OWL Virtual Webcam

An integration of a Virtual Webcam into Unreal Engine to to output from any Render Target direct to video-conferencing software like Zoom, Meet, Teams, Discord and streaming software like TikTok, Douyin etc.

Last updated 3 days ago

Overview

The OWL Virtual Webcam sends any Unreal EngineRender Target to a Virtual Webcam for use with video-conferencing and live-streaming software.

  • It will be automatically picked up as a webcam input in software like Teams, Meet, Discord, Zoom etc.

  • It can also be used with streaming software like TikTok which has limited options for camera input (no Spout or NDI) but can ingest a webcam.

Performance

  • The Virtual Webcam uses texture sharing so will have little to no effect on your Unreal Engine frame rate.

  • Only video output is supported (no audio or alpha channel)

  • It is DirectX12 compatible so you can use it with ray-tracing and all other advanced Unreal Engine content.

  • It only supports 8bit color.

  • You can set it up automatically through our Media Output Wizard.

Set-Up

The Virtual Webcam module needs to be installed for this option to be able to be selected. An installer can be found in the Utils folder of the OWL plugin.


Run this installer and then restart your computer:

  1. Go to Place Actors panel and drag and drop the OWL Virtual Webcam Output into your scene:

  2. Select the Virtual Webcam Output Actor in your World Outliner and in its Details panel, select the Input Render Target that you would like to send and click Active:

  3. If you haven’t installed the Virtual Webcam to your machine then it won’t activate (please follow the instructions above).

  4. Your Render Target it must be in a 4:3 (Standard Definition) or 16:9 (High Definition) aspect ratio for the Webcam to activate:

    1. 4:3: 480x360, 640x480, 960×720, 1024x768, 1600x1200, 2048x1536

    2. 16:9: 640x360, 1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440

  5. If you want to stream in vertical format to TikTok, then you should rotate an OWL Cinecam 90 degrees and use a standard 16:9 (1080p) aspect ratio.

  6. If you are using an OWL Cinecam then you need to use the Filmback Settings to change the Aspect Ratio which you can find in the Details panel:

  7. Once Active the webcam can be selected in video-conferencing and streaming software automatically:

Features

  • You will need to tick Active for the Webcam to begin sending.

  • Launch Installer: Tick this if you want to include the Virtual Webcam in your game/ app. It will launch the Virtual Webcam Installer for your users when they first open your app.

  • Enable 60Fps: Normally the webcam is set to 30FPS because this is the default for video conferencing software.

    • If you are confident that your receiving software can process 60FPS then you can select this option:

Trouble-Shooting

  • Virtual Webcams interact with a lot of different software on your machine such as Chrome, Slack, Discord, Zoom, Teams etc.

  • Often they stop each other from initiating or opening cameras.

  • If you are having issues with the webcam showing up in these software, trying restarting them and/ or ending their processes (including background processes) in Windows Task Manager and opening them again.