v0.2.0

Bower 0.2.0

What's new

• The library opens instantly — the folder scan (reading every clip's embedded info) now runs in the background, so the window appears immediately and clips stream in, even with hundreds of clips on a slow drive. Search is debounced too, so typing stays smooth in big collections.
• Find any clip fast — the library now has a search box (matches clip names and games) and sorting: newest, oldest, largest, or by name. Combined with the game and date filters, big collections stay manageable.
• Drive the library from the keyboard — arrow keys move between clips, Enter plays, F2 renames, Del deletes (press twice to confirm), Esc clears. The selected clip is outlined in green.
• The "clip saved" notification now plays your clip — click it and the library opens with that exact clip already playing. No hunting for what you just recorded.
• Left-click the tray icon to open the clip library directly; right-click still shows the full menu. There's also a Settings button in the library header now.
• Readable clip names, in your local time — new clips are named like VALORANT 2026-07-05 21-02-23.mp4. This also fixes filenames being stamped in UTC — they were hours off from your clock (the library always showed the correct time; now the filename matches it).
• Theme and language changes apply live — switch the theme or language in Settings and an open library window updates in place, no reopen needed.

Fixes

• Clips no longer lose their audio after the PC sleeps — waking from standby/hibernation desynced the audio pipeline, and every clip saved afterwards was silent until Bower was restarted. The pipeline now re-anchors itself on resume.
• Static screens no longer cut the start of clips — keyframes are now scheduled by elapsed time instead of frame count, so low-motion recording (a call, a quiet desktop) can't stretch the interval and trim seconds off a saved clip's beginning.
• Two hotkey presses in the same second no longer overwrite each other — the second clip gets a -2 suffix instead of clobbering the first mid-write.
• Smoother player — scrubbing seeks once when you release the slider instead of on every mouse move (the knob follows your finger now), and the per-frame video path does far less CPU work.
• Volume slider actually works — it keeps its position, applies to every clip you open, and no longer snaps back to 100%.
• Renaming from the library no longer crashes the window (F2 or the pencil button).
• The "clip saved" notification shows reliably — it could silently fail to appear before.
• The library respects your language and theme — it no longer showed a mix of English and Spanish, and an explicit light/dark choice is honored instead of following the OS.
• Audio/video stay in sync on very long sessions — drift is now bounded to a fraction of a second regardless of how long Bower runs.

Removed

• Clip trimming — the trim tool introduced in 0.1.13 produced broken files and has been removed while we rethink it. Your clips are plain MP4s, so any editor works in the meantime.
• The "Sample rate" setting — it had no effect (audio always follows your device); the control is gone so Settings only shows things that do something.

Notes

• Requires Windows 10/11 (64-bit) with a DirectX 11 GPU. Updates install automatically on the next launch.

v0.1.13

What's new

• Reliable hotkey on any keyboard layout — you can now bind any key (including AltGr and accent/dead keys on Spanish, German, etc.), and the shortcut fires in games again.
• Custom save sounds in any format — your chosen .mp3, .ogg, .flac, or .wav now plays when a clip is saved (previously only .wav worked).
• Startup & welcome notifications — a toast confirms the replay buffer is live when Bower launches, and a first-run welcome (with an Open settings button) shows that Bower runs from the system tray.
• Fixed: clips not saving with some audio bitrates — the audio bitrate now offers only AAC-supported values (96/128/160/192 kbps); a previously-saved out-of-range value (e.g. 176) no longer aborts the save.

Notes

v0.1.12

What's new

• Automatic updates — Bower updates itself on launch; the manual "Check for updates" item is gone.
• Monitor selection — pick which display to capture, listed by name (Settings → Advanced → Video).
• Simpler settings — split into General and Advanced tabs.
• Mic volume slider — adjust microphone level (50% = normal, higher = louder).
• Audio/video sync — fixed audio drifting out of sync during long clips.
• Smoother audio mixing to prevent crackling on loud peaks.

Notes

• Changing the language briefly restarts Bower so the whole app (including the tray menu) switches cleanly. This resets the replay buffer, so do it before you need to capture.

v0.1.11

What's new

Brand-new settings window

• Rebuilt the settings window from the ground up to match the Bower design system — clean cards, brand-green accents, proper fonts (Space Grotesk / Hanken Grotesk / JetBrains Mono), soft shadows, and polished toggles and segmented controls.
• Light & dark themes with a System / Light / Dark picker. "System" follows your Windows theme automatically; your choice is remembered.
• English & Spanish with a built-in language switcher — the whole window changes instantly, and the tray menu follows your choice.

Performance & memory

• Roughly halved the audio portion of the in-RAM replay buffer by storing 16-bit audio instead of 32-bit float — no audible difference.
• New GPU frame-texture pool and capped in-flight frames cut capture-pipeline memory churn and keep usage steady under high motion.
• Lower idle CPU from batched audio handling and a leaner, lighter settings window that fully frees its memory when closed.

Other

• Live "estimated buffer RAM" readout in settings so you can see how buffer length and bitrate affect memory.
• Quieter logging.

Notes

• Changing the language briefly restarts Bower so the whole app (including the tray menu) switches cleanly. This resets the replay buffer, so do it before you need to capture.

v0.1.10

What's new

Settings window

• Settings now runs as its own short-lived process. Closing it fully frees its memory (~40 MB) instead of leaving it resident, and the main app stays a lean background process.
• Fixes the settings window staying listed as a running app and the lingering RAM after first open.

Under the hood

• Removed the persistent off-screen window machinery; each Settings open is a fresh process, eliminating the winit single-window limitation entirely.

v0.1.9

What's new

Settings window

• Settings now runs as its own short-lived process. Closing it fully frees its memory (~40 MB) instead of leaving it resident, and the main app stays a lean background process.
• Fixes the settings window staying listed as a running app and the lingering RAM after first open.

Under the hood

• Removed the persistent off-screen window machinery; each Settings open is a fresh process, eliminating the winit single-window limitation entirely.

v0.1.8

What's new

Settings window

• Settings now runs as its own short-lived process. Closing it fully frees its memory (~40 MB) instead of leaving it resident, and the main app stays a lean background process.
• Fixes the settings window staying listed as a running app and the lingering RAM after first open.

Under the hood

• Removed the persistent off-screen window machinery; each Settings open is a fresh process, eliminating the winit single-window limitation entirely.

v0.1.7

What's new

Settings window

• Fixed window getting stuck as 'already open' after closing with Cancel or X
• Fixed window lingering in the taskbar after being closed

Audio

• Added microphone device selector in Settings — pick any input device or leave on system default
• Fixed desktop audio not recording for users with surround sound setups

Tray menu

• Streamlined to: Open output folder, Open last clip, Open settings, Check for updates, Quit
• Added emoji icons to each item

Other

• Reduced log noise — periodic capture stats are now debug-level only

v0.1.6

Create README.md

Bower v0.1.5

v0.1.5

Fixed

• Hotkey key-capture now works correctly for all key types
• Fixed: pressing punctuation keys (comma, period, slash, brackets, backtick, minus, equals, etc.) in the Settings capture mode now registers the key properly instead of silently exiting
• Fixed: F21-F24 can now be used as hotkeys
• Fixed: after capturing a key, the Settings button no longer briefly flickered back to the wrong label for one frame
• Removed duplicate/dead capture code left over from the hotkey rewrite