A "Starting Soon" countdown that switches to your live scene by itself when it reaches zero. Start it with a simple duration, or count down to a specific clock time. One Lua file, no dependency, no external service.
Why another countdown script: most people fake a pre-stream countdown with a fixed-length video (not reusable, and it cannot switch scenes), and some existing scripts crash OBS on the scene switch. This one is a real, reusable countdown, its scene switch is guarded so an OBS API failure is contained instead of taking OBS down, and every behavior is covered by a test suite.
Features
- Two ways to start: a simple duration, or a specific clock time. If that time already passed today it rolls to tomorrow, and it stays correct across daylight-saving transitions.
- Switches to your live scene by itself at zero.
- Auto-arm: start the countdown just by switching to your Starting Soon scene, so you never touch Start.
- Optional and off by default: start streaming or recording at zero.
- Waiting room messages: rotate a follower goal, socials, or a Discord reminder on a second text source while the countdown runs.
- Progress bar via the {bar} token, warning color in the last seconds, optional launch beep, quick 5/10/15/30 minute presets, +1/-1 minute on the fly.
- Resumes the countdown after a script reload or an OBS restart.
- Scene and text-source fields are dropdowns of your real scenes and sources, so there is nothing to misspell.
- Language preset (English / French) for the on-screen wordings.
Setup
1. Tools > Scripts > + and select countdown.lua.
2. Add a Text source named CountdownText to your Starting Soon scene.
3. Pick your live scene in "Switch to this scene at zero".
4. Press Start (duration), or set the hour/minute and press Start (to time). Assign hotkeys in Settings > Hotkeys.
Why another countdown script: most people fake a pre-stream countdown with a fixed-length video (not reusable, and it cannot switch scenes), and some existing scripts crash OBS on the scene switch. This one is a real, reusable countdown, its scene switch is guarded so an OBS API failure is contained instead of taking OBS down, and every behavior is covered by a test suite.
Features
- Two ways to start: a simple duration, or a specific clock time. If that time already passed today it rolls to tomorrow, and it stays correct across daylight-saving transitions.
- Switches to your live scene by itself at zero.
- Auto-arm: start the countdown just by switching to your Starting Soon scene, so you never touch Start.
- Optional and off by default: start streaming or recording at zero.
- Waiting room messages: rotate a follower goal, socials, or a Discord reminder on a second text source while the countdown runs.
- Progress bar via the {bar} token, warning color in the last seconds, optional launch beep, quick 5/10/15/30 minute presets, +1/-1 minute on the fly.
- Resumes the countdown after a script reload or an OBS restart.
- Scene and text-source fields are dropdowns of your real scenes and sources, so there is nothing to misspell.
- Language preset (English / French) for the on-screen wordings.
Setup
1. Tools > Scripts > + and select countdown.lua.
2. Add a Text source named CountdownText to your Starting Soon scene.
3. Pick your live scene in "Switch to this scene at zero".
4. Press Start (duration), or set the hour/minute and press Start (to time). Assign hotkeys in Settings > Hotkeys.
