Three reported bugs traced to one root cause plus two missing designed features:
1. Stale users + eternal PLC hiss (root cause): ConnSession::close() silently
erased dropped users without broadcasting UserEvent::LEFT, so peers never
learned the user left and their audio engines never called remove_stream —
Opus PLC synthesized comfort noise forever. Fix: broadcast_left() helper
+ close() broadcasts LEFT before erasing.
2. PLC cap (defense-in-depth): on_playback now caps pure PLC at ~2s, then
emits digital silence so a stale stream can never hiss forever even if
remove_stream is skipped. Resets automatically on fresh packets.
3. No timeout / no ping: client never sent Ping, server had no last_seen /
reaper, so half-open connections (NAT timeout, wifi loss, sleep) left
ghost users forever. Fix: client Ping every 15s with RTT measurement,
ConnSession::last_seen bumped on every inbound TCP/UDP frame, steady_timer
reaper sweeps every 15s and drops sessions older than 45s (configurable
via server::Config).
4. UDP KEEPALIVE: client sends plaintext kFrameKeepalive every 5s; server
bumps last_seen + echoes back. Keeps NAT bindings alive and lets media
activity defer the reaper independently of TCP.
5. Graceful client disconnect: vc_disconnect() sends Disconnect{code=0} via
a flag-based io-thread exit (no double-close race); server handles
client-sent Disconnect with immediate close() + LEFT broadcast.
3 new tests: disconnect_left, plc_cap, reaper_timeout. 21/21 ctest green.
Docs: protocol.md §6/§7, voice.md §6, architecture.md §5, PROGRESS.md.
Closes the three items PROGRESS.md's M3 section explicitly carried forward as
out of scope:
- Device enumeration (vc_list_devices) + input device selection
(vc_set_input_device), backed by AudioEngine::enumerate_devices() via
miniaudio's ma_context_get_devices. Device ids are opaque hex-encoded
ma_device_id strings.
- VAD/PTT send-side input gate (vc_set_input_mode, vc_set_push_to_talk).
webrtc-audio-processing (the originally-planned APM) has no working
Windows/MSVC build upstream (GCC-only Meson, unfinished MinGW support, hard
abseil-cpp dependency), so VAD is a new lightweight, dependency-free
energy/RMS processor (EnergyVadProcessor) behind the existing ApmProcessor
interface. Gating is MIC-only; SCREEN_AUDIO/AUX_DEVICE always bypass it.
- True stereo playback: AudioEngine's mixer and output device now carry
stereo end-to-end (mono streams upmix L=R) instead of downmixing decoded
stereo streams to mono before mixing.
- Real WASAPI loopback capture for SCREEN_AUDIO (Windows-only, via
miniaudio's loopback device type), replacing test-only injection as the
production capture path.
Also: vccli gains --list-devices, --input-device, --input-mode, and
--share-screen-audio flags, plus a stdin command loop (ptt on/off, mode
vad/ptt) for manual verification. New test_vad_ptt_devices.cpp covers all
four items (ABI-level + a white-box AudioEngine stereo-mix check).
Docs updated to match: voice.md, roadmap.md (decision-log entry superseding
the original webrtc-audio-processing choice), tech-stack.md, README.md,
architecture.md, CLAUDE.md, PROGRESS.md.
Still explicitly out of scope, documented not silently dropped: real
webrtc-audio-processing/AEC (no AEC/NS/AGC exists at all yet), macOS/iOS
SCREEN_AUDIO capture, process-specific loopback, and a pre-existing
RT-thread rule violation in the capture path that predates this work.
Verified: ctest 12/12 green across 3 consecutive full-suite runs (both dev
and m1-dev presets build clean); test_vad_ptt_devices passed 5 consecutive
standalone runs; manually verified live (vccli --list-devices against real
hardware, vccli --voice --input-mode vad streaming without incident).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
