Request Splits/Layout Editor

[TexZeTech]

I would like to see a way to have a similar experience as to what I would find in a web browser using Livesplit-one.

• a Splits Editor
• a way to import from splits.io
• a layout Editor

Also thank you for making this awesome plugin.

[Chromagram]

I really want to second this. It would really nice to have a solid streamlined method within OBS directly through the Properties panel of this plugin to edit. Right now, you edit through the browser with no control over your system fonts, export the file, plug it into the OBS plugin, and if you don't like it, you have to start the process over again.

Would be nice to just do all of this in the source itself. In fact, right now my process involves my primary Mac for streaming, and a second low-powered Windows device to do all the splits/layout editing, because the app is easier to use than the site.

[Chromagram]

Just wanted to add another post here to see if this request had been acknowledged in any way? Still don't have any intentions to return to Windows, so right now, this is literally the only decent way use a speedrun timer in OBS.

Just for info if you didn't know: OBS cannot window capture on Mac at the moment unless both OBS and the window you want to capture are on screen and visible. It's not like Windows, where you can just minimize it and tuck it away while capturing. Thus, this plugin has been a massive help already in avoiding that. I can keep OBS full screen, and the plugin just does its thing as a source within OBS.

However, with no way to edit the splits and layout like you can on Windows, there's nothing else you can do but get it sent over to a Windows PC running the actual LiveSplit, edit everything you need, then send the files back to the Mac to check if it's correct. Many times it's off in slight ways and needs further tweaking, very very tedious process.

I'd love to have the suggestion of an editor within OBS implemented, or even a way to edit splits and layout accurate to the app itself on the LiveSplit One website. Right now, you can edit your split names and icons with the box art, but you can do literally do nothing else with the layout. Can't remove columns you don't want, can't adjust what order they come in, add backgrounds, change fonts, sizes, nothing. If the site could give the exact same robust options as the app, that would also work for all of us on Mac and Linux.

[Chromagram]

Popping in to see if there's any thoughts on this at all. Even still, this remains the one sensible way to add LiveSplit as a feed to OBS on the Mac. There are a couple third party apps but Window Capture is really finicky and limited on Mac, and you can do a browser source with LiveSplit One, but without global hotkey support, it doesn't respond to hotkeys to split unless you make that specific LiveSplit One tab the active focus. Still looking for an easy solution, this would definitely be the one.

[CryZe]

Right now the focus is on the desktop version itself which has a splits and layout editor. But if it's indeed true that you can't capture a window that's not in the foreground, then we probably would should look into adding some splits / layout editor to the plugin. Though it's always possible to edit the splits and layouts with the desktop version and then use the plugin to do runs.

[Chromagram]

Thanks for the reply, are you talking about a Mac desktop version? That would be okay as well; essentially with macOS restrictions, you're basically required to keep your OBS window out of macOS's native full screen view. After that, the window/application capture can only "capture" whatever it sees from the desktop on the same space. If you even resize or move the captured app around at all, the capture gets borked with it.

That's why in my humble opinion, fleshing out the plugin to match the desktop version's most necessary features. As of right now, testing the current build of plugin with the newest build of OBS, the newest stable build of macOS on an Apple Silicon computer (2021 M1 Pro MacBook Pro), the plugin actually doesn't detect at all even. I'm almost certain this is a compatibility issue with the new universal Apple Silicon builds of OBS, of which the OBS team has warned about incompatible plugins until devs update them.

Really, if the plugin can do these things, it would be the optimal method on Mac:

• Display/edit splits. Adding/deleting new splits basic with split icons, pulling splits and run details from speedrun.com/Splits.io advanced.

• Edit layout. There's a decent bit of fancy stuff you can play around with on the Windows desktop version on this. However, at basic it would need background colour, font, split dividers, and order of elements. Advanced, whatever else in the layout editor, like horizontal view, split gap sizes, etc.

• Settings accessible within source properties. We're talking an option to turn on Global Hotkeys so you can split anywhere without requiring OBS to be the focus (allows streamers to showcase a different element from their computer during a stream), setting the hotkeys themselves, etc.

Of course, the more that can be pulled from the desktop version, the better. However, the basic portions are really just what OP listed: a way to add/remove splits and a way to edit the basic parts of how they appear to fit our overlays. Any additional stuff would be a nice longer term addition, but if the plugin can even be updated for Apple Silicon build support with some basic editing features, it would still stand 1000x higher than any other Mac option right now and would really help a whole ton.

Thanks again for the reply.

The plugin just sits within OBS as its own view/source, and it's not locked down by macOS's restrictions.

[CryZe]

That's a huge amount of features that while I could probably eventually implement all those, require a lot of maintenance from my side to stay working. Even the plugin itself constantly seems to get broken as OBS releases new versions, cause apparently their whole plugin API is very unstable... and worse, you don't even get any error messages or anything telling you why the plugin doesn't work anymore. And on top of that, I have some really bad experience with the OBS maintainers where they just close unfixed issues and explicitly want OBS to be more buggy... it's all a big mess and having to maintain a much larger feature set, such as the one suggested here, would be completely unmaintainable for me without a bigger team (or even one at all).

We could however probably add some button or so that directly launches the desktop version's splits / layout editor or so.

[Chromagram]

That could also work, as long as we can avoid trying to just do a traditional window/app capture, it'll work just fine. Right now the big barrier is that I have no easy way to create split and layout files with a little bit of granular control over things like fonts or section reordering, I have no choice but to boot up the spare Windows PC that I happen to have to just run my custom MAME arcade cabinet.

I edit all the splits and layout changes there, save out the files, place them in a shared cloud drive, download them locally on my Mac, then load them to LiveSplit OBS. It's a pretty long process, even for tiny edits, and right now, because of whatever current incompatibilities there are with the Apple Silicon builds, LiveSplit OBS Mac isn't detecting either.

I agree 100% that if a desktop version was done on Mac at least, it would completely cut out the need to offload this work to the Windows app, granted the incompatibility issue is fixed for the current LiveSplit OBS. That sounds like a solid prospective, I anxiously await the day being able to use that on my Mac.

[Chromagram]

Just wanted to pop back in and do a minor prod about what the intended order of priorities are for the LiveSplit versions? Considering Windows LiveSplit is already perfectly functional and usable, was wondering if at the least, this plugin can be updated to be functional again for Apple Silicon builds of OBS first? At the moment, pretty much no version of OBS is usable on Mac, excluding the limited web version.