OpenClip 🎬

OpenClip is a lightweight, hybrid Go/C++ screen recording tool, inspired by apps like Medal.tv and ShadowPlay, but fully open-source and built to be transparent and extensible.

It's being built as a cross-platform desktop tool with native hotkey support, circular buffer recording via FFmpeg, and eventually, native game-aware and audio-aware recording.

This is a work-in-progress, not production-ready project, but already functional and designed with clarity and simplicity in mind.

Linux and macOS is currently not supported, but is planned for future releases.

🧱 Project Status

Right now it's in early development. Here's what's working and what's coming next:

v0.1

• Config file auto-creation + YAML parsing
• Custom logger (stdout + file with log level)
• FFmpeg-based circular buffer with segment recording
• Hotkey detection on Windows
• Clip saving via hotkey

v0.2 (Upcoming)

• Initial audio capture (WASAPI on Windows)
• Game/process detection and smart folder naming
• Save clips into game-specific subfolders (e.g., ./output/Strinova/clip-1234.mp4)
• Window-specific FFmpeg capture (targeting active game window)

v0.3

• Native Windows video capture (DirectX hooking)
• Per-process audio capture via WASAPI
• Replace FFmpeg with native DLLs for performance
• Basic GUI for configuration and browsing
• Support for other operating systems (Linux (X11/Wayland), macOS)

🗺️ Roadmap

We're building this in small, stable chunks. Each release aims to be minimal but complete.

Version	Goal	Status
v0.1	FFmpeg-based CLI clipper	✅ Done
v0.2	Game-aware folders + audio proto	🚧 In progress
v0.3	Native capture PoC (Windows)	⏳ Planned
v1.0	Full native pipeline + GUI	🔮 One day maybe

🛠️ Building From Source

OpenClip is a hybrid Go/C++ project. To build it from source, you will need both the Go toolchain and a C++ compiler for the native audio capture module.

Prerequisites

• Go: Version 1.24 or later.
• Visual Studio 2022 (or later): You must have the "Desktop development with C++" workload installed. This provides the MSVC compiler, Windows SDK, and build tools needed for the native DLL.
• FFmpeg: (For the current capture backend) The full build from Gyan.dev is recommended.

Build Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Feinq/OpenClip.git
   cd OpenClip

2. Compile the Native DLL:

   • Open native/OpenClipNative/OpenClipNative.sln in Visual Studio.
   • Set the build configuration to Release and the platform to x64.
   • Build the solution (Build -> Build Solution). This will create the OpenClipNative.dll file inside native/OpenClipNative/x64/Release/.

3. Build the Go Application: You can now run the included PowerShell build script, which will copy all the necessary files into a clean build directory.

   .\build.ps1

   Or you can build manually, but you will have to make sure you have a copy of the OpenClipNative.dll in the directory the executable is present in.

   go build -o openclip.exe .\cmd\openclip\

4. Run the Application:

   cd build
   .\openclip.exe

📄 License

OpenClip is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute it with attribution.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are very welcome! Whether it's bug reports, feature requests, or code improvements, please open an issue or submit a pull request. Make sure to follow the existing code style and include tests where appropriate.