First, if the private data of the source fails to be created, then do
not destroy the source. If the source is destroyed, all the user's data
associated with that source is lost, which could end up being a
potential problem. Instead, let it linger as a 'dead' source until the
user chooses to fix the problem (though this should never really happen,
the source module functions should be programmed to handle this
scenario)
Secondly, rename new_frame_ready to ready_async_frame, and fix a
potential memory leak with it.
obs_source_output_video can cause cached frames to be freed twice if
called with a partially destroyed source, among other undesirable
effects; freeing the source private data right after the destroy signal
has been processed ensures proper behavior
- Add volume control
These volume controls are basically nothing more than sliders. They
look terrible and hopefully will be as temporary as they are
terrible.
- Allow saving of specific non-user sources via obs_load_source and
obs_save_source functions.
- Save data of desktop/mic audio sources (sync data, volume data, etc),
and load the data on startup.
- Make it so that a scene is created by default if first time using the
application. On certain operating systems where supported, a default
capture will be created. Desktop capture on mac, particularly. Not
sure what to do about windows because monitor capture on windows 7 is
completely terrible and is bad to start users off with.
If a source with async video wasn't currently active, it would endlessly
buffer the video data, which would cause memory to grow endlessly until
available memory was extinguished.
This really needs to be replaced with a proper caching mechanism at some
point.
This saves scenes/sources from json on exit, and properly loads it back
up when starting up the program again, as well as the currently active
scene.
I had to add a 'load' and 'save' callback to the source interface
structure because I realizes that certain sources (such as scenes)
operate different with their saved data; scenes for example would have
to keep track of their settings information constantly, and that was
somewhat unacceptable to make it functional.
The optional 'load' callback will be called only after having loaded
setttings specifically from file/imported data, and the 'save' function
will be called only specifically when data actually needs to be saved.
I also had to adjust the obs_scene code so that it's a regular input
source type now, and I also modified it so that it doesn't have some
strange custom creation code anymore. The obs_scene_create function is
now simply just a wrapper for obs_source_create. You could even create
a scene with obs_source_create manually as well.
The 'wait' constant was a terrible means of trying to ensure that the
packets were interleaved. Instead, calculate the current highest
timestamps of each encoder that's present in the interleaved buffer, and
use that as a means of detecting whether the current packet should be
sent off. This will guarantee sorting without relying on some arbirary
constant that 'assumes' that it'll be interleaved. It also reduces
buffering any more than what is needed to interleave.
- Updated the services API so that it links up with an output and
the output gets data from that service rather than via settings.
This allows the service context to have control over how an output is
used, and makes it so that the URL/key/etc isn't necessarily some
static setting.
Also, if the service is attached to an output, it will stick around
until the output is destroyed.
- The settings interface has been updated so that it can allow the
usage of service plugins. What this means is that now you can create
a service plugin that can control aspects of the stream, and it
allows each service to create their own user interface if they create
a service plugin module.
- Testing out saving of current service information. Saves/loads from
JSON in to obs_data_t, seems to be working quite nicely, and the
service object information is saved/preserved on exit, and loaded
again on startup.
- I agonized over the settings user interface for days, and eventually
I just decided that the only way that users weren't going to be
fumbling over options was to split up the settings in to simple/basic
output, pre-configured, and then advanced for advanced use (such as
multiple outputs or services, which I'll implement later).
This was particularly painful to really design right, I wanted more
features and wanted to include everything in one interface but
ultimately just realized from experience that users are just not
technically knowledgable about it and will end up fumbling with the
settings rather than getting things done.
Basically, what this means is that casual users only have to enter in
about 3 things to configure their stream: Stream key, audio bitrate,
and video bitrate. I am really happy with this interface for those
types of users, but it definitely won't be sufficient for advanced
usage or for custom outputs, so that stuff will have to be separated.
- Improved the JSON usage for the 'common streaming services' context,
I realized that JSON arrays are there to ensure sorting, while
forgetting that general items are optimized for hashing. So
basically I'm just using arrays now to sort items in it.
Add API for streaming services. The services API simplifies the
creation of custom service features and user interface.
Custom streaming services later on will be able to do things such as:
- Be able to use service-specific APIs via modules, allowing a more
direct means of communicating with the service and requesting or
setting service-specific information
- Get URL/stream key via other means of authentication such as OAuth,
or be able to build custom URLs for services that require that sort
of thing.
- Query information (such as viewer count, chat, follower
notifications, and other information)
- Set channel information (such as current game, current channel title,
activating commercials)
Also, I reduce some repeated code that was used for all libobs objects.
This includes the name of the object, the private data, settings, as
well as the signal and procedure handlers.
I also switched to using linked lists for the global object lists,
rather than using an array of pointers (you could say it was..
pointless.) ..Anyway, the linked list info is also stored in the shared
context data structure.
Just wanted the ability to be able to add private data to the properties
data. Makes it a little easier to manage data if you get updates from
controls.
Before, async video sources would flicker because they were only being
drawn when they were updated. So when updated, they'd draw that frame,
then it would stop drawing it until it updated again. This fixes that
issue and they should now draw properly.
Also, fix a few other minor bugs and issues relating to async video,
and make it so that non-async video filters can be properly applied to
them.
For the purposes of testing, change the 'test-random' source to an async
video source that updates every quarter of a second with a new random
face.
Also fix a bug where non-async video sources wouldn't have filter
effects applied properly.
A little bit of history about frame dropping:
I did a large number of experiments with frame dropping in old versions
of OBS1, and it's not an easy thing to deal with. I tried just about
everything from standard i-frame delay, to large buffers, to dumping
packets, to super-unnecessarily-complex things that just ended up
causing more problems than they was worth.
When I did my experiments, I found that the most ideal frame drop system
(in terms of reducing the amount of total data that needed to be
dropped) was in the 0.4xx days where I had a 3 second frame-drop buffer
where I could calculate the actual buffer size in bytes, and then
intellgently choose packets in that buffer to trim it down to a specific
size while minimizing the number of p-frames and i-frames dropped, and
preventing the actual impact of dropped frames on the stream. The
downside of it was that it required too much extra latency, and far too
many people complained about it, so it was removed in favor of the
current system.
The current system I just refer to just as 'packet dumping', which when
combined with low keyframe intervals (like most services use these
days), is the next-best method from my experience. Just dump the buffer
when you reach a threshold of buffering (which I prefer to measure with
time rather than in size), then wait for a new i-frame. Simple,
effective, and reduces the risk of consecutive buffering, while still
having fairly low impact on the stream output due to the low keyframe
interval of services.
By the way, audio will not (and should not ever) be dropped, lest you
end up with syncing issues (among other nasty things) specific to server
implementation.
- Fix an issue that could occur when using more than one video encoder.
Audio/video would not sync up correctly because they were expected to
be paired with a particular encoder. This simply adds a little
helper variable to encoder packets that specifies the system time in
microseconds. We then use that system time to sync
- Fix an issue with x264 with fractional FPS rates (29.97 and 59.94
particularly) where it would create ridiculously large stream
outputs. The problem was that you shouldn't set the timebase_*
variables in the x264 params manually, let x264 handle the default
values for it and leave them at 0.
- Make x264 use CFR output, because there's no reason to ever use VFR
in this case.
- Implement the RTMP output module. This time around, we just use a
simple FLV muxer, then just write to the stream with RTMP_Write.
Easy and effective.
- Fix the FLV muxer, the muxer now outputs proper FLV packets.
- Output API:
* When using encoders, automatically interleave encoded packets
before sending it to the output.
* Pair encoders and have them automatically wait for the other to
start to ensure sync.
* Change 'obs_output_signal_start_fail' to 'obs_output_signal_stop'
because it was a bit confusing, and doing this makes a lot more
sense for outputs that need to stop suddenly (disconnections/etc).
- Encoder API:
* Remove some unnecessary encoder functions from the actual API and
make them internal. Most of the encoder functions are handled
automatically by outputs anyway, so there's no real need to expose
them and end up inadvertently confusing plugin writers.
* Have audio encoders wait for the video encoder to get a frame, then
start at the exact data point that the first video frame starts to
ensure the most accrate sync of video/audio possible.
* Add a required 'frame_size' callback for audio encoders that
returns the expected number of frames desired to encode with. This
way, the libobs encoder API can handle the circular buffering
internally automatically for the encoder modules, so encoder
writers don't have to do it themselves.
- Fix a few bugs in the serializer interface. It was passing the wrong
variable for the data in a few cases.
- If a source has video, make obs_source_update defer the actual update
callback until the tick function is called to prevent threading
issues.
I was getting cases where the CPU cache was causing issues with the
allocation counter, for the longest time I thought I was doing something
wrong, but when the allocation counter went below 0, I realized it was
because I didn't use atomics for incrementing/decrementing the
allocation counter variable. The allocation counter now always should
have the correct value.
- Add interleaving of video/audio packets for outputs that are encoded
and expect both video and audio data, sorting the packets and sending
them to the output when both video and audio is received.
- Combine create and initialize callbacks for the encoder API callback
interface.
Improve the properties API so that it can actually respond somewhat to
user input. Maybe later this might be further improved or replaced with
something script-based.
When creating a property, you can now add a callback to that property
that notifies when the property has been changed in the user interface.
Return true if you want the properties to be refreshed, or false if not.
Though now that I think about it I doubt there would ever be a case
where you would have this callback and *not* refresh the properties.
Regardless, this allows functions to change the values of properties or
settings, or enable/disable/hide other property controls from view
dynamically.
- Add start/stop code to obs-output module
- Use a circular buffer for the buffered encoder packets instead of a
dynamic array
- Add pthreads.lib as a dependency to obs-output module on windows in
visual studio project files
- Fix an windows export bug for avc parsing functions on windows.
Also, rename those functions to be more consistent with each other.
- Make outputs use a single function for encoded data rather than
multiple functions
- Add the ability to make 'text' properties be passworded
