Speed runs are a huge niche right now on Twitch and Youtube. Whether it’s speed runs of old Mario Kart games or speed runs of Minecraft everyone loves to watch a new record be set. If you fancy yourself as a master of a certain game, you may want to jump into the speed running community.

If you want your speed run content to be worth watching and exciting for the viewer, you will need a speed run timer. Let’s jump in and see what they are and how you can set one up.

What Is A Speed Run Timer?

You may have seen normal timers on people’s streams which is a simple countdown however speed run timers are a little more complex. The timer tracks you time at different stages of the game. This way viewers can see how well, or poorly you’re doing compared to record times.

Below you can see the different segments on a specific Legend of Zelda speedrun.

How To Set Up Livesplit For Speed Runs

In this tutorial I am going to be breaking down how you can set up a Speed run timer on Streamlabs but the process is very similar on OBS.

  1. Go to Livesplit.org and download the live split program for your computer
  1. Once you have downloaded LiveSplit, extract the zip folder and open the Live split application highlighted below.
  1. When you open Live split it will look like a simple timer. To edit it, right-click and select edit splits.
  1. In the edit splits section you can add in the splits for different sections in your game. These are usually specific land marks in a specific game or level speed run however you can come up with your own if you want. You can also set a game name and run category here as well. Click OK to save your settings.
  1. Once you have set your splits, you will need to control them and mark when they are complete. The best way to do this is with hotkeys on your keyboard or a stream deck. Top adjust your hot keys right click on the timer and navigate to settings. Here you can add specific hot keys for each action you will want to take. Once you are complete click on save.
  1. You can now start running your timer and tracking your speed run.

If you want your viewers to also be able to see the timer you will need to add it to Streamlabs. Follow the next steps to add your timer to Streamlabs.

How To Add LiveSplit To Streamlabs OBS

Follow the steps below to add your Live Split timer to Streamlabs:

  1. Open the Streamlabs application on your computer
  2. Navigate to the scene you want to add your timer too
  3. Go to Sources –> “+” –> Window Capture –> Add Source –> Name Source (Speed Timer).
  1. In the settings for the window capture select LiveSplit as the Window and capture method as automatic. Click on “Done” to add the timer to your stream.

You have now successfully created and added a speed run timer to Streamlabs. You can create custom splits for any speed run you want to do. If there is a popular speed run you see lots of other streamers doing you can probably download the template from somewhere online. Below I have outlined some places to get speed run timers for certain games and how to import them into Live Split.

How To Find & Import Templates Into Livesplit

There currently isn’t a good place to download templates as most people create their own splits. However in my research I did find one website that has been useful for getting splits. It is a little hard to navigate but if you want a template to start with, it’s the best place to go.

This site is called Livesplit.io. The site is mainly designed to share your splits with other speed runners but there is a way to get split templates. Follow the steps below to get split templates.

  1. Go to Splits.io on your browser
  2. Navigate to the search bar at the top and search for the game you want to get splits for
  1. Click on the version of the game you want the splits for. On this page you will see different speed run variations.
  1. Select the variation you want to speed run. Click on the yellow splits button to the left of the create race button and select Live Split. This will download the split to your computer.
  1. You can then drag that file on top of your live split timer and it will automatically import the splits.

You have now successfully imported a Split template. You can make your own changes to this by right clicking –> Edit Splits.

Wrapping Up

You have now created and added a speed run timer to your live stream. This can be an exciting way to get more people excited and involved with your streams. Let us know what you will speed run first down in the comments.

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