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.

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 release type / update channel should I prefer?

• 🔴 Alpha versions will contain the latest features and fixes, and usually also the latest undiscovered problems.
• 🟠 Beta are a little bit more fixed than Alpha versions, but will still be unstable and behave in unexpected ways.
• 🟡 Candidate versions are as close to Stable as it can be, and usually only have a few known problems remaining.
• 🟢 Stable are considered to be good enough for the public to use with little danger of any problems appearing.

What does 🔴, 🟠 and 🟢 mean?

• 🔴 is an Experimental feature, which is not quite ready for use in production and should only be used in Testing. As it is an experiment, everything about it may change, and no guarantees are given at all. If you use a feature marked like this, you are completely responsible for any damages or problems that occur with it.
• 🟠 marks a feature that is more stable than Experimental, but still not quite ready for Production usage. It will undergo less drastic changes compared to Experimental features and will most likely not be removed. Using these in Production is not recommended, as they may still have unexpected side effects.
• 🟢 marks a feature ready for Production, and usually do not recieve any harmful changes to their functionality. Depending on the amount of support requests and issues submitted, these features may be downgraded back to Unstable again at will.

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 will work fine.

StreamElements OBS.live

While StreamElements OBS.live works, it is not officially supported, and usually takes several days to weeks before it catches up with the latest release of OBS Studio. If you run into issues using StreamElements OBS.live, the recommendation is to not use StreamElements OBS.live and instead just use the normal OBS Studio client.

Streamlabs Desktop

Streamlabs OBS

As Streamlabs has decided to push their own Ecosystem into the OBS landscape while ignoring the existing ecosystem, Streamlabs Desktop (previously Streamlabs OBS) ended up incompatible with every third-party plugin by default. You will have to contact their Social Media and Support instead of the StreamFX volunteer support.

How can I tell that StreamFX has been successfully installed?

If you're using a version newer than 0.8, you will see a StreamFX menu in the top menu bar. You should see the encoders, filters, sources and transitions in your OBS client if it is present, unless you did something seriously wrong. If you don't see either, you should return to the Installation Guide and read 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.

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.

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 only include bug fixes if they can be back-ported.

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.

What do the suffixes mean in Testing versions?

• a# stands for Alpha #
• b# stands for Beta #
• c# stands for Release Candidate #