Discord uses multiple techniques to capture an application window for Go Live and Screen Share. We are thrilled to introduce a new capture method for Windows user: Windows Graphics Capture.
Windows Graphics Capture is available on Windows 10 and above and is the latest Windows API to capture an application window.
Discord uses multiple technologies to capture your screen. Our current default capture method uses similar technology to capture your screen that is used for overlay - "Use our advanced technology to capture your screen". Our signed DLL is injected into the application to extract rendered frames as they are being sent to Windows for display.
On Windows 11 and higher, we will change the default capture method to Windows Graphics Capture. Unfortunately, it does not work for full screen exclusive (FSE) games.
We use SHQueryUserNotificationState to determine whether the game is running in full screen exclusive mode. However, this method may give false positive and we fall back to other capture methods.
How do I check which capture method is used?
If you enable Developer Mode under Advanced User Settings, you can open Debug panel by clicking Voice/Video Connected.
Under the Screen Share tab, Discord shows the number of frames captured for each screen share method.
How do I check whether the game is running in full screen exclusive mode?
Open Xbox Game Bar (Windows + G). If the game minimizes, it uses FSE. If Xbox Game Bar renders smoothly on top of your game, it uses borderless fullscreen.
Certain games offer to use the Full Screen or Borderless option. If the Full Screen option is selected, we may misclassify the game as using FSE and disable Windows Graphics Capture.
If you would like to get the best screen share performance, please select the Borderless option.