A small Windows tray companion for Overwatch + Discord Rich Presence. Choose your hero, map and game mode, preview your activity, and keep the app out of the way while you play. No Chromium runtime, account login or Discord token.
The English dashboard and Discord activity use illustrative match data for documentation. The cover is a styled composition; the dashboard above is a native Windows capture, and the Discord activity capture was supplied by the maintainer. These images are not recognition or FPS benchmarks.
The original OWRPC was a useful console script, but its 2019 dependencies, map list and terminal-only workflow had become outdated. Seven years later, I decided to update it into a practical desktop companion: a tray icon, a compact window, persistent settings, current hero portraits and modern Discord activity fields. This repository preserves the old history and credits while replacing the primary entry point with the desktop application.
Thank you to Tominous for the original code
shared in their repository, and to maxicc, the
original author credited in the source. Their work made this refresh possible.
The untouched console implementation is kept as legacy_cli.py for reference;
its old network checks and catalogs are not part of the supported desktop flow.
- Download OverwatchRPC-Windows.zip from Releases.
- Extract the entire folder to a permanent location. Keep
OverwatchRPC.exeand its_internaldirectory together; Python is not required. Alternatively, download the standalone OverwatchRPC.exe from the same release. It extracts its runtime to a temporary folder at launch, so startup can take longer than the ZIP version. - Open the desktop Discord client and enable Activity Privacy → Share your detected activities with others. Browser-only Discord cannot accept local RPC.
- Launch
OverwatchRPC.exe, start Overwatch, and select the game's OCR language under Additional. Automatic recognition is enabled by default. For manual corrections, expand the Activity controls, select a mode, map and hero, then click Apply presence. - Allow up to the configured update interval (15 seconds by default), and check your profile from another Discord account.
Closing the window hides it in the tray once the tray is ready. Right-click the
tray icon for phase controls, Pause/Resume and Quit. New match clears old
selections and resets the timer. Settings are saved to %APPDATA%\OWRPC.
This is an unsigned beta. Beta.2 launched in Windows 11 ARM64 under x64 emulation and published real Discord activity with a hero portrait and match timer. Subsequent testing on a Windows gaming PC covers Russian 3440×1440 gameplay and supplied English/Russian 16:9 and 21:9 screenshots. Recognition is still experimental: every hero/skin and controlled live FPS comparisons remain unverified. Please use the Windows acceptance checklist.
- Tkinter desktop UI, notification-area menu, Windows startup and single-instance guard.
- Manual menus/queue/match state, editable hero/map/mode fields and a searchable hero gallery.
- Hero portraits and map thumbnails in an offline local preview.
- Persistent settings, match timer, pause/clear and automatic Discord reconnection.
- Optional game-process gating, enabled by default: only publish while
Overwatch.exeruns. - Current
pypresence4.6.2 activity fields: external HTTPS artwork, clickable hero image, optional URL button and application-name/state/details status display. - Configurable application ID, image keys/URLs, custom text and update interval.
- Experimental local OCR, enabled by default; no game-memory access or injection.
- Portable Windows build, frozen dependency checks, unit tests and UI smoke checks.
The snapshot includes 54 heroes, checked directly against Blizzard's official roster, and 59 map entries from OverFast. It includes newer heroes such as Anran, D.Mon, Doctrine, Domina, Emre, Freja, Hazard, Jetpack Cat, Mizuki, Shion, Sierra, Vendetta and Wuyang. Doctrine was missing from the API hero list when retrieved, so hero names and portrait URLs come from Blizzard directly.
Maps include standard, legacy Assault, Arcade, Stadium, practice and Workshop entries, including Aatlis, Gogadoro, Hanaoka, Neon Junction, Runasapi, Throne of Anubis, Watchpoint: Grimsvotn and Wuxing University. This is a reference catalog, not the current Competitive rotation, and it does not enumerate every seasonal variant as a separate map. Unlisted names can be entered manually.
All 54 hero thumbnails are bundled. Map screenshots were available for 57 of the
59 entries; Neon Junction and Watchpoint: Grimsvotn returned HTTP 404 from the
provider. Their names remain selectable and use the fallback Discord artwork.
Source URLs, original image URLs, hashes and retrieval time are stored in
assets/catalog.json. Game artwork belongs to Blizzard;
see artwork attribution.
Sources:
- Official Blizzard hero roster
- Official October 6 patch notes
- OverFast map API and MIT-licensed source
- Discord Rich Presence documentation
- pypresence documentation
The historical application ID is retained for compatibility. It is public; no account password or user token is used. If that old Discord application stops working, create an application in the Developer Portal and paste its application ID into Additional → Discord connection. Its application name determines the activity name; it is not freely renamed by this companion.
Official hero portraits use external HTTPS URLs, so they do not depend on uploading
every new hero to the historical application's asset library. Map images use the
provider's original screenshot URLs. If Discord cannot render an external image,
disable that artwork option and use asset keys uploaded to your own application.
For an app without the historical overwatch asset, clear or replace that key.
The optional button needs an HTTP(S) URL and a label. Your own Discord client may hide your own buttons; inspect the activity from another account. This companion does not implement lobby joining, party invitations or spectating: the game does not provide those integrations here. No Discord Social SDK login is needed for this local IPC companion.
Updates are limited to at least 15 seconds. Unchanged payloads are skipped on routine polls and refreshed at least once per minute at the default interval, so a restarted Discord connection can be detected even without a hero change. Pause clears presence without waiting for the next scheduled update; resume and manual changes publish on the next interval. If Discord restarts, connection is retried in the background.
Automatic scene/hero/map recognition is enabled by default. It can be switched off in Additional. The Windows build uses the operating system's local OCR engine; no Tesseract installation, WebView, cloud service, or manually selected rectangles are required. Choose English or Русский from the recognition language dropdown. The corresponding OCR language must be installed in Windows. Interface language is separate.
The app captures only the foreground Overwatch window. It reads enlarged UI regions and uses text positions, not team colors, to distinguish menus, search, gameplay HUD, scoreboard and results. Search takes precedence over a gallery or practice-range screen. Names/maps in match history are ignored. Two observations confirm changes; unknown frames retain the last known state.
Tab provides the current map, mode when displayed, and own hero name on the right. During gameplay the HUD can provide your nickname. For reliable E/A/D, enter your exact game nickname in Additional and enable the scoreboard option. The app locates your row by name rather than highlight color. Small digit shape templates supplement OCR. Ambiguous rows/counters are not published. Automatic recognition is enabled by default for new settings. A saved explicit opt-out is preserved, and E/A/D remains an independent opt-in option.
With automatic recognition enabled, menu presence also shows Solo or In a party: N players, including yourself. It counts the visible profile portrait tiles at the right of the menu header, not the social/friends counter, voice channel count, or in-match team count. Two observations confirm a change; unknown/hidden strips retain a value only briefly before it expires. Custom state text still overrides this label. The last confirmed count is remembered through search, map voting and the match, and appears alongside the activity. Leaving the match clears it until the menu portraits can be read again. Map voting shows Choosing a map without treating a proposed map as the actual battlefield. The supplied 1/2/3-player layouts, a five-player compact strip and palette variants were checked; arbitrary avatars, UI scaling and other groups need more real-game validation. No extra OCR pass or in-game overlay is added for this feature.
The offline catalog includes official Russian names for all 54 heroes and an initial subset of map names. Russian names are also used in localized Discord activity text; other catalog identities remain stable.
Stats are read from visible Tab frames and retain the last confirmed values until the next successful read or leaving the match. Hero switches without a readable selection screen or Tab remain unconfirmed. The app does not press Tab for you. A Tab press in the foreground game starts a bounded capture burst in a separate thread. Up to three frames are captured in memory while the scoreboard is visible, starting after its opening animation. Releasing Tab lets OCR finish processing those frames; holding it until OCR finishes is unnecessary. Two matching readable observations are still required, so an extremely brief tap can miss the scoreboard. Already captured game frames can finish processing after switching to the app; no new frames are captured outside the foreground game. Pause, settings changes and a new valid burst discard pending frames. Holding Tab does not repeat the burst.
A supplied Russian Havana scoreboard also validates hero, map, elapsed time and E/A/D, including changed palette variants. Mixed Latin nicknames in a Russian interface can start a second persistent OCR helper; both helpers stop on pause. Large condensed titles on the supplied Portuguese selection screen still leave hero/mode unconfirmed even though the scene and map are recognized.
This is experimental. Supplied English screenshots and Russian 3440×1440 gameplay frames cover menus, search, map voting, selection, scoreboards and results. These checks do not establish accuracy across all heroes, skins, UI layouts, resolutions or languages. Borderless/windowed mode is recommended; black captures and unrecognized screens retain manual controls. Screenshots and readings are neither uploaded nor saved by the app. Legacy Tesseract calibration fields remain readable in saved settings but are not used by this automatic Windows provider.
Use Python 3.12+ with Tkinter (included in the python.org Windows installer).
git clone https://github.com/Olmae/OverwatchRPC.git
cd OverwatchRPC
py -3.12 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
.venv\Scripts\python owrpc.py--hidden requests tray startup; if the tray is unavailable, the window stays
accessible. --self-test validates imports, catalog structure and Discord payload
serialization without connecting to Discord or capturing the screen.
The target is Windows 10/11 x64. Windows 11 ARM64 can run the x64 build through Windows emulation; its dependency/catalog self-test passed in a Parallels VM. This is not a native ARM64 binary. Other platforms can run the window when Tkinter is available, but Windows startup, single-instance guard, tray and foreground OCR are Windows integrations. Administrator privileges are not required.
.venv\Scripts\python -m pip install -r requirements-build.txt
.venv\Scripts\python -m unittest discover -s tests -v
.venv\Scripts\python -m ruff check owrpc.py owrpc_app scripts tests
.venv\Scripts\python owrpc.py --self-test
.venv\Scripts\python scripts\smoke_ui.py
.venv\Scripts\python scripts\build_windows.pyPyInstaller builds dist/OverwatchRPC/OverwatchRPC.exe on Windows. A directory
build avoids extracting a bundled runtime on every launch. CI uploads the portable
ZIP and UI previews; version tags publish a prerelease with its SHA-256 checksum.
To refresh catalog and thumbnails explicitly:
.venv\Scripts\python scripts\refresh_catalog.py --as-of YYYY-MM-DDThe script fetches live sources, not historical archives. The --as-of value
records a maintainer-reviewed cutoff; it does not automatically filter future
heroes. Review official patch notes and catalog changes before committing. The desktop app refreshes validated hero and map metadata daily in the background.
Bundled data and a local cache remain available offline.
- No activity: desktop Discord must be running with activity sharing enabled;
Overwatch must be running if game gating is enabled. Check application ID and
%APPDATA%\OWRPC\owrpc.log. Browser Discord cannot provide local IPC. - No portrait: try your own application ID; verify Discord can fetch the HTTPS source; optionally disable external artwork and use uploaded asset keys.
- OCR unavailable: install the selected Windows OCR language. Read Recognition Use manual selection when the game window or names are unreadable.
- No tray: the window remains usable and closing exits. Use Quit in About.
- Startup after moving files: disable Launch with Windows before moving the portable folder, then enable it from the new location.
- Settings reset: corrupt JSON is preserved as
settings.corrupt-*.json; fix or restore it while the companion is closed.
There is no telemetry. Release checks and catalog refreshes can be disabled in Additional. Logs are local, rotated and exclude screenshots and OCR readings. Idle CPU/RAM and in-game OCR accuracy still need measurement on a real gaming PC; lightweight architecture is not a benchmark.
Source code: GNU GPLv3. Original history and attribution are preserved. Thanks to Tominous, maxicc, the pypresence maintainers and TeKrop/OverFast. Blizzard's artwork and trademarks are separately attributed and are not GPL code. OverwatchRPC is unofficial and is not affiliated with Blizzard or Discord.
The interface and standard Discord activity phrases support English, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Korean, French and German. The system language is used by default; select a language in Additional to switch immediately without resetting the current match or timer. Hero and map identifiers retain their original catalog names. Custom activity text is preserved verbatim. Interface language does not change OCR recognition.
Activity contains the everyday controls and a local Discord preview. Additional contains language, startup, tray, timer and recognition preferences, with expandable Discord connection and activity appearance sections.
Enable the experimental scoreboard option under Additional and enter your game nickname. Local Windows OCR plus grayscale digit templates read your E/A/D row when Tab is visible. No rectangle calibration or Tesseract is required. Unknown or ambiguous rows are ignored. Discord keeps the last confirmed values until the next successful read or leaving the match. Manual state overrides are preserved. Real-game validation remains necessary before treating recognition as reliable for every setup.
Additional → Activity appearance lets you choose a large map with a small hero or a large hero with a small map. Existing artwork switches and custom hero URLs apply to either layout. The menu uses the public OWRPC logo by default.
Activity also distinguishes waiting for group roles, hero selection, the winning map after voting, and match completion. A confirmed result stops the old timer and clears E/A/D; it is not displayed as ongoing gameplay.
The Activity page shows the detected scene, hero, map, fresh party count and match timer, with a Discord preview on the right. At smaller widths the cards stack vertically. Manual corrections expand on demand. Preview examples do not change the activity sent to Discord. Settings are grouped under Additional; connection and artwork settings expand only when needed.
The menu presence includes a GitHub button by default. A custom button overrides
it. The original OWRPC mark is installed as the application icon. To also show
it as Discord's small menu artwork, set menu_image to its public HTTPS URL in
Additional → Activity appearance. Discord cannot load a local file. The preview
uses local artwork and explains any difference from the published payload.
Rounded buttons retain native keyboard activation, focus indication and disabled states. Card corners are static images; hover feedback stops after its short transition. Additional opens with the game nickname and optional E/A/D controls. Wheel scrolling works over embedded fields and expanded sections without changing closed dropdown selections. Collapsing sections preserves the scroll position; the narrow dark scrollbar uses native hover and drag feedback.
On startup, OWRPC checks the official GitHub releases in the background. When a newer version is available, it offers to open its release page. The app never replaces executable files automatically. Stable builds check stable releases; beta builds also consider newer prereleases. Checks can be disabled in Additional, where a manual check is available. Update prompts are deferred while the game is running or the app is hidden in the tray.
Hero metadata comes from Blizzard's official roster; map metadata comes from
OverFast. Validated updates are saved atomically in %APPDATA%\OWRPC and merged
with the bundled catalog, preserving reviewed translations and existing entries.
This updates names and artwork links, not live match statistics, balance data or
counter-pick recommendations. No bulk artwork download runs at startup.
If something does not work, please open an issue.
Include the app version, Windows version, steps to reproduce, and what you
expected versus what happened. For recognition problems, mention the game
language, resolution and UI scale; a screenshot of the affected scene helps.
For freezes, describe which action triggered them and whether only the app or
the whole computer stopped responding. Relevant excerpts from
%APPDATA%\OWRPC\owrpc.log are useful. Remove nicknames, personal paths and any
other private information before sharing logs or screenshots.