libretro / libretro/RetroArch

Crashing when switching OBS scenes

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Dominant language
C
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Description

Description

Randomly, loading games on RetroArch or switching scenes in OBS that include RetroArch as a window capture causes RetroArch to just full crash.

Expected behavior

RetroArch should stay open without crashing when loading games or switching OBS scenes.

Actual behavior

Loading games (mostly noticing on N64) and switching scenes in OBS crashes RetroArch with no error messages.

Steps to reproduce the bug
  1. Open OBS Studio
  2. Open RetroArch to the main menu
  3. In OBS Studio, add RetroArch window as a window capture
  4. In OBS Studio, make a second scene that doesn't have RetroArch capture in it
  5. In RetroArch, load up a ROM (N64 I found happens most often)
    6x. Sometimes randomly, this is where RetroArch crashes
    6xx. If RetroArch hasn't crashed yet, in OBS Studio, switch between your two scenes until RetroArch crashes
Bisect Results

I found this started happening after I started streaming Donkey Kong 64 on my Twitch channel. Before that, I had used RetroArch for numerous other games on different cores and it never once crashed. I had also played Mario Party 1 on stream through RetroArch and it never crashed like this.

Since Donkey Kong 64 started causing the crashing issues, I tested Mario Party 2 as well, and it is now crashing in the same fashion.

Version/Commit

You can find this information under Information/System Information

  • RetroArch: 1.19.1
Environment information
  • OS: Windows 11 Home, 23H2, Build 22631.4391
  • OBS: 30.2.3 (if it helps)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the crash using RetroArch 1.19.1 on Windows 11 with OBS 30.2.3, following the listed scene-switching and N64 loading steps. Compare behavior while loading the specified games and switching between scenes; done means RetroArch remains open without crashing and the failure can no longer be reproduced.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c
Domain
desktop
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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