired speed test and enter the result. Second, choose your platform and resolution. Third, copy the recommended bitrate, audio, keyframe, and encoder preset into OBS Studio's Output settings. Fourth, toggle OBS Overlay Mode, add a Browser Source, and paste the page URL with a transparent background. Run a short test stream, watch the OBS dropped-frames dock, and adjust only if needed. The entire workflow is designed to take minutes, not hours, so you can get back to creating.

Streamer Companion Pro is built around two core engines: a stream settings calculator that turns your upload speed and target resolution into safe OBS output values, and a weighted prompt-deck system that serves interactive Truth, Dare, and Would You Rather cards for live audience engagement. Understanding the logic behind both helps you get the most out of the tool.

The Bitrate Calculator Math

Bitrate is the amount of data your stream sends every second, measured in kilobits per second (kbps). The calculator applies a conservative industry rule: your total stream bitrate should never exceed roughly 75% of your stable upload speed. The remaining 25% is reserved for game traffic, voice chat, browser overhead, and network jitter. The formula the tool uses is:

recommended_video_bitrate = min(
  platform_bitrate_cap,
  (upload_speed_mbps * 1000 * 0.75) - audio_bitrate
)

For example, a streamer with a 10 Mbps upload targeting 1080p 60fps on Twitch (6,000 kbps cap) with 160 kbps audio gets: (10 × 1000 × 0.75) − 160 = 7,340 kbps available. The tool clamps that to Twitch's 6,000 kbps cap and recommends 6,000 kbps video with a CBR rate control and a 2-second keyframe interval. If your upload were only 5 Mbps, the same formula yields 3,590 kbps, and the tool would step you down to 720p 30fps rather than let you starve the feed.

The Prompt Deck Logic

Each prompt deck is a curated collection of text prompts tagged with a format type (truth, dare, or would you rather) and an optional selection weight. When you load a deck, the app expands every prompt by its weight, runs a Fisher–Yates shuffle to randomize the order, and serves cards sequentially from that shuffled queue. This guarantees even distribution — no prompt repeats until the full deck has cycled — while still letting higher-weighted prompts appear more frequently within a cycle. Viewer-submitted prompts flow into a separate moderation queue and only enter the rotation after a streamer approves them.

Streaming platforms enforce different bitrate ceilings and encoding expectations. Designing your settings around these standards is what separates a smooth, watchable feed from one that buffers and drops frames.

• Twitch: recommends 6,000 kbps for most streamers, with a 10,000 kbps ceiling for partners and affiliates in good standing. A 2-second keyframe interval and CBR rate control are effectively required for clean transcoding.
• YouTube Live: supports up to 51 Mbps for 4K 60fps, but most creators stream 1080p 60fps at 9–12 Mbps. YouTube transcodes most streams automatically, so viewers on slower connections get a lower resolution automatically.
• Kick: recommends around 8,000 kbps for 1080p 60fps and supports up to roughly 12,000 kbps. Like Twitch, it expects a 2-second keyframe interval.
• Facebook Gaming: caps video bitrate at 6,000 kbps and audio at 160 kbps. Exceeding the cap causes transcode artifacts.

On the encoder side, NVIDIA NVENC (Turing architecture and newer) is the recommended choice for single-PC setups because it offloads encoding to the GPU and rivals mid-range x264 presets in quality. AMD AMF and Intel QuickSync are solid alternatives. CPU-based x264 produces excellent quality at high presets but competes with your game for processor cycles, making it best suited to a dedicated streaming PC.

1. Test your upload on a wired connection. Run a speed test on a wired (Ethernet) connection, not Wi-Fi. Enter the result into the Stream Utility calculator. Wireless speeds fluctuate and will cause dropped frames.
2. Choose your platform and resolution. Select your streaming platform to load its bitrate cap, then pick a target resolution and frame rate that your hardware can sustain. If in doubt, start at 720p 30fps and scale up.
3. Pick the right encoder. Use NVENC if you have a modern NVIDIA GPU, AMF for AMD, QuickSync for Intel, or x264 only if you have CPU headroom or a dedicated streaming PC.
4. Apply the recommended settings in OBS. Copy the video bitrate, audio bitrate, keyframe interval, encoder preset, and CBR rate control from the calculator into OBS Studio's Output settings.
5. Add your overlay and prompt card. Toggle OBS Overlay Mode on, add a Browser Source in OBS, paste the page URL, set the resolution to 1920×1080, and replace the body background with body { background: transparent !important; } so only the prompt card composites over your gameplay.
6. Run a test stream and monitor dropped frames. Go live to an unlisted test channel and watch the OBS stats dock. Dropped frames near zero means your settings are safe; if they climb, lower your bitrate or switch to a closer ingest server.
7. Engage your chat with interactive prompts. Pull a new prompt every few minutes, read it aloud, and let chat react. A steady rhythm of interactive beats keeps the conversation moving and signals to the platform's algorithm that your stream is worth surfacing.