- Is there documentation on how to affiliate a source with a specific screen in a multi-screen setup? Right now I'm using the game capture mode with OBS set to capture anything that runs full-screen, and that's working for gaming. Later on, though, I want to stream some technical tutorials in an app that might be running full-screen on both monitors at once. How do I set up two sources so I can switch between them in Studio Mode?
- Is it possible to record both screens as independent tracks so I can edit them as desired later, without being constrained only to the transitions I made during the live stream?
- In this same scenario, what if I'm running full-screen on one panel but windowed mode on the other? I'm aware of the difference between game capture and display capture, but I don't think display capture is what I'll want most of the time.
OBS Studio - Free and open source software for live streaming and screen recording - obsproject/obs-studio
obsproject.com
#1: Set up 2 scenes, and add the necessary sources in each. For one, add you game capture. For the other, add your display/window capture.
#2: OBS isn't designed for this. It is designed to do full scene compositing and output -- any raw video is not included in the output, only the composited image. It is possible to run multiple instances of OBS however (search for OBS potable mode), but this requires a lot more effort and is a very specialized use case (not to mention all the extra effort to get everything working).
#3: Game Capture is the more performant capture method, and it will only capture the specific application selected, but has specific requirements for use. Display Capture is less performant, but has fewer issues with capture, and will always capture the entire screen.
- If I associate a source with a specific window, does that implicitly link that source with the executable program file, so it will "remember" that setting even if the program isn't running when I start OBS later?
- How will OBS handle an app that has multiple windows open at once, especially if that situation is fluid (i.e., sometimes it's all one window, sometimes windows are undocked and moved around separately)?
#1: It's... weird. If you don't touch the setting, it will remember. However, if the source is visible while the actual program it's trying to capture is not, it will match the next-best program, and will not switch until it is forced to (either by changing the setting to something else and back, or by having the intended program open and closing the mis-matched program it's capturing). In general though, if you're careful to always have the program to be captured running before you show the source, then it should work as intended.
#2: Generally, only the main window is captured. Take photoshop for example -- any widgets on top of the main canvas layer (such as palettes, or info boxes) will not be captured. The only way to capture the entirety of the program's windows is to use display capture. There are some instances where you can add a second window capture to grab a separate overlay window, but this is usually not the case.
Ah, one other question: If I run an app full-screen mode (literally full-screen, not just a maximized borderless window), then clicking on OBS on the second monitor often causes that app to minimize itself. Do I need to tweak a setting somewhere in OBS to prevent this, so it will accept input events without the other app seeing itself as having lost UI focus?
This is a behavior of the app, and nothing OBS can change. This is the reason for having hotkeys in OBS, so that you can perform OBS functions without having to leave the application's focus.
