Linux Gaming Overlay | Xbox Game Bar Style for Noctalia Shell (Hyprland)

[haritha99ch]

Omni Overlay - Xbox Game Bar Style Gaming Overlay Plugin for Noctalia Shell

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share something I have been building over the past few weeks. It is a gaming overlay plugin for Noctalia Shell, inspired by the Xbox Game Bar on Windows.

What it does

The overlay is a full-screen layer that sits above your game and gives you quick access to:

• Discord widget - voice channel status, speaking indicators, mute/deafen controls, channel browser
• OBS widget - recording, streaming and replay buffer controls via WebSocket
• Audio widget - output/input volume, per-app stream controls
• Performance widget - CPU, GPU, RAM, network graphs using the existing SystemStatService
• Custom shortcuts - launch apps directly into a dedicated overlay workspace
• Dynamic island - a pill bar at the top with workspace dots, widget toggles, clock, battery, and game shortcuts

The overlay also supports an app workspace (special:overlay-apps) where you can pin floating apps that stay alive even when the overlay is closed.

Why I built this

Discord overlay support on Linux is still essentially nonexistent. I mainly wanted voice channel status while gaming, but once I started building the plugin I ended up adding more things around it.

It is built entirely as a Noctalia plugin with no changes required to the shell itself (beyond some Hyprland config). The widget system is modular - Discord, OBS, and Steam widgets are separate installable packages from their own source.

Current state

It works for my use case but it is rough in places. I do not have enough time to actively maintain it properly. If anyone from the community is interested in taking it further, I am happy to hand it over completely. It is CC0 - no credit required, full ownership.

Links

Video walkthrough:
https://youtu.be/5X6IedoSiow

Plugin source:
https://github.com/haritha99ch/omni-plugins

Widget source (Discord, OBS, Steam):
https://github.com/haritha99ch/omni-overlay-widgets

Requirements

• Noctalia Shell
• Hyprland
• kitty terminal

There is a setup guide in the README. Happy to answer questions.