Question / Help Record Window with Dialog Menu Windows

[Squagem]

Thanks for opening my post!

I am interested in using OBS to record an application that is not a game. This application has quite a few dialog menus that are part of the application, but in a separate window. I would like to also record these windows without defaulting to simply recording the monitor itself. Please see the image below for an explanation on what I mean:

The Application
Note the dialog menu in the middle

OBS Recording the Application Window
As you can see, the dialog menu does not get captured

I have already tried disabling Aero, and that will show the entire application, however it behaves similarly to the monitor capture option and therefore is of no use to me (I really want to stick to capturing JUST the application). Also, setting up a separate screen capture for each window is not a solution for me as there are quite a few windows.

Has anyone had some experience recording a non-gaming window with multiple smaller dialog windows? If so, any advice?

Some Relevant Information

• I am capturing the "Inner Window", not the "Entire Window".
• The reason I don't want to capture the monitor itself is because I am working with 2 other applications that I want to overlay on the screen, and if I just capture the monitor it will show them 2x (once in OBS, and once on the monitor).
• Even when I right click on the window, the contextual menus don't appear - this is what leads me to believe that there is a way to do this.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Lain]

What you're asking for is pretty difficult to do programmatically, you might want to instead get a second monitor so you have the space to separate stuff you do want to show versus stuff you don't want to show.

 

[Squagem]

Hmm, I see. As a workaround, I could use my laptop as another monitor temporarily - I'll give that a try.

Any plans to release non-game application recording as a new feature? So far my experience with OBS has been absolutely superb, I'd really love to continue using it. :)

 

[dodgepong]

It's not an issue of it being a non-gaming application. It has to do with the way Windows renders application windows, and the facilities it provides for capturing those windows. You can either capture the whole screen with everything on it, or capture one particular window (and not its subwindows). It's a shortcoming with the way Windows does things, and would be very difficult for OBS to overcome.

 

[Squagem]

Ahh, I see - thanks for the update.

I'll find a workaround for now :).