A scene is a named snapshot of a complete stage setup, including all Layers, the Background, the 3D camera, Lighting, Post-Processing Effects, and the Scene Transition played when switching to it.
Streamers can design distinct layouts for chatting, gaming, or "be right back" intermission screens, switching between them seamlessly during live broadcasts. The scene picker is located at the top of the Control Panel's left column, with property panels below dedicated to editing the active scene.
What a Scene Contains
| Component | Description |
|---|---|
| Layers | Models, images, videos, and effect layers, ordered by z-index with transforms |
| Main Model | The scene's default target for motion tracking and avatar hotkeys |
| Background | Transparent canvas, solid background color, or custom background image asset |
| Camera | 3D orbit camera perspective, spatial position, and field of view (FOV) |
| Lighting | Scene light setup and lighting override configurations for embedded 3D object lights |
| Environment | Environment map (IBL) and 3D stage set, including transforms, light routing, skybox, and fog |
| Color Tone | Tone mapping, exposure compensation, color grading LUTs, and per-effect shader parameters |
| Transition | Visual transition effect triggered when switching to this scene (see Scene Transitions) |
| Presets | Saved layer layouts the stage can glide between within the scene (see Scene Presets) |
Configurations are saved independently per scene. Two scenes can reference the same model while applying completely different camera framings, lighting conditions, and post-processing profiles without interfering with one another.
Managing Scenes
The scene picker lists all saved scenes. Click any scene to activate it; clicking the active scene again does not reload its models. The search field at the top provides real-time filtering by name. The adjacent actions menu offers the following operations:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| New Scene | Creates an empty initial scene (sequentially named Scene 1, Scene 2, etc.) |
| Duplicate Scene | Clones the active scene, including all layers, camera framings, and scene properties |
| Rename Scene… | Renames the active scene in place |
| Delete Scene… | Prompts for confirmation and deletes the specified scene |
Deletion is disabled when only one scene remains. Deleting a scene removes its configuration document only, leaving underlying model files and imported media assets untouched on disk.
When activating a scene that requires background model loading, a progress spinner appears in the bottom-right corner of the stage. The current scene remains active and editable until the incoming scene's assets are fully loaded and prepared. Re-selecting the current scene aborts the pending transition; selecting another scene replaces the queued loading task. Deleting the destination scene while loading is in flight also cancels the switch, maintaining the current scene.
Scene Transitions
Each scene can configure an individual transition effect played upon entering that scene. Configure transitions in the Transitions section (Scene Switch) of the Stage row; modifications are saved immediately without triggering preview playback. The Transitions section also houses Show and Hide settings, which govern how models, objects, and spawned bodies animate when entering or exiting the stage.
| Type | Effect |
|---|---|
| Cut | Default option. Outgoing scene remains rendered on stage until incoming assets are ready, then swaps instantly |
| Fade | Cover color fades in to obscure the stage, then fades out over the new scene |
| Wipe | Solid color mask sweeps horizontally across the stage from left to right |
| Circle | Solid color mask expands outward in an iris circle from center, then shrinks away |
| Image | Fades in a custom image over the cover color, cropped to fill the stage viewport |
| Video | Plays a single video transition clip over the switch, muted, supporting native alpha transparency |
The available settings depend on the type:
| Option | Applies To | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | All types except Cut | 0.1 – 10 seconds, default 1 second |
| Cover Color | All types except Cut and Video | Default black |
| Choose Image… | Image | Picks the image from the Inventory |
| Choose Video… | Video | Picks the video from the Inventory |
If no image or video is selected, or it fails to decode, the transition falls back to Fade.
Every type except Cut starts the moment you select a scene and covers the stage while the new scene's assets load in the background. If loading takes longer than Duration, the cover stays in place until loading finishes.
Transitions are rendered into the stage output, so OBS captures them even with Stream Mode on. They play the same way however the switch is triggered: from the scene picker, an automation's Switch Scene action, Stream Deck, or the Plugin API.
Video Transitions
The video's playback rate scales to fill the configured Duration.
| Control | Range | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scene Switch Point | 5% – 95% of the clip | 50% | The moment the scene swaps behind the video |
| Fade In and Out | Switch | Off | Fades the video's opacity in and out |
| Fade In Time | 0 – 10 seconds | 0.3 seconds | Limited to the time before the switch point; 0 turns the fade-in off |
| Fade Out Time | 0 – 10 seconds | 0.3 seconds | Limited to the time after the switch point; 0 turns the fade-out off |
Set the switch point to a frame where the video covers the whole viewport. If the new scene isn't ready when playback reaches that point, the video holds on that frame until loading finishes. Changing the total Duration keeps both fades at their set lengths.
Scene Presets
A preset is a snapshot of the active scene's layer layout: each layer's position, scale, rotation, and whether it is shown or hidden. Applying a preset moves the layers back to that saved layout within the same scene, with no scene switch. Because each layer keeps a single live instance (a chat page in a web layer, for example, stays loaded instead of reloading), one scene can cover several framings, such as chatting and gameplay, through multiple presets.
The preset list sits in the left column of the Control Panel, below the scene picker and above the scene effects and layer list, with the preset count shown beside its Presets heading. Click New Preset to save the current layout as a new preset, named sequentially "Preset 1", "Preset 2", and so on. Click a preset row to apply it; a row is highlighted when the stage layout exactly matches that preset. Each row's actions menu offers the following operations:
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Update to Current Layout | Overwrites the preset with the stage's current layout |
| Transition | Chooses how the stage moves into the preset: Glide, Show and Hide, or Cut |
| Rename… | Renames the preset |
| Delete Preset… | Prompts for confirmation and deletes the preset, leaving layers where they currently are |
| Transition | Effect |
|---|---|
| Glide | Default option. Visible layers glide smoothly to their preset positions, while hidden or not-yet-loaded layers snap into place; visibility changes use the scene's Show and Hide animation |
| Show and Hide | Every layer that changes first exits with the scene's show and hide animation, then all of them re-enter together at their new positions |
| Cut | All layers snap to the preset layout instantly |
Presets record only each layer's placement and visibility, not opacity or other properties (matching Reset Position). Layers added after a preset was saved are unaffected by it and stay as they are when it is applied; layers removed from the scene are pruned from presets automatically; if an object has switched between 2D and 3D space since the preset was saved, applying it skips that object's placement and applies only its visibility.
Saving a preset while layers are moving records where they are about to settle; clicking the preset the stage is already transitioning to again does nothing. Presets are saved with the scene and copied by Duplicate Scene. Creating, updating, renaming, deleting, and applying presets are all recorded in undo history.
To apply a preset from a keyboard shortcut or controller button, create an automation with an Apply Preset action and assign it a shortcut; the Stream Deck plugin also provides an Apply Preset key. Presets can also be managed from the Web Console or through the Plugin API.
Undo and Redo
You can undo and redo scene edits: press ⌘+Z and ⇧+⌘+Z on macOS, or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y on Windows and Linux (Ctrl+Shift+Z is also supported). macOS also provides Undo and Redo commands in the application menu bar under Edit; other platforms use frameless windows and rely on keyboard shortcuts.
Undo history covers the layer transforms, primary model selection, background, 3D camera settings, lighting, environment assets, effect parameters, transition settings, and scene presets listed above. Renaming a scene through its dialog is not recorded in undo history.
History stores up to 50 edits scoped strictly to the active scene. Switching scenes clears the undo stack.
Each undo reverts one whole drag or edit: a drag counts as a single step however long it pauses; input with no press behind it (such as typing values or adjustments streamed through the plugin API) merges into one step per pause of about 300 ms; and adding, removing, replacing, or reordering layers and toggling visibility are always their own steps. Undo and redo are ignored while a drag is in progress.
Changes made by running automations never record undo steps: undo reverts only your own last edit and keeps what the automation wrote.
Undo shortcuts function only when Persona has system focus. They take precedence over Automation Shortcuts bound to the same key combinations, and holding the shortcut executes continuous steps. When focus rests inside a text input field, the shortcut yields to native text undo.
Interactive orbiting, panning, and zooming of the 3D camera, as well as automatic framing adjustments upon loading a model, are excluded from edit history. Performing an undo immediately after loading a model undoes the model load while retaining the camera's current angle. Conversely, clicking Reset Camera is recorded as an intentional state change and consumes one undo step.
Switching Scenes with Shortcuts
To switch scenes via keyboard hotkeys or controller buttons, create an Automation rule, assign a shortcut trigger, and add a Switch Scene action. Configuring shortcuts for your scene layouts allows seamless switching mid-stream without bringing the Control Panel to the foreground.
Persistence Policy
The active scene and all parameter edits are saved to disk in the background and restored automatically when you reopen the app. Transforms, camera orientations, lighting properties, and shader effects are saved directly in the scene configuration and restored in full across restarts.
Application-level settings such as interface language, tray icon behavior, global frame rate caps, motion capture inputs, and Plugin API switches are stored separately from scenes and stay unchanged when you switch scenes.
Last updated on November 3, 2026