Open BetaFastCast
Native Windows screen recorder and livestreaming app: local MP4 recording, webcam overlay, desktop and microphone audio, and RTMP/RTMPS streaming. Source code is private; releases, checksums, and notes are public.
Product roadmap
Fast Series roadmap
A public timeline for the native Windows creator tools in the Fast Series: what ships today, what is in beta, and what comes next.
The five tools
Where each one stands today
Open Beta
ReleasedFastPlay
Fast, lightweight native Windows video player for local files: quick open, responsive seeking, hardware-accelerated decode, and keyboard-driven controls. Free and open source under the MIT License.
Open Beta
FastClip
Turns long local videos into ranked highlight candidates and exports 9:16 vertical clips. Local-only processing.
Product page
Beta
FastCompress
Shrinks videos to fit Discord, email, or upload limits with destination presets. No watermark, no account.
Product page
Experimental
FastShorts
Local pipeline that turns a written story into a narrated, captioned vertical short. No public download yet.
Product page
Shipped
Release timeline
Newest first. Every entry below is backed by a tagged release, published release notes, or the project changelog. FastCast versions before v0.3.1 were internal milestones and have no public downloads. FastClip and FastCompress join the timeline when their first public builds land on their release feeds.
FastCast
Recorder and streamer · public since June 2026
Long recordings save again
Fixed a v0.9.1 bug where a recording longer than about an hour could sit on Saving for hours. Saving after Stop finishes in seconds again, and a take that did not save can be rebuilt from its .fastcast-parts folder by selecting it in Recent recordings. The app now shows the current Pro price: $19 until v1.0, then $29.
Release pageNamed destinations
Destination rows can carry a name like "Main channel", and each row links to the platform's own stream-key page. Pro gained custom Instant Replay lengths from 15 seconds to 5 minutes, while Instant Replay itself stays free. v0.9.1 was a hotfix that got Go Live working from destination rows again.
Release pageInstant Replay
FastCast can keep the last 15 to 300 seconds of your screen in memory and save it as an MP4 with Ctrl+Alt+F8, with nothing written to disk until you ask. Also added a notification-area icon with optional Start with Windows, a rebuilt control surface, and the mouse pointer in the preview.
Release pageInstant Stop
Stop recording hands the app straight back no matter how long the take was, while the file finishes writing in Recent files. Apps and displays opened after FastCast started now show up in Sources without a restart.
Release pageMultistreaming
One capture, encoded once, sent to up to three RTMP destinations at the same time, each with its own connection and live status so one failing platform cannot stall the others. Multistreaming is a Pro feature. Free streams to one destination and now records at 60 fps.
Release pageFull-length recordings
Fixed segmented recording dropping about 1% of video frames, and a rare hang on Stop with the webcam on. Takes affected in earlier versions can be rebuilt at full length from their .fastcast-parts folder, right from Recent files.
Release pageA compact dashboard by default
Made the compact view the default: a large live preview over Sources, Destination, and Recent files, so a screen, an app, audio, and a microphone can all be chosen without opening Advanced. Added an FPS control and mute icons with a level meter, stopped Windows drawing its yellow capture border around FastCast sessions, and moved FastCast Pro to Gumroad while existing Lemon Squeezy keys keep working.
Release pageCommand-line recording control
Added fastcastc so scripts, Stream Deck buttons, and schedulers can start or stop recording through the same guarded actions as the app and global hotkey, including optional monitor selection and script-friendly exit codes.
Release pageLive layouts and a faster interface
Added screen and camera layouts that can switch during recording or streaming, layout hotkeys, microphone gain, a last-recording panel, better small-screen sizing, and substantially faster software encoding.
Release pageFastCast Pro activation
Introduced one-time Creator Pro licenses: Pro unlocks 1440p/4K recording, 60 fps capture, and advanced encoder controls, while FastCast Free stays free for 1080p30 recording and streaming. Activation is local-first, with no accounts and no telemetry.
Release pageWebcam overlay control and UI polish
Added webcam overlay hide/show during active recording, refined the dark UI layout, and fixed the Stream card platform button overlap.
Release pagePackaging and licensing cleanup
Aligned distribution with the private-source model: the package now ships a proprietary license plus third-party notices, with no changes to recording or streaming behavior.
Release pageFirst public Open Beta release
FastCast went public as an unsigned portable ZIP on the release feed, adding a global Ctrl+Alt+F9 record hotkey, manual update checks, redacted support-bundle export, and working AMD hardware H.264 encoding.
Release pageCrash-safe recording
Recordings became short, already-finalized segments stitched together on Stop, so a crash or power loss loses seconds instead of the whole take. Also added file logging, a diagnostics bundle, and CI coverage of the encode path.
Creator UI overhaul
A full dark reskin with one-click profiles, YouTube/Twitch/Kick quick setup, window capture, webcam crop with aspect presets, and live audio meters with per-source mute.
First working build
The core pipeline came alive: screen capture, desktop and microphone audio, hardware H.264 encoding to local MP4, RTMP/RTMPS streaming, and a GPU-composited webcam overlay.
FastPlay
Video player · shipping since March 2026
Frameless windows and better portrait video
FastPlay can switch between framed and frameless windows with Ctrl+Shift+S, remembers that choice for new instances, and sizes rotated phone videos correctly when they open.
Release notesNative HDR output
HDR10 PQ and HLG now present natively on HDR-active displays, with HDR10 static metadata, HDR-aware overlays and screenshots, and the existing tone-map path retained for SDR displays.
Release notesHDR playback and audio-only files
HDR10 and HLG video is tone-mapped to SDR in a custom pixel shader, audio-only formats like MP3 and FLAC now play, and three playback bugs are fixed: silent audio after early scrubbing, stretched rotated zoom, and a crash when switching queue items quickly.
Release notesStability and shutdown reliability
Fixed an intermittent crash or freeze when closing the window, and kept audio steady on heavy 4K60 files that fall back to software video decoding.
Release notesLightweight play queue
Drop several files or a folder to build a temporary queue, step through it with PageUp and PageDown, and auto-advance at the natural end of each file. No playlists, no media library.
Release notesRecent files and resume
Added a recent-files overlay and per-file resume positions, fixed A/V desync after backward seeks, and added a local benchmark harness for open, seek, and playback metrics.
Release notesIn/out clip ranges
Added in and out points with loop-range playback for review workflows, followed by two hotfixes that restored smooth pacing and hardened clip-boundary seeking.
All releasesPlayback hardening
Three releases focused on D3D11 crash fixes, scrub stability under rapid seeking, a live seek preview while scrubbing, and removing per-frame overhead from the playback hot path.
All releasesFirst tagged release
The starting point: a native Windows player for local files built on FFmpeg decode, D3D11 hardware acceleration, and WASAPI audio.
All releases
Next
What is being worked on
These are the current priorities, stated without dates. Order can change as beta feedback and validation results come in.
Later and research
Being evaluated, not promised
Creator review mode
Copy timestamp, timestamp notes, exporting in/out marks as JSON or CSV, and timeline hover thumbnails are candidates that build on the existing clip-range work. None are promised; each depends on testing and architecture fit.
Keeping the app funded
FastCast Free stays free during the Open Beta. FastCast Pro is a one-time license, $19 until the v1.0 launch and $29 after it. Development is funded by the people who buy Pro, and feature work is evaluated against beta feedback. Nothing beyond what is in the app today is promised.
Deliberately not planned
FastPlay stays out of streaming, playlists, media libraries, plugins, and cross-platform builds. FastCast does not chase full OBS parity: no scene system or chroma key is on this roadmap, and it keeps its no-telemetry, no-account, manual-update stance.
How decisions get made
Roadmap principles
Reliability before features
Most releases above are stability work. Crash fixes and recording safety ship before new surface area.
Simple workflows first
Single-scene recording and single-file playback stay the core paths. Complexity has to earn its way in.
Local-first
Recordings and playback stay on your machine. FastCast ships with no telemetry, no accounts, and no background update polling.
Honest limitations
Product pages state what does not exist yet: no scene system in FastCast, no media library in FastPlay, and unsigned beta builds called out plainly.
Release when validated
FastCast public builds follow manual validation passes. FastPlay changes land as small, reviewable releases with written notes.
Feedback moves the roadmap
Beta reports and support bundles decide what gets fixed next. Roadmap order changes when testing says it should.
Follow the Fast Series as it ships
Every tool publishes real releases with real notes. Try what exists today and watch this page as the rest lands.