GRAPHICS: Text Boxes Not Appearing in External Captures

[JoLiKMC]

ScummVM version: ScummVM 2.8.1 (Mar 16 2024 13:01:03)
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro version 2H22, build 19045.4651

Game: Any title using Sierra On-Line's "Adventure Game Interpreter"
(First noticed on Space Quest, Chapter I: The Sarien Encounter.)
Version of game: All versions
(Confirmed on 1.0X 1986-09-24/DOS/English and 2.2 1987-05-07 5.25"/3.5"/DOS/English versions)
Relevant save game: Not applicable (happens anywhere)

Bug details: On occasion, the text boxes or other instances of text printing will fail to be captured in third-party video recording software. The text or text windows will, however, display just fine in ScummVM.

How to reproduce bug:
(Note: This may affect other software as well, but this is how I did it.)

1. Open ScummVM, then open OBS Studio and make a new Game Capture window, linking it to ScummVM.
2. Open any version of Space Quest I (AGI version) in ScummVM.
3. Start recording and type anything to generate a text message window.

Further details:
As documented ​here, there seems to be a weird visual bug with ScummVM while capturing Adventure Game Interpreter engine games under certain setups, such as using OBS Studio in "Game Capture" mode. It's not consistent, or maybe it only happens on certain frames or cycles. In OBS, particularly, the text boxes disappear in both the recording and the preview window, but still appear in the ScummVM window like nothing's wrong.

I've tested this issue with a couple of different DOS games: Space Quest, Chapter I (v1.0x AGI 2.089, v2.2 AGI 2.917) and King's Quest IV (v2.0 AGI 3.002.086). Both of them displayed the same issues with OBS Studio. I tried changing the video settings as well, but that did absolutely nothing. In all likelihood, this is probably more the fault of Open Source Broadcaster than anything, but I figured it was worth retreading since this has happened to at least two other people.

I've marked this as a "low priority" bug because switching to "Window Capture" in OBS Studio seems to have solved this issue for me.

Relevant media:

• ​Video recording of the bug in action

[JoLiKMC]

Sorry. The video renderer makes no difference, seemingly.

[JoLiKMC]

Added considerably more details. (It affects all DOS AGI 2.0 to 3.0 titles, at the very least.)

[JoLiKMC]

Reworded some things, retitled the report for consistency.

[JoLiKMC]

Quick update: According to an OBS representative, this problem is entirely ​ScummVM's fault due to how it uses DirectX 9 to render. Despite the fact this problem happens with either Surface SDL or OpenGL. So, there's that.

[tag2015]

I think this is still bug #13767.
Sometimes the popup messageboxes are not captured, unless you move the mouse first.

To check, do this:
Play windowed and keep both windows visible (the OBS capture and scummvm).
Trigger a messagebox, see that it doesn't appear on OBS. Move the mouse a bit, and it'll appear.

[JoLiKMC]

Okay, it's just plain absurd that wiggling the mouse refreshes the picture in OBS. Especially since I specifically have mouse input disabled for my AGI games. What in the world am I supposed to do? Set my mouse to automatically jitter while recording?

Anyway, this version of the bug only affects AGI games whereas the bug you linked affects SCI or AGI games. I cannot get the bug I'm describing to happen in any SCI game whatsoever, be it Space Quest III (1.052, SCI S.old.114), King's Quest IV (1.000.111, SCI 0.000.274), or Leisure Suit Larry: Love For Sail (1,01, SCI 3.000.000).

Additionally, it doesn't matter if I'm running ScummVM in OpenGL or Surface SDL mode. The problem still happens. If it helps, though, OBS Studio appears to use Direct3D 9 to hook into and capture ScummVM regardless of video mode. It uses DirectX Graphics Infrastructure or OpenGL, directly, with other games.

[tag2015]

I think you completely misunderstood my message, I wasn't suggesting a workaround but just a couple steps to check the beahavior.
If in you case the problem affects only AGI games, fine, maybe it's not the same bug but they're probably closely related.