Does Media Foundation Transform can achieve access webcam in multiple app simultaneously?

Question

I'm wondering what technology does 3rd party virtual camera software (like ManyCam & OBS) using, and also what should I study if I want to achieve access webcam in multiple app simultaneously?

Answer 1

Historically video acquisition APIs in Windows assume exclusive access to video hardware. Microsoft decided to not implement middleware to capture video and share between applications as API, so this is where third party solutions come in.

As API Media Foundation does not offer video sharing capabilities (some part of it is a sort of implemented and might be extended in future, esp. for sharing between Store/UWP apps, but AFAIK it is not working even in this reduced scope).

The sharing applications capture video from real hardware and present the video stream as "virtual cameras". It is assumed that video acquisition applications will identify virtual cameras as real making no difference.

You are looking into developing an application doing about the same.

This Q and its references are good starting point for further reading: Registering a network video stream as a virtual camera.