OBS Glitch / Distortion Filter

A video filter plugin for OBS Studio that applies a distorted, pixelated, glitchy effect to any video source (webcam, screen capture, media source, etc.). Designed to look like a failing camera or bad video transmission — everything still works, but it looks broken.

Screenshots

Default Look	Heavy Glitch	Packet Loss + Freeze	Full Chaos

Support the Project

This plugin is completely free and open source. If you find it useful and want to help keep projects like this coming, a tip is always appreciated but never expected.

Leave a Tip — it genuinely helps fuel late-night coding sessions and keeps the weird plugins flowing.

Features

Feature	Description
Pixelation	Blocky low-res look. Size is adjustable and can be randomized frame-to-frame
RGB Channel Shift	Chromatic aberration that shifts red/blue channels apart
Chroma Bleed	Extra color bleeding across edges, like bad video compression
Wave Distortion	Sine-wave warping across the image with adjustable speed
Scanlines	Retro CRT-style scanlines
Interlace	Interlacing artifacts that darken alternate lines
Glitch Blocks	Random horizontal tearing, color inversion, and digital noise
Packet Loss	16x16 macroblock corruption — blocks smear, invert, turn solid color, or fill with noise
Freeze Frames	Randomly freezes the distortion animation to simulate a stuck decoder
Flicker	Random brightness pulses like a failing power supply
Ghost	Faint trailing echo image offset horizontally
Horizontal Hold	Old TV-style horizontal jitter and instability
Posterize	Reduced color bit depth for compression banding artifacts
Rolling Bar	Slow dark interference bar that rolls down the screen
Per-Effect Randomizers	Make pixel size, wave, and glitch jitter unpredictably instead of repeating smoothly
Vignette	Darkened edges to focus attention on the center distortion

Installation

Windows

Method 1: Automatic Installer (Recommended)

1. Download obs-distort-filter-windows.zip from the latest release
2. Extract it anywhere
3. Right-click INSTALL.ps1 → Run with PowerShell
   • The script auto-detects your OBS installation path
   • If it can't find OBS, it'll ask you to type the path
4. Restart OBS Studio

Method 2: Manual Copy

1. Close OBS Studio completely
2. Copy obs-plugins/64bit/obs-distort-filter.dll to your OBS obs-plugins/64bit/ folder
3. Copy data/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/distort_filter.effect to your OBS data/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/ folder
4. Copy data/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/locale/en-US.ini to your OBS data/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/locale/ folder
5. Restart OBS Studio

Default Windows Paths:

• Standard: C:\Program Files\obs-studio\
• Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\OBS Studio\
• Portable: wherever you extracted the portable zip

Linux

Method 1: Install Script

1. Download obs-distort-filter-linux.tar.gz from the latest release
2. Extract it: tar xzf obs-distort-filter-linux.tar.gz
3. Run the installer:

   cd obs-distort-filter-linux
   chmod +x INSTALL.sh
   ./INSTALL.sh

4. Choose user-local (recommended, no sudo) or system-wide installation
5. Restart OBS Studio

Method 2: Manual Copy (User-Local)

1. Close OBS Studio
2. Create the plugin directory:

   mkdir -p ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/bin/64bit
   mkdir -p ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/data/locale

3. Copy the files:

   cp obs-distort-filter.so ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/bin/64bit/
   cp distort_filter.effect ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/data/
   cp en-US.ini ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/data/locale/

4. Restart OBS Studio

Method 3: Manual Copy (System-Wide)

1. Close OBS Studio
2. Copy the .so to your system OBS plugins directory:

   sudo cp obs-distort-filter.so /usr/lib/obs-plugins/
   # or /usr/lib64/obs-plugins/ on some distros

3. Copy data files:

   sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/obs/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/locale
   sudo cp distort_filter.effect /usr/share/obs/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/
   sudo cp en-US.ini /usr/share/obs/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter/locale/

4. Restart OBS Studio

Prerequisites: libobs0t64 (or equivalent) must be installed. Most OBS installs include this.

macOS

1. Download obs-distort-filter-macos.tar.gz from the latest release
2. Extract it: tar xzf obs-distort-filter-macos.tar.gz
3. Copy the plugin bundle to your OBS plugins folder:

   cp -R obs-distort-filter-macos/obs-plugins/obs-distort-filter.plugin \
     ~/Library/Application\ Support/obs-studio/plugins/

4. Restart OBS Studio

Note for macOS users: macOS binaries are built via GitHub Actions. If the latest release doesn't include a macOS build yet, you can build from source using the instructions below.

Usage

1. Add a Video Capture Device source (your webcam) or any video source
2. Right-click the source → Filters
3. Under Effect Filters, click the + button
4. Select Glitch / Distortion Filter
5. Adjust sliders live while watching the preview:

Slider	Range	Default	What it does
Pixel Size	1–64	8	Blockiness of pixelation. Higher = bigger blocks
RGB Shift	0.0–0.1	0.02	How much red/blue channels separate
Chroma Bleed	0.0–1.0	0.15	Color bleeding across edges
Wave Amount	0.0–0.05	0.01	How warped the image gets
Wave Speed	0.0–20.0	3.0	How fast the wave animates
Scanline Intensity	0.0–1.0	0.3	Darkness of CRT-style lines
Interlace	0.0–1.0	0.2	Darken every other scanline
Glitch Intensity	0.0–1.0	0.3	Frequency and strength of random glitches
Packet Loss	0.0–1.0	0.2	Macroblock corruption frequency
Freeze Frames	0.0–1.0	0.15	How often image freezes (0 = never, 1 = constantly)
Freeze Duration	0.0–0.5	0.08	How long each freeze lasts
Randomize Pixel	0.0–1.0	0.3	How much pixel size jitters frame-to-frame
Randomize Wave	0.0–1.0	0.4	How much wave distortion jitters unpredictably
Randomize Glitch	0.0–1.0	0.5	How much glitch intensity bursts randomly
Flicker	0.0–1.0	0.15	Random brightness pulses
Ghost	0.0–1.0	0.1	Faint trailing echo image
Horizontal Hold	0.0–1.0	0.1	Horizontal jitter like an old TV
Posterize	0.0–1.0	0.0	Color banding / reduced bit depth
Rolling Bar	0.0–1.0	0.1	Slow dark bar rolling down the screen

Default Look

The defaults are tuned to give a "camera is trying to work but failing" vibe:

• Medium pixelation (8px blocks) with slight randomization
• Subtle RGB shift and chroma bleed
• Slow wave distortion with moderate randomization
• Visible scanlines and interlacing
• Occasional glitch tearing, noise, and packet loss
• Occasional freeze frames and flicker
• Rolling bar and horizontal hold for analog decay feel

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++ workload
• CMake 3.16+
• Git

Build Steps

1. Clone the OBS Studio source:

   git clone --recursive https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio.git
   cd obs-studio

2. Copy this plugin into the OBS plugins folder:

   Copy-Item -Recurse ..\obs-distort-filter plugins\obs-distort-filter

3. Add the plugin to plugins/CMakeLists.txt. Find the section that lists plugins and add:

   add_obs_plugin(obs-distort-filter PLATFORMS WINDOWS)

4. Create a build directory and configure with CMake:

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake .. -A x64 -DENABLE_BROWSER=OFF -DENABLE_UI=OFF -DENABLE_SCRIPTING=OFF -DENABLE_HEVC=OFF -DENABLE_PLUGINS=ON

5. Build:

   cmake --build . --config Release --target obs-distort-filter

6. The output will be at:

   • build\plugins\obs-distort-filter\Release\obs-distort-filter.dll
   • plugins\obs-distort-filter\data\distort_filter.effect

File Structure

obs-distort-filter/
├── CMakeLists.txt                  # CMake build file
├── README.md                       # This file
├── obs-distort-filter.c            # Main plugin C code
├── cmake/
│   └── windows/
│       └── obs-module.rc.in        # Windows DLL metadata
└── data/
    ├── distort_filter.effect       # GPU shader (HLSL/GLSL)
    └── locale/
        └── en-US.ini               # UI labels

Compatibility

Platform	Status	Architecture
Windows 10/11	Fully supported	x64
Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, etc.)	Fully supported	x64
macOS	Supported via GitHub Actions CI	x64 / Apple Silicon

• OBS Studio: 29.x, 30.x, 31.x (built with backward ABI compatibility)
• GPU: DirectX 11 (Windows), OpenGL (Linux), Metal (macOS) capable
• Architecture: 64-bit only

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Filter does not appear in the menu	Make sure the plugin binary (.dll/.so/.dylib) and the .effect shader file are both present. If either is missing, OBS loads the module but the filter won't register. Restart OBS after installing.
obs_register_source: size mismatch error	This plugin uses obs_register_source_s(..., 408) for backward compatibility. If you see a struct size error, you may have an older version of the plugin cached somewhere. Search your entire OBS folder for obs-distort-filter and delete all copies, then reinstall.
Black screen when filter is applied	The shader may have failed to compile. Check Help → Log Files → View Current Log (Windows) or launch OBS from terminal and check output (Linux/macOS) for shader compile errors. Make sure distort_filter.effect is in the correct data folder.
Performance issues / high GPU usage	Reduce Pixel Size, disable Scanlines/Interlace, or lower Freeze Frames frequency. The effect is GPU-intensive; integrated graphics may struggle at 4K. Try 1080p or lower.
Linux: error while loading shared libraries: libobs.so	Install the OBS runtime libraries: sudo apt install libobs0t64 (Ubuntu/Debian) or equivalent for your distro.
Linux: plugin not found after installing	Make sure you used the correct path. User-local install goes to ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/bin/64bit/obs-distort-filter.so. Verify with ls ~/.config/obs-studio/plugins/obs-distort-filter/bin/64bit/.
macOS: "cannot be opened" security warning	Right-click OBS → Get Info → check "Override Malware Protection" or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → allow the plugin. This is normal for unsigned plugins.

License

MIT License — do whatever you want with it.

Coded using OpenClaude + Kimi K2.6 on request from co-host during #TechTalk livestream. If you enjoy this plugin please consider tipping and include that it's for this plugin in the tip note! No pressure, just glad you're using & enjoying it!