In this post I will be speaking about creating virtual webcams. Because of the Corona/Covid-19 Crisis a lot of people have stepped to streaming online. Many of them wish to have their program think that they are using a webcam for whatever reason. Maybe to use it with Skype, Zoom, Discord, Teams, Facebook Live, YouTube Live or other tools/programs.
Great tools to make a live stream or just recording in general is Open Broadcaster Software, or OBS for short. It can be found here.
With this awesome piece of software it’s possible to install plug-ins into it. With that you get even more functionality. In order to get whatever you have on your OBS screen to be put into a webcam you must do a couple of steps.
Windows
For Windows it’s easy; there is a plugin called OBS-VirtualCam that can be found here. Follow the steps provided on the page then it’s a matter of restarting and after that just:
- Selecting Tools -> VirtualCam
- Press the start button and close dialogue
- Open your 3rd party program and choose “OBS-Camera” as a Video input
So after that you open up Skype or another program, head into the settings and change it to OBS-Camera and you should be good to go!
Mac
For the many Mac users under us there are a bit of different steps that are required; it isn’t possible to install the VirtualCam program for this OS.
For this we have to go thru a bit of more steps.
Before we head into the installing of things you need; I’ll first make a list of what steps our video makes before getting to your program.
- OBS – Canvas Main Output
- OBS – Main Output > NDI
- NDISyphon – NDI Main Output > Syphon
- CamTwist – Syphon Source > Virtual Webcam
- Skype or other – Virtual Webcam as input
- Victory!
The program we require are:
OBS Steps
Install OBS with obs-ndi
The installation of OBS is straight forward by just following the steps on the main page of OBS
This part is about obs-ndi
Read what’s on the page and continue to Download at the top-right.
You get to a page with the changes; at the bottom, you get the files.
Read what it says for macOS; currently (as of v4.8.0) it says:
Starting with obs-ndi 4.8.0, the NDI runtime is not installed automatically anymore.
Download and run obs-ndi-4.8.0-macOS.pkg (provided below)
Install the NDI 4.5.1 macOS runtime using the installer provided here: https://ndi.palakis.fr/runtime/ndi-runtime-4.5.1-macOS.pkg
Make sure you just follow the steps on each page.
NDISyphon
Install it from this link here. Steps should be straight foward.
Make sure you install the correct version; I have used the
Latest release Mac: NDISyphon r3 (works with NDI version 4)
CamTwist
Although the website looks quite old, it still remains to work and hasn’t have had issues with it yet so far.
You can find a download for CamTwist here.
Configuring each program
OBS
If not, you have not installed obs-ndi or haven’t restarted OBS. Or you missed part of the documentation.
On the menu it opens; select Main Output and click Ok.
That’s it for OBS so far.
NDISyphon
Open up NDISyphon; you should see a (atleast) 1 item in the list; select it and press Enabled. You should now see the same screen you see in OBS.
CamTwist
CamTwist might be a bit of a new experience for many; open it up. I’ll guide you thru it.
Skype or other program
Finally done! Go ahead and start up your favorite tool you wish to use this new webcam in. In my case I will be using Skype. Go ahead and navigate to your settings of your program. Each program will be different so I can’t help you on that one.
Thanks!
Thanks for reading my post about this topic, I have tried to break down as much of what’s required, if you find out that this gets broken down the road please let me know at tychowerner@gmail.com.
If you wish to support me you can donate to me at tychowerner.nl/donate
I have personally used these versions:
- OBS Studio (24.0.6 (64-bit))
- obs-ndi (4.7.1)
- NDISyphon (3)
- CamTwist (3.4.3)
- macOS Mojave (10.14.6)