CoopAllTheThings

Steam Remote Play Together (RPT) for any XInput game — without breaking DRM, achievements, or playtime.

Existing "donor game" tools (e.g. RemotePlayWhatever) copy a target game's files into a donor game's folder and rename the executable so Steam streams the target under the donor's appid. That breaks DRM-protected games, breaks achievements, and credits playtime to the donor.

CoopAllTheThings takes a different approach: the real game runs normally under its own appid (so DRM, achievements, and playtime all work), while a lightweight mirror app runs under the donor appid. The mirror presents a borderless window that is a live copy of the game's video + audio, and forwards the guests' input back into the real game. Steam's RPT captures the mirror window — so any XInput game becomes Remote-Play-Together-able.

The end-to-end path is working: launched under a donor appid, the host streams a live video + audio mirror of a separately-running game over Remote Play Together and forwards guest controllers back into it.

Architecture

Concern	Mechanism	Component
Receive guest input	XInput (RPT delivers guest pads to the focused window); optional, opt-in Steam Input when built with the Steamworks SDK	coop_host.exe
Forward input to game	DLL injection + XInput hook (SafetyHook) — game sees only our pad	coop_hook.dll
Keep game running unfocused	Hook spoofs focus so the game polls while the host holds OS focus	coop_hook.dll
Mirror video (default)	Windows Graphics Capture of the game window, letterboxed into the host window	coop_host.exe
Mirror video (hooked)	Injected Present / OpenGL hook copies the backbuffer into a shared keyed-mutex texture the host samples (lower latency, no capture border)	coop_hook.dll + coop_host.exe
Mirror audio	Injected render-hook copies the game's WASAPI frames into a shared ring and silences the game locally (no echo); WASAPI process loopback is the automatic fallback	coop_hook.dll + coop_host.exe
Host ↔ hook IPC	Named shared memory (seqlock for input, status back-channel, video/audio/log shares)	common/

The hooked video path has two producers: Direct3D (DXGI) hooks IDXGISwapChain::Present / Present1 and copies the backbuffer (D3D10/11 games whose backbuffer is an ID3D11Texture2D); OpenGL hooks SwapBuffers / wglSwapBuffers and reads the backbuffer with glReadPixels (for games that never touch DXGI, e.g. Phantom Brave). The host samples the copy as plain UNORM (srgb_to_unorm) so *_SRGB-backbuffer games mirror at correct brightness. WGC remains the default and covers anything the hooked path doesn't (Vulkan, D3D9, DX12 — see Roadmap).

Limitations

• Anti-cheat: the input path injects coop_hook.dll into the target game. Games protected by kernel-level anti-cheat (Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye, Vanguard, etc.) will detect the injected module and may kick the player or issue a ban. Such games are explicitly out of scope and unsupported — do not use CoopAllTheThings with them. The tool targets single-player and co-op/local-multiplayer titles without active anti-cheat.
• XInput only: the game must read controllers via XInput (the common case). DirectInput-only / RawInput-only games are not handled.
• 32-bit games supported via a helper: the host is x64, but the build also produces an x86 hook DLL (coop_hook_x86.dll) and a 32-bit injector helper (coop_inject_x86.exe). When the target is a 32-bit (WOW64) process the host detects it (IsWow64Process2) and shells out to the helper to load the x86 DLL (a 64-bit process can't cleanly inject a 32-bit one). The shared-memory IPC is fixed-width / bitness-stable, so the x64 host and x86 hook interoperate.
• Local audio echo on the fallback path: when the render-hook is active it silences the game's local playback while mirroring it, so there is no echo. If the hook can't attach or the game uses an unhooked render path, the host falls back to process-loopback capture, which does not mute the game — so the local machine hears the audio twice (guests hear it once). The Audio panel shows which path is active.
• Debug-oriented UI: the ImGui overlay is laid out for diagnosing the pipeline, not for end use. F1 hides it entirely so the window is a clean mirror for RPT.

Roadmap

Planned (next up)

The current focus is making specific games work end-to-end. Each item is a milestone with its own tests and commit.

1. Release the mouse cursor for cursor-clipping games. Games that confine the cursor while focused (e.g. Trails through Daybreak via ClipCursor / per-frame SetCursorPos re-centering) trap the operator's mouse permanently, because the focus spoof makes the game believe it's always focused — so the operator can't reach the ImGui overlay. Add a cursor-release capability to the Focus subsystem: hook ClipCursor (force ClipCursor(NULL) and swallow the game's clip) and the re-centering SetCursorPos, gated by a new host→hook flag driven by a host toggle + hotkey. Defaults to released (the guest plays via the pad, so the game's own cursor clip is operator-only), with the option to re-enable clipping per game.

2. Real capture metrics + latency stats. The current FPS readout only measures how fast the host renders its own window, which hides capture stutter. Add a three-line frametime/FPS graph — game present rate (from VideoShare present deltas), capture rate (generation deltas / WGC arrivals), and tool render rate — plus a capture→display latency stat: stamp each published frame with a QueryPerformanceCounter value in VideoShare, and the host reports host-present QPC − game-present QPC (min/avg/max ms) for the matched frame. QPC is system-wide, so the two processes' timestamps compare directly.

3. DX12 hooked capture. Marvel's Spider-Man is D3D12, so the Present hook fires but GetBuffer(0) as ID3D11Texture2D fails (the backbuffer is an ID3D12Resource) and the hook idles; WGC works but stutters. Add a D3D12 path via a D3D11On12 bridge: capture the game's D3D12 command queue (hook ID3D12CommandQueue::ExecuteCommandLists), create an ID3D11On12Device, CreateWrappedResource around the backbuffer, and CopyResource into the existing D3D11 shared keyed-mutex texture — so the host side is unchanged.

4. Multi-stream audio capture + mixing. Games with several concurrent WASAPI render streams (e.g. Spider-Man) only get their first ("primary") stream mirrored today; the rest keep playing locally and never reach the guest. Capture every tracked render stream into its own shared ring, silence each, and add a host-side mixer that resamples each ring to the render format and sums them (with soft-clip).

Future work

• Vulkan video hook. Vulkan games present via vkQueuePresentKHR; hooking them needs a Vulkan layer / device-dispatch hook plus a vkCmdCopyImage to a readable image. Use WGC in the meantime.
• D3D9 hooked path. Covered by WGC today; a dedicated IDirect3DDevice9::Present hook would be the lower-latency upgrade.
• Per-stream audio format detection. A render stream that already exists when we inject is never seen at Initialize, so the hook assumes the device mix format. A stream initialized in shared mode at a different format would come out wrong-pitched. Detecting the real per-stream format would remove that guess.
• Rumble / haptics forwarding. XInputSetState is currently swallowed; routing it back to the guest is a later phase.

Building

Requirements: Windows 10/11, Visual Studio 2022 (MSVC + C++ workload), CMake ≥ 3.21.

git clone --recurse-submodules <repo-url>
# or, if already cloned:
git submodule update --init --recursive

cmake -S . -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64
cmake --build build --config Debug
# output: bin/Debug/coop_host.exe (+ coop_hook.dll, test exes)

The x64 build also drives a nested Win32 sub-build (CMake ExternalProject, configured into build/x86/) that produces coop_hook_x86.dll and coop_inject_x86.exe for 32-bit games, staged next to the x64 binaries. Disable it with -DCOOP_BUILD_X86_HELPER=OFF if you don't need 32-bit support.

Third-party dependencies (Dear ImGui, SafetyHook) are git submodules under third_party/. No vcpkg / package manager is used.

Steam Input is optional. It's enabled automatically when the Steamworks SDK is vendored at third_party/steamworks_sdk/ (extract the steamworks_sdk_*.zip there). The SDK isn't redistributable, so it's gitignored and never committed; if it's absent the host builds XInput-only (no other features depend on it). When present, the build links steam_api64.lib, stages steam_api64.dll and the action manifest next to the host, and also builds coop_steam_input_probe.

Steam Input is off by default and XInput is the primary path: merely initializing Steam Input activates Steam's in-process XInput interception, which hides controllers from XInput unless they're bound to our action set for the running appid. Enable it (Controllers panel → Use Steam Input) only once a controller is bound to Steam Input for the donor appid.

clangd / IDE setup

The Visual Studio CMake generator does not emit compile_commands.json, so clangd has no include paths and reports false errors. Run gen-compile-commands.bat once (and after adding sources or include dirs); it configures a parallel Ninja build in build-clangd/ that produces the database, which .clangd points clangd at. clangd's clang-cl driver resolves the MSVC / Windows SDK system includes on its own.

Tests

ctest --test-dir build -C Debug --output-on-failure

• hook_selftest — in-process check of the IPC + XInput hook core (no game, no controller needed).
• audio_ring_test — unit test of the shared audio ring (lock-free SPSC push/pop, wrap-around, format handshake, overrun/drop). No device needed.
• audio_hook_test — in-process self-test of the WASAPI render-hook: installs the hooks, renders a tone through WASAPI in the same process, and asserts the COM vtables were discovered, the frames reached the ring (non-silent), the primary stream was silenced, and the render stream was counted. Skips cleanly if the machine has no audio endpoint.
• srgb_format_test — unit test of the srgb_to_unorm mapping the hooked video path uses so *_SRGB-backbuffer games aren't darkened. No device.
• opengl_hook_test — in-process self-test of the OpenGL capture path: installs the swap hooks, drives a real OpenGL context (clears the backbuffer to a known color, calls SwapBuffers), and asserts the detour fired, the frame was glReadPixels'd into the shared texture, and a second device reads the exact pixels back by name. Skips cleanly without an OpenGL / D3D11 device.
• present_hook_test — in-process self-test of the Present-hook video path: installs the hook, drives a real D3D11 swapchain in the same process (clears the backbuffer to a known color and calls Present), and asserts the detour fired, the backbuffer reached the shared keyed-mutex texture, and a second device can open it by name and read the exact pixels back. Skips cleanly if the machine has no D3D11 device.
• audio_loopback_test — spawns coop_tone.exe (a standalone WASAPI sine-wave source under tools/audio_tone) and verifies the shipping process-loopback capture (the fallback path) receives its audio by PID. Skips cleanly if the machine has no audio endpoint.

Debugging the hooks against a real game

tools/audio_probe (coop_audio_probe.exe <pid> [seconds]) brings up the audio render-hook without Steam / RPT / the host UI: it creates the IPC block + audio ring the hook expects, injects coop_hook.dll into the target game, then drains the ring and prints per-stream format, captured-frame counts, peak amplitude (proves the audio is real, not silence), and overruns. It enables the hook's file trace (%TEMP%\coop_hook.log) for the run.

tools/input_probe (coop_input_probe.exe <pid> [seconds] [disable_mask]) does the same for input: it injects, reports one connected pad, and toggles a button each second so the game's input layer sees a real state change. disable_mask (hex bits 0x1=input 0x2=focus 0x4=audio 0x8=video) skips installing a subsystem, so you can bisect which injected subsystem affects a game — this is how the 32-bit Present-hook crash was isolated.

Both auto-detect a 32-bit (WOW64) target and inject via coop_inject_x86.exe + coop_hook_x86.dll, exactly like the host. Run them from bin/<config>/. Kill the game between runs — the loaded DLL locks coop_hook.dll against the next rebuild.

Running the tool (manual, end-to-end)

This needs Steam, a donor game that supports Remote Play Together, and a second person/account to receive the stream.

1. Launch the host under a donor appid. Find the donor's appid (the number in its store URL); the donor only needs RPT support and is never actually played:

   "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch <donorAppId> "D:\dev\CoopAllTheThings\bin\Debug\coop_host.exe"
   

   The borderless window appears and Steam marks the donor "running". If the donor ignores the trailing path, set the host as the donor's Launch Options ("D:\...\coop_host.exe" %command%) or use a launcher like RemotePlayDetached.

2. Start the real game windowed or borderless (not exclusive fullscreen — see Lessons learned). In the host's Injection panel, filter for the game's .exe, select it, and click Inject & Connect. Watch Hook status for Attached, a non-zero XInput polled: N/s, and Focus spoof: active.

3. Mirror video: in the Video mirror panel, tick Mirror game window — the host window now shows a live, letterboxed copy of the game. Source picks how the frames are grabbed: WGC (default, Windows Graphics Capture — works for any window) or Hooked (Present) (the injected hook's shared texture — lower latency and no capture border, for DXGI / D3D11 and OpenGL games; selecting it installs the video subsystem in the game).

4. Mirror audio: in the Audio mirror panel, tick Mirror game audio. With the hook injected, Source shows Hooked (no echo) and the game's local playback goes silent while guests still hear it. If it shows Loopback (echo) the hook's render path wasn't caught and you'll hear the game twice locally (guests still hear it once). The Render streams table shows how many WASAPI streams the game emits.

5. Start Remote Play Together from Steam and invite a guest. Verify the guest sees the mirrored video, hears the audio, and that their controller drives the real game.

Useful checks while developing without RPT: tick Forward synthetic test input in the Injection panel to make the game move on its own (proving forwarding is the source), and click away from the game to confirm focus spoofing keeps it running.

Injection access error → run the host as administrator. A 32-bit (WOW64) target is injected automatically via coop_inject_x86.exe + coop_hook_x86.dll; if those aren't next to the host, rebuild (the x86 sub-build stages them there).

Lessons learned

Non-obvious things that cost time and constrain the design:

• RPT only streams the focused window. The game therefore can't hold focus itself; the hook spoofs focus (GetForegroundWindow / GetActiveWindow / GetFocus, plus swallowing window-deactivation messages) so the game keeps polling and rendering while the host owns the real OS focus.
• Run target games windowed or borderless, never exclusive fullscreen. Exclusive fullscreen minimizes on focus loss (defeating the focus spoof) and can't be window-captured. While unfocused the game gets no OS keyboard/mouse — only the forwarded controller.
• ActivateAudioInterfaceAsync requires an agile completion handler. If the handler doesn't answer QueryInterface for IAgileObject, the call is rejected synchronously with E_ILLEGAL_METHOD_CALL (0x8000000E) — regardless of COM apartment, MFStartup, device path, or activation params. (WRL/wil-based samples hide this because they make the handler agile for you.) Process loopback also needs the Windows 10 20H1 headers — build with NTDDI_VERSION ≥ 0x0A00000B.
• WGC captures occluded windows but not minimized ones. The game may sit behind the host window, but must not be minimized.
• Process-loopback capture doesn't mute the source — capturing a process's render does not stop it reaching the speakers. That's why the echo fix instead injects a WASAPI render-hook that silences the game's own buffer (AUDCLNT_BUFFERFLAGS_SILENT) after copying it for the mirror; loopback stays as the fallback.
• COM has no exports, so the render-hook walks vtables — and the indices are easy to miscount. All instances of a COM coclass share one vtable, so hooking one object's method (resolved by frozen-ABI vtable index) catches every instance. But the indices must be exact: IAudioClient::GetService is 14, not 13 — SetEventHandle (13) sits between Reset and GetService. Count the full interface (including every inherited IUnknown/base method) when adding a new COM hook.
• SafetyHook's call() is __cdecl on x86 — use stdcall() for __stdcall targets. InlineHook::call() invokes the trampoline through a pointer with the compiler's default convention, which is __cdecl on 32-bit. Most things we hook are __stdcall (COM methods like IDXGISwapChain::Present and the WASAPI render interfaces, plus WINAPI SwapBuffers). On x64 every convention collapses to one, so call() is fine; on x86 it double-cleans the stack → ESP imbalance → an instant crash (Debug builds surface it as Run-Time Check Failure #0). This froze 32-bit games (Slaps and Beans) the moment the Present hook ran. Always call trampolines with the matching convention — stdcall() for these — which is a no-op on x64. The XInput/focus hooks dodged it only because they never call the trampoline (they return synthesized data).
• Steam Input init suppresses XInput. Initializing the Steam Input API turns on Steam's in-process XInput interception, which hides controllers from XInputGetState unless they're bound to the running appid's action set — defaulting to it silently broke input forwarding. XInput is the primary path; Steam Input is opt-in.