Here's all the information I know about this issue and some work around solutions.
- Software: it happens on OBS 28.0-beta1 (or newer), it doesn't seem to happen on OBS 27.2.4 (or older) and does not happen on a common browser (tested on Chromium 108). It seems to only happen on CEF (version around 103 or above), but I'm unsure if that's really the root of the problem or just a correlation.
- How to reproduce it: set the background style of "yt-live-chat-renderer" to any color with any amount of transparency, like "rgba(0,0,0,0.8)" or "transparent". Look at my other comment above for a minimal reproducible example;
- Observation: The problem doesn't seem to be purely related to CSS, because the new messages don't just "look" empty, they're actually empty. The element is in there, but the content, like author name and text message, is empty.
From googling it, that CSS property has been used to make youtube's live chat transparent and it seems to have worked fine until around last year or so. I couldn't find a pure CSS solution to make it transparent without triggering this bug, but there are some work arounds (see below).
Work around solution 1 (Luma Key)
Change the background property to a solid color like black (or white) and then use a
Luma Key filter on your browser source, adjusting the Luma Min Smooth settings to your liking. This solution is quick, easy and doesn't look that bad... for the most part.
CSS:
yt-live-chat-renderer {
background-color: rgba(0,0,0,1) !important;
}
Work around solution 2 (Chroma Key)
Alternatively, you can use a specific color like #00FF00 (green), for example, and use a
Chroma Key filter instead. You'll need to adjust the settings until it looks right, but it usually looks better than Luma key.
CSS:
yt-live-chat-renderer {
background-color: rgba(0,255,0,1) !important;
}
It's important to notice that the color doesn't need to be green, you can change it to any color you want and adjust the chroma key by setting the "Key Color Type" to "Custom" and selecting the color you want.
Work around solution 3 (downgrade)
You can downgrade your OBS to version 27.2.4 and it should work (from what I've tested). But I really do not recommend doing it just to fix this 1 specific bug.
