[question] Is it possible to add support for akvcam?

[kirk86]

Hi, could ti be possible to add support for akvcam to also work on OSX?

I suspect this might require to change the command involving v4l2loopback to instead use akvcam!

Maybe just a case shell command either asking the user to define which virtual drive they have installed or identifying by default which one is installed on the system?

Thanks!

[allo-]

akvcam should work with the right configuration, it only is not well-tested and documented, yet.

Can you try this config?

https://github.com/allo-/virtual_webcam_background/issues/33#issuecomment-638469310

When it is clear what works with akvcam, we could just bundle an example config.

[kirk86]

Thanks @allo- for the response, I'll give it a try once I get some free time.
If you don't mind me asking another question, I saw somewhere on the source code that one of the python files is using a gpu for background removal. Is that necessary?

For instance I just want to remove background on zoom with a still image, and I would be more than happy with that, but my hardware recourses on my laptop are minimal. That's a macbook early 2015, so no dedicated gpu here, let a alone any solution that might require neural network for background removal.

I'm using an app controlling the fan speed to avoid overheating issues and I want to have a simple solution for background removal in zoom meetings that doesn't drain the cpu resources causing the fans to spin out control and have all that noise come through the video meetings.

That was my experience with snap camera which does background removal but the temps on the laptop easily reach 65-66 degrees Celsius while the app is running, once I shut it down temps fall below 50, and I have a ton of open chrome tabs and other apps running.

Did you notice any similar issues with the virtual webcam background?

[allo-]

You don't need a GPU as the libraries will fall back to using the CPU. But when you have a supported GPU, it will be more efficient than when using the CPU.

You can reduce the CPU/GPU load by decreasing the frame rate and image resolution.

[kirk86]

Thanks I gave it a shot but it seems that akvirtualcamera for OSX doesn't work, dunno if there's anything alternative for OSX similar to v4l2loopback?