winlivecam

A Python library to create a virtual camera on Windows and stream the content of a selected window (by PID or title) to it.

Features

• Windows 11 Native Support: Uses the new MFCreateVirtualCamera API for seamless integration on Windows 11.
• Windows 10 Compatibility: Falls back to a high-performance DirectShow filter.
• Stream any visible Windows application window to a virtual camera.
• Select windows by Process ID (PID) or window title.
• Leverages C++ for high-performance window capture and virtual camera implementation.
• Easy-to-use Python API.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 or 11 (Windows 11 recommended for native Virtual Camera API support)
• Python 3.7+
• Visual Studio Build Tools (for C++ compilation, if building from source)

Install via pip (Coming Soon)

pip install winlivecam

Manual Installation (from source)

1. Clone the repository:

   </code></pre>
   </li>
   </ol>
   <p>git clone <a href="https://github.com/G3tFun/winlivecam.git">https://github.com/G3tFun/winlivecam.git</a>
   cd winlivecam
   ```</p>
   <ol start="2">
   <li><strong>Build the C++ extension and virtual camera driver:</strong>
   <pre><code class="language-bash">
   

pip install pybind11 cmake pip install . ```

3. Register the virtual camera driver: After installation, you need to register the DirectShow filter DLL. This usually requires administrator privileges.

   </code></pre>
   </li>
   </ol>
   <p>from winlivecam import LiveCam
   LiveCam.install()
   <code>To unregister:</code>python
   from winlivecam import LiveCam
   LiveCam.uninstall()
   ```</p>
   <h2><a href="#user-content-usage" aria-hidden="true" class="anchor" id="user-content-usage"></a>Usage</h2>
   <p>Here's a simple example of how to use <code>winlivecam</code> to stream a window by its PID:</p>
   <pre><code class="language-python">from winlivecam import LiveCam
   import time
   
   # Replace with the actual PID of the window you want to stream
   # You can find the PID using Task Manager or other tools.
   TARGET_PID = 12345 
   
   cam = LiveCam()
   
   try:
       print(f"Starting virtual camera stream for PID: {TARGET_PID}")
       cam.start_by_pid(TARGET_PID)
       print("Streaming... Press Ctrl+C to stop.")
       while True:
           time.sleep(1) # Keep the script running
   except KeyboardInterrupt:
       print("Stopping stream.")
       cam.stop()
       print("Stream stopped.")
   

   Building from Source (Development)

   If you want to contribute or modify the C++ code, follow these steps:

   1. Install CMake and Visual Studio Build Tools.
   2. Clone the repository.
   3. Build using CMake:

   mkdir build cd build cmake .. cmake --build . ``` This will build winlivecam_core.pyd (Python extension) and `vcam-filter.dll` (DirectShow filter).

   Contributing

   Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to open issues or submit pull requests.

   License

   This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

   Acknowledgements

   • Inspired by mycrl/vcam and OBS Virtual Camera implementations.
   • Uses pybind11 for Python-C++ interoperability.