OBS Studio, the open-source leader in cross-platform screen-casting and streaming software, put out a new release this week.
OBS Studio 30.2 adds Linux support to the native NVENC encoder, plus Linux shared texture support to the NVENC, QuickSync, and VA-API encoders.
And as of this update, PipeWire window/display capture is combined into a single, unified “Screen Capture” source, renamed as “Display Capture (XSHM)” to match other capture sources.
OBS Studio 30.2 defaults to using the Hybrid MP4 output format on Windows and Linux.
Hybrid MP4 pairs the benefits of fault-tolerant fragmented MP4 with the fast read-access of regular MP4, remaining recoverable even if writing to the file is abruptly stopped. It also supports
Chapter markers are another feature of Hybrid MP4, enabling users to jump to specific sections of a video in modern media players and some video editors. OBS Studio 30.2 hooks into this, making it possible to insert markers through a hotkey or API call.
Creating themes for OBS Studio is easier in this update, thanks to a new ‘Composable Themes system’. Old themes aren’t compatible with the new system so require reworking. Also, the old legacy system theme has been removed.
On Linux, the Qt Fusion style is now always enforced. Volume meter styling has been tweaks, and the appearance of multi-view borders and labels improved.
Beyond that, this update sees OBS Studio swaps its metadata-based VOD track for enhanced multi-track RTMP/FLV; add HEVC support to WebRTC output; and prioritise use of the NVDEC decoder on systems with NVIDIA GPUs.
Finally, OBS Studio 30.2 adds support for multitrack video streaming (aka ‘Enhanced Broadcasting’ in Twitch parlance) — for now a Windows-only feature. This also requires an NVIDIA GTX 900/GTX 10/RTX 20 series or AMD RX 6000 series GPU or newer.
OBS Project says it plans to bring enhanced broadcasting features to macOS and Linux users, and loop in support for other GPU vendors, in future updates – so watch this space!
Download OBS Studio 30.2
OBS Studio is free, open-source software. Download the latest for Windows, macOS, and Linux from the GitHub releases page (with DEB files in the assets), or through the main website.
Linux users can install OBS Studio from Flathub. This is an official package maintained by the OBS Project and is the ‘recommended’ way to install OBS Studio on most Linux distributions.
Ubuntu users are able to use the official OBS Project PPA to install OBS Studio, with the PPA providing packaged builds for both Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS.
To do this, run the following commands in a new Terminal window:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt install obs-studio
Alternatively, there’s an unofficial package on the Canonical Snap Store. This is a modified version that comes with a number of interesting extras and changes, including some useful-sounding plugins, additional filters, and some system integration tweaks.
One important thing to note: to use this version of OBS Studio Linux users with NVIDIA graphics should ensure their GPU drivers are v530.41.03 or newer.