[cheschire]

OBS is probably most widely known in the twitch / mixer streaming world.

It allows you to layer your inputs and different overlays together to create a single video output that includes things such as video games, webcam feed, etc. The video output is typically either recorded straight to video file for upload to youtube, or for streaming directly to a supported streaming service.

It's not purely used for video games, mind you.

In this case I believe the idea is that you would use OBS on your local workstation to setup your own web cam and a view of your desktop / work space for the purposes of peer development etc, and then pipe that out as a virtual webcam to other software that only support webcams as inputs.

That's my guess for what's going on here. Hope someone gets some good money from this.

[bbrazil]

> It's not purely used for video games, mind you.

Indeed. I also use it to stream sports with the scores as an overlay, and to record training videos.

Basically if you're doing anything "live" with video, it's the tool you want.

[geerlingguy]

Another option that's a little higher end is to use a dedicated video production rig, and feed that into your computer (or use the rig's direct integrations). Something like a Tricaster (https://www.newtek.com/tricaster/), which is very popular for live event video production.

The more complex the setup, though, the more likely you'd need additional people working the controls. (But also, the more flexibility and conveniences you get).

[dylan604]

This is how I use OBS as well. I use a Tricaster Mini, and it has the ability to do a live stream of its output as a feature. However, it taxes this little computer to such an extent that the external power supply gets incredibly hot (too hot to touch). I now use OBS on a laptop to create the stream relieving the Tricaster of that duty. The Tricast power supply doesn't even get warm now.

[antocv]

Doesnt Microsoft Teams and other conferencing tools call this feature "screen sharing"?

Also, for development, why dont people ssh into a shared server and multi tmux together? Thats a kind of screen sharing.

[sbarre]

This is about having OBS' output appear as a video source on the operating system.

You're solving the wrong problem. :-)

[antocv]

I understand what it is, there is just no point to doing it. Its typical "i always use tool X to do Y, so now I want tool X to do Z when there is a tool B doing Z already." But whatever, go on.

[evan_]

Screen sharing works in many video conferencing software packages but OBS gives you a lot more options. Frequently on Twitch you'll see the game taking up most of the screen, a video of the host overlayed on the video, with smaller areas showing parts of other windows, text, and videos. It also lets you save any number of these scenes and transition between them smoothly.

I was actually trying to get this working for myself because I'm doing a presentation in a few days and I'd like to be able to swap between myself full screen, and then either the slides or another piece of software with my face in a smaller area. If a "virtual webcam" tool was available for OS X I would be able to pipe that into Zoom.

I could just do a screen share and switch back and forth but I want to do something a little more polished.

[antocv]

What is Twitch? From your perspective, if I google it Ill likely just come to a presentational wall-paper saying sign up and give up privacy, and maybe install this on your computer in order to gain some highly sought after...videos of people playing games?

[evan_]

Sounds like you already have some idea of what Twitch is and you’re trying to be glib but yeah basically it’s a live-streaming platform, and sometimes people stream themselves playing videogames.

[sbarre]

> there is just no point to doing it

Says you.

Do you actually not believe that other people may have goals/motivations/needs that you don't understand or see as necessary?