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Overlay

8BitProtogen edited this page Apr 27, 2024 · 6 revisions

About

If you have only one monitor, it can be difficult to chat with the guests in your room without either joining your own room on another machine or constantly alt-tabbing out of your game. That is where the overlay comes in! It attempts to show a partially transparent chat window over your game, so you can still chat with your guests.

It has some limitations, however. Games must be run in borderless mode, and some games won't like being unfocused (which will happen if the host chats with guests on the overlay). For some games, you might have to use FakeFocus, an application that forces games to think they are focused: https://github.com/KleberMotta/FakeFocus

Installing the Overlay Files

The overlay is a seperate application that runs alongside Smash Soda, and needs to be installed. Download the overlay.zip file from here:

https://github.com/MickeyUK/smash-soda-overlay/releases/latest

Start by creating a folder called overlay in your Smash Soda directory (where the SmashSoda.exe file is). Extract the contents of overlay.zip to the overlay folder. Right click the file SmashSodaOverlay.exe, select Properties and if you see a checkbox marked Unblock then check it, otherwise you can just close the properties window.

That's it! You do not need to start the overlay application yourself, Smash Soda will automatically launch and create a link with the overlay when you host your room (when you have the overlay enabled in the Host Settings window).

IMPORTANT! If you have been using the overlay prior to Smash Soda version 4.0.0, you will need to delete all the files inside your overlay file and download the newest version of the overlay!

Using the overlay

You can customize the look and behaviour of the overlay with the new Overlay widget in Smash Soda.

CTRL+SHIFT+C to toggle chat input. When history is enabled you can scroll through past messages with your mouse wheel.

CTRL+ALT+UP/DOWN will adjust the opacity.

CTRL+SHIFT+PLUS will make everything bigger. CTRL+MINUS will shrink everything. (This will only work if the chatbox is on screen)

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