Screen Capture actor (Alpha) - Bug Reports & Updated Versions

Fred

@mark with screen capture 0.94 and 0.93 on OSX 10.15.7 I get flashing windows when trying to capture using CPU from any browser. Is this a know issue, (it seems less frequent with Firefox compared to safari and chrome), it is not really useable. I have verified on a few different machines that the behaviour is the same.

Woland

@fred
I've logged your issue. In the meantime is it possible for you to work with the plugin in non-CPU mode as a workaround?

Fred

@woland no none of the scenarios will let me do that. I am using another software for this show for now.

Woland

@fred

We're glad that you were able to find a solution, even if it didn't involve using Isadora

Kathmandale

In a perhaps related but probably separate issue, I noted a behaviour recently where the performance of the screen capture actor drops significantly in CPU mode if the targeted window is on a lower layer for a long time. The frame rate would drop to about 3 or 4 fps. Moving it to the front or possibly just part of it to the front, and then returning it to the back would fix it for a while before, eventually, performance would again drop off a cliff. This was on a mac, OS10.14

I guess the OS decides a window that has been hidden for a while is 'inactive' and stops refreshing it so often until it brought back to the front.

Keeping the window I was targeting at least partly visible seemed to make a huge difference. Eventually I got a second display hooked up to better facilitate GPU mode, which I guess is always the preferred option where possible.

Fred

@kathmandale I just switched to syphon screen capture and don't get any issues even when the other window is maximized underneath Isadora. I don't think there are limitations but just some teething issues with the screen capture plugin.

Woland

@fred said:

@mark with screen capture 0.94 and 0.93 on OSX 10.15.7 I get flashing windows when trying to capture using CPU from any browser. Is this a know issue, (it seems less frequent with Firefox compared to safari and chrome), it is not really useable. I have verified on a few different machines that the behaviour is the same.

I've just tested this on my Catalina partition using two monitors and my Mac Pro 2013 trashcan (because your syphon report reminded me of this). I opened a Google Chrome tab playing a Youtube video, then:

Set the Screen Capture Alpha to display 1 and just captured the entire display
- With 'window cpu mode' set to 'on', the framerate is fine (29-30fps) but I don't see any flashes.
- With 'window cpu mode' set to 'off', the framerate is fine (29-30fps) but I still don't see any flashes.

Set the Screen Capture Alpha to display 1, and selected the window from the "window list" input.
- With 'window cpu mode' set to 'on', I don't get a very good frame rate, (around 6 fps) but I don't see any flashes.
- With 'window cpu mode' set to 'off', the framerate is fine (29-30fps) but I still don't see any flashes.

I have noticed that if I screen capture something that's a static website, the Screen Capture ALPHA actor only delivers one frame (and will only deliver a new one when something on the screen being captured changes). Youtube is constantly changing, so the actor is sending new frames at a steady rate, but so I'm not sure what would happen if you're screen capturing a website that only updates sporadically. That being said, I'd like to know what website you are trying to capture from; this may actually be a factor, so I'd like to include it in the my attempts to reproduce your issue.

Fred

@woland the website is an Ai bot that has been developed for this show. It is largely static. I will make a screen capture of but this and the syphon error and post them soon.

Fred

@woland here is a video of the screen capture flashing, it is quite pronounced. I have posted a video of the syphon version in the other thread.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/toks...

mark

@fred said:

I get flashing windows when trying to capture using CPU from any browser. Is this a know issue, (it seems less frequent with Firefox compared to safari and chrome), it is not really useable. I have verified on a few different machines that the behaviour is the same.

It is not a known issue. I am capturing right now from Safari on 10.15.7 (same as you) and I am not experiencing and black frames on my 2018 Mac Book Pro. @Woland tested this on his Mac Pro (round one) and also did not see any problems.

Upon debriefing another user about his recent show, which included weeks of rehearsals and a two week run for a paying audience, reported to me no problems with the Screen Capture actor at all -- though he was using it with Zoom, not a browser.

We need to know the exact website you were trying to capture from so we can try to recreate this issue. Please get that information to @Woland as soon as you can manage.

Best Wishes,
Mark

Fred

@woland I'll pm you the site as it is pretty of the work.

Fred

@mark I sent the site as a pm to @Woland . This is capturing with chrome and I have verified it now on 3 machines.

Fred

mark

@fred @kathmandale @woland and all,

So, it turns out this "black flicker" thing is a problem that is widely reported elsewhere. Type the following into google

obs mac capture flicker

you will discover dozens of items in the search results that show this is a pervasive problem. The OBS developers do not seem to have found a solution, which has a lot of people grumpy.

But, I believe I have overcome this problem. I have sent a new version to Fred and am awaiting his feedback.

Best Wishes,
Mark

dbini

@mark

I've experienced the black flicker when using Electron Capture App (https://github.com/steveseguin...) to send a video stream from OBS.Ninja into Isadora. Electron is a frameless, streamlined browser window that would be perfect twinned with the Screen Capture actor were it not for the black flicker issue.