Creator's Release take `ty-20261109-1142-036-0005.mp4` (1080×1920 @ 30, 300 s) measured by cropping the
webcam tile and diffing frames: 29.8 distinct images/s overall, median 30 s window 30.0/s, worst 24/s,
one 4-frame repeat run in 9026 frames. The app's own lines agree (`webcam 28.4–30.0/s` against camera
`arrivals 29.9–30.1/s`).
- The 25.6/s failure recorded on the 2026-10-05 16:9 take does **not** reproduce in the vertical tier,
so the vertical take no longer blocks the cadence units.
- Recorded the measurement trap in `frame-pipeline.md`: a threshold of 1.0 on a downscaled tile
reports long "0.0/s" stretches during low motion — duplicates sit below 0.02, a still face at
0.3–0.7. Read the histogram before believing a count.
- Vertical-tier camera check reported 1–6 pass; both creator-hands items in TASKS.md are closed.
(The mic being off for the first 2:42 does not affect video cadence.)
Creator was recording on the Release build and hit "Couldn't start the audio — another copy of
LlamaCasty is already using the audio pipe" when going live on Debug. The guard did its job (no
crash), but the collision should not have been possible: the pipe name only suffixed when
`YTLIVE_INSTANCE` was set, and a Debug launched straight from the IDE has no id — so it asked for
the same `ytllive_audio` the Release build was serving.
DEBUG now always suffixes: the claimed instance id when there is one, otherwise the process id. Any
number of dev builds can run beside the Release app, and each Debug process is distinct from every
other. Release is unchanged — it resolves to the plain name, and the whole mechanism disappears in
`#if DEBUG` as before.
`TryStartAudioPipe` now logs the resolved name (`Audio pipe: …`), so the next report of this kind is
one grep instead of a code hunt.
Tests: AudioPipeInstanceTests pins that an id-less DEBUG process never resolves to the bare name;
572 green, 0 warnings.
Reported 2026-11-06: a Release instance crashed when clicking Go Live in test mode, while a Debug
instance was recording its window. The Windows event log gave the cause:
System.IO.IOException: All pipe instances are busy.
at System.IO.Pipes.NamedPipeServerStream.Create(...)
at ytLive.Services.Audio.NamedPipeAudioWriter.Start(...)
at ytLive.Services.Audio.AudioMixer.StartLive(...)
at MainViewModel.StartStreamingSession(...)
at MainViewModel.BeginTestStream(...)
at MainViewModel.StartFromPrimaryButton(...)
at System.Windows.Controls.Button.OnClick()
Two defects, both fixed:
1. **A button click could end the process.** `StartLive` throws when the pipe name is taken, and nothing
on the go-live path caught it. `TryStartAudioPipe` now catches, logs, toasts ("Another copy of
LlamaCasty is already using the audio pipe") and rolls the session back. Recording-only takes the same
path.
2. **The pipe name was a shared constant**, so a second instance could never go live on the same machine.
`InstanceProfile.AudioPipeName` appends the dev instance id (DEBUG only); Release keeps the plain name
so the normal single-instance case is unchanged. The encoder reads the same derived name, so mixer and
ffmpeg cannot disagree.
Tests: `AudioPipeInstanceTests` — a second server on one name throws (the collision is real), dev names
derive per instance, and a writer on a taken name throws rather than silently reusing the pipe.
Debug and Release both build clean.
The docs described Steamworks onboarding as pending work. It is pending VALVE: the partner account
exists, identity verification is under review, and the tax interview is in their queue with a quoted
turnaround of up to 30 business days. No app IDs are assigned, no store page exists, and Release
entitlement therefore still fails closed — by design.
Distribution.md §2 becomes a status table plus the critical path computed from Valve's own published
windows (30 business days verification → fee/app IDs → up to 12 business days store review → page
public ≥2 weeks before release → up to 12 business days build review). Earliest realistic launch:
early-to-mid February 2027, leaving ~7 weeks before the 2027-04-01 launch price ends.
Nothing in this blocks the code; commercial.md, TASKS 54 and HANDOFF now say so instead of implying
Steam is an outstanding coding task.
"I forgot the VPN" used to create a broadcast on YouTube that nothing ever pushed to: the app looked
live, YouTube held an empty broadcast, and the creator had to work out what happened. Prevention beats
recovery here, so go-live now asks one question first.
- `Services/IngestProbe.cs` — `IIngestProbe` + `TcpIngestProbe`: parse the RTMP URL, connect to the host
(rtmp → 1935, rtmps → 443) with a 2 s timeout. Any failure answers "not reachable"; the point is a
fast unambiguous answer, not a diagnosis.
- `MainViewModel.IngestPreflightAsync` runs **before the first API call** whenever a cached ingest URL
exists; on a first run it probes once the stream is resolved, still before any broadcast is created.
A false answer logs, tells the creator ("Nothing was created on YouTube…"), and rolls the session
back — nothing to clean up on YouTube.
- The probe is a test seam (`IngestProbeOverride`) like the camera and chroma ones.
Tests: `IngestPreflightTests` — unreachable aborts, reachable continues, URL parsing (rtmp/rtmps,
garbage), and the probe against **real sockets**: a listening port answers true, the same port closed
answers false and does so fast. FAST gate: 547 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings.
Creator challenge (2026-11-05): "I really don't think that's going to be a constant — it's going to
depend on so many variables, some that are dark to us." Correct, so the measured-grace constant and
the countdown are dropped from the spec. YouTube's cutoff is server-side and depends on ingest health,
prior stream quality, region and load; a pinned number would be a guess wearing a timer, and it would
be wrong exactly when the creator is staring at it.
What ships instead:
- **Amber RECONNECTING** in the top bar with measured facts only: elapsed seconds and the attempt
number ("0:12 · attempt 2 of 4"). The seconds come from a stopwatch started at the drop.
- **The status poll speeds up while recovering** (30 s → 4 s) and drives the sign; it restores 30 s
when recovery ends.
- **`chatEndedEvent`** — already in the chat feed we poll and previously skipped — now raises a signal
that prompts an immediate status check. It never decides anything: `liveBroadcasts.list`
`lifeCycleStatus` stays authoritative, with `liveStreams.list` health as the push-received signal.
- At `complete`: red OFF AIR (the existing stop path) rather than a pretend-live sign.
Tests: `ChatEndedSignalTests` (the marker is not a chat row, the service raises the signal, and a
complete broadcast ends recovery with the honest message). FAST gate: 543 passed, 0 warnings.
A dead encoder used to run the whole stop path, so a one-second blip ended the broadcast. Now a dropped
push is relaunched against the same ingest while the broadcast is still alive.
- `Services/StreamRetryPolicy.cs` — immediate, +1 s, +2 s, +3 s. Minimum waits on purpose (creator
ruling): YouTube's grace is short, so every second not pushing is grace spent.
- `Services/StreamRecovery.cs` — the loop, with the audio pipe recreated before every attempt (its
server is single-instance and unusable after the old client dies, so a naive relaunch fails on a
missing input). After a push comes up it asks the API whether the broadcast survived: "complete"
ends recovery as `BroadcastComplete` instead of showing a live sign over a dead stream; an API
hiccup counts as recovered rather than ending a healthy session.
- `FramePump.EncoderFailed` — a dead push is recoverable; a compositor fault still goes through
`Failed` and ends the session, because retrying it would loop.
- `MainViewModel.Recovery.cs` — wires the steps, reports each episode into the left panel alert stack
(one row per episode, updated in place, log range painted), and cancels on Stop.
- Alert stack polish: a rule and a gap now separate the stack from the scene layers (they read as one
list before), and the licence indicator uses the creator's wording — `STEAM ID NOT PRESENT` /
`Steam ID Limit: 30fps` / `Click for More Info`, becoming `STEAM ID PRESENT` / `60fps` with a close
control once owned.
Tests: `StreamRecoveryTests` (schedule, recover on attempt 2 with the pipe restarted each time,
complete-broadcast honesty, unknown liveness, give-up, cancel, audio-restart fault),
`FramePumpTests` now pin that process death raises `EncoderFailed` and not `Failed`.
FAST gate: 538 passed (one documented pre-existing audio failure), 0 warnings.
Creator design (2026-11-05). A stack of red rows at the top of the left panel, above both mode grids
so it shows while editing and while live, pushing the panel's content down.
- Row 1 is the **Steam licence indicator** and nothing displaces it. It reads as status, not a
warning: "Entitlement 30 fps · Maximum 60 fps", both numbers derived from QualityOptions and
HasProOutput. While higher tiers are unavailable it shows a **pin** (standing indicator, no close
control); once ownership is verified the pin becomes a **close control** and the dismissal is
persisted (`Steam.LicenceIndicatorDismissed`), permanent while ownership holds. Losing ownership
restores it as pinned — a change of state, not a preference. Click → About.
- **Event rows stack beneath, newest first**, one row per episode (an episode advancing its state
updates its own row rather than adding another). Each is dismissible. Click → the Logs tab opens
with that event's sequence range painted red (`HighlightedLogFrom/To` + `LogInRangeConverter`; two
numbers rather than a collection because the log list is virtualised and realised rows do not
re-evaluate on membership changes).
- Replaces the old red panel under the quality picker, which is removed.
- The Steam diagnostic text loses "Contact the creator or support" for a neutral
"Steam licensing is not configured in this build."
Tests: `AttentionAlertStackTests` — pinned first with the status text; owned → closable and the close
survives a reload but ownership loss restores it pinned; pinned cannot be dismissed; event rows LIFO
with in-place episode updates; clicking an event opens Logs and sets its range. AboutHub + Entitlement
tests updated for the removed panel and the new wording. FAST gate: 532 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings.
Three reports from the creator, plus two bugs the real clip exposed.
1. A video layer was INVISIBLE in the preview. The pane's per-layer Image is Collapsed by
default and switched on by a whitelist of DataTriggers; MediaSource matched none, so the clip
decoded into a bitmap that nothing displayed. Same defect the alert box hit on 2026-09-26 and
the scoreboard after it — now recorded at the top of docs/ai/ui-surface.md with a test that
asserts the bound Image is Visible (`MediaPreviewDisplayTests`).
2. Play is no longer tied to Loop: the button is always enabled (creator ruling — Loop must not
toggle Play). Loop still restarts a finished clip, which is the behaviour that was broken.
3. Geometry is now the LAST section of the properties list for every draggable element, with
opacity at the top; the web source's duplicate geometry block is gone (it now uses the shared
one, which had been sitting above the media panel).
4. The physical mouse-drag test is deleted. It injected real cursor movement, hijacked whatever
machine ran it, and failed whenever the desktop was busy. The arithmetic it covered now lives
in `Helpers/DragReorderMath.cs` — pure, and covered by `DragReorderMathTests` (threshold,
up/down moves, no-op and out-of-range). The two persistence tests were already synthetic.
5. Real-clip check (creator's `test_greenscreen_moving_subject.mp4`, 1920×1080): the detector
REJECTED it — a fully saturated green sits at value 1.0 and the detector's 0.98 brightness
ceiling threw it away. White highlights are excluded by the saturation floor, which is the
property that actually separates them, so the ceiling is gone. With it fixed, the clip is
detected as green (high confidence), and keyed through our own pipe 97.8% of pixels go
transparent. Measured: keying with the canonical #00B140 keys 0.0% of this clip — which is why
the key colour comes from the measured screen.
Tests: 567 passed, 0 failed, clean build 0 warnings. The gate's scope check flags
`Assets/Videos/test_greenscreen_moving_subject.mp4` — the creator's working copy, deliberately not
committed; the fixture lives under ytLive.Tests/Fixtures.
TASK 49 is retired (creator ruling): YouTube owns chat moderation. Its blocked-words filter and
hold-for-review run upstream of `liveChatMessages.list` — held messages are never returned
(https://stackoverflow.com/questions/74511524/) — so a second local list would duplicate a switch
the creator already owns, with a second set of false positives and a second support surface.
What we actually owed the platform, and had wrong:
- The parser added every item to the overlay. A deleted message arrives as a `tombstone` carrying
no text at all ("it has since been deleted … only liveChatId, type and publishedAt are present" —
https://developers.google.com/youtube/data/live/reference/rest/v3/liveChatMessages), so every
deletion rendered as a BLANK chat row. `hasDisplayContent:false` messages and chat-mode events
did the same.
- Deletion events (`messageDeletedEvent`/`messageRetractedEvent`/`userBannedEvent`) are documented
but have not been delivered to clients for years (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44346893/),
so nothing is built on them; they are skipped if they ever arrive.
- Found while testing: Super Chat read `displayString`, but YouTube's field is `amountDisplayString`
— every amount silently fell back to a recomposed string, which mangles non-dollar locales. The
model's own comment said this was the reason the field exists.
Test: `ChatModerationParseTests` — tombstone, no-display-content, chat-mode events all produce no
row; a real Super Chat still parses its pre-rendered amount (constraint 4: reward fields are never
reinterpreted).
Docs: TASK 49 marked retired with the citations, the rule recorded in decisions.md, HANDOFF updated.
verify.sh: 550 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings.
TASK 64 slice F — the two things left after the feature worked by hand.
- App Settings → **Video clips → Auto Green/Blue Screen** (off by default). When on, a
high-confidence detected screen is keyed as soon as the clip is added; the panel says
"Removed automatically" so an automatic change is never silent. Medium confidence still
asks, low says nothing — a wrong automatic key eats the picture.
- **A clip is a clip:** the alert box's own replacement clip keys through the same settings
block (one alert box per layout, so its settings are the ones the next alert uses), and
choosing an alert clip runs the same detector. The Green/Blue Screen panel now appears for
a video layer *or* an alert box with a custom clip (`Source.ShowsChromaKey`).
- Spill ships as the creator-facing **Fringe** switch; nothing further to tune behind it.
Test: `ChromaKeyApplyTests` gains the auto-apply case (no click, still explicit in the panel)
and an alert-clip case (its pipe asks ffmpeg for colorkey+despill with the blue screen type).
Docs: TASK 64 complete in TASKS.md, known limits recorded in the task file, HANDOFF rewritten.
verify.sh: 546 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings.
TASK 64 slices D and E: the feature is usable end to end.
- Add a video file → one frame is probed (new `IChromaProbe`/`FfmpegChromaProbe`, one ffmpeg
pass at 160x90, off the UI thread) and the layer gets an offer: "Looks like a green screen —
Remove it", with the measured colour as a swatch.
- Accepting it turns the offer into settings (Amount / Softness / Fringe) that reach ffmpeg as
`colorkey` + `despill` + `format=bgra`, so the key is computed in the pipe and both consumers
(the shared preview bitmap and the compositor's frame) carry the same alpha.
- Media sessions are now keyed by **path + look** (`MainViewModel.MediaSessionKey`), so two
layers with the same settings still share one decoder, and changing the look releases the old
session and starts the new one. Removal, load reconciliation, loop and audio settings all move
to the same key.
- Settings persist on the `Source` row (six ALTER TABLE guards + SELECT/INSERT), so a keyed layer
comes back keyed.
- Panel section is plain creator words: Green/Blue Screen, Amount, Softness, Fringe.
Test: `ChromaKeyApplyTests` — the pipe asks ffmpeg to key (and does not when off); a green-screen
clip is offered, accepting it starts a keyed session, the layer's resolver then reads that session
rather than the old one; the setting survives a save.
Docs: TASK 64 D/E ticked with slice F (auto-apply setting + alert clips) left open; frame-pipeline
records the decode-option design; HANDOFF rewritten. verify.sh: 544 passed, 0 failed, 0 warnings.
A video file was picture-only: the decode pipe passed `-an`, so a starting-soon
or BRB clip with music played silent everywhere. Adds sound to every clip and
collapses the two decoders into one.
- `Services/VideoClipPipe.cs`: the shared pipe behind `MediaVideoSource` (TASK 21)
and `AlertClipDecoder` (TASK 47) — video (`rawvideo bgra`, scaled) + audio
(`f32le -ac 2 -ar 48000`, 50 ms chunks, byte-carry across reads), both paced to
real time, loop restarts both so picture and sound stay together. Alert
behaviour is unchanged.
- `MediaVideoSourceManager` applies the layer's Level/Mute per session and raises
`AudioAvailable`; `MainViewModel` feeds it to the new
`AudioMixer.EnqueueDesktopMediaAudio`, which joins the DESKTOP/GAME ring so the
desktop fader and the mic auto-ducker apply exactly as they do for game audio
and TRAX (creator ruling 2026-11-05: audio joins the group).
- Per-layer `MediaMuted` + existing `MediaVolume` surfaced as Mute/Level in the
properties panel; `MediaMuted` persisted (ALTER TABLE guard + SELECT/INSERT).
- Level/mute are per SESSION because one decoder is shared per file path — the
last layer touched wins; one decoder per layer would play the file twice.
Test: `MediaSourceAudioTests` — the pipe emits 50 ms chunks at 48k stereo, the
manager scales by level and drops when muted, and a media layer's sound moves the
desktop meter. Alert/decode suites unchanged and green.
Docs: task-21 closed on item 10, the "silent soundtrack" facts corrected in
frame-pipeline/output/overlays, HANDOFF rewritten. verify.sh green (529 passed;
the two documented pre-existing failures only).
TASK 21's picker slice: the decoder, manager, pacing and loop mechanism were
already shipped but nothing ever acquired a session, so a media Source rendered
nothing. Adds "Video File" to the (+) menu (video-filtered OpenFileDialog),
one decode session per distinct path with a HasSession guard, release when the
last scene reference goes, and a post-load reconcile. Loop is a manager-level
per-path answer ("any live reference loops") applied before StartAsync and
updated live via SetLooping. Properties panel shows the file with Change… and
Loop. Volume stays unwired: media audio rides the desktop loopback, TRAX-style.
Reference: OBS's media source (file → decode → composite into the scene) is the
established answer for this feature; the lifecycle shape mirrors this repo's
WebView2/ScreenCapture registration rather than inventing a new one.
Test: ytLive.Tests/MediaSourceAcquisitionTests.cs — add starts one decoder and
frames reach the layer, loop flip reaches the decoder, remove stops it.
Docs: task-21 closed, TASKS row + Day-4 row + stale 3·17 row corrected,
frame-pipeline acquisition note, HANDOFF rewritten. verify.sh green.
The four llamacasty-* files were source exports, not assets: shipped art is
embedded via <Resource> in ytLive.csproj and read through pack: URIs, and the
Store tiles derive from Assets/llamacasty-logo.jpg. None of the four appears in
the csproj, any XAML Source/Icon, or a script, so they were dead weight that
kept resurfacing as untracked noise.
MyMistakes.md gains the recipe (csproj list + grep = 30-second verdict) so a
loose file in Assets/ is never re-litigated; HANDOFF drops the stale note.
Raster static text on UI-thread changes and reuse the same transparent BGRA frame in preview and all compositor paths. Cache text frame identity in the frame-pump signature and invalidate static bakes on edits. Follow OBS text-source conventions: https://obsproject.com/kb/text-sources
Add independent AppLog message types and explicit Class 1/2 severity. Wrap and color log rows, pin Class 1 above Class 2, and let acknowledgement return entries to the current-launch timeline without changing file format or rotation.
Ref: https://logtape.org/manual/levels
Add Live Chat and Logs tabs to the non-edit left panel. Expose a bounded process-local AppLog feed so the newest messages appear first without importing earlier startup.log contents or changing file logging.
Ref: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/understanding-obs-studio-log.473
Model the AlertBox and standalone ticker with shared settings; scene tickers render the in-memory active and queued events without saving history. Keep AlertBox content active-event-only.
Ref: https://obsproject.com/kb/obs-studio-overview
Keep non-owner resolution choices visible but muted. Selecting one preserves the free tier and opens About; external navigation is only the explicit llamacasty.com link. Ref: https://streamlabs.com/desktop
The first half of surge day 1. One question, "may this session emit Pro output?", with
one method on the interface so nothing downstream knows which rail proved it.
SteamEntitlement reads the lifetime SKU the way Valve intends: SteamAPI.Init() then
SteamApps.BIsDlcInstalled(dlcAppId). Four different failure paths all resolve to the
free tier rather than to Pro or to a crash — no DLC id configured, no Steam client,
steam_api64.dll missing (a throw on first touch), and simply not owned. A copied folder
run without Steam is the common case, not an exceptional one.
NotConfigured() is the shipping default until Steamworks creates the DLC app; it answers
false without ever touching the native library, so today's builds behave exactly as they
did before this commit.
HasProOutput is now IsPremium || DeveloperMode || rail, with an internal EntitlementOverride
test seam (internal, because a public setter here is a licence bypass). Four tests: no id
reads false, no client reads false without throwing, the fake reports what a test sets, and
the view model takes its answer from the rail.
Steamworks.NET 2024.8.0 added; the native DLL still comes from scripts/steam-sdk.sh, so the
csproj change is three lines and no formatting churn.
Three creator directives (2026-11-01), done ahead of the surge.
**Gear moved to the preview rail** — first tab, orange (Brush.Attention), gear icon
only. Left-click opens the same app menu the top bar gear owned (Settings / Bug /
Feature / About), right-click goes straight to App Settings; both behaviours moved
with it, so nothing lost an entry point. TopBar keeps the wordmark and EDIT.
**EDIT right edge aligned to the layers panel.** The work area is margin 8 + a 360px
column, the top bar is padding 16, so the shared edge is 352 inside the bar. TopBar
column 0 is now a fixed 352 grid with EDIT right-aligned in it — alignment by
arithmetic instead of by eye.
**Preview undo/redo: Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z.** Models/PreviewHistory snapshots element
REFERENCES plus geometry, visibility, order and membership — a deep clone would mirror
every property of a dozen element subclasses and quietly miss the next one added.
One snapshot per gesture (pushed at drag/resize start, never in the move loop), bounded
at 50, redo survives multiple undos, cleared on layout load. Gated on EditingActive:
undo while the preview shows program output would rewrite a scene nobody is looking at.
Honest scope, in the type's doc comment: layout edits only. Colour/opacity/border/font
edits are not captured yet, so Ctrl+Z after one of those restores the last layout change.
6 tests in PreviewHistoryTests; 19 pass across it and the neighbouring UI classes; Debug
and Release both build at 0 warnings.
gramps