The creator couldn't add a webcam to Live (grayed app-wide) and nothing in the app explained why. Ground truth from the live DB: one Webcam identity AND one WebcamSceneConfig in the Chat scene — so the gray was the single-identity rule working, but the reason was unobservable. This slice makes the webcam a resource the app validates and locks, mirroring how OBS reserves its devices. At startup we enumerate the OS once (ValidateWebcamResourceStartupAsync, fired after LoadLayout, stored as WebcamStartupValidationTask for tests to await): - 0 webcams -> app runs on, layer inactive, no alarm - exactly 1 -> attempt CameraManager.AcquireAsync as an app-wide lock; on failure show a persistent red alert at the bottom of the Layers panel (WebcamLockAlert + Retry) that re-polls every 5s and clears itself the moment the camera locks, or on any first real frame - >=2 -> deliberately no auto-lock; camera selection belongs to the App Settings dialog (gear) — next slice CameraManager.IsRunning(deviceId) tells the pass a session already exists (started OR still starting) so loaded identity configs count as the lock and the pass never double-acquires. Test seams mirror LayoutPathOverride: CameraEnumeratorOverride / CameraFrameSourceFactoryOverride so the startup probe never touches real hardware under test. Good Dog test: WebcamStartupResourceTests x3 — single-cam locked + app runs on, zero-cams no-alarm/no-lock, lock-fails -> red alert -> Retry -> clears. Full suite 304/304, build 0 warnings, scope-check passed. Docs in-commit: TASKS Open items + ai.md Webcam section + HANDOFF rewrite. Also corrects the record: 'NVIDIA Broadcast opens the webcam exclusively' was a suspect-list claim (CameraConflictProbe reads process names only, no handles) — not restated as fact.
7.7 KiB
HANDOFF — 2026-09-17 (webcam resource lifecycle, startup slice; committed locally — no push)
Branch / Commit State
main HEAD = 94a934f webcam reader-ladder fix (local). This work unit sits un-pushed on top
as a NEW commit (same bundle of web/A/V work — stays commit-local until greenlight). Below: slice-18
C4 cache (64a5a6d), slice-17, slice-16, slice-15, c01206f, b22d08e (signed audio-sync, pushed).
No push after this commit either — still awaiting the device take + user greenlight.
⚠️ Branding (2026-09-14, creator-corrected): product = llamacasty, internals = ytLive
Product is llamacasty; repo path, csproj AssemblyName/RootNamespace, DB/log paths
(%APPDATA%\ytLlive\...), most code names are legacy ytLive/ytLlive. User-facing text:
"llamacasty" / UI labels use the catalog names ("Web Cam", "YouTube Chat", "Countdown Timer"…).
✅ Committed locally — webcam resource lifecycle (startup slice)
Incident review (the reason this exists): the creator couldn't add a webcam to the Live scene
(WebCam row grayed app-wide). Ground truth from %APPDATA%\ytLlive\ytLlive.db (NOT layout.db,
which is a 0-byte legacy file): one Webcam identity (C920 \?\USB#VID_046D&PID_082D…GLOBAL) AND
one WebcamSceneConfig — in the Chat scene. Under the single-identity rule that means Live's
"+" menu is gray by design, but the app couldn't say why. Combined with the earlier crash/failure
chain, the fix is a proper resource lifecycle:
- Startup poll + tri-state (
MainViewModel.ValidateWebcamResourceStartupAsync, fired fire-and-forget right afterLoadLayout): 0 webcams → app runs on, layer inactive, no alarm; 1 → attemptCameraManager.AcquireAsyncas an app-wide LOCK; ≥2 → no auto-lock — selection belongs to the App Settings dialog (gear) — that's the next slice. - Persistent red alert (
WebcamLockAlert, bottom of the Layers panel, + Retry button): shown when the one detected camera can't be locked; re-polls every 5 s (_webcamLockPollTimer) and clears the moment a lock succeeds, or on any first real frame (OnCameraPreviewBitmapChanged). CameraManager.IsRunning(deviceId)— new accessor (session exists, started OR starting) so the pass never double-acquires a lock the loaded identity's configs already hold; a rolled-back (failed) session leaves the dictionary, so the pass retries cleanly.- Test seams mirroring
LayoutPathOverride:CameraEnumeratorOverride/CameraFrameSourceFactoryOverride— the startup probe must NEVER touch real hardware under test (the reason the 09:15 tests never asserted camera state). Good Dog testWebcamStartupResourceTestsx3: single-cam locked + app runs on; zero-cams no-alarm no-lock; lock-fails → red alert → Retry → clears. 304/304 green, build 0 warnings. - Attribution correction committed to
ai.md: "NVIDIA Broadcast opens the webcam exclusively" is a suspect-list claim —CameraConflictProbereads running process NAMES only, no device handles; the contention symptoms fit shared-mode/bandwidth just as well. Do not restate it as fact (creator called this out).
Task docs: TASKS.md Open items + ai.md Webcam section updated to match.
⚠️ Open items
- Webcam take fix 2 of 2 — the 09:16 crash is UNFIXED (hard, untested): hypothesis — native WMF
death when
MediaCapture.Failedfires mid-stream andSafeStopAsync(fire-and-forget) disposes reader+capture while the frame thread sits inTryAcquireLatestFrame/Marshal.Copy(outside the frame's try/catch). No repro, no integration test, native race not catchable — deferred per spin-guard. Record a second occurrence's pattern. - Multi-camera slice (user-queued): when ≥2 webcams exist, add the web-cam selection text +
control to the App Settings dialog (gear icon,
OverlayHost— left-click opens settings, right-click the context menu). Selecting + successfully allocating/locking activates the WebCam layer. Currently ≥2 cameras → nothing shows in settings. - Static (+) catalog slice (user-queued): all catalog rows always listed (Background, "Web Cam", "Countdown Timer", "Web Resource", "YouTube Chat", "YouTube Event"…), gray only for (1) system-level unavailability (persistent alert), (2) max already allocated, (3) not available for the current scene; tooltips must name the reason (e.g. "already in Chat"). Static labels only, no new code-behind.
- Device re-verify (one take session): 1. slice-18 cache verdicts (NR/WH hits, stalls, band ~60); 2. webcam: fresh launch with the browser holding the camera must show the webcam or a NAMED chip (now also the persistent red alert, and the alert must clear after the browser closes + retry); 3. verify the Chat scene still owns the webcam (so Live's + is intentionally gray with a reason).
- No push yet — after the take verdict, re-measure the clap offset (
/tmp/opencode/avsync.py), then decide push with the user.
Open threads (carried)
- Audio-silence verification — fixed (
724af14); creator heard real audio. - Webcam MJPG missing / ~10–14Hz, layer SortOrder, truncation-with-dynamic-scenes — queued.
- Sync control user-doc tutorial — REQUIRED before 1.0 (creator directive; TASK 22).
- Signed A/V sync: verify the negative (advance) direction on device.
- Focus-loss capture lag — closed as NOT the cause (1824: delivery healthy ~60-100/s).
Landmines
- testhost shares startup.log — filter by time; the app also writes fake-device failures ('test-camera', 'dev-physical-9') from CameraManager unit tests.
cmd.exe /c "taskkill /F /IM ytLive.exe"(WSL double-slashes mangle) before rebuilds — a live app process locksytLive.exe(MSB3021).- Build/tests: Windows dotnet host (
/mnt/c/Program Files/dotnet/dotnet.exe). 0 warnings — only./scripts/verify.sh "<files>"'s clean build counts. RunningytLive.csprojalone does NOT rebuildytLive.Tests.dll— run the Tests csproj beforevstest. Known audio flake:Mix_HonorsProviderGains_AndGameMute_KillsTheLoopback(float precision) — re-run if it trips alone; unrelated to camera work. - Assert footguns in this repo's xUnit:
Assert.Null(x, "msg")/Assert.Single(coll, "msg")do NOT take a message — the 2-arg overloads mean something else (predicate/item). Empty message = 1 arg. - The webcam's real state lives in
%APPDATA%\ytLlive\ytLlive.db(layout.dbthere is a 0-byte legacy file). sqlite3 at/home/gramps/android-sdk/platform-tools/sqlite3. - Contention failure modes (startup.log): "no frames within 4s" = init OK but starved;
"OutputFormatNotSupported" = reader subtype below the MJPG-active camera; "file being used by
another process / CaptureMode is SharedReadOnly" = re-negotiation refused while others hold the
device.
CameraConflictProbe= suspect list, not handle evidence. - FramePump tests asserting per-frame CONTENT need a STABLE scene; cache-sensitive assertions can't
use a call-count resolver flip (tick resolves twice) — key alternation on
OutputIndex. - ffmpeg/ffprobe:
/mnt/c/Program Files/Krita (x64)/bin/with Windows paths. MyMistakes.md: WINRT resource-allocation RECIPE, freeze-audit RECIPE, A/V sync recipe, deadline pacing, CoreMessaging DQ, WGC-CLIP + slice blocks. Grep before re-deriving.C:\tmpoutis for ffmpeg evidence artifacts; keep them out of the repo.
Next step
The multi-camera App Settings selector slice (+ static catalog rows after), then the creator's take on this build. The alert is the new expected behavior to eyeball on the take: browser holds the camera → fresh launch → red alert in Layers (unless Chat's config grabbed it) that clears after a Retry once the browser closes.