Score supports using camera inputs in its VFX graph. The camera can be used as the input of a texture port.
Example: showing the raw camera feed
In this example, we perform the following steps:
- Add the camera input through the device explorer.
- Likewise, add a window device in which the camera is going to be rendered.
- Add a “passthrough” video effect, to connect the camera input to the window output.
- Set up the passthrough ports.
- Press play and enjoy !
The passthrough effect can be found in the user library, in the folder Presets/GLSL_Shaders/utility.
Technical information
Camera capture uses the platform’s available input mechanisms and FFmpeg conversion/decoding paths. Supported camera modes depend on the device, driver and score build; camera access may require operating-system permission.
Default Camera selects an available camera and suitable mode when connected. Select a named camera and mode to fix the device, resolution and frame rate.
Texture outlet inspectors preview the rendered result. Window Capture and NDI also offer previews in their capture settings.
Window and screen capture
Builds with capture support register Window Capture as a separate video input. Its Mode choices are Window, All Screens, Single Screen and Region, with unsupported modes disabled by the current backend. Select the window or screen, or set Region X, Region Y, Region Width and Region Height. Refresh updates the available sources; Frame Rate and Preview help configure the feed.
On Wayland, choose the capture source in the system picker when capture starts. On macOS, grant Screen Recording permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security, then refresh. Windows and X11 use their own capture backends.
Route Window Capture to a texture inlet just like a camera; it is not the Window output device.
GPhoto2 DSLR
Builds with GPhoto2 support expose GPhoto2 DSLR for compatible cameras. Camera Model and Port identify the camera; its live-preview images feed the texture graph and camera-reported configuration entries become typed device parameters. This needs the libgphoto2 runtime and a camera with supported preview/configuration operations, not merely USB connectivity.
See GPhoto2 DSLR device for discovery, runtime libraries and the configuration tree.
V4L2 support
V4L2 is the Linux video subsystem API.
The v4l2loopback kernel module allows for a lot of useful things.
Grabbing the screen with v4l2loopback
$ sudo modprobe v4l2loopback
$ ffmpeg -f x11grab -framerate 60 -video_size 3840x2160 -i :0.0+0,0 -f v4l2 /dev/video0
Forwarding an external video file to score through v4l2loopback
$ sudo modprobe v4l2loopback
$ while 1 ; do ffmpeg -re -i ./test.mp4 -f v4l2 /dev/video0 ; done
Special camera support
Microsoft Kinect
Support for Kinect cameras has been implemented through the Freenect library.
It requires building score from source with the Freenect libraries.
Shared video sources
Use the dedicated Spout devices on Windows, Syphon on macOS, or PipeWire video on Linux. These are available input/output paths in compatible builds, not camera-driver modes. GStreamer and Libav provide additional streaming inputs.