Issues with OBS Portable mode

[MooshPaw]

Describe the bug
Spout plugin doesn't load under OBS Portable (when putting "portable_mode.txt" on the root folder)

The installer also fails to detect OBS' install path and falls back to the default install path

To Reproduce

1. Create an empty "portable_mode.txt" file on the Root folder of OBS with working Spout plugin

2a. Open OBS, spout plugin is not initialized
2b. Unlike other installers, Spout's Installer fails to detect OBS' install path and defaults to the original one

Expected behavior
OBS Should load the Spout plugin without issues

Installer should detect OBS' install path (if OBS was originally installed via installer, in this case it is)

Logs

09:38:33.713: ---------------------------------
09:38:33.713: Loaded Modules:
09:38:33.713: win-wasapi.dll
09:38:33.713: win-dshow.dll
09:38:33.713: win-capture.dll
09:38:33.713: vlc-video.dll
09:38:33.713: text-freetype2.dll
09:38:33.713: rtmp-services.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-x264.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-websocket.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-webrtc.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-vst.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-transitions.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-text.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-qsv11.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-outputs.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-nvenc.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-filters.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-ffmpeg.dll
09:38:33.713: obs-browser.dll
09:38:33.713: nv-filters.dll
09:38:33.713: image-source.dll
09:38:33.713: frontend-tools.dll
09:38:33.713: decklink-output-ui.dll
09:38:33.713: decklink-captions.dll
09:38:33.713: coreaudio-encoder.dll
09:38:33.713: ---------------------------------

OBS fails to detect Spout at all
When compared to non portable mode, it loads every module

09:41:15.186: ---------------------------------
09:41:15.186: Loaded Modules:
09:41:15.186: win-spout.dll
09:41:15.186: win-wasapi.dll
09:41:15.186: win-dshow.dll
09:41:15.186: win-capture.dll
09:41:15.186: vlc-video.dll
09:41:15.186: text-freetype2.dll
09:41:15.186: rtmp-services.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-x264.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-websocket.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-webrtc.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-vst.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-transitions.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-text.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-shaderfilter.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-quick-access-utility.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-qsv11.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-outputs.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-nvenc.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-filters.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-ffmpeg.dll
09:41:15.186: obs-browser.dll
09:41:15.186: nv-filters.dll
09:41:15.186: move-transition.dll
09:41:15.186: image-source.dll
09:41:15.186: frontend-tools.dll
09:41:15.186: decklink-output-ui.dll
09:41:15.186: decklink-captions.dll
09:41:15.186: coreaudio-encoder.dll

About the Software:

• OBS Version [31.1.2]
• OBS Spout 2 Source Plugin Version [v1.9.0 (Latest)]

About Your Machine :

• OS: [Windows 10 Pro 22H2]
• GPU Nvidia RTX 4070]
• NVidia Driver Version [580.88]
• RAM [32GB]
• Machine Type [Desktop]

[LumKitty]

I have got this half working:

D:\Twitch\Software\OBS\obs-plugins\64bit needs to contain the 4 DLLs and PDB from win-spout\bin\64bit in the zip file

Unfortunately, the names of the menu items get messed up when you do this, becoming "toolslabel", "sourcename" etc. I assume the ini files in the zip file sort that out, but I haven't figured out where to put them to get this working.

In the meantime it's a usable setup

[LumKitty]

I got the other half to work!

DLL files (and PDB) location:
D:\OBS\obs-plugins\64bit

Locale files location:
D:\OBS\data\obs-plugins\win-spout\locale

Obviously replace D:\OBS with your actual location

Source for figuring this out was this guide by Elgato where a similar issue exists with their Stream Deck plugin: https://help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/articles/15525011385229-Elgato-Stream-Deck-How-to-use-with-OBS-Studio-Portable-Mode

[PorterBytes]

Can confirm both the issue, and the solution.
Version 31.1.2, Win 11, portable install in custom directory.

[LumKitty]

IMO the installer failing to do this for you is not a bug. The whole point of portable mode is OBS can be in any random folder on your PC and it's not reasonable to expect the installer to detect this.

All this really needs is a documentation update for how to install it yourself from the .zip file

[MooshPaw]

IMO the installer failing to do this for you is not a bug.

I want to share a bit on how portable works

If I install it from a zip file it's definitely expected to not work, as the OBS installer creates a registry of where it's installed

However if you install obs from the installer and manually make it portable, that's where spout stops detecting it

I find it weird as other plugins such as source clone still find this install forlder even after it's made portable, but it's probably because spout is not expecting a portable install

For now I'd like to thank you for the workaround, the fix works great

[LumKitty]

Wait, so you installed OBS to Program Files and then converted it to portable mode after the fact, while leaving it in Program Files?

I can see how that would work, albeit you'd need to run as admin or disable UAC, but yeah not something I would've expected.

I guess if this was to get supported, it'd just have to detect the portable-mode text file and adjust how it installs? (But then someone will decide to convert from portable back to regular after installing, then complain that their spout plugin broke!)

[MooshPaw]

Well, I do install OBS on a separate drive (D:\obs-studio), main reason to run portable is mainly to not have the saved data on the appdata folder
Installers are able to detect where obs is installed (even after making it portable) because the obs installer makes what i assume is a registry so that any installer knows where the obs root folder is, spout doesn't though, which i find really weird

Not sure how other plugins handle it either

[Kobi-Blade]

IMO the installer failing to do this for you is not a bug. The whole point of portable mode is OBS can be in any random folder on your PC and it's not reasonable to expect the installer to detect this.

All this really needs is a documentation update for how to install it yourself from the .zip file

? This issue is due to an inadequate installer that fails to provide users with the option to specify a custom OBS Studio installation directory.

It is considered bad practice to hardcode paths, whether in code or installers.

However, when operating in portable mode, installers are generally irrelevant. The recommended solution is to perform a manual installation of the plugin.

• Place the Spout plugin binaries (.dll files) into: OBS Studio\obs-plugins\64bit
• Place the associated locale folder into: OBS Studio\data\obs-plugins\win-spout

[MidniteJesus]

I put the files in exactly the locations you specified (except I used my OBS portable location of course), then there was an extra step to go to the tools menu in OBS and set spout to auto start. Vtube Studio detects the output, so I select that, but my screen is just blank. I tried messing with properties. I selected spout senders: OBS_Spout and chose composite mode to default.

It's a black screen with nothing on it. I even tried dropping the dll and pdb files in other locations as well, doesn't seem to work. I'm on OBS 32.0.2

I got the other half to work!

DLL files (and PDB) location: D:\OBS\obs-plugins\64bit

Locale files location: D:\OBS\data\obs-plugins\win-spout\locale

Obviously replace D:\OBS with your actual location

Source for figuring this out was this guide by Elgato where a similar issue exists with their Stream Deck plugin: https://help.elgato.com/hc/en-us/articles/15525011385229-Elgato-Stream-Deck-How-to-use-with-OBS-Studio-Portable-Mode

[LumKitty]

The auto start button and OBS_Spout is for if you want OBS to send a Spout output to something else, which is not a common use-case

I'm assuming you are wanting to send from VTube Studio to OBS, standard VTuber setup. I'm not sure exactly where the setting is in VTS (I'm a 3D VTuber, so use VNyan) but name your sender in VTS as something other than OBS_Spout (call it VTubeStudio or something).

Then in OBS, right click sources -> add source -> Spout2 source, pick your VTubeStudio sender there and you should be good to go

[TheTomCanuck]

this is the only plugin i know of off hand that the .zip doesnt contain obs-plugins and data folders that we can just drop in our portable installs. i dunno about OBS's new recommendations or whatever, but the zip layout seems like an oversight