Replay Buffer Pro

This OBS Studio plugin builds upon the built-in Replay Buffer by allowing users to save recent footage at different lengths, similar to how PlayStation/Xbox let you "Save Recent Gameplay".

Note: This plugin is 64-bit only, as it requires OBS Studio 29.0.0+ which dropped 32-bit support. The plugin uses Qt6 which also only provides 64-bit builds for Windows.

How It Works

OBS keeps a rolling buffer of the last few seconds or minutes (length defined in settings) of footage in memory using the built-in replay buffer. If not manually saved, old footage is overwritten as new footage is recorded.

Unlike the default Replay Buffer, which saves a fixed duration, this OBS Studio plugin allows users to save different lengths on demand. Example: Save the last 30 seconds, 2 minutes, or 5 minutes instantly with UI buttons or hotkeys.

Usage

Saving Clips

1. Start the Replay Buffer in OBS
2. Click any save clip button (15s, 30s, 1m, etc.) or use the assigned hotkey
3. The plugin will:
   • Save the full replay buffer
   • Automatically trim to the selected duration (Without re-encoding)
   • Replace the original file with the trimmed version

Buffer Length

• Adjust built-in replay buffer length (10s to 6h) without digging through the settings
• Cannot adjust the replay buffer length when the replay buffer is turned on

Hotkeys

• Assign hotkeys to each save duration button in OBS Settings > Hotkeys
• Look for "ReplayBufferPro" section to find all available hotkeys

Installation

From Release

1. Download latest release
2. Extract and merge the folder obs-studio with your OBS Studio installation

Final file structure should look like this:

obs-studio/
├── obs-plugins/
│   └── 64bit/
│       └── replay-buffer-pro.dll
├── data/
│   └── obs-plugins/
│       └── replay-buffer-pro/
│           └── locale/
│               └── en-US.ini
│           └── ffmpeg.exe

From Source

• Plugin installs automatically to OBS directory when using cmake --install . --config Release

Manual Installation After Building

After building, you can manually copy the files from your build directory:

1. Copy from build/Release/ or build/RelWithDebInfo/:
   • replay-buffer-pro.dll → C:/Program Files/obs-studio/obs-plugins/64bit/
2. Copy from source data directory:
   • Data files → C:/Program Files/obs-studio/data/obs-plugins/replay-buffer-pro/
3. Copy from source deps/ffmpeg:
   • FFmpeg files → C:/Program Files/obs-studio/data/obs-plugins/replay-buffer-pro/

Note: You may need administrator privileges to copy files to Program Files.

Building from Source

Requirements

• OBS Studio 29.0.0+ (64-bit)
• Windows 10/11 64-bit (Linux and MacOS are not supported at this time, PRs welcome!)
• Qt6 (64-bit)
• Visual Studio 2022+ with C++
• CMake 3.16+
• FFmpeg (bundled with plugin)

1. Prerequisites

1. Install Visual Studio 2019+ with "Desktop development with C++"
2. Install Qt6 (MSVC 2019/2022 64-bit) from https://www.qt.io/download-qt-installer
3. Install CMake 3.16+ from https://cmake.org/download/
4. Download FFmpeg:
   • Get latest build from https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases
   • Download "ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl"
   • Extract ffmpeg.exe to deps/ffmpeg/ in the plugin directory

2. Build OBS Studio

git clone --recursive https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio.git
cd obs-studio
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 ..
cmake --build . --config RelWithDebInfo

3. Build Plugin

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/replay-buffer-pro.git
cd replay-buffer-pro
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.x.x/msvc2022_64" ..
cmake --build . --config Release
cmake --install . --config Release

Note: Replace C:/Qt/6.x.x/msvc2022_64 with your actual Qt installation path, example: cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.8.2/msvc2022_64" ... OBS Studio should be in the same parent directory as the plugin. Note: You may need to run the install command in a terminal with elevated permissions (Run as administrator) to install the plugin to the OBS Studio directory.

Project Structure

obs-studio/              # OBS Studio source code (from step 2)
replay-buffer-pro/
├── CMakeLists.txt       # Build configuration
├── data/               
│   └── locale/          # Translations
├── deps/
│   └── ffmpeg/          # FFmpeg executable
├── src/                 # Source files
└── README.md

Troubleshooting

• Verify plugin DLL location
• Check OBS logs for errors
• For trimming issues:
  • Check disk space
  • Verify FFmpeg.exe is in the correct location
  • Check write permissions in output directory
• When building from source
  • Ensure Qt6 and OBS paths are correct in CMake
  • Run install command in a terminal with admin privileges

Third-Party Software

This plugin includes FFmpeg (https://ffmpeg.org/) for video trimming functionality. FFmpeg is licensed under the LGPL v2.1+ license. See FFmpeg documentation for details.

License

GPL v2 or later. See LICENSE file for details.