Question / Help NDI plugin help - MacBook pro

[Jg3555]

NDI Plug-in Query.

Im thinking of networking two MacBook Pros using Ethernet and using NDI plugin. My reason for doing this is to harness both processors to get better results. Is this how NDI works? For example, if I’m running game footage, a webcam and a mic from one machine would this essentially mean that I can send it to the other machine which will deal with the encoding and recording? In effect one Mac processor is concentrating on handling just running game and the other is concentrating on just the video recording? Apologies if this sounds stupid. I don’t have enough knowledge of networks/IP etc to know if this is how the plugin works or whether the gaming Mac would also have to do the encoding before sending to the second Mac.

If this is not the case is there anyway I can harness the power of my second MacBook to post processing/GPU performance.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Narcogen]

Yes, that is one use case for the NDI plugin.

You can run one copy of OBS on the same machine you play the game on, and capture the footage and send it over the network without spending much CPU on compression.

The second copy of OBS running on your second machine receives the NDI feed from the first and then compresses it as needed for your chosen streaming platform.

 

[Jg3555]

Brilliant. Thanks. I’m not actually streaming, just recording, but my MacBook Pro struggles when trying to run the game, webcam, microphone AND record at 1080p 30fps. So if two machines could share the load that would make it brilliant.

The only issue would be if I need to do the game on one machine and cam/mic on the other machine there may be a delay. But I can correct that in post.

 

[Jg3555]

Although that may not even be an issue? Perhaps if macbook 1 is just sending the feed via the network it’ll handle game, cam and mic fine?

 

[Narcogen]

Generally the delay produced by the NDI feed is minimal as long as your network is working properly. Just don't use wifi :)