Creator request 2026-11-01: a layer that hides part of the desktop from viewers. Box or circle,
drag/resize like any layer, one strength slider, several allowed.
**Z-order is policy, not preference.** `AddSource` inserts a blur directly above the background
and therefore below the brand logo, and `OnSceneElementsReordered` pushes any blur that ends up
above the brand back down. Nothing else in the app can move it into the brand's way.
**Overlap = the strongest single blur, never a stack.** `SceneCompositor.ApplyBlurLayers` collects
every visible blur the first time one is reached in the z-order, sorts them strongest-first, and
shares one coverage map: a pixel already covered by a stronger blur is skipped. Blurring
back-to-front would have produced something stronger than any slider setting allows, which is
exactly what was ruled out.
**One blur curve, shared with the webcam.** `RegionBlur` carries the constants the webcam blur
already used — downscale 4, radius 1–6 downscaled px, `RadiusFor(strength)` — and
`BackgroundEffectProcessor` now delegates to it instead of holding its own copy. The layer's
slider is the same 0–1 scale with the same 0.5 default, so "half strength" means the same blur in
both features. Cost is proportional to the blur's own rect, not the frame.
**Live scene only**, enforced in `AddSource` as well as the (+) menu (`CanAddBlur`), so a stale
menu item or a scripted call cannot plant one on BRB. `ElementKind.Dynamic`, so it is never baked
into the static base and every render path gets it — pump, preview, thumbnails, scene dump.
Persistence: `Source.BlurAmount` column + migration; shape rides the existing `ClipShape`.
Properties panel: Box | Circle plus the strength slider, gated on `IsBlurSelected`.
4 tests: outside the mask is byte-identical, inside loses its hard edges, a circle leaves its
box corners alone, and two identical stacked blurs equal one (the coverage map). Release builds
at 0 warnings.
Unit 6 created the recorder and the session hook but nothing fed it — the strip would have stayed
empty through a whole stream. The poll's message handler now records each decoded event after the
chat and alert layers have seen it.
Caught by tracing the data path while wiring analytics, not by a test: the guards cover the tally
rules, not the seam into the poller.
The 12:35 live session proved the decoder healthy (frames=240 audioChunks=156
failed=False both clips, alert audio in the mix at peakMix 0.277→0.733) yet the
creator still saw 'no video plays / you lost the video'. Root cause: pacing,
not decode. AlertClipDecoderFor built the decoder with no frameRateProbe, so
RunAsync computed frameDuration = TimeSpan.Zero and RunVideoAsync's pace step
was dead code — all 240 frames of the 10s clip dumped through the pipe in the
first ~1-2s (130MB as fast as ffmpeg read), then the box froze on the LAST
frame while audio chunk-paced its real-time ~7.8s. Reads exactly like a dead
decoder on screen. The media path already wired this seam
(MainViewModel.cs:308); the alert factory never supplied one.
Derivative fix (media/decoder plumbing, cited in broad consensus of players):
pass FfmpegFrameRateProbe into the per-play alert decoder exactly like
MediaVideoSource does. Good Dog:
AlertClipDecoderTests.AlertClipDecoder_PacesVideoFramesToTheProbedFrameRate —
real AlertClipDecoder via the fake-process/fake-probe/delay-recorder seam;
red on the old factory (zero pacing delays), green with the probe (one ~10ms
delay per frame at 100fps). Full suite 321/322, one known-env flake
(RealMouseDrag reorder). Docs in this commit: task-47 addendum,
MyMistakes.md (a decoder that drops data faster than wall-clock looks
identical to a dead one), HANDOFF rewrite.
TASK 43's alert box grows a real video celebration. Per-alert IAlertClipDecoder
(ffmpeg bgra + f32le pipes, real-time paced, disposed at drain) plays the shipped
Assets/alert-default.mp4 (stamped into the Asset table at startup) unless the
creator picks their own file — path reference only, never stored in the DB; the
six AlertRenderer animations stay the fallback. ~0.3s fade rides the alpha
envelope on straight-source copies (EOF freeze-frames then fades out); audio
forwards to a new AudioMixer alert ring (8s, 48k stereo) drained at unity — no
duck, creator ruling — scaled by volume × fade. An auto-composed marquee ticker
('Funder — Super Chat · $10.00', 140px/s) scrolls top-of-frame via a
FramePump._alertTicker seam through Render/CompositeLayers, mixed into the cache
signature (dynamic overlay, never baked). New Stream Alerts section in LeftPanel.
Derivative-work references (how OBS/Streamlabs alert boxes do per-alert video):
- https://support.streamlabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/217741147-Setting-Up-Your-Streamlabs-Alerts (custom image/video per alert type + variations)
- https://obsproject.com/kb/stream-tutorial-2-alerts (alert overlay as an on-screen zone)
- https://streamlabs.com/content-hub/widgets/alert-box (per-event alert playback)
Good Dog: AlertLayerVideoTests drives a fake IAlertClipDecoder through the whole
lifecycle in one pass (custom path wins, decoder spawns/disposes, fade envelope
0→127→255, audio volume×fade, ticker scrolls, EOF fade-drain to idle). It caught
the clip branch of Advance not clearing _current before AdvanceToNext — the layer
stayed IsPlaying after drain (MyMistakes post-mortem).
Full vstest 319/319; clean build 0 warnings; scope check green.
Replace the external StreamElements feed with NATIVE YouTube events per the creator's
2026-09-23 question.
Chat parity half:
- YouTubeChatService decodes ALL SIX liveChat/messages event types into
ChatMessage.Kind (superChat/superSticker/newSponsor/membershipGifting/
giftMembershipReceived/memberMilestoneChat) — the four formerly-empty overlay
rows are real now — and re-arms its one-shot poll on the server's
pollingIntervalMillis (streamList connection semantics; clamp 1000-6000ms,
maxResults=2000). ParsePage internal static seam + ChatPage record for
deterministic tests; optional HttpClient ctor seam kept; InjectSimulatedMessage
(TASK 41) preserved.
Alerts half (creator rulings: one celebration zone, six UNIQUE animations, no
menus/polls, sub mention = chat row only, NO viewer count):
- New SourceType.AlertBox 'Stream Alerts' (one per layout, CanAddAlerts gate
mirroring chat; idle = transparent).
- AlertRenderer: six distinct branded animations (SuperChat slide-up/shine/
count-up, SuperSticker scale-pop, NewMember drop-in/flash, MemberGift slide-left/
chip-fan, GiftReceived confetti, MemberMilestone rise/growth-bar), every card
drawing the 'made with LlamaCasty!' brand line.
- AlertOverlayLayer: true component (Commit-G pattern) — queue (cap 10, drop tail
never stall), 33ms UI ticker, cache-first RenderFrame + UpdatePreview,
Advance(double) as the deterministic test clock; ChatEventKind.None rows never
enqueue.
- Wired: resolver RenderAlertBox, _alertLayer ctor + dispose, LoadLayout previews,
Add menu item (Controls/LeftPanel.xaml), TestSessionViewModel sims tagged
(member->NewMember, superchat->SuperChat).
Good Dog ONE integration test: AlertLayerTests (RealApp STA, real WPF raster) —
ParsePage classifies all six kinds + cadence fields; None rows enqueue nothing;
six events play pairwise-distinct moving frames then drain to null.
Gate: clean build 0 warnings; full suite 316/317, the one failure
(LayerReorderPersistenceTests.RealMouseDrag) repros on the clean tree — the
known environmental class (real-mouse-drag no-ops with a game/fullscreen window
focused).
References (OBS/overlay ecosystem):
- streamList semantics: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/live/docs/liveChatMessages/streamList
- OBS alert-box pattern (designated celebration zone, idle transparent): creator-chosen model
The first true decomposition of the 4105-line god-object, not another partial
shuffle. MainViewModel.Chat.cs 194 -> 44 lines of thin delegation; all chat
behavior now lives in a self-contained Services/ChatOverlayLayer.cs (199):
- Owns the message buffer (Messages), ChatBoxRenderer, fade + mock-preview
timers, per-source preview renders, and the live-output RenderFrame path.
- The VM keeps only the binding surface: ChatMessages delegates to
_chatLayer.Messages (so XAML ItemsSource + LeftPanel CollectionChanged hold),
CanAddYouTubeChat / ShowChatInactiveMessage stay computed on the VM
(OnPropertyChanged raised from VM setters + XAML-bound), and thin forwards.
- Scenes handed in as args (no Func seam), so the layer owns no scene graph.
An AI reading ChatOverlayLayer.cs now sees the entire chat feature in one
self-contained unit. Zero behavior change; build 0 warnings; 246 pass, only the
2 known failures. Docs: ViewModels/index.md tracker updated in same commit.