Getting audio level instead of slider level

[JotaFaD]

Windows 10 21H1
Python 3.8.3
Pycaw 20181226

To summarize, I'm trying to check if an app is attempting to play audio, even if the session is muted.

The windows audio mixer shows a grey bar representing the maximum audio output when an app is playing, even if the slider for that application would not allow it to reach that level. Is there any function that can retrieve the value of this grey bar instead of the current value of the slider?

[TJ-59]

If you're speaking of the horizontal bar, probably the device's EndpointVolume.GetMasterVolumeLevelScalar().
But I fail to see the link with to check if an app is attempting to play audio, even if the session is muted .
Maybe the app's session State is what you seek, going from 0 (inactive) to 1 (active), depending on the app using it or not. But keep in mind it does not necessarily means the app is actually sending audio.
If you are talking about the vertical bar, showing the current "peak" of the sound level, it's an ever moving value, and you'd need to use IAudioMeterInformation 's GetPeakValue.