A hotkey is a convenient way to quickly perform a specific task on your computer by using a single key or combination of keys on your keyboard. Adding hotkeys to your project allows you swiftly switch between scenes, activate sources, adjust scene gravity, and more. The customization process in PolypopLive is user-friendly and enables you to assign hotkeys to any alert, action, or action sequence of your choice.

Adding a hotkey to your project

  1. Open the Library by clicking the “Open Library” button on the lower left side of the screen.

  2. Click the + button on the bottom right of the Library panel.

  3. Next, from the menu that appears, select the “Hotkey” option.

  4. A new Hotkey layer was added to the Library panel. You can find it under the “Hotkeys” category.

  5. You can easily rename your hotkeys by double-clicking on their current name and entering a new one that is more descriptive and meaningful to you.

Assign a key to your hotkey

When creating a hotkey, you have the flexibility to assign any key or combination of keys on your keyboard, as well as a mouse click, gamepad, or MODI control, to perform the desired task. This allows you to tailor the hotkeys to your personal preferences and workflow.

  1. Make sure the hotkey layer is selected in the Library panel.

  2. In the hotkey properties, click on the “[unsigned]” line next to the “Hotkey” line.

  3. After kicking, press any key or key combination you want.
    The new key combination will now appear in the line.

  4. You can assign a different combination by repeating stage 3.

  5. To remove an assigned hotkey, you can simply click on the "X" located on the right side of the line, which will bring the hotkey back to its unsigned state.

If you're using an Elgato Stream Deck, we highly recommend downloading the Polypop Stream Deck plugin from the Stream Deck store. It's a free tool that can help enhance your streaming workflow. You can access the plugin by following this link: https://apps.elgato.com/plugins/com.polypoplive

Connecting a hotkey to an action

To link a hotkey, just pull a wire from the hotkey's "on Press" socket and connect it to a flashing socket in the Scene Layout Panel, or to the flashing Action Sequence window's socket that will appear in the center of the screen as soon as you pull the wire.

To connect a hotkey to an action in a specific layer in the Scene Layout panel, ensure that the desired layer is selected.

For a more organized project, we recommend connecting a hotkey to an Action Sequence. Then, within the Action Sequence, you can define a sequence of actions to create more complex responses. To gain a deeper understanding of Action Sequences, refer to the Action Sequencesdocument.

Why are my hotkeys not firing when PolypopLive is minimized or not in focus?

If your assigned hotkeys don’t appear to work when PolypopLive is minimized or not in focus, then you most likely have another app running (like OBS) with admin privileges. Apps with admin privileges will “swallow” input events and prevent other non-privileged apps from receiving them. The solution is to either demote the admin app to regular mode or run PolypopLive as admin.