OBS Layer Cast

OBS Layer Cast hooks into the Minecraft client's rendering pipeline to split F3, the scoreboard, boss bars, the TAB list, name tags, other HUD elements and HUDs drawn by other mods into independent transparent layers, then hands them to OBS through GPU texture sharing. In OBS each layer is a separate source, so streamers can freely control its visibility, position, scale and filters, while the player's own game view stays unchanged.

The project has two parts: a Minecraft mod in mod/ (Fabric / NeoForge) and an OBS plugin in obs-plugin/.

Layers

Layers are subtractive. By default there is a single layer, game: the complete picture the player sees (world + all HUD and screens). In the mod's Split layers settings you choose which parts to split out. Each split part becomes its own transparent layer and is removed from game. Stacked in OBS, game plus the split layers add up exactly to the game image, with nothing drawn twice.

All layers have the window's size and a transparent background, so they line up pixel-perfectly when stacked in OBS, and each can be cropped, scaled, moved and filtered on its own.

Other mods' HUDs are detected automatically the first time they draw, then appear in Split layers (they stay in game until you split them). Tested: MiniHUD, Xaero's Minimap, JourneyMap, Jade, Inventory HUD+, Armor HUD, Immersive Overlays, AppleSkin, Status Effect Timer. A mod that only adds to a vanilla part (for example a timer on the status effect icons) follows that part.

Usage

Install

Mod — put layercast+<loader>+<version>+<mc version>.jar into mods/ together with its dependencies (Java 25 is required, as for Minecraft 26.x itself):

• Fabric: Fabric Loader ≥ 0.19, Fabric API, MaLiLib (Mod Menu optional)
• NeoForge: MaFgLib and its dependency FoxifiedClassTweaker

OBS plugin (OBS 32.x) — download it from Releases:

• Windows: extract obs-layercast-windows.zip into C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\. The folder should look like:

  C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\obs-layercast\
  ├── bin\
  │   └── 64bit\
  │       └── obs-layercast.dll
  └── data\
  

• macOS (13+, Apple silicon): extract obs-layercast-macos.zip into ~/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins/. The folder should look like:

  ~/Library/Application Support/obs-studio/plugins/obs-layercast.plugin/
  └── Contents/
      ├── MacOS/
      │   └── obs-layercast
      └── Resources/
  

• Linux: extract obs-layercast-linux-x86_64.zip or obs-layercast-linux-arm64.zip into ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/. The folder should look like:

  ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-layercast/
  ├── bin/
  │   └── 64bit/
  │       └── obs-layercast.so
  └── data/
  

The plugin needs its data/ folder (the shader that draws the layers, and the UI text); without it OBS does not load the plugin. On Windows and Linux data/ sits next to the plugin binary, as obs-layercast/data/, which is why both are shipped as a zip. On macOS it is inside the .plugin bundle (Contents/Resources/); the bundle is itself a folder, so it is zipped too.

Stream with layers

1. Start Minecraft and OBS, in any order. Either side reconnects automatically after a restart.
2. In game, press J + C to open the settings and turn on the parts you want to split in Split layers.
3. In OBS, add a Minecraft Layer (LayerCast) source. A new source shows game by default. Add one more source per split layer, place them above game, then move, scale or filter each one.
4. After splitting or merging in game, click Refresh layer list in the source properties. A merged layer goes straight back into game; its source turns blank but keeps its settings, and comes back when you split it again.

For example, with only chat and mod.xaerominimap split, game shows everything except chat and the minimap, and those two sources can be placed, enlarged or hidden freely.

A layer is only rendered while an OBS source is showing it, so unused layers cost nothing. Enable the source option Keep rendering while hidden to avoid a blank frame when a hidden source reappears.

Hotkeys and settings

Settings are stored in config/layercast.json. Besides Split layers, you can set the channel, the layer frame rate cap (default 60, never above OBS's frame rate) and the transport (auto / GPU only / CPU).

Several Minecraft instances: if the configured channel is already used by another running game, the next one automatically switches to <channel>-2, -3, … and tells you in game. The source's Channel dropdown in OBS lists every game that is sharing. To keep an OBS source tied to one game across restarts, give each instance its own channel.