v1.6.1

Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the same recording could be automatically uploaded multiple times due to a confluence of conditions
• Fixed the recordings list not respecting the date filter

Full Changelog: v1.6.0...v1.6.1

v1.6.0

What's Changed

Added

• Uploads now process multiple stages in parallel and automatically retry on failure with smarter backoff, improving speed and reliability on unstable connections.
• Upload progress is now saved as each chunk completes. If the app crashes mid-upload, it will pick up where it left off.
• The uploaded recordings list now supports Previous/Next navigation and page numbers.
• When a recordable game is running, the Games window shows a "Configure" button at the top for quick access to that game's settings.
• Instead of a fixed list of supported games, OWL Control now uses a denylist once again.

Changed

• When OWL Control goes offline, it now automatically retries connecting with increasing intervals. The UI shows a countdown to the next retry attempt.
• Branding updated to Overworld.
• Upload speed now shows a rolling 5-second average instead of the average over the entire upload, giving more responsive feedback.
• The Games window has been simplified to a single list of installed Steam games eligible for recording.

Fixed

• Crashes mid-upload will no longer lose their progress.
• Games with dots in their executable names (e.g., hr.win32.exe) are now detected correctly.

Full Changelog: v1.5.0...v1.6.0

v1.5.0

What's Changed

Added

• For your information, we have increased recording resolution to 720p and bitrate to 4777kbps per the request of our data team. Note this will result in larger recording and upload sizes, so if you are wondering why the uploads are taking a bit longer, this is why.
• Offline Mode: Login and use OWL Control when servers are unavailable
  • Manual toggle available in the top right corner
  • Automatically activates when server outages are detected (e.g., failed uploads)
  • Displays local recordings with cached server statistics when available, or local recordings only if servers were never reachable
  • Note: First-time login if the server is down may take longer as the app verifies server status by retrying
• [For Developers] New test app for testing recording functionality (located under tools)

Fixed

• Offline mode authentication through login screen now works for 502 gateway errors
• Improved server outage detection with better error messages
• Metadata loss when server uploads fail and system runs out of memory
• Duplicated tar files being incorrectly created per recording when server upload fails

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.5.0

v1.5.0-rc2

What's Changed

Added

• Offline Mode: Login and use OWL Control when servers are unavailable
  • Manual toggle available in the top right corner
  • Automatically activates when server outages are detected (e.g., failed uploads)
  • Displays local recordings with cached server statistics when available, or local recordings only if servers were never reachable
  • Note: First-time login if the server is down may take longer as the app verifies server status by retrying
• [For Developers] New test app for testing recording functionality (located under tools)

Fixed

• [From RC1] Offline mode authentication through login screen now works for 502 gateway errors (my bad)
• Improved server outage detection with better error messages
• Metadata loss when server uploads fail and system runs out of memory
• Duplicated tar files being incorrectly created per recording when server upload fails

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.5.0-rc2

v1.5.0-rc1

What's Changed

Added

• Offline Mode: Login and use OWL Control when servers are unavailable
  • Manual toggle available in the top right corner
  • Automatically activates when server outages are detected (e.g., failed uploads)
  • Displays local recordings with cached server statistics when available, or local recordings only if servers were never reachable
  • Note: First-time login if the server is down may take longer as the app verifies server status by retrying
• [For Developers] New test app for testing recording functionality (located under tools)

Fixed

• Improved server outage detection with better error messages
• Metadata loss when server uploads fail and system runs out of memory
• Duplicated tar files being incorrectly created per recording when server upload fails

Full Changelog: v1.4.0...v1.5.0-rc1

v1.4.0

What's Changed

Added

• OWL Control is now restricted to this whitelist of games. Any games outside of this list will be rejected.
  • Please let me or @Clyde013 know if a supported game shows up as unsupported - we've done our best to get the right EXEs for each game, but there may still be mistakes.
• Uploads can now be paused and resumed at a later time. Note that, if left paused too long, the upload will have to restart from scratch.
• By popular request, audio cue customization! We've added a bunch of new audio cues and the ability to set the volume for the cue. Unfortunately, we can't get too crazy with the default cues, but you can add your own cues to the OWL Control installation.
• The time of the overlay goose is over; the overlay now uses the OWL Control logo. Boring, but hey, at least it changes colors!
• The recording history will now expand as you expand the overall window size.
• OWL Control now displays the FPS of the encoder (not to be confused with the game FPS), and will auto-invalidate the recording if it can't keep up.
• Added a button to delete all already-uploaded local recordings.
• Added a game launcher, accessible via Games at the bottom, that lets you launch Steam-installed games and links the rest.
  • As part of this, you can switch to Window Capture on a per-game basis, which can be used as an alternative if your recordings for that game end up fully-black. We request that you only use this when strictly necessary, as it will capture overlays and have worse performance than the default capture mode.
• Added a cumulative playtime tracker that helps you keep track of how long you've been recording for in one session, thanks to @dadaev732.
• Added an option to automatically upload recordings as they complete, so that you can continue recording while you upload.
• For developers, we now have a proper CONTRIBUTING.md.

Fixed

• The overlay should no longer render as a black bar on certain devices.
• Error message boxes now consistently grab your focus.
• The recording will now automatically restart if the game resolution changes.
• OWL Control will now automatically stop and notify you if it is unable to capture the game within 5 seconds.
• The audio cue will always play on the default playback device at the time of play (e.g. the honks will play on headphones if you plug them in after starting OWL Control).

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.0

v1.4.0-rc2

What's Changed

Added

• OWL Control is now restricted to this whitelist of games. Any games outside of this list will be rejected.
• Uploads can now be paused and resumed at a later time. Note that, if left paused too long, the upload will have to restart from scratch.
• By popular request, audio cue customization! We've added a bunch of new audio cues and the ability to set the volume for the cue. Unfortunately, we can't get too crazy with the default cues, but you can add your own cues to the OWL Control installation.
• The time of the overlay goose is over; the overlay now uses the OWL Control logo. Boring, but hey, at least it changes colors!
• The recording history will now expand as you expand the overall window size.
• OWL Control now displays the FPS of the encoder (not to be confused with the game FPS), and will auto-invalidate the recording if it can't keep up.
• Added a button to delete all already-uploaded local recordings.
• Added a game launcher, accessible via Games at the bottom, that lets you launch Steam-installed games and links the rest. (added since RC1)
• For developers, we now have a proper CONTRIBUTING.md.

Fixed

• More lenient games .exe matching (added since RC1)
• The overlay should no longer render as a black bar on certain devices.
• Error message boxes now consistently grab your focus.
• The recording will now automatically restart if the game resolution changes.
• OWL Control will now automatically stop and notify you if it is unable to capture the game within 5 seconds.
• Hardware banned @ demonic.
  -# For legal reasons, this is a joke. Or is it?

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.0-rc2

v1.4.0-rc1

What's Changed

Added

• OWL Control is now restricted to this whitelist of games. Any games outside of this list will be rejected.
• Uploads can now be paused and resumed at a later time. Note that, if left paused too long, the upload will have to restart from scratch.
• By popular request, audio cue customization! We've added a bunch of new audio cues and the ability to set the volume for the cue. Unfortunately, we can't get too crazy with the default cues, but you can add your own cues to the OWL Control installation.
• The time of the overlay goose is over; the overlay now uses the OWL Control logo. Boring, but hey, at least it changes colors!
• The recording history will now expand as you expand the overall window size.
• OWL Control now displays the FPS of the encoder (not to be confused with the game FPS), and will auto-invalidate the recording if it can't keep up.
• Added a button to delete all already-uploaded local recordings.
• For developers, we now have a proper CONTRIBUTING.md.

Fixed

• The overlay should no longer render as a black bar on certain devices.
• Error message boxes now consistently grab your focus.
• The recording will now automatically restart if the game resolution changes.
• OWL Control will now automatically stop and notify you if it is unable to capture the game within 5 seconds.
• Hardware banned @ demonickrueger.
  -# For legal reasons, this is a joke. Or is it?

Full Changelog: v1.3.1...v1.4.0-rc1

v1.3.1

Fixes a bug where settings were not correctly saved in certain scenarios (including logging in or changing hotkey settings).

v1.3.0

What's Changed

Added

• More games added to the recommended list, documentation generally rewritten for clarity
• Invalidation reasons are now shown underneath recordings, and are now included in the logs once more
• Added a confirmation dialog for deleting valid recordings
• The recording location can now be changed, including moving your old recordings
• Added the ability to filter your recordings by start/end dates
• Information about OWL Control's submitting + recording version are now submitted to the server for validation
• The window title + icon now update when recording, and a notice is shown in-UI

Fixed

• Consecutive uploads with the window hidden will no longer stop the upload process (you can leave it uploading in the background)
• Fixed gamepad validation being unnecessarily harsh
• Fixed validation actions-per-minute checks in general (they were measuring per-second...)
• Unblocked Superhot (sh is not shell, silly me)
• Multiple gamepads are now correctly distinguished in the output; we still recommend you use just one gamepad per session, though
• Cleaned up UI code, fixing various UI bugs along the way
• Fixed some recordings being cropped after switching between games of a different resolution
• Fixed D3D9 games occasionally causing a recording resource leak when tabbing out
• Removed the Windows notifications on recording start/stop; the audio cue + overlay work better
• The encoder will now reset to x264 if the encoder-in-use is no longer available (possible if changing GPUs, for example)
• Hopefully fix issues with recordings not stopping correctly
• Increase validation length in case the above bug still exists
• Error message boxes will now actively steal focus so they're harder to ignore

Full Changelog: v1.2.0...v1.3.0