DesktopBuddy

DesktopBuddy brings your Windows desktop into Resonite as native-feeling world-space panels. It is built for people who want their real desktop, monitors, and application windows available inside a world without turning the experience into a flat screen overlay.

Features

• Spawn full desktops, monitors, or individual application windows as grabbable curved panels.
• Interact with windows using VR controller, hand tracking, or touch input.
• Fully gpu accelerated WGC desktop capture.
• Stream panels to other users through local encoding and remote HTTPS tunnel support.
• Virtual video camera drivers for windows so you can do video calls from within resonite.
• Virtual microphone driver for windows so friends can hear you in calls in resonite.
• Use privacy controls for hiding or limiting what other users can see.
• Adjust capture, streaming, audio, culling, viewer, and debug options from the in-world settings panel.
• Keep game-side and renderer-side work separated through the shared texture bridge.

Credits

Special thanks to the projects and libraries DesktopBuddy builds on.

License

AGPL-3.0 - see LICENSE.

1.0.15 - 2026-05-18

Build And Packaging

• Fixed zip layout.
• Split runtime payloads into a separate DesktopBuddyRuntime Thunderstore package.

1.0.14 - 2026-05-16

Settings And UI

• Added a dedicated General settings tab after Viewers.
• Added General toggles for showing DesktopBuddy in the context menu and enabling throw-to-destroy.
• Moved experimental spatial audio from Devices to General.
• Changed the settings panel title to show DesktopBuddy - version.
• Replaced the generated context-menu Desktop icon with the packaged transparent DesktopBuddy icon.

Streaming And Audio

• Fixed remote stream audio playback being tied to the owner's local stream preview state.
• Kept stream audio volume local to each user instead of resetting it from shared stream settings.
• Removed the global Audio tab volume slider to avoid confusing shared/local audio control.
• Fixed the remote stream visual missing the current panel curvature on spawn.

Visual Fixes

• Reworked quick-menu blur so it attaches to the actual quick-menu curved mesh like the settings panel blur.
• Fixed quick-menu blur sizing so it follows the current rounded menu width during expand/collapse and resize.
• Removed custom render-order/render-queue overrides from blur effect materials where they were not needed.

Build And Packaging

• Packaged and deployed icon_transparent.png with the game plugin so runtime UI can use the same icon asset as documentation.
• Kept Thunderstore/package metadata in sync with the new version.
• Disabled Thunderstore publishing while keeping the package layout for GitHub release zips.
• Updated GitHub releases to attach the install zip and show manual Gale/manual BepisLoader install paths before the changelog.
• Moved in-game update links and checks to GitHub releases.

1.0.12 - 2026-05-15

Loader And Distribution

• Converted DesktopBuddy from Resonite Mod Loader to BepisLoader/BepInEx.
• Added Thunderstore-first package metadata with BepisLoader, BepisResoniteWrapper, InterprocessLib, BepInExRenderer, and RenderiteHook declared as dependencies.
• Removed the legacy RML manifest, RML deployment paths, RML config handling, bundled RML/BepInEx reference DLLs, and manual InterprocessLib source copy.
• Added GitHub Actions support for Thunderstore publishing and changed GitHub releases to point users to the Thunderstore package page instead of uploading a second install zip.
• Added a separate Thunderstore README focused on what DesktopBuddy is and what it does.

First-Run Setup

• Added an in-world DesktopBuddy setup panel that appears from the Desktop context-menu item when local Windows setup is missing or outdated.
• Setup now checks only the Windows pieces DesktopBuddy owns: SoftCam registration, VB-Cable installation, VB-Cable loopback, and the local streaming URL ACL.
• Setup asks for administrator permission only after pressing Install, then refreshes the panel status and waits for Close before continuing startup.
• The setup panel can be closed to continue loading DesktopBuddy even when optional setup is skipped.
• Added packaged setup payload hashes so SoftCam and VB-Cable setup can be rerun when those bundled payloads change.

Organization And Maintenance

• Reworked DesktopBuddy into a feature-sliced modular monolith with focused App, Configuration, Sessions, Streaming, Capture, Input, UI, Networking, VirtualDevices, Win32, and Utilities areas.
• Split the old DesktopBuddyMod, SessionLoop, SessionSpawner, SettingsPanel, FfmpegEncoder, WgcCapture, and WindowInput monoliths into smaller responsibility-focused files.
• Added shared UI primitives for curved panels, scrollbars, stick scrolling, and common styling.
• Cleaned up naming around SoftCam, VB-Cable, Cloudflare tunnel handling, stream servers, and port forwarding.
• Added CODE_ORGANIZATION.md guidance for keeping future changes dry and organized.

Streaming And Runtime

• Moved shared stream ownership, release, refcount, and cleanup behavior into shared stream lifecycle/registry helpers.
• Split session update behavior into resize, cleanup, virtual device ticking, window polling, and event processing services.
• Improved built-in stream startup and delayed remote URL binding so stream URLs are attached when the encoder and public URL are actually ready.
• Kept Cloudflare tunnel support as the built-in remote HTTPS path while leaving external MediaMTX mode available for users who configure it.

Settings And UI

• Broke the settings panel into focused tab, layout, primitive, style, viewer row, culling preview, update, and debug modules.
• Kept the current DesktopBuddy visual style while making settings controls reusable and less duplicated.
• Updated README and package documentation for BepisLoader, Thunderstore, current build scripts, and the new release flow.

Build And Packaging

• Replaced batch build/package scripts with PowerShell scripts.
• Build and package scripts now generate DesktopBuddySetupPayloads.md5 from the setup payloads.
• Packaging now uses the Thunderstore layout directly and includes CHANGELOG.md plus the Thunderstore README.
• Local build/deploy supports Gale profile selection while defaulting to the Default profile.
• Removed old setup scripts and no longer packages INSTALL.txt.

1.0.10 - Previous Release Notes

DesktopBuddy got a major in-world control upgrade in this release, with a new curved Settings panel, a redesigned quick menu, richer streaming controls, and cleaner release/install tooling.

Highlights

• Added a curved DesktopBuddy Settings panel that matches the main panel shape and opens directly in-world.
• Redesigned the bottom quick menu as a compact hover pill with the new purple-to-blue visual theme.
• Added tabbed settings for viewers, stream quality, networking, virtual devices, debug logs, and update info.
• Added viewer-aware stream controls with per-user enable toggles and live culling status.
• Added frustum and distance-based viewer culling with an in-world preview guide.
• Added local-only stream playback gating so viewers outside the culling area stop receiving the stream while the panel itself remains visible.
• Added a short grace period when viewers leave the culling area so streams do not flicker on brief boundary crossings.
• Added stream presets for resolution, FPS, bitrate, encoder preference, and preferred GPU selection.
• Added network controls for Cloudflare, port forwarding, automatic external IP detection, manual host entry, and stream port settings.
• Added virtual device status cards for SoftCam, VB-Cable, virtual camera, virtual mic, and experimental spatial audio.
• Added a rounded virtual camera preview on the devices page.
• Added an in-game update/info page with project info, GitHub access, current version, changelog display, and reset-to-defaults.
• Added a combined debug log export that includes DesktopBuddy and renderer-side logs.
• Added an in-game debug log viewer that keeps the newest lines visible.

Streaming And Audio

• Stream audio now plays at full source volume and is controlled locally by each user.
• Owner stream preview uses the same stream playback path as remote viewers.
• Stream playback now starts and stops per user instead of disabling shared panel visuals.
• Stream quality changes are applied through the runtime stream pipeline instead of requiring broad manual resets.

Visual Polish

• Settings and quick-menu surfaces now use rounded blurred backdrops that match the curved DesktopBuddy panel.
• Controls, section headers, toggles, sliders, text fields, status badges, and scroll areas have been rethemed for a cleaner premium look.
• Status badges have been standardized across network and virtual-device pages.
• Viewer rows now use a cleaner list presentation with avatar-style icons.

Build, Install, And Packaging

• Build scripts now refresh game-side and renderer-side dependency DLLs from the installed game where appropriate.
• Harmony and game/render-side references are refreshed from the local Resonite install.
• Packaging and installer scripts were updated for the dependency layout at the time.
• Release automation includes the changelog artifact used by the in-game update page.