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What looks like it will be a massive release for Linux users, OBS Studio has begun the release procedure for OBS Studio 27.0 with it having a first Release Candidate out now and it's huge.

Something we reported on back in January is finally coming officially to the Linux version: service integration and browser dock support. This means you can actually add in things like Twitch chat and whatever other windows you want attached right into the OBS Studio application so everything can fit nicely together. It is incredibly useful!

The other huge one for Linux is Wayland support. This comes with a new PipeWire capture source when using Wayland. The developers note specifically that for Ubuntu users you're going to need Ubuntu 20.10 onwards, due to the need of PipeWire 0.3+.

Game pictured - the excellent DRAG.

Here's some of the other highlights to come with it:

  • Added Undo/Redo
  • Added a missing files warning when loading scene collections
    • Also allows for bulk-update when folders have been moved (such as between computers)
    • Third party plugins will need to add support for this capability manually
  • Added source transitions, which allow you to set a transition for a source when showing or hiding it
  • Added a Track Matte mode to stinger transitions, which supports a scene mask to display parts of the previous & current scene at the same time
  • Added support for sRGB color formats, applying color operations in linear space

Some Linux-specific bug fixes also made it in this release including fixing VST paths on Linux and also a crash that would happen on Linux when audio backends are disabled was solved too. A number of bug fixes that affected all platforms were also solved with this update.

Full changelog here.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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DamonLinuxPL Apr 3, 2021
You can always disable pipewire by pass -DENABLE_PIPEWIRE=OFF flag to CMAKE. This should fix compilation on previous Ubuntu releases.

Anyway looks like to me that recording witch VAAPI on Radeon 580 8GB in X11 is broken... at least on my hardware (both in vaapi+x264 and vaapi+hevc). Just not sure if this related to new OBS 27.0.0 RC1 release or new libva 2.11.0... or maybe somethings else. Anyone see somethings similar?


Last edited by DamonLinuxPL on 3 April 2021 at 5:22 pm UTC
BielFPs Apr 3, 2021
I wonder if OBS will perform better/worse compared to a x11 system. Maybe someone who uses both can answer this.
Brisse Apr 3, 2021
Quoting: BielFPsI wonder if OBS will perform better/worse compared to a x11 system. Maybe someone who uses both can answer this.

Ultimately the goal is to make it work better than X11 according to the dev who made most of the OBS Wayland code. The work is not finished however, so it might not live up to those expectations just yet.
Leopard Apr 3, 2021
Quoting: DamonLinuxPLYou can always disable pipewire by pass -DENABLE_PIPEWIRE=OFF flag to CMAKE. This should fix compilation on previous Ubuntu releases.

Anyway looks like to me that recording witch VAAPI on Radeon 580 8GB in X11 is broken... at least on my hardware (both in vaapi+x264 and vaapi+hevc). Just not sure if this related to new OBS 27.0.0 RC1 release or new libva 2.11.0... or maybe somethings else. Anyone see somethings similar?

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/9995

Maybe try with this mr or Mesa master.
Purple Library Guy Apr 3, 2021
I've been gradually seeing more mentions of Pipewire, seems like it's kind of becoming another "next thing that will finally make Linux sound great" (although I understand it can do more than sound). What do people figure the prospects are this time around?
g000h Apr 3, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been gradually seeing more mentions of Pipewire, seems like it's kind of becoming another "next thing that will finally make Linux sound great" (although I understand it can do more than sound). What do people figure the prospects are this time around?

Maybe they've got their finger on the pulse, mix on the alsa, and pipe on the wire, heh.
Dunc Apr 3, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been gradually seeing more mentions of Pipewire, seems like it's kind of becoming another "next thing that will finally make Linux sound great" (although I understand it can do more than sound). What do people figure the prospects are this time around?
Given that someone's finally decided that rather than completely replacing the existing APIs with a new one, it might be a better idea to unify them under one server, I'd say they're pretty good.
yahya Apr 4, 2021
Quoting: DamonLinuxPLAnyway looks like to me that recording witch VAAPI on Radeon 580 8GB in X11 is broken... at least on my hardware (both in vaapi+x264 and vaapi+hevc). Just not sure if this related to new OBS 27.0.0 RC1 release or new libva 2.11.0... or maybe somethings else. Anyone see somethings similar?
I experienced similar problem with VAAPI.

OBS Studio 26.1.2 with Mesa 21.0.1 gives a bad result: extremely lagging video when played back, but normal audio, only when I use VAAPI. But the result is good when I use software encoder (x264).

I have no problem using VAAPI on OBS before. It's with Mesa 20.3.
But Mesa 21.0 really improves gaming performance. Need to wait for a fix for this compatibility issue.
Purple Library Guy Apr 4, 2021
Quoting: g000h
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI've been gradually seeing more mentions of Pipewire, seems like it's kind of becoming another "next thing that will finally make Linux sound great" (although I understand it can do more than sound). What do people figure the prospects are this time around?

Maybe they've got their finger on the pulse, mix on the alsa, and pipe on the wire, heh.
Haha! So you're saying it'll be Jacked up? OSS-ome.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 4 April 2021 at 8:21 am UTC
Pangaea Apr 4, 2021
Have the 26.1 version, but had no problems with recording the other day. I'm on X11. My settings were "Hardware (NVENC)", whatever that means. Looks like a really solid program, and I'm glad there is native Linux support (now) :)
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