How to … Join a Zoom meeting with combined Webcam and Thortspace — using OBS (Open Broadcasting Software)
There may be a better (easier) way of doing this that I haven’t discovered yet, but I have tested this way and it certainly works
Whenever I’m looking for a software solution, I usually start by looking to see if I can find an open source solution first, because (a) You know there’s probably nothing bad in it — cos if there was people would notice it in the code (b) It’s usually the best value available, and often free (c) It’s supporting the community that developed it — thereby encouraging more open source and free software (d) there’s a tonne of other good reasons, I’m sure. In the case of streaming and recording video and screen, that open source project is called OBS — the open broadcasting software.Introduction — why would you want to do this?
The technique discussed below of connecting a WebCam and Thortspace simultaneously to Zoom via OBS may well turn out to only be useful for about a month. It wouldn’t surprise me if the missing feature that this is a work-around for is just added natively to the Zoom software, or even that it may already exist in some other platform that people aren’t using so much yet.
However, combining a WebCam Presenter with video of the Thortspace App using OBS is useful technique to know about anyway, because OBS supports both recording and live streaming to a long list of streaming services (see Scenario4 below). This is, by the way, how I made the YouTube video that is linked at the end both SectionA (about Apple Macs) and SectionB (about Windows PCs) below.
Also consider the following other scenarios:
(Scenario1) I am a Zoom user. I’m joining a networking event where the rules are fairly relaxed. I’d like to be able to put a live view of the Thortspace App running behind my head so people can see me adding my event notes as I enter them into Thortspace while the event is unfolding.
(Scenario2) Or equally, I am leading a Zoom event, and I want to be able to show event participants a Thortspace journey, directly from the Thortspace App.
(Scenario3) I am having a Thortspace realtime collaboration session with a several members of my team. I can of course see the updates happening in real-time on the sphere itself, but I can’t see, at least not very obviously, where on the current sphere any particular user is working, or what they are working on. It might be nice, in certain situations at least, to be able to track what other users are doing on a collaborative sphere, more fully than just seeing the new thorts appear as they get created and edited.
(Scenario4) In any case as I mentioned, the same technique described below, can also be used to (*)stream a combination of WebCam and Thortspace on any of all the main hosting services such as YouTube, Twitch, FacebookLive, etc. (presets for about 40 such services are included with OBS), as well as (*)record combined Thortspace-with-Presenter type videos for upload to your favourite video hosting site. So it is quite likely to be useful information.
Now, plausibly for the second of these scenarios, and even to an extent the first and third ones, Zoom has the facility of screen sharing.
And as long as the event organiser has chosen the setting for it, even multiple users can share their screen.
Even so, these options may be cumbersome and require quite a lot of deliberateness on the part of host — probably discussion prior to the event that screen sharing by participants should be available.
Furthermore Zoom doesn’t allow me embed my WebCam within the frame of the App I’m wanting to present. And in the case of first scenario, it would be nice to just join a call with Thortspace running as my background without having to make a big deal about it, or it being too intrusive.
If we look at the virtual background options in the Zoom settings, we can see we can add an image, or a video as a background, but not an App and not a Window from our desktop.
It would be nice, wouldn’t it, to be able to add an App as my background. So how to do this?
A. These Instructions are for Mac Users:
(Instructions for Windows users are in Section B. further down this article)
The following may seem complicated because I’m spelling out all the steps in detail, but actually it is pretty simple and easy — once you’ve done it a couple of times. The install part of the process (and adding the WebCam and Thortspace as sources and sizing them to your preferences) only has to be done once !
You will need a version of OBS Studio with Virtual Web Cam plug-in installed.
(1) The easiest way I found of getting this is to download it from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SuL6BAubTMbXGXgGGvGPz6Bld0w_ovrX/view
[ You don’t need to know this, but this plugin was developed by John Boiles … see: https://github.com/johnboiles/obs-mac-virtualcam as is discussed here: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/virtual-cam-mac-alternative.118399/ ]
(2) Remove any existing OBS versions you have installed on your Mac. Then Command+Click on the download package you just downloaded, and choose Open (otherwise your security settings may prevent the installer package from running).
(3) The installer will create an “OBS.app” in your Applications folder.
(4) Start Thortspace.
Note that Thortspace needs to be running before you start OBS, otherwise Thortspace will not appear on the list of sources in OBS. If you started OBS before starting Thortspace, you will need to restart OBS with Thortspace already running to get Thortspace to appear on the list of sources.
(5) Double-click OBS to start it running. Quit out of the automatic configuration wizard.
(6) In OBS, add a “Game Capture” source, and Choose Thortspace from the list.
(7) Adjust the positioning and size of the Thortspace source in the output display window. You may want to adjust the size of the Thortspace window itself, so as to get a matching ratio of width to height.
(8) Add a Video Capture source. Select the correct WebCam where it says “Device”.
(9) Position and size the video inset as you want it to appear within the frame of Thortspace window.
(10) From the OBS menu bar (top of the screen) choose
Tools -> Start Virtual Camera.
(11) Open your Zoom app and choose Settings. In the Video settings, choose “OBS Virtual Camera”.
Please note really well at this point in the setup: After you start the OBS Virtual Camera in OBS, you will need to **Restart** Zoom (if it is already running). Otherwise Zoom will not have the “OBS Virtual Camera” on it’s list of available devices in Settings.
(12) Now you can go ahead and enter your Zoom meeting with combined WebCam and Thortspace App.
(13) If you have a green-screen, (OBS has a filter for using one called “Chroma Key”), you could take this a step further and do this with just your head and shoulders (ie eliminating the room background behind me) — so just your head and shoulders appears over the top of the live Thortspace App in the background on the Zoom meeting.
Below is an example of using the above technique with a “Chroma Key” or equivalent, to remove the background from the presenter.
For the best experience in the video below, set your YouTube settings to play at the highest available resolution eg.720p:
B. These Instructions are for Window Users:
(instructions for Mac users to do this start back up the article in Section A.)
The following may seem complicated because I’m spelling out all the steps in detail, but actually it is pretty simple and easy — once you’ve done it a couple of times. The install part of the process (and adding the WebCam and Thortspace as sources and sizing them to your preferences) only has to be done once !
You will need a version of OBS Studio with Virtual Web Cam plug-in installed.
(1) Download (currently) version 25.0.8 from OBSProject.com: https://obsproject.com/download . Run the installer to install OBS.
(2) Download the Virtual Web Cam plug-in from: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-virtualcam.949/ Run the installer to install the Virtual Web Cam plug-in.
(4) Start Thortspace.
Note that Thortspace needs to be running before you start OBS, otherwise Thortspace will not appear on the list of sources in OBS. If you started OBS before starting Thortspace, you will need to restart OBS with Thortspace already running to get Thortspace to appear on the list of sources.
(5) Double-click OBS to start it running. Quit out of the automatic configuration wizard if you see that.
(6) In OBS, add a “Game Capture” source, and Choose Thortspace from the list. [Alternatively you could try adding a “Window Capture” source, but this may not give you as good a quality of frame rate or resolution. “Game Capture” source has specific properties that are applicable to highly graphic intensive applications like Thortspace is, such as “Hook Rate”.]
(7) Adjust the positioning and size of the Thortspace source in the output display window. You may want to adjust the size of the Thortspace window itself, so as to get a matching ratio of width to height.
(8) Add a Video Capture source. Select the correct WebCam where it says “Device”.
(9) Position and size the video inset as you want it to appear within the frame of Thortspace window.
(10) From the OBS menu bar (at the top of the OBS Window) choose
Tools -> VirtualCam
This will open a Dialog box as shown below. Click on “Start” to start the OBS Virtual Camera.
(11) Open your Zoom app and choose Settings. In the Video settings, choose “OBS Virtual Camera”.
Please note really well at this point in the setup: After you start the OBS Virtual Camera in OBS, you will need to **Restart** Zoom (if it is already running). Otherwise Zoom will not have the “OBS Virtual Camera” on it’s list of available devices in Settings.
(12) Now you can go ahead and enter your Zoom meeting with combined WebCam and Thortspace App.
(13) If you have a green-screen, (OBS has a filter for using one called “Chroma Key”), you could take this a step further and do this with just your head and shoulders (ie eliminating the room background behind me) — so just your head and shoulders appears over the top of the live Thortspace App in the background on the Zoom meeting.
Below is an example of using the above technique with a “Chroma Key” or equivalent, to remove the background from the presenter.
For the best experience in the video below, set your YouTube settings to display at the highest available resolution eg. 720p:
Some final Thoughts Applicable to using OBS on both Mac and Windows
(1) It is worth noting that OBS allows you to do things like FlipHorizontal. If you apply this to your WebCam layer in OBS, then you can turn off mirroring in your Zoom settings without having your head move the opposite way on the screen from the direction it’s moving in the world (which most of us aren’t used to because we mostly only see ourselves in mirrors).
(2) Alternative green screening options:
- Obviously, you could just get a green screen, and then use it by applying a “ChomaKey” filter in OBS.
- It may be possible to use a background mask filter in OBS. I’ve seen discussion of this, but the consensus view about it is unclear.
- Software tools such as ChromaCam and XsplitVCam are able to remove backgrounds without using a green screen — these tools cost in the region of $40. The quality of the results may vary.
[The free versions of these products are essentially useless because they display a watermark over the top your webcam image. And given that the whole point of doing this in the first place is probably to look cool, this purpose is completely defeated by the watermark.] - Some webcams are able to remove backgrounds at the hardware level
eg. Intel Realsense —see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW4HiiksDcU - Kinect1 (Xbox360) and Kinect2 (XboxOne) can be made to remove background via depth-sensing see: https://github.com/SirLynix/obs-kinect and https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-kinect-with-faux-green-screen.897/
If you’re using Kinect2 with a PC, you’ll need an adapter. - Other possible solutions may exist. https://www.reddit.com/r/obs/comments/fcsb3f/remove_background_without_chroma_key/
- Anyone who has figured out a good solution to this, please post a comment about this in the comments below. (Eg. does Microsoft Teams have it built in?)
UPDATE:
It is now fairly easy to remove video background without a green screen. See the article below:
Here is an example of using this technique:
