Windows
Starting with OBS Studio 33.0 we are updating how OBS Studio handles loading plugins. Plugins that are installed to the old locations will still work but will be flagged with a Legacy indicator in the plugin manager. In the future these plugins will not be loaded. Plugin authors should update their plugin installers and guidance with the following information.
First party modules are now in a new core folder and only official plugins will be loaded from this folder. As part of this shift, we are also unifying where third-party plugins are loaded from and the folder structure for them.
OBS Studio will attempt the new location and folder structure first. If a plugin is loaded successfully, it will skip the same plugin if it is later found in a legacy location or folder structure.
These are the locations that OBS Studio will attempt to load a plugin named example-plugin
New Format
Module C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\example-plugin.dll
Data C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\data\*This was the previous recommended location but now has a slightly different folder structure.
Going forward this will be the only supported location and structure for plugins.
ProgramData (Legacy)
Module C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\bin\64bit\example-plugin.dll
Data C:\ProgramData\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\data\*If you have a plugin installed to this location, you can easily resolve it being flagged as legacy by taking everything in the 64bit folder and moving it up to the main plugin folder next to data.
Program Files (Legacy)
Module C:\Program Files\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\bin\64bit\example-plugin.dll
Data C:\Program Files\obs-studio\data\obs-plugins\example-plugin\*This is the location many plugins are incorrectly installed to and they will not be loaded in OBS Studio 34.0 onwards.
Plugin authors should update their installers or zip distributions for the ProgramData structure.
If you wish to fix your existing plugins being flagged as Legacy you will have to set up the folders yourself.
Windows (Portable)
When using Portable mode, OBS Studio will now load plugins from a new folder named plugins in the root directory of the installation with the same updated folder structure.
Plugins placed in a folder named obs-plugins will continue to be loaded but flagged as Legacy and not load in the future.
Plugins in the ProgramData folder will be ignored by portable launches.
Module G:\portable\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\example-plugin.dll
Data G:\portable\obs-studio\plugins\example-plugin\data\*macOS
Plugin locations on macOS have not been changed.
Linux
Details coming soon.