Creator 2026-09-26: "the made with llamacasty flash should appear in all scenes,
not just live" and "should also appear in recordings". The presenter was
Start()/Stop()-ed from UpdateLiveVisuals()'s IsLive branch, so a recording made
WITHOUT ever going live carried no credit at all -- the exact case the creator hit
while judging compositing from local recordings.
It is now Start()ed once in the MainViewModel ctor and never stopped on live-state
churn. One start covers every scene, the preview, the stream and the recording,
because go-live and local recording are the SAME FramePump: both
Streaming.Operations.cs:68 and :199 call StartAsync with the same brandFlash:
delegate. Verified by reading both call sites, not assumed -- there is no second
encoder path that needed a "redirect". The licence gate needs no live branch at
all: IsPremium's setter already pushes BrandFlashPresenter.Enabled from anywhere.
Fixed a trap that app-lifetime exposed: Enabled = false stops the presenter's
DispatcherTimer to cut the advertisement mid-credit. When Start() was per-go-live
the next go-live restarted it; with a single app-lifetime Start() nothing would,
so a key entered mid-session would leave the credit dead until the process was
restarted. The setter now restarts the timer when re-enabling while _running.
Tests (12 facts in BrandFlashOutputTests, +2):
Credit_IsComposited_WithNoLiveSession_AndSoARecordingCarriesIt -- drives a real
never-live VM past the 5s first-flash delay and asks the frame the pump would
composite. Uses a new internal AdvanceBrandFlash seam; because Advance only
advances the cadence while the presenter is running, a credit coming out
proves Start() happened at construction.
ADowngradeMidSession_RestartsTheCadenceTimer -- asserts the premium/downgrade
edge decision directly (IsCadenceTimerEnabled) instead of sleeping through a
30-60s interval, which a synchronous test body cannot observe.
Full suite 364/364.
The credit existed only as a WPF BrandFlashLayer TextBlock in the preview at
25% opacity on a 300s timer. A viewer of the stream or the recording never saw
it, so "free tier shows branding" was not actually being delivered. The frame
pump has carried an unused per-frame flashFrame slot for exactly this.
Reverses the documented "Pre-GA posture" (ai.md Monetization), which kept the
flash preview-only so test VODs stayed clean. Creator ruling 2026-09-26: the
free tier has to be honest advertising, so it now reaches the broadcast.
One rendered VideoFrame feeds BOTH the frame pump and the preview, so the
creator's view cannot drift from what viewers get. Spec: 500ms in / 1000ms hold
/ 500ms out, first credit ~5s after go-live then every rand(30s)+30s, single
unwrapped line at a random spot inside the frame every time, neon white core
with a feathered red/blue halo.
Neon recipe is derivative work, per AGENTS.md: bright core + feathered
multi-radius halo with R and B split in opposite directions, from
https://nudaui.dev/components/neon-glow (layered text-shadow falloff),
https://help.maxon.net/rg/en-us/Content/html/Blurs-and-Glows-chromatic-glow.html
("with no displacement, the green channel is all but invisible behind your
white text" once R and B are split) and the OBS obs-stroke-glow-shadow
"feathered stroke with user-defined size and intensity". Neon blue is #4d8bff
rather than the theme's #0f3460, which renders near-black as a halo.
Also fixes a PRE-EXISTING bug found on the way: FramePump's fully-static
shortcut stretched the cached bake and returned it, silently discarding every
per-frame overlay - the social bar and the alert ticker were already lost
there. SceneCompositor.Overlay is now internal (it copies before blitting, so
the bake is never mutated) and the shortcut composites overlays first.
The credit is deliberately NOT folded into SceneGraph.GetBakedBase:
SceneRegion.Matches compares element ids only, so a credit in the cached bake
would freeze there and never expire. Per-frame only, and Epoch is stamped
every read because the 8MB master buffer is recycled - without that the
paste cache would freeze a stale credit.
BrandFlashEnabled is now derived !IsPremium and non-assignable, and the
presenter re-checks the licence on every read, so a key entered mid-credit
cuts the advertisement on the next tick instead of letting it finish.
Tests: 10 new facts. 357 total, 356 pass; the one failure is the known
environment-flaky RealMouseDrag layer test (needs an uncovered desktop
session). Adds RealAppHost.RunAsync - a frame-pump test must await inside the
collection's shared STA thread or the whole suite deadlocks silently.
NOTE: scope-check.sh flags Helpers/InstanceProfile.cs, AppLog.cs,
TokenStore.cs, WebView2Manager.cs and InstanceIsolationTests.cs as outside
this commit. That is a false positive: it uses `git diff HEAD`, which cannot
distinguish a planned second commit in the same session from an unrelated
edit. Those files are the dev multi-instance unit, committed immediately
after this one - as is the InstanceProfile paragraph in ai.md, which shares a
file with the Monetization section corrected here.
The open creator report ('I still cannot post a chat message in the TEST tab',
feedback 'Chat polling couldn't start — Mock Chat Input is disabled') was a single
cause: the liveChatId never resolved. Two YouTube API facts:
1. The id lives in snippet.liveChatId — contentDetails has no such property
(TASK 44 read part=contentDetails: could never resolve).
https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/live/docs/liveBroadcasts
2. It only exists once the broadcast is LIVE — the official sample lists
broadcastStatus=active, and our fetch ran before the frame pump pushed RTMP
(enableAutoStart flips ready→live). A ready-state list legitimately returns
no id.
https://github.com/youtube/api-samples/blob/master/java/src/main/java/com/google/api/services/samples/youtube/cmdline/live/GetLiveChatId.java
Fix: GetBroadcastLiveChatIdAsync reads part=snippet and polls with a bounded
retry (10x/2s); PrepareAndStartLiveAsync starts the frame pump FIRST, then
resolves the id. Chat stays non-fatal. Docs ai.md/TASKS.md/HANDOFF.md +
MyMistakes recipe updated same commit. TASK 44.
Good Dog: ONE integration test (GetBroadcastLiveChatIdAsync_Polls_Snippet_...
) drives a broadcast that gains its id mid-retry and asserts every request used
part=snippet. Gate: clean build 0 warnings, vstest 318/318.
The bar now renders ONE surface from the FIRST decision the creator makes —
Record or Stream — with each world being the whole bar. Creator directive:
"I wrote the fucking thing and I still can't figure-out how to do stuff",
"forget this one dog plan bullshit". OBS/streaming-tool reference for the
one-surface paradigm: https://obsproject.com (single mode toggle + context
actions) — cited per spin-guard habit; the go-live/test pattern follows
CEV (https://cev-desktop.aSean.xyz) precedent.
- Mode: single segmented REC|ON-AIR switch (SegmentToggle/SegmentLabel in
Themes/Controls.xaml); radio-exclusive world selection, one tap to flip.
- Record world: switch + Start Recording, zero YouTube identity.
- Stream world: switch + Go Live + Test + account zone right (Sign In until
connected, then avatar with Change Account/Logout context menu).
- Test is a child of Stream: procs only stream-armed AND signed-in.
- Running: one reality line "dot word elapsed" (REC/LIVE/TEST; green/red/
gold) + End; worlds + switch retire.
- Gear moved up from bottom bar, ~3 wordmark letters past the brand, single
click opens Settings/Bug/Feature/About menu (TASK 40 Unit B shipped early).
- Fix folded in: BeginTestStream now arms OnAirPillOn explicitly (unarmed
pump booted with zero encoder outputs -> "At least one output is required"
forced-stop cascade from TASK 41's pipeline).
- VM: world/reality props + RaiseTopBarModes() wired into StreamStatus,
pill, IsRecording, IsTestStream, IsConnected setters.
Doc: ai.md top-bar model, ViewModels/index.md, Controls/index.md, TASKS.md,
HANDOFF.md, new TASKS/task-42-top-bar-redesign.md; task-40 note.
Tests: TopBarModeTests.cs (new Good Dog), PillRadioTests + TestStreamTests
gates updated. Build 0 warnings; full suite 314/315 — single abort is the
pre-existing env-dependent RealMouseDrag test (Path of Exile 2 running)
Test button next to Start runs the real private-only go-live pipeline as a
session variant (IsTestStream): BeginTestStream -> extracted
StartStreamingSession(alsoRecord:false) shared with the dialog path — no Go
Live dialog, no 'last live' stamp, no recording. Gold top bar + TEST badge +
'End Test' button face; TEST drawer (third right-rail pull-out, three-way
exclusivity) auto-opens once the liveChatId resolves.
Chat tooling: Mock Chat Input sends a REAL liveChat/messages.insert
(YouTubeStreamService.InsertChatMessageAsync) that round-trips the real ~2s
poll and renders through the live overlay; simulated Subscriber/New
Member/Super Chat events inject through the poller's MessageReceived seam
(YouTubeChatService.InjectSimulatedMessage, ChatMessage.IsSimulated) — the
insert API only creates textMessageEvent, so non-text events are local-only
by design (ref: developers.google.com/youtube/v3/live/docs/liveChatMessages/insert).
Scopes youtube + youtube.force-ssl already cover insert; no re-consent.
Good Dog: ytLive.Tests/TestStreamTests.cs — coordinator protocol with fake
HTTP + real-window drawer exclusivity/gate. 0 warnings; 314/314 pass (clean
run; intermittent host abort is the pre-existing WinRT-webcam flake).
Docs ride in the same change: TASKS.md row 41, TASKS/task-41-test-stream-mode.md,
ai.md (YouTube Live API constraints), HANDOFF rewrite.
The ~30Hz CapturePreviewAsync PNG poll capped real cadence at ~20Hz
(35–165ms full-HD encode+decode), so a 60fps widget still juddered at ~1/6
speed. Replaced polling with frame-driven capture of the composition
controller's root visual — the mechanism WebView2CompositionControl and
Flutter's webview_windows use (graphics_context.cc captures the root
surface_ visual via CreateGraphicsCaptureItemFromVisual; reference:
github.com/microsoft/Windows.UI.Composition.WinUI / flutter-internal
webview_windows). Frames now arrive at the renderer's own pace; capture
memory is epoch'd ring reuse + one crop-sized shared WriteableBitmap.
New Services/WebCaptureFrameSource.cs owns GraphicsCaptureItem + free-
threaded Direct3D11CaptureFramePool + session (Straight alpha readback,
per-frame FindContentBounds → CropBounds). WebView2Manager reworked around
per-session composition controllers + one UI-thread Compositor created via
the CoreMessaging CreateDispatcherQueueController P/Invoke (the 19041
projection lacks CreateOnCurrentThread); internal seam ctor
(Dispatcher, Func<string,IScreenCaptureSource>?) for hermetic tests.
CaptureScheduler.cs deleted; the three SetCaptureInterval cadence hooks
removed; InitWebView2() moved from MainWindow ctor to Loaded (a parent
HWND must exist for the composition controller); the hidden WebViewHostPanel
overlay deleted. TransparentBackgroundScript unchanged.
Tests: WebView2ManagerTests reworked — 4 control-size + scheduler tests
dropped, FindContentBounds tests moved to WebCaptureFrameSource, ONE
integration test (Frames_PublishCroppedPreview_And_CoalesceToLatest_CarryingCropBounds)
drives the seam with a FakeWebSource + background-STA DispatcherPump.
Suite 293/293, 0 warnings.
NOTE: composition path NOT yet verified on a device — the take is the
next step. Web work committed locally only (no push per standing rule).
Docs same-commit: ai.md Slice 14 + supersede marker on Slice 11, HANDOFF,
MyMistakes (CoreMessaging DQ + namespace-landmine recipe), TASK 17,
Controls/ViewModels/Services indexes.
The recording is 60fps but WebView2 capture was a blind 100ms DispatcherTimer = 10Hz;
each captured web frame repeated ~6x into the file caps web animation at the capture
rate, not the page's (user: 'the animation appears to be too slow').
- New CaptureScheduler (Services/CaptureScheduler.cs): per-session dispatcher timer
that DROPS a tick while a capture is in flight (latest-wins, never queues) — the
guard that makes a higher cadence safe: concurrent full-HD PNG CapturePreviewAsync
calls (~10-30ms each, slow per WebView2Feedback#20) would stack CPU and publish
stale-after-fresh. Effective cadence = max(interval, capture duration).
- Cadence: SetCaptureInterval(33) on record/stream start, (200) idle — applied via
MainViewModel.Streaming.Operations.cs.
- De-throttle the hidden page: shared CoreWebView2Environment created BEFORE
EnsureCoreWebView2Async with --disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows
--disable-renderer-backgrounding --disable-features=CalculateNativeWinOcclusion.
Off-screen WebView2 is a hidden page when the host window is unfocused/covered and
Chromium then parks rAF and clamps timers to ~1s (WebView2Feedback#1172/#3070,
Chrome-88 timer-throttling blog).
- Telemetry: first 30 captures per session log elapsed ms (PNG encode + decode) to
startup.log — that decides whether ~30Hz stays or drops to ~20Hz; the FramePump
drops frames (never time-lapses, slice 10) if UI-thread GC churn starves it.
- ONE test: CaptureScheduler_Drops_Ticks_While_Capture_InFlight_And_Resumes
(deterministic TCS-driven, no WebView2 runtime). Suite 290/291 — sole failure the
pre-existing compositor pixel test.
- Docs same-commit: ai.md slice 11, MyMistakes.md, HANDOFF.
References: https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/1172https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/3070https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/20https://developer.chrome.com/blog/timer-throttling-in-chrome-88
Take two (2026-09-01) three confirmed defects, all from creator feedback + the
new resolver logging:
1. NO WEBCAM IN OUTPUT: WebcamSceneConfig.WebcamId carries the identity GUID;
CameraManager keys sessions by DEVICE id — GetLatestFrame(guid) returned null
forever, the compositor silently dropped the layer while the preview (bitmap
path) looked fine. The resolver logging added in 8dcaee0 caught it red-handed.
DeviceKeyForWebcam maps identity->device through the _webcam singleton (identity
mismatch / unknown ids pass through). Test: WebcamOutputKeyTests.
2. START BUTTON VANISHED AFTER STOP: my pills-clear ruling met the old
ShowPrimaryStartButton gate (needed IsConnected or a lit REC pill) — signed-out,
pills-off = blank top bar, no session reachable. Start is now ALWAYS the idle
face; unarmed Start records (local needs no account — no dead-end no-op); the
Sign In button folds into Start's context menu ('Sign in to YouTube', shown while
disconnected) with a dedicated SignInCommand. SessionTeardownTests extended:
stopped session must leave a reachable Start.
3. TOP BAR ORDER (creator spec): [sign light] REC [pill] [sign light] ON-AIR [pill]
— each reality lamp now sits in front of its own intent switch (was: two pills,
then two orphaned dots). Sign labels keep the shared StatusSignText style.
Tests: WebcamOutputKey, SessionTeardown, FramePump, WebcamMenuGate, GlobalHotkey,
BroadcastPullOut — 14/14 across the six classes, clean build 0 warnings.
Creator ruling 2026-09-01 (stuck REC pill after the failed first recording):
- StopStream clears RecordPillOn + OnAirPillOn — intent resets with reality.
- OnFramePumpFailed: dispatcher-marshalled FULL rollback via StopStream (was:
toast + Error-status only when live — record-only sessions zombied with
IsRecording=true over a dead encoder; the 20:34 attempt proved it). Toast copy
says 'Recording stopped' vs 'stream pipeline stopped'.
- Same zombie class in the three go-live prep failure branches: StreamStatus.Error
limbo replaced by StopStream() (audio loop + recording + pills unwind; a created
broadcast still gets the close-out).
- AudioMixer.StopLive made explicitly idempotent (Stop() twice, rollback paths that
never reached StartLive).
- Seams: OnFramePumpFailed + IsRecording setter internal (InternalsVisibleTo; test
pattern mirrors LayoutPathOverride).
ONE integration test: SessionTeardownTests (real window + temp DB: pump death with
lit pill -> no zombie, no End button, Offline). AudioPipelineTests confirmed to hang
STANDALONE (pre-existing, the declared-known audio class) — ai.md test-count
paragraph corrected to stop claiming a suite total that cannot currently be measured.
The specced 'End stream -> transition(complete)' call never existed: stopping relied
entirely on enableAutoStop (viewers sat on a frozen stream-offline for ~a minute, VOD
finalized late). Found during the 2026-09-01 recording-verification pass while the
creator asked 'if there's proper close-out info yt needs, we'll provide it?'
EndBroadcastAsync POSTs liveBroadcasts/transition?broadcastStatus=complete&id=..&part=status,
called after the pump stops (RTMP EOF first) and only when a live session had a broadcast —
record-only stops stay offline. invalidTransition/410 (autoStop already ended it) is logged
and returned as an error string, never thrown: a stop must never fail over close-out.
ONE integration test (URL shape + never-throws on 403). ai.md/TASKS.md design lines marked
SHIPPED with the map-lie note.
Ref: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/live/docs/liveBroadcasts/transition
The original premise (extract FFmpegEncoder / StreamHealthMonitor / FramePump
classes) was a no-op — those already exist as Services/Encoder/FfmpegEncoder.cs
and Services/Encoder/FramePump.cs. The honest functional seam was the local
recording-output concern, which was interleaved with live-stream orchestration:
- New MainViewModel.Recording.cs (121): StartRecordFile, FinalizeRecordingAsync,
UniquePath, ChooseRecordFolder, ResetRecordFolder, DefaultRecordFolder + the
recording fields (_recordFolder, RecordFolderDisplay, _activeRecordPath,
_recordStartTime, _recordLength).
- MainViewModel.Streaming.Operations.cs 475 -> 377 (keeps live session lifecycle,
health, visuals).
- MainViewModel.Streaming.cs 328 -> 323 (keeps pills/state/properties intact).
Same partial class — all MVVM bound-property glue untouched, no behavior change.
Build 0 warnings; 246 pass, only the 2 known failures.
Docs: ViewModels/index.md tracker updated in same commit.
Streaming.cs 789 -> 330. Moved the go-live/record/health operation bodies into a
new MainViewModel.Streaming.Operations.cs partial (459 lines: StartSession,
BeginRecordOnly, BeginGoLive, StartRecordFile, PrepareAndStartLiveAsync,
PollHealthAsync/OnHealthPollTick/ApplyHealthIssue, StopStream,
FinalizeRecordingAsync, UniquePath, Choose/ResetRecordFolder, DefaultRecordFolder,
OnFramePumpFailed/HealthUpdated, ApplyHealth, ResetHealth, BuildEncoderOptions).
Streaming.cs keeps state, quality/resolution tiers, session timer, command
declarations. Pruned dead usings in both files.
Zero behavior change; build 0 warnings; 246 pass, only the 2 known failures.
Docs: ViewModels/index.md Phase 3 tracker updated in same commit.
gramps