Question / Help OBS VirtualCam not working with Zoom

[R1CH]

Source: __declspec(dllexport) void HackCheck (void) { return; }

I checked this before release, zero antivirus detections. Now all of a sudden there are 16. The state of antivirus is pretty sad if they can't differentiate a program that copies a DLL from actual malware.

 

[kentn]

Thanks for publishing the patch but virus total reports lots of positives for this patch... although I expect that they are false.

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file...4e1d1b5bdc7d76daa7ffb644e4518705109/detection

Do you have the source code available? I would feel more comfortable comiling from source any patch of this nature... I am sure others are the same :)

It also seems to break screen sharing. Had to move old DLL file back for screen sharing to work.

 

[Narcogen]

Well, to be fair, Zoom pretty much IS malware, so...

‘Zoom is malware’: why experts worry about the video conferencing platform

The company has seen a 535% rise in daily traffic in the past month, but security researchers say the app is a ‘privacy disaster’

www.theguardian.com

 

[R1CH]

It also seems to break screen sharing. Had to move old DLL file back for screen sharing to work.

Yeah this is a known problem, Zoom does another DLL scan when you try to screen share, notices the modified DLLSafeCheck.dll and then refuses to allow screen sharing.

 

[Bytebean]

Source: __declspec(dllexport) void HackCheck (void) { return; }

I checked this before release, zero antivirus detections. Now all of a sudden there are 16. The state of antivirus is pretty sad if they can't differentiate a program that copies a DLL from actual malware.

Thanks, simple ;) but worryingly easy to workaround. Makes me wonder if this is supposed to be a sudo 'security fix' by zoom.

A lot of AVs now check for heuristic 'bad behaviour' and changing a dll is considered just that... but I tend to find that they are often false positives which creates more distracting noise in my view. I note you have upvoted it on virustotal :)

It seems that the zoom update is scheduled for tomorrow (7/4/2020) ... perhaps the fix is included in the 'minor bugs'... although not 'minor' in my view. It doesnt mention OBS specifically.
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201361953-New-Updates-for-Windows

 

[heye]

Hey there, I'm new here, but I have the same issue with Zoom. I tried the workaround with NDI and it actually works with the latest Zoom. But the video quality is way too bad. I tried it with Skype and obs-virtualcam, but the problem remains. I tried every setting I can think of, do you have any idea where to set the quality for the virtualcam? I'm not streaming, I only use the output for Zoom.

 

[R1CH]

Make sure you have HD video enabled in Zoom. Keep in mind that Zoom video is only intended for webcams so it's never going to look that great.

 

[heye]

HD video is enabled. The image is quite pixelated. If I show a website, text is almost unreadable and my facecam doesn't look any better. So Zoom/Skype is the bottleneck here? How do they process a regular camera feed in HD, crispy clear? But when I give it a video feed via virtualcam or NDI of the same resolution, quality goes down the basement?

 

[RobertTony]

Thank you Babanicus,
for the NDI suggestion.
It works fine for me!

 

[bradtem]

Me again, All sorted. I had two issues that I'll share in case they help others.
1. I hadn't installed the actual BDI Tools suite. I had only downloaded the plug-in.
2. After installing NDI Tools and re-installing the plug-in and rebooting everything I found the NDI plugin in icon in my popup of applications at the right hand end of the task bar. Once I found that, and my Computer name I was able to make the correct selection.

THanks for all the work on this forum room guys. Appreciated.

Hmm. Can't get it to work. I've installed plugin and NDI tools and rebooted. I see nothing of NDI in the taskbar, not in the right or left or the hidden icons section.

In OBS, I have enabled the NDI Output settings to put out the main view. The virtual device is present and I select it in Zoom, but it's blank. Ditto in skype.

 

[disquisitioner]

If you haven't, launch the NDI Virtual Input application from within the NDI Tools set. You'll find it in the Windows Start menu under 'NDI 4 Tools'.

Once launched the NDI Virtual Input app shows up as a brown square icon in the Windows taskbar. It will scan for available NDI sources and allow you to select them by bringing up the menu (right mouse click) on that brown icon. If you have OBS up and running with the NDI plug-in you should see it listed there (with the same "Main Output name" you specified in the NDI Output Settings menu in OBS (Tools -> NDI Output Settings)).

Also, installed along with the NDI tools is a PDF document called "Introduction to NDI". You'll see it among the items in the 'NDI 4 Tools' item in the Windows Start menu, so just select that and you'll find yourself reading a very helpful document about how NDI works. Section 9 of that document "Send NDI Video to Skype" is particular useful as it describes the virtual input process for Skype as a use case, but Zoom is pretty much exactly the same.

 

[bradtem]

If you haven't, launch the NDI Virtual Input application from within the NDI Tools set. You'll find it in the Windows Start menu under 'NDI 4 Tools'.

Once launched the NDI Virtual Input app shows up as a brown square icon in the Windows taskbar. It will scan for available NDI sources and allow you to select them by bringing up the menu (right mouse click) on that brown icon. If you have OBS up and running with the NDI plug-in you should see it listed there (with the same "Main Output name" you specified in the NDI Output Settings menu in OBS (Tools -> NDI Output Settings)).

Also, installed along with the NDI tools is a PDF document called "Introduction to NDI". You'll see it among the items in the 'NDI 4 Tools' item in the Windows Start menu, so just select that and you'll find yourself reading a very helpful document about how NDI works. Section 9 of that document "Send NDI Video to Skype" is particular useful as it describes the virtual input process for Skype as a use case, but Zoom is pretty much exactly the same.

That's odd. I of course looked in the start menu but there is nothing there, except the NDI install app, which I have now run twice, and rebooted. That was the first thing I tried to do. There is a Newtek folder in program files, and it has that PDF in it. My first install, I did it pretty standard. The second I only installed the virtual camera as suggested. Perhaps I should pick a different set of components to install? There are no executables in the NewTek folder except the uninstaller.

 

[berapbeatz]

The latest version of Zoom seems to try and do DLL verification despite running out of a folder any application can write to. You can use this patch to disable the checks which are blocking obs-virtualcam from loading (worst case scenario you need to reinstall Zoom, use at your own risk etc).

https://r-1.ch/ok_zoomer.zip

Thank you you are a lifesaver!

 

[vaxerski]

I made a github repo for my own fixer for that issue, and I am planning for now on updating it whenever it stops working.
both methods work for me, for now.
Whenever something stops working I'll also make a new release so you don't have to build it yourself

repo here

hope I'm not breaking any rules, just want to help

 

[zeldadrummer]

Thank you you are a lifesaver!

tried this but no luck so far

 

[Gerbs]

tried this but no luck so far

I just tried it as well. After you start OBS and start the Virtual cam from Tools, open a zoom meeting. You may notice that you do not have the option to select the camera on the first open. Close the zoom meeting and click on Settings from your Zoom launch pad. Go to Video settings and select the OBS virtual camera.
Then it all works.

Thank you R1CH for this! A much better solution than using NDI Tools which caused a massive load on my computer and incredible latency issues as a result.

 

[zeldadrummer]

I just tried it as well. After you start OBS and start the Virtual cam from Tools, open a zoom meeting. You may notice that you do not have the option to select the camera on the first open. Close the zoom meeting and click on Settings from your Zoom launch pad. Go to Video settings and select the OBS virtual camera.
Then it all works.

Thank you R1CH for this! A much better solution than using NDI Tools which caused a massive load on my computer and incredible latency issues as a result.

it's working!
after i tried what you said nothing happened, i downloaded what vaxerski put up,

i'm new to pc as i left mac for the awful support on streaming, to come to this weeks mess haha, so i extracted the files, not sure i needed to do more.... but alas its working!

 

[heye]

Do you all have good video quality in Zoom using virtualcam? Am I the only one with that issue?

 

[vaxerski]

Do you all have good video quality in Zoom using virtualcam? Am I the only one with that issue?

1. enable hd
1a. check your obs preview is good
2. make sure you have good internet connection and that zoom's servers aren't overloaded, cuz this might be the issue.

 

[Viren]

Rich & vaxerski, you guys are legends. For some reason, Rich's patch didn't work for me, but compiling vaxerski's and running it worked fine. You guys have helped save my wife's zoom-based tutoring business, this is why I love the open source community.