Frequently Asked Questions

There are a number of questions that are so frequent that they've received their own commands on Discord, so this page is to lessen the use of those commands in the hope that someone will actually read this.

What OBS software is supported by StreamFX?

StreamFX supports all forks of OBS Studio that provide both libOBS and obs-frontend-api to plugins, as long as Qt is also being used. For example, OBS Studio and OBS.live will work fine, though the latter is known to cause extra performance loss. Streamlabs OBS is as such not compatible as they do not provide the necessary frontend calls to make the plugin work, and don't support third-party plugins.

How can I tell what platforms are supported?

As StreamFX supports multiple platforms natively, we've added the following symbols to the descriptions:

• denotes availability on Windows.
• denotes availability on Linux.
• denotes availability on MacOS.

What does , and mean?

• is used for features that are likely to break setups in unexpected ways and should not be used in production. These features are usually based on new or experimental technology and are likely to just stop working for no reason, or even break everything, and are most likely to change in the future.
• means that the feature is considered stable enough for use in production, but not entirely safe. It will still receive new feature additions and likely some feature removals, and as such should not be fully relied on yet.
• is used for features which are considered safe to use in production, and will only receive UI/UX improvements as well as updates for newer libOBS versions.

Why is 32-bit no longer supported?

Just like 16-bit back when 32-bit took over, 32-bit has been vastly outclassed by 64-bit in functionality, speed, extensions, support, and practically every aspect you can think of for more than 10 years. It has inherent limits which simply are no longer sane to support, and just cause everything to run more than 3 times slower than any 64-bit code would. StreamFX therefore no longer officially supports 32-bit, as many of the issue reports simply boiled down to people not understanding the limits of 32-bit.

The project is not alone in this decision, with many other software and hardware creators also opting to drop 32-bit in favor of 64-bit. While some have opted for a slow transition phase, others have dropped it instantly like StreamFX has done. If you are still using 32-bit-only hardware/software, you should consider upgrading or paying someone for a 32-bit libOBS plugin bridge.

How can I tell that StreamFX has been successfully installed?

If you're using a recent version, StreamFX will appear in the OBS Studio main menu bar on the next launch of OBS Studio. If it does not appear, you should read the installation guide again and make sure that you've correctly followed it.

What versioning scheme is used by StreamFX?

The project closely follows the intended meaning of Semantic Versioning, though we have yet to commit to a 1.0.0 release. StreamFX is still lacking many planned and crucial features for a full release, and as such is still "in Development". Current releases are Production-ready, except for the ones marked as Pre-release/Testing.

Will StreamFX adopt Long-Term-Support releases in the future?

Yes. While the exact details are not decided yet, Long-Term-Support will likely only be for 6 months after a new major release is out, due to lack of manpower actually working on the project. Long-Term-Support will not include new features, only bug fixes and performance improvements (if they can be backported).

What is the release process for StreamFX?

This isn't exactly set in stone, but usually we attempt to keep the same structure which roughly matches the Roadmap. It is also extremely difficult to put into readable words, as a lot more decisions go into what does and doesn't go into a release. While some rules are set in stone, others move faster than we can update the Wiki.

The short version is that we try to release new Testing releases as soon as possible after fixing bugs or introducing new features, while also backporting fixes to Long-Term-Support releases if there are any. There are two stages of Testing, Alpha and Beta, after which a release will be deemed ready for Production.