UPDATE: 2.0.5 has been posted!

We're proud to present this new version of VirtualEyez for Intel Macs. It runs on all modern Macs with 10.6.8 and higher. The CMIO virtual camera driver is compatible with Mavericks and Safari, and the VDIG camera driver spans compatibility backwards to QuickTime(tm) camera apps.

For this version of VirtualEyez, we wanted to distill the app down to its most valuable features and make those features as fast as possible. We ultimately dispatched with CoreImage in exchange for its faster and more primitive cousin, OpenGL.

Having rewritten the rendering pipeline in GL, we realized that we increased the speed of the app by a significant amount. So we modularized the chroma-key pipeline and rebuilt VirtualEyez as a 3-input video switcher with chroma-key and color correction controls on every channel.

On an older Intel Mac, the performance is satisfactory. On a new Mac, the performance is incredible. Even with three cameras running, CPU usage is almost nothing. Which is exactly what we wanted, because we imagine VirtualEyez being used in conjunction with other camera apps on the desktop.

We even added MIDI support so you can run your switching session from a remote hardware device (like an iPad).
Here we're demonstrating our commitment to rebuilding our apps on Apple's modern AVFoundation-based frameworks. We're old and crusty QuickTime(tm) developers, so it took us awhile to switch over. Also, that whole sandboxing thing slowed us down quite a bit.

We imagine customers using VirtualEyez to drive a multitude of online live news programs similar to HuffPostLive. In-house testing reveals 6 or possibly 9 camera inputs is within reach on newer Macs. Let us know what your needs are.

Labels: lion, mac os x, mavericks, mountain lion, snow leopard, video switcher mac, virtual camera