gramps
89f6aa3a67
The creator's ruling on the webcam's properties: a "Shape" title above the
Mirror/Rect row; the drag hint indented under that row "to show parentage";
the same for Geometry, Border Color, Border Thickness; Remove and Blur indented
under Background; Strength indented under Blur.
One rule covers it: a title owns its content and the content is indented one
level (10px) under it - two levels where a title is itself nested (Strength
under Blur under Background). The titles are SemiBold 11px #a0a0b0 like the
ones already there.
The shape also stops being a toggle button that shows the NEXT action ("Round"
when the camera was a rectangle) and becomes a CHOICE: two segment options,
Rect | Circle, with Rect selected by default - which is what the creator asked
for ("Rect should be selected as a default if none exists"). The old
ShapeButtonText is gone.
The mutual exclusion lives in the MODEL: IsRectShape/IsRoundShape on
SceneElement, each setter flipping the shape through ToggleClipShape() (so the
pre-round rect is still stored/restored) and always re-raising, so a refused
write - the vertical Chat layout is rect-only (TASK 57) - makes the UI snap
back instead of sticking. Deliberately NOT a WPF RadioButton group: a group
unchecks its siblings by setting IsChecked in code, which makes WPF drop the
binding (stackoverflow 7376373; the same trap measured in 50980687/57275046).
The Circle option stays hidden where CanToggleClipShape is false, so the circle
is still not offered in the vertical Chat layout.
Guard: ytLive.Tests/PropertiesHierarchyTests.cs - the model half (Rect by
default, pick circle, pick rect, the locked Chat layout refuses the circle) and
the panel half (the Shape title owns both options, the circle is the gated one,
the hint is indented and follows the row, every titled block's content is at
10px, Strength at 20px). 432/432 green, 0 warnings.
LlamaCasty
A free, open-source Windows app for streaming live to YouTube and recording to your PC. Native Windows (C# / WPF / .NET 8). Website: https://llamacasty.com
Why I built it
I'm Gramps. I've been gaming since 1981, and these days I stream The Division 2 on YouTube.
When I started streaming, I did what everybody does: I installed the big, general-purpose streaming tools. They're excellent software — powerful, flexible, and built to handle every platform, every camera rig, and every plugin anyone has ever dreamed up. That breadth is exactly what makes them great, and it's also what makes them a lot to learn. Before my first stream I was reading setup guides, picking encoders, balancing audio by hand, and wiring up scenes from scratch. The tools were ready for anything. I just wanted to go live.
Most streamers I talk to are in the same spot. They don't need a tool for every platform and every setup — they need one that's ready for theirs. So I built LlamaCasty around three choices:
- One platform, done properly. LlamaCasty streams to YouTube and only YouTube. That focus lets it be built around how YouTube Live actually works — your channel, your chat, Super Chats and memberships, Shorts-style vertical video, and the YouTube Partner Program — instead of treating YouTube as one destination among many.
- Ready the moment you open it. Five scenes (Starting, Live, BRB, Chat, Ending) are set up, your game and voice are balanced with auto-ducking and voice polish built in, and YouTube's settings are filled in. You arrange things by dragging them, then press Go Live.
- Calm while you're live. A private Test Stream to practice, a layout that locks while you're on air, and warnings only when YouTube reports a real problem.
The general-purpose tools are the right choice when you need everything. LlamaCasty is for when you just want to get your show on air.
Free, and staying that way
LlamaCasty is free forever: no watermark, no branding on your stream, no subscription, no LlamaCasty account. It's also open source (see License) — enjoy it, explore it, experiment with it. If it earns a spot in your setup and you'd like to say thanks, there's a coffee jar and a merch store linked from https://llamacasty.com. Completely optional, never expected, and the app will never ask.
How it's built
LlamaCasty is built through AI-assisted pair programming, under the direction of a developer with decades of experience. Architecture, product direction, and quality gates are human-owned; AI speeds up the implementation. The repo's memory map (below) is how that collaboration stays honest from one session to the next.
Requirements
- 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. (The bundled FFmpeg and ONNX Runtime are 64-bit only.)
- A YouTube channel, to stream. LlamaCasty links an existing channel with "Sign in with Google" — it doesn't create accounts. Recording to an .mp4 works without signing in.
- Working sound in Windows. Desktop and game audio come from your default output automatically; you choose your mic in the app. LlamaCasty doesn't diagnose or repair Windows audio — if it doesn't sound right in Windows, fix it there first.
Build from source
The internal project, assembly, and namespace names are still ytLive (the app was renamed to
LlamaCasty; the internals weren't). Building needs Windows and the .NET 8 SDK.
-
Fetch the bundled FFmpeg (not in git — ~135 MB, pinned and SHA-256-verified):
scripts/fetch-ffmpeg.sh -
Add your own Google OAuth client.
Helpers/OAuthCredentials.csis gitignored. Create a "Desktop app" OAuth client with the YouTube Data API v3 enabled in Google Cloud Console, then:namespace ytLive.Helpers; public static class OAuthCredentials { public const string ClientId = "your-client-id.apps.googleusercontent.com"; public const string ClientSecret = "your-client-secret"; } -
Build and run:
dotnet build ytLive.csproj dotnet run --project ytLive.csproj
Version roadmap
v1 is the finished product (no v1.x releases are planned). Everything still in the queue lands
in v1; anything not on the feature list is on the "Out of product — permanently" list in
TASKS.md — read that before asking for a feature.
What v1 ships: the five-scene control surface, webcam + screen capture, media + web + text sources, chat on stream, the social bar, mic/desktop audio with auto-ducking and TRAX background music, local recording, quality tiers including vertical 9:16, one-click go-live + scheduling, stream resilience, monetization awareness (YPP tracker), animated alerts, and webcam background removal and blur — all free and ungated.
Structure
| Path | Role |
|---|---|
Models/ |
Scene, Source, WebcamSceneConfig, SceneElement, SceneCatalog, QualityOption, StreamConfig/Health, chat, Socials, BroadcastMetadata, Music, MicStatus, BackgroundEffect |
ViewModels/ |
MainViewModel (partial classes per area) + dialogs: GoLive, CameraPicker, MicPicker, HotkeyConfig, Socials, LiveBroadcastForm |
Services/ |
YouTube (OAuth, streams/broadcasts, chat polling), LayoutStore (SQLite), capture (camera/screen-capture/media-file via FFmpeg), SceneCompositor + FramePump, FFmpeg encoder + RTMP, audio pipeline (WASAPI loopback + mic, mixer, filters, ducker, limiter, TRAX), background effects (ONNX person segmentation), SocialValidator, notifications, hotkeys, SceneGraph, ChatOverlayLayer |
Helpers/ |
ViewModelBase, RelayCommand, ImageCache, AppLog, TokenStore (DPAPI), OAuthCredentials (gitignored), converters |
Themes/ |
Controls.xaml — the dark-theme control styles, merged once in App.xaml |
MainWindow.xaml |
Dark-theme control surface: thumbnails + central preview, two-state left panel (layers/properties ↔ live chat), top bar, footer |
tools/ |
Offline helper tools (e.g. selfie-seg/ — converts and verifies the background-effects model) |
Docs (memory map)
schema.md defines the conventions; ai.md is the AI/session guide; TASKS.md is the task
queue; HANDOFF.md is the current state. Each code directory carries an index.md.
License
LlamaCasty is free software, released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
(LICENSE) with three additional terms permitted by GPL-3.0 section 7
(ADDITIONAL-TERMS.md):
- Keep the credit — any copy, modified or not, shows "Based on LlamaCasty by Gramps — https://llamacasty.com" in its About screen.
- Rename your fork — modified versions are marked as modified and use a different name.
- No trademark rights — the LlamaCasty name and llama logo aren't licensed. The icon and logo files are all rights reserved and aren't covered by the GPL.
The scene backgrounds and default alert video are AI-generated placeholders, licensed with the
code — replace them with your own. Bundled third-party components keep their own licenses: see
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.
Source code: https://llgit.llamachile.tube/gramps/LlamaCasty