When streaming and opening a tool in WASAPI exclusive mode, instead of warning that an audio device is taken in exclusive mode, OBS becomes really unstable and eventually crashes.
To reproduce:
- Install RetroArch
- Start Stream
- Set RetroArch to use WASAPI and set same audio device as OBS.
- OBS becomes unstable(really laggy) and doing random stuff like trying to capture RetroArch in window mode, OBS ends up crashing.
- Switch to Xaudio or don't use WASAPI in Exclusive Mode in RetroArch: OBS behaves normally.
Audio does not work on stream either, which is normal behavior when a device is used exclusively, but it should not cause a crash if handled properly.
This could be a limitation in how streaming protocols work with audio devices, but i think it's worth reporting it here anyway. If it's possible i think the best way is to detect a used audio device in exclusive mode, and disable it as soon as OBS detects this behavior without crashing/stopping the stream.
Edit: I found out about this because i tried to stream a game from RetroArch, but it was causing OBS to be really unstable and the framerate on stream was really low(a new frame every 10 seconds or something) for some reason, even though OBS did not report any odd behavior or frame loss in the encoder. First i gave up on streaming the game the first few times i tried. Then i tried it again found out there was no audio at all on stream and in a minute or 10, i managed to find out that it was WASAPI that was causing OBS to be really unstable and impossible to stream RetroArch games with. The stream frame-rate loss was because of this audio issue.
TL;DR: OBS needs improvement on how it handles WASAPI applications that try to take Exclusive Mode access, if possible.
To reproduce:
- Install RetroArch
- Start Stream
- Set RetroArch to use WASAPI and set same audio device as OBS.
- OBS becomes unstable(really laggy) and doing random stuff like trying to capture RetroArch in window mode, OBS ends up crashing.
- Switch to Xaudio or don't use WASAPI in Exclusive Mode in RetroArch: OBS behaves normally.
Audio does not work on stream either, which is normal behavior when a device is used exclusively, but it should not cause a crash if handled properly.
This could be a limitation in how streaming protocols work with audio devices, but i think it's worth reporting it here anyway. If it's possible i think the best way is to detect a used audio device in exclusive mode, and disable it as soon as OBS detects this behavior without crashing/stopping the stream.
Edit: I found out about this because i tried to stream a game from RetroArch, but it was causing OBS to be really unstable and the framerate on stream was really low(a new frame every 10 seconds or something) for some reason, even though OBS did not report any odd behavior or frame loss in the encoder. First i gave up on streaming the game the first few times i tried. Then i tried it again found out there was no audio at all on stream and in a minute or 10, i managed to find out that it was WASAPI that was causing OBS to be really unstable and impossible to stream RetroArch games with. The stream frame-rate loss was because of this audio issue.
TL;DR: OBS needs improvement on how it handles WASAPI applications that try to take Exclusive Mode access, if possible.
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