Hi,
you can actually get what you wish, using a Syphon output from your Vuo patch and feeding it in CamTwist.
Check: » Create a Virtual Webcam for your Syphon Client with CamTwist
ciao
mic
1 Like
Thank for the feedback scremaschi, I am actually familiar with CamTwist and it’s Syphon capabilities, however I am interested in a way to eventually make a single stand alone OSX App that I can build with VUO that can be used as a source for any other UVC compatible App. I have several applications in mind here at work where I could use something like this. Thanks though, feedback is always welcome. :)
Hi, @cwilms-loyalist. Sorry I didn’t get back to you about this sooner.
I converted this discussion to a Feature Request, and started investigating.
The app you mentioned — SplitCam — seems to only work on Windows. I found a few similar Mac apps — ManyCam, CamTwist, CamCamX, and ofxFakam — but I wasn’t able to get Skype (7.0 on Mac OS 10.10) to detect any of their virtual camera devices.
I’m planning to investigate more (after the Vuo 1.0 release next week), but do you happen to know of a combination that works?
It seems there are 2 different standards for creating virtual cameras — QuickTime video digitizer component plugins (which only works with 32-bit video capture apps), and Core Media I/O DAL plugins (which only work on Mac OS 10.7 and later). Some video chat apps support one, some support the other, and some support both.
Besides Skype, which apps are you looking to use to stream video from Vuo apps? Based on that, we can decide which virtual camera standard to implement.
Ha! Yes, sorry I am thinking further ahead than I probably should be. Yes, SplitCam is Windows based and part of me is thinking forward to the day when VUO will run under Windows which is why I mentioned it. I’ll do my best to clarify what I would like a virtual camera for in both Windows and Mac.
Under Windows:
I work at a community College and currently use Splitcam in our video conference room as an intermediate piece of software between our Winnov Videum 4400 AV Xpress video capture card and Skype, IOCOM Visimeet & Microsoft Live Meeting. At a future date we will be moving to some form of SDI capture card but will probably need something intermediate for that as well because Skype doesn’t like to play well with anything but webcams in my experience). Splitcam, while it works is not very elegant and I am looking to eventually build an intermediate app that is very streamlined, simple and unobtrusive to use and opens up the possibility of adding simple lower 3rds Name Keys to live video.
Under Mac:
We currently use a program called BoinxTV for mixing and switching between some IP cameras, firewire cameras, an Epiphan VGA2USB capture device and some audio equipment. It’s a little overkill for much of what we use it for but it works well. I am hoping at some point to make a bare-bones application with an output that can be recorded to a video file but also have the option to be used as a virtual webcam for Skype so that an off-site group can participate and view events on our main campus.
My main issues with the virtual camera tools that exist for both Windows and Mac environments is that they are often confusing to use and/or do not have a suitable GUI for use in a professional environment.
Cool, that background information helps. We’ll continue investigating (after the 1.0 release) and hopefully have some news on this in a few weeks.
Opened for voting.
This would be really great for something I’m working on now. I assume this would open up lots of other uses for Vuo in our mostly-remote world.
I’ve been doing something very similar to your suggestion already Magneson.
Being able to export everything into a single standalone app is still one of the goals here and I’ve hoping it can still happen, it’s nice to have a few work arounds on hand though in the meantime.
2 Likes
+1 for export to a standalone app. The workaround is nice, but it would be a giant leap forward to export in a single thing that you can load, and tell your user/customers to run.
1 Like
I’m no dev, but this looks like it could be useful: https://github.com/johnboiles/coremediaio-dal-minimal-example
MIT licensed code. Seems to do the heavy lifting of being a virtual webcam.
1 Like
Update: I got this code to run with no modifications
https://github.com/seanchas116/SimpleDALPlugin
1 Like
I know the Vuo roadmap for the foreseeable future is more or less laid out but I am hoping this feature request managed to make it in there somewhere. I have an App I’ve been working on that this feature request would fit in amazingly well with.
I ended up commissioning the good folks at Vuo to write this for me — a virtual camera plugin. It requires an installer, since it’s a system level extension. Due to this, you also can’t offer this functionality in the App Store.
Going to be releasing my stuff very soon (this week?!) but happy to chat with anyone about it.
2 Likes
Maybe some of us can look at paying something to make this a Vuo Pro included feature based on what @keithlang commissioned. I don’t imagine that his specs would be very different to what we all are looking for?
In the meantime, you can output from Vuo as a Syphon image stream server and pick that up in other apps that can output a virtual webcam (the, still QC based, mimoLive for example), and there may still be free apps that do this, CamTwist used to do it back in the day IIRC.
keithlang
Very cool that you were able to find a solution and that the Vuo Team was able to help you out. I’ve been reading more about how macOS support webcams and realize there are some real hurdles using IOkit or come up with a solution and have it signed by either Apple or by the same dev as the App you’re using it with. I think it’s a security thing to prevent rogue apps hijacking your camera while it’s in use.
Alastair
Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I’ve actually dabbled with both Syphon and NDI. Here are a couple of my Compositions:
SyphonCast,
NDICast
I’m actually working on something new that could potentially incorporate both Syphon, NDI and originally was thinking potentially a virtual webcam output as well if that could be supported at some point. It’s looking much less likely now the way it appears Apple has secured video access by apps in macOS.
1 Like
My bet is that Apple is developing an API for this, since they gave the mmhmm app a bunch of promo (even though it’s not on the App Store because it uses this same deprecated(?) method).
Ie, even though it works now for non-app store apps, I’m guessing(hoping) there will be some support for it in future.
1 Like
I hope so @keithlang. though Apple is notoriously hard to rely on for software support on undisclosed matters.
I put a project I was developing in QC a few years ago on ice that was a kind of vision mixer for Zoom with some flair I guess you’d say. would have been gold during the pandemic with a virtual webcamera output for getting it into Zoom, Teams, et al. Was too busy to pick it up but thinking I’ll make it a custom layer for mimoLive at first. It’s an mmhmm sort of thing, but more TV studio production type of settings.
@Chris, first rule of software seems to be get it out there. then add more features later… hopefully Apple does develop a secure virtual cam framework they are happy to allow into the App Store.