Well OBS 32.0.0 is out, and it’s gonna be pain, but in a good way, wait is pain ever a good thing.
It’s similar pain to the OBS 28 to anything after 28 move but PAIN all the same.
Along with all the new shiny features, like FiniteSingularity’s Plugin Manager, theres a bunch of changes under the hood! And the “Streamer Important” of these changes are what this blog post is gonna blog post about!
You can go read the full change log, over on the Releases Page, new shiny features at the top!
Look at this AWESOME Plugin manager. (OBS on line 2? Well thats Logitech’s Plugin apparently… go figure)
So What Broke
So since I have a finger in a LOT of pies, not just on Twitch but other realms, all within Streaming space, I’ll pull OBS Beta’s as they come and start testing. (Curse past me for setting my Mac OBS to always grab the betas… but whatever)
So, I pulled down OBS 32.0.0 beta 1 and it crashed on Launch. Here is the GitHub report yeah in the OP I was blaming EVERYONE and their dog (not Finite’s Dog). Took some better knowing peeps to trace it down and at the time I was busy and couldn’t do my own tracing. (Was too busy OMGWUT-ing to “upstairs” with “please don’t let customers go to 32.0.0 just yet)
Beta 2 fixed the crash on launch issue. But the problem here was the Streamdeck Plugin calling something that was removed from OBS in 32.0.0, since under the hood changes are dropping support for some legacy/older plugin hooks (or so I believe), and the SD plugin was invoking that and the fault wasn’t “safe caught” leading to OBS to crash instead of skip plugin loading.
Elgato was informed and so they chimed in with a “we are on it“, praise be to Videophile.
OBS 32.0.0 is General Release
So OBS 32.0.0 is now “released to the masses”
Heres what you need to do step by step, these steps are valid for OBS 31.x.x but shouldn’t be different for Older OBS, if on OBS Portable HAVE FUN! But you should know what you are doing here if you are running portable anyway…
“File” -> “Show Settings Folder”
Take a copy of the folder “basic” your scenes and profiles are in here and you should routinely back this up. (sure this doesn’t backup media assets (images/videos) that your scenes use thats up to you to sort but will preserve file paths and the like)
Close OBS
Next to update Streamdeck, first check that Streamdeck itself is “recent” should be running at least Software Version 7.0.0. Hit the “Cog” -> “General” -> “Check for Updates”. (At time of writing V7.0.1 is available) this step may also do the next step for you.
If Streamdeck has updated it’ll restart, next Hit the “Cog” -> “Plugins” -> Scroll to OBS Studio, “Check for Update”, anything newer than 2.2.8 and you should be good. (Current version is 2.2.9.9), side note: most plugins have auto update, but some plugins you installed before that was a thing won’t so check those manually if you want.
Now Open OBS and let OBS update to 32.0.0 (do “Help” -> “Check for Updates” if not auto prompted)
Away you go!
Other Plugins
After Restarting OBS into 32.0.0 you’ll want to check for and update any other plugins you use/consider important before you go live for the first time.
Notably ratwithacompiler has put out an update for the Closed Captions Plugin, that a lot of people use (and the one I recommend to people for adding CC’s to your streams), during the OBS 32.0.0 beta phases, to fix a similar fix to what Elgato has needed to do.
But everyone installs different plugins, and currently Plugin Management is manual and not all plugins with hint you need to update. (Why “currently” you say? Well the new Plugin Manager is going to be looking at hinting for updates I understand! YAY)
Aitum Multistream will for example, but I don’t think they have any updates at time of writing. Since it works fine under OBS 32.0.0, I just know it has a visible thang for “update available”.
Post Amble
Just doing my OBS updates, nice alert 😀 I know which ones I need to go and do now, but if you have other plugins make sure to check manually in case they didn’t get reported as not loading!
Finally Twitch EventSub is at feature parity with third party supported/documented PubSub, that the end of PubSub has been announced.
In a forum post over on Twitch Developers it has been announced the schedule for the shutdown of Twitch PubSub for access by third party developers.
The final death date is April 14th 2025.
Which I guess means it’s time for me to complete my own migration from PubSub to EventSub. Which at least is JUST ABOUT planned….
At least for 90% of what I need it’s ALL USERNOTICE as an EventSub topic, which is this case is channel.chat.notification and then whatever I choose to go with for consuming cheering.
So then for anything else I’ll need that doesn’t exist, either from it not existing in the first place OR a undocumented topic I might be using, off to uservoice I’ll go!
Off hand I think there is only one thing but we’ll see when I work on and complete my migration! The only other barrier is gonna be authentication but I have authentication or can get it for everything I need.
It is worth noting that Extension PubSub is unaffected, as that for the most part is a completely different system that just shares the same name.
Topic Migration notes
Edit: I guess I should add some notes about migration
In Part 2 we spoke a fair bit about “the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL”, and this week we will cover why I mentioned that every time!
So, this week The Architecture of a Twitch Extension!
We have covered before that essentially a Twitch Extension is a “Website” that is iFrame’ed onto the Twitch Page, into an integration slot, but what does that actually look like?
The Twitch Architecture Overview – According to Twitch
First we have the Twitch Channel page – the “Browser” above
Then the Twitch Extension “supervisor”, this basically handles any handshaking between the outer Twitch and the inner Extension, we can’t cover more about it as it’s not documented anywhere, and that is my theory on what it does! It is mentioned in passing in the documentation
Then the Extension itself – the “iFrame” above
Relative path? WHY?
So why “relative path”? Well here is what the URL to the Panel looks like for FlightSimTrack
The first thing we’ll notice is that the index.html is in a sub folder of the domain. And NOW you know why we said “the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL”every, single, time. And it’s a common hiccup that Extension Developers run into, a number of people come into the Developer Discord needing extension help, and they either made a mistake packaging the Zip for upload (we’ll cover Upload procedure in a future post), or the developer has used an “absolute” link to a JS/CSS file (starting /style.css or https://example.com/style.css for example, instead of juststyle.css).
The most important one to be aware of right now is anchor which tells you which integration slot this is. In this example it’s a panel, and FlightSimTrack’s panel is configured to load panel/index.html for this integration slot.
extClientID is obvious, it’s the ClientID of your Extension
Extensions live on the domain extClientID.ext-twitch.tv, why a different domain for each extension and separate to Twitch? This prevents any issues with Cookies from the “main” Twitch Website, so there won’t be any session hijacking or other crazy things, you can read a little more on that in the documentation
Version – the version of the extension that these files are for
md5 of the zip file that was uploaded, during testing you might go to Hosted test/local test (two Stages of the Extension Lifecycle that we’ll cover next week) a few times, so the md5 will change, this is a easy “cache defeat” when you are Hosted testing
Final part is the path and html file you specified in the console to load for this integration slot
Asset Hosting for FlightSimTrack
The URL structure is the same for every integration point, and all files are considered “public”, which is something to consider when building in things for Channel Moderators to use.
That about covers everything for the frontend
Well, what about the Backend?
Oh you want the backend to do you?
The Twitch Architecture Overview – According to Twitch again!
First of all it’s important to note than a Backend, also referred to as EBS or Extension Backend Service, is entirely optional, depending on your Extension, what/how it functions or what it does, it might not even need an EBS, either from calling Public API’s or from it being completely self contained.
The SSL Requirement
But for those Extensions that need an EBS, there is essentially one rule, it must serves it’s contents over SSL, this isn’t just good for Security, but is required as the Twitch Website is over SSL and browsers will reject Mixed Content (loading non SSL content from SSL).
So
Loading from the EBS? Needs to be https://urltoyourebs/
Loading from a Public API? Needs to be https://someapi/
Loading from a Websocket? Needs to be wss://somesocket/
Loading an image from a CDN? Needs to be https://somecdn/image.png
To illustrate some examples:
FlightSimTrack viewer, nothing at all (images are on the Twitch Extensions CDN and map tiles come from map tile vendors over SSL)
FlightSimTrack config, EBS lives at https://twitch.extensions.barrycarlyon.co.uk/
CohhCarnage Panel Extension, uses an API at https://extensions.cohhilition.com/ and a socket at wss://extensions.cohhilition.com/
Dropped Frames video Extension, no API or socket at all, but images from a CDN, usually Twitter/Twitch avatars directly from Twitter/Twitch over HTTPs, it receives from Twitch PubSub only.
You can see that they all all work over endpoints/routes protected by SSL.
We’ll cover how to build a “custom” EBS, and verifying identity in a future post, this week it’s just “Architecture”, the long and short of it, is you are basically just building a Custom API to interact between your front end and backend. A common way I describe Extensions, is as follows
Extensions are a website, where the front end is on a different server to the backend, and you can’t do server side rendering
– Barry Carlyon on “Well what is an Extension anyway!”
Languages
Whilst a Twitch extension is “limited” to HTML and JavaScript, your EBS/Backend API can be in any language you want. But when it comes to examples, samples and boilerplates you’ll generally find them in JavaScript (via NodeJS) or Go, (since Twitch is a “Go House”). We’ll be using NodeJS in this series, merely because it’s potentially the easiest for people to understand and convert knowledge between different languages.
If you want to jump ahead, you can check out the Developer Rig, which will provide you access to a number of Extension Examples, which are also available on the TwitchDev GitHub, or my own Twitch Profile Extension (which demonstrates how to call the Twitch API via an “EBS” proxy), these examples are designed to highlight a specific function of Twitch Extensions, rather than a “practical” example.
Real Certificates only
Naturally this needs to use “real” SSL Certificates, as apposed to self signed, which is “bearable” for testing with. Generally you’ll find Extension Developers will whip out LetsEncrypt as it’s free and easy to setup, and straightforward to setup a testing system.
Summary
So that covers the Architecture of an Extension
Not really sure what else to add, here is a photo of my cat, Sprite.
Sprite has invaded this Blog Post
What about next week?
Next week we will be looking at the Developer Rig and how/when to use it and setting up a Dev environment suitable for developing a Twitch Extension!
BUT MOTHER I CRAVE VIOLENCE
Well, until I write the next part if you want to read more about the Developer Side of Extensions, you can pop a visit over the to the Documentation or take a look at Twitch’s Introductory Page and you can always join us on the “TwitchDev Discord Server”, visit the Developer Support Page for the current invite link!
Twitch provides developers with three main, two auxiliary, and two Broadcaster only integration points, and of these integration points Twitch lets us pick the HTML (and thus Javascript or CSS) file(s) we wish to load for all of these. (Well except Panel Popout, screw that guy, it owes me a tenner).
Hang on just a minute
What? OH! You want to know how to create an Extension first or where to set the HTML to be loaded for each view? Yes, that would make a little more sense, wouldn’t it!
Extensions can be created, configured, and release via the Twitch Developer Console.
After logging in you’ll generally land on the Summary page that will list you current Extensions, Applications and any Games/Categories you may “own” on Twitch from being part of an organization
An example of the Twitch Developer Dashboard Overview
We’ll ignore everything else since we are only interested in Extensions.
Twitch Developer Console for Extensions
If you click Extensions then “Create Extension” it’ll take you through a short “Setup Wizard” before presenting you with your ClientID for the Extension. We’ll do that now so we have an Extension to play with during this series!
PRO TIP: After starting the Wizard, please finish the wizard, even if you intend to change everything later.
Asks for your Extension Name, then Click Continue
Asks you to pick the views/integration points you want, which you can change later
Provide a Version number, 0.0.1 will suffice for now
Add additional details such as the Extension description and contact details for you
Now hit “Create Extension Version”
Twitch will send you an email to verify the provided contact details, so click the link in those email(s).
We’ll cover most of the other fields in a future post, but today we are interested in integration points.
Twitch will now have dropped us on the status page for our Extension
It’s important to note that you cannot use “Twitch” in the name of you Extension, and the name needs to be unique across Extensions and Applications across all of Twitch
So Integration Points?
On the Extension Status page, hit “Asset Hosting”, this will take us to the page to configure our “Extension Views” and what html to load. Twitch will prefill with something sensible, but you can use anything you want
“Asset Hosting” section of a Twitch Extension Console
At the top is the Testing Base URI, we are going to ignore this for now, but we’ll be covering it next week, when we might actually start building.
Below that comes the section that lets you pick via Checkbox, which views (for the viewer) you wish to enable. And the settings for each view.
Panel
A Panel is rendered below the stream, in the panels section, Broadcasters have “some” control over where a panel extension will appear in relation to the other panels, Twitch liks to jumble things round sometimes, but generally Panel Extensions are pretty sticky and reflect the broadcasters choice.
A panel has the following settings available
Panel Viewer Path – the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL
Panel Height – a panel extension is fixed Width (318px), but the developer can choose what height to use, ranging from 100px to 500px
A Panel extension, can be popped out (one of the Auxiliary Integration points we mentioned), which will start at 318px wide and the specified height, but the Viewer can then resize this window. It’s something to be aware of when building your extension, and offers the ability to use Responsive design
Video – Fullscreen
A Video Fullscreen extension will cover the whole stream, so the developer and designer can utilize the whole stream. Usually it’s safe to assume that the size is 1920px x 1080px, and you can scale as needed, we’ll cover some ways to handle this in a future post
A video Fullscreen only has one setting, the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL
Mobile
YES, THE CHECKBOXES GO: Panel, Video – Full, Video – Comp, Mobile but the page goes in a different order
The Mobile view is presented to Viewers using a Mobile device in the Twitch App for that device, such as an Apple iPhone, Apple Table, Android phone and so on.
Like Video Fullscreen there is only one option here, the HTML file to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL
Mobile you’ll need to practice Responsive design as dimensions will vary by device and orientation of the device
Video – Component Viewer Path
A video Component roughly works similar to a Panel, but it defaults to being “closed” and can be manually opened by the Viewer by clicking the relevant icon in the “taskbar”, the Taskbar is presented to the viewer on the right of a Live Stream.
The Extensions Taskbar, left is shown a Video Component Extension in the closed state and right is the open state
The following options are available
Video Component Viewer Path – the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL
Video Component Sizing Parameters – there are a number of options here we’ll cover this more in depth at a future post as it can get fun!
Non Viewer integration Points
That covers all the Viewer intergration points and their options in summary
Next we have the “Broadcaster” Integration points, there are two of them, both have the same available settings, the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL
Configuration view
This is the main/one off configuration view, when a broadcaster first installs your Extension they will be prompted to ask if they want to visit the Configuration page or not. This page is used for one off or infrequent configuration
The Extension Config prompt during install
In some cases, developers can also block an extension being activated if the configuration has not been done, usually this would be used for things such as providing an API key to access another API, or asking the broadcaster what their Destiny 2/other game Character name is (for example)
The Twitch Extension configuration page for FlightSimTrack, this example provides additional setup instructions and the API Access Key for the Companion Desktop App
It can be reached from the install flow for an extension and from the “Cog” Icon on an Extension in the Extension Manager section of the Dashboard
In terms of Dimensions it’s usually Landscape but a broadcaster can resize it pretty narrow, so you’ll need to be responsive or provide a minimum width
Live Configuration View
The Live configration view is to be used by the broadcaster for common tasks or things that need to be done during a Stream, examples of this would be to start a Poll for a poll extension, or a “I’m starting a round” in a mini games extension.
The Live configuration view is reached by the Broadcaster from the “Quick Actions” Section of their “Stream Manager”
An example of a Quick Action Extension Button
When clicked, a new window will open, which will contain the Quick Action/Live Configuration View, it’s resizable by the broadcaster so you’ll need to practice responsive design again here
EliteTrack’s Quick Action view provides easy access to a summary of the data sent, and prompts the user about Bug Reporting
Summary
And that covers the various integration points in a bit more depth compared to last weeks post!
Next week, we’ll be covering “Getting Started Building” I think and why every time I mention a HTML file did I follow it with: “the path and file name of the HTML file you wish to load, it is a relative path to the Testing Base URI/final upload URL”
BUT MOTHER I CRAVE VIOLENCE
Well, until I write the next part if you want to read more about the Developer Side of Extensions, you can pop a visit over the to the Documentation or take a look at Twitch’s Introductory Page and you can always join us on the “TwitchDev Discord Server”, visit the Developer Support Page for the current invite link!
Hopefully gonna start writing again, (not the first time I’ve said that, so we’ll see how we go!)
Anywho, I do currently find myself unemployed after quitting my previous Job on Monday, nothing on my part but the actions of others leading to the actions of others forcing my hand.
I am currently deciding what to do next!
If you know whom I used to work for you can go look it up yourself, I don’t feel the need to talk about it myself.
I am continuing to do various bits and pieces for the Streamers I work with on Twitch, so nothing has changed there, I’m just out of full time work!
