pyvirtualcam does not detect OBS on macOS 14: 'obs' backend: OBS Virtual Camera is not installed

[agilebean]

• Operating system: macOS 14.0
• Python version: 3.10
• pyvirtualcam version: 0.10.2
• Virtual camera (OBS, v4l2loopback, UnityCapture): OBS
• Virtual camera version: 30.0.0-beta3

Describe the bug
OBS in 30.0.0 beta versions changed its implementation of the virtualcam to make it compatible for macOS 14 Sonoma. Now, the pyvirtualcam code does not detect the OBS virtualcam even though it is detected by Zoom or Google Meet.

The following error is thrown:

RuntimeError: 'obs' backend: OBS Virtual Camera is not installed in your system. Use the Virtual Camera function in OBS to trigger installation.

To Reproduce

The OBS virtualcam is detected by pyvirtualcam by the following Python script:

        self.virtualcam = pyvirtualcam.Camera(
            # set standard dimensions, see https://github.com/letmaik/pyvirtualcam/issues/110#issuecomment-1624273288
            width=1280,
            height=720,
            fps=30,
            device="OBS Virtual Camera",
            fmt=pyvirtualcam.PixelFormat.BGR
        )

[agilebean]

After digging into the code, I narrowed down to two areas in camera.py:

                self._backend = clazz(
                    width=width, height=height, fps=fps,
                    fourcc=encode_fourcc(fmt.value),
                    device=device,
                    **kw)

and

elif platform.system() == 'Darwin':
    from pyvirtualcam import _native_macos_obs
    register_backend('obs', _native_macos_obs.Camera)

Could it be that the _native_macos_obs module must be adapted to macOS 14 changes?

The last idea I had was to look at the OBS mac-virtualcam plugin

Here I reached my limits -
Hope that helps in any way to solve this issue for macOS Sonoma!

[letmaik]

Thanks for reporting this, I will need a bit of time to look into it though. Is there any reason you're using a beta version of OBS? Does it work with the previous one (29)?

[agilebean]

Yes, definitely.
Any version below 30.0 does not work on macOS Sonoma at all! Must have been big changes...

[lillekemiker]

I am having this same problem and I have tried OBS 28.1, 29 and 30.
Python: 3.10.12
macOS: 13.6 (22G120) Ventura
pyvirtualcam version: 0.10.2

Not sure if it's relevant to this but I am on an M2 Apple chip set, so Arm rather than Intel.

[agilebean]

I am having this same problem and I have tried OBS 28.1, 29 and 30. Python: 3.10.12 macOS: 13.6 (22G120) Ventura pyvirtualcam version: 0.10.2

Not sure if it's relevant to this but I am on an M2 Apple chip set, so Arm rather than Intel.

@lillekemiker Interesting!
Officially, OBS lists Ventura as supported MacOS version.
However, there is a github issue for Ventura.

@letmaik
I went a step further and filed a github issue on obsstudio.
But they were very unsupportive as you can see.
The only hint is to look at the changes of their macos plugin, which might have direct impact on how you can change your macos plugin. Especially their macos plugin's history of changes might be insightful.

Again, here I reached my limits how I could help to expedite fixing this issue, apologies.
But it seems it is very relevant for all future macOS versions, and as Sonoma is being installed as we speak, would be wise to give it some higher priority.
If I can help by testing, let me know and @lillekemiker !

[lillekemiker]

Just to be clear, the mentioned github issue with Ventura says that they can't run OBS. I have no issue running OBS. Pyvirtualcam just can't seem to connect to it

[letmaik]

I had a quick look and here are some notes:

• When using OBS 30 on macOS 13 or newer then OBS uses a new virtual cam method based on a Core Media camera extension instead of using the legacy DAL plugin.
• OBS 30 still contains the DAL plugin which is used when running on macOS 12 and older.
• pyvirtualcam has code that specifically supports the old DAL plugin method only.
• pyvirtualcam will keep working when using macOS 12 (and older) even with OBS 30.
• pyvirtualcam needs code changes to use the new camera extension method when running on macOS 13 and newer.
• The relevant code that has to be integrated in pyvirtualcam is in plugin-main.mm.

If OBS 29 works on macOS 14, then the old method and pyvirtualcam may still work, but that would be a temporary work-around.

Supporting the new camera extension method of OBS 30 in pyvirtualcam will require quite a bit of effort and testing. Since I don't own a mac myself it will be tricky to do it myself. Community contributions would be much appreciated here.

[agilebean]

@letmaik
Thanks a lot for taking the effort to analyse the root problem. I really hope that someone can fix this on macOS so pyvirtualcam will continue to be used by Mac users in the future.

If OBS 29 works on macOS 14, then the old method and pyvirtualcam may still work, but that would be a temporary work-around.

Thanks for this tip, I'll try it.

If this doesn't work, is there a way to make the DAL plugin still work from OBS 30?
I looked at the code but couldn't figure out how you would activate it.

[agilebean]

For those who are looking for more background info, here's a good explanation why the DAL plugin doesn't work any more with OBS on macOS 14 on the OBS github issue I filed there.

[agilebean]

@letmaik @lillekemiker @JayFoxRox @Jaiaid
I'm politely asking all contributors of pyvirtualcam to make a call for action on solving this issue.

As you know, pyvirtualcam has become almost a standard library for implementing a virtual camera.
Many developers work on Macbooks because they will later deploy on Linux, or they just develop on MacOS which may represent half of all OS used for local development.
As for me, I would hate to see pyvirtualcam vanish from its current position for MacOS systems in the future. However, this is about to happen as MacOS 13 onwards does not support its current media plugin. As MacOS is already in version 14.1, more and more users will stop using pyvirtualcam. That would be really sad to see, and even more so in the future.

Dear Authors of pyvirtualcam,
Can you please reach out to the community?
I think the update to the new plugin is not a major implementation issue, and @letmaik already did the analysis in his previous comment. Doing so would save pyvirtualcam for future generations, which seems to be a worthwhile endeavor.
What do you think? Is pyvirtualcam worth saving?

[JayFoxRox]

I've originally implemented the macOS support, but despite only being 2 years ago, I don't remember even doing it 🙊 .

From what I gather from my original message at #16 it should be as simple as copying the new files from the obs-plugin directory, then use the plugin-main.mm as main.mm, adapting it a slight bit.
As I've referenced the original revision it should be trivial to port it by doing a 3-way-compare (old OBS vs new OBS vs my changes → changes in OBS + my changes).

Personally, I don't plan to work on it.

[agilebean]

@JayFoxRox Thanks so much for the info

@letmaik @lillekemiker @Jaiaid
Can any of you please make an urgent call for action to implement what @JayFoxRox suggested?

There must be someone else who cares about preventing the extinction of pyvirtualcam on MacOS...