PitLane Systems

OBS Setup

Connecting OBS via WebSocket, adding browser sources for overlays, and scene configuration.

PitLane integrates with OBS Studio over WebSocket, giving you scene control, recording management, and overlay display from within PitLane's interface. This page covers connecting OBS and adding PitLane's overlays as browser sources.

Requirements

  • OBS Studio 28 or later (includes WebSocket v5 built-in)
  • OBS running on the same PC as PitLane

Enabling the OBS WebSocket server

OBS 28+ includes WebSocket support, but it may need to be enabled:

  1. In OBS, go to Tools > WebSocket Server Settings
  2. Check Enable WebSocket Server
  3. Note the port (default: 4455)
  4. Set a password if desired (recommended)
  5. Click Apply

Connecting PitLane to OBS

  1. In PitLane, open the OBS panel (if hidden, enable it via View > OBS)
  2. Enter the connection details:
    • Host: localhost (or 127.0.0.1)
    • Port: 4455 (or whatever you set in OBS)
    • Password: the password you set, if any
  3. Click Connect

The connection status indicator shows whether PitLane is connected. Once connected, your OBS scenes appear in the panel.

Adding overlays as browser sources

PitLane serves overlays as web pages on localhost:9100. Each overlay has its own URL that you add as an OBS browser source.

For each overlay you want in your stream:

  1. In OBS, click + in the Sources panel
  2. Select Browser
  3. Name it (e.g., "PitLane Timing Tower")
  4. Set the URL to the overlay's address (see table below)
  5. Set Width to 1920 and Height to 1080 (match your output resolution)
  6. Check Shutdown source when not visible (optional, saves resources)
  7. Click OK

Overlay URLs

OverlayURL
Timing Towerhttp://localhost:9100/overlay/pro-timing-tower
Lower Thirdhttp://localhost:9100/overlay/pro-lower-third
Battle Graphichttp://localhost:9100/overlay/pro-battle
Telemetry HUDhttp://localhost:9100/overlay/pro-telemetry
Track Maphttp://localhost:9100/overlay/pro-track-map
Timing Tower (template)http://localhost:9100/overlay/leaderboard
Lower Third (template)http://localhost:9100/overlay/lower-third
Battle Graphic (template)http://localhost:9100/overlay/battle
Session Info (template)http://localhost:9100/overlay/session-info
Event Ticker (template)http://localhost:9100/overlay/ticker

All overlays have transparent backgrounds — they layer cleanly over your AC game capture.

Recommended source order (top to bottom in OBS)

  1. Overlay browser sources (on top)
  2. AC game capture (underneath)

Scene configuration tips

A typical broadcast setup uses multiple OBS scenes:

  • Race — AC game capture + all overlay browser sources
  • Replay — same layout, possibly with a "REPLAY" graphic source toggled visible
  • Starting Grid — a pre-race layout (static image or different camera)
  • Break — a holding screen for intermissions

You can switch between scenes from PitLane's OBS panel or with hotkeys (Ctrl+F1 through Ctrl+F3 by default).

Refreshing browser sources

If overlays appear stale or aren't updating, you can refresh all browser sources from PitLane without touching OBS:

  • In the OBS panel, click the Refresh Browser Sources button

This forces OBS to reload the overlay pages without losing your source configuration.

OBS controls from PitLane

Once connected, PitLane's OBS panel provides:

  • Scene list — click to switch scenes, or use hotkeys
  • Studio Mode — preview/program scene switching with a transition button
  • Transport controls — start/stop streaming, start/stop/pause recording
  • Source visibility — toggle individual sources on/off
  • Replay buffer — save replay clips (requires OBS replay buffer to be configured)

Overlay server

PitLane's overlay server starts automatically on port 9100. If you need to change the port (e.g., if another application is using 9100), go to Settings > Preferences and update the overlay server port. You'll need to update your OBS browser source URLs to match.

The overlay server status is visible in the Overlays menu — it shows whether the server is running, the port, and how many browser sources are connected.