OBS?

[Chromagram]

Hey there, more of a request reality check than an issue. I've been peeking at the 3DS Capture scene for years and hoping something would eventually arise for Mac, considering I completely dumped Windows a couple years ago.

I think most people get a 3DS capture to either record or stream the gameplay. On Windows, Loopy provides a full application that works, but there's been an adverse issue of routing audio. Since the app outputs the audio as desktop audio, you have to output the volume straight out of your speakers on the app to pick up any audio in OBS- not good for mic feedback.

On Mac, the limitations are even more constraining. First off, there's not even a native app that outputs both video and audio. Well, katsukity made one while they were active, but their software requires a product key that is specifically tied to each capture card. With Cute3DSCapture, grabbing video is no problem. With Macs always only having a joined audio in/out port though, using a 3.5mm jack to try and get the audio doesn't work either- the Mac considers it a mic and kills all of your other audio. There's also a big issue on Mac OBS where if you use any app fullscreen, it won't show up for Window Capture in OBS (or any other streaming software for that matter).

I think you are the closest to have come to getting both audio and video out from Loopy's capture card on Mac. I greatly appreciate anything you've put together so far. I wanted to check: instead of a web client for capture, how about an OBS Studio plugin? OBS Studio is cross-platform, plugins eliminate extra resources and windows having to be open, and it would solve both the Windows and Mac issues simultaneously.

For example: on Mac there's no LiveSplit app, which is a very popular speedrun timer app on Windows. I could run it through a virtual box like Parallels but it eats up a ton of extra resources (plus with Apple silicon Macs, you can't run Bootcamp anymore). Even if that worked, it was a floating window app, so it was annoying to keep docked somewhere on Windows, and it just couldn't be captured via Window Capture on Mac (you had to use Display Capture, which is not ideal). LiveSplit also received no Mac attention, but somebody forked the code and eventually released an OBS Studio plugin. Not only did that allow me to just straight up add LiveSplit as a source in OBS without Window Capture, but it also had all of the settings inside OBS without having to open the app separately. Absolutely 100% ideal way to use it.

This is a super long way of overviewing that I personally think an OBS Studio plugin would be the absolute best way to get Loopy's capture boards running across the most amount of users. OBS Studio has both streaming and recording functions built in as well, so as long as the plugin can output the video and audio feed straight into the OBS software, it could serve every use case possible without the limitations I listed above with any other single application or web app.

I know this is a really long read, but I hope it details my thoughts and hopes on this. If you are still developing this bit by bit and want some more insight from a Mac only user who is running the latest Mac hardware/software, let me know. I can provide screenshots, details, whatever else to help showcase the limitations.

Thanks kindly for reading and considering.