Add the ability to choose what audio device Chatterino uses to play sounds

[Toxijuice]

Currently, Chatterino appears to only use the default audio device to play sounds. It would be beneficial to have a setting to manually choose which audio device Chatterino uses, instead.

In my case, I use Chatterino while streaming to play a sound for specific messages so I don't miss them. My default audio device is what the stream hears, but I'd rather not have the stream hear Chatterino sounds.

My workaround is to use EarTrumpet to switch the audio device to one that only I can hear, but I have to do this every time I start up Chatterino. Furthermore, I cannot switch to another audio device until at least one highlight sound has already played. And there doesn't seem to be a way to play a sound effect for your own messages, so I have to use a bot command to trigger the sound effect.

It's not the worst thing in the world, but it's very cumbersome to do every time I use Chatterino, and would be completely solved if I had the option to select a different audio device.

Also, this is likely very similar to what was suggested in #3240, but that seemed more akin to a bug report potentially outside the domain of Chatterino. Windows does "remember" the device set, but Chatterino likely does not check Windows defaults when initializing its audio playback system.

[pajlada]

On Linux, I solve this by telling my Sound Manager that Chatterino should use a separate output. My Sound Manager remembers this after reboot.

On Windows, it looks like it should be possible to do the same with System > Sound > Volume mixer, and selecting the Output device for Chatterino. For me this works on Windows 11 using Chatterino v2.5.1

If this doesn't work, can you share what Chatterino version & Windows version you're on?

[Toxijuice]

If this doesn't work, can you share what Chatterino version & Windows version you're on?

I'm on Windows 10, Chatterino 2.5.1.

Windows 11 might do things a bit differently, but the equivalent on Windows 10 is System > Sound > App volume and device preferences. As far as I understand EarTrumpet changes these same exact values, just from a different UI. So it has all the same issues I already face, as they're functionally identical.

Interestingly, I've had instances where Windows reports that Chatterino is using the audio device I want it to, when it definitely was using the default audio device instead.

So maybe a Windows 10 bug?

[pajlada]

Could be, I don't have a Windows 10 system available to test. Once you inevitably upgrade, and the problem is still happening, I'd be happy to look more into it.