Place application windows in the virtual environments

[rvdleun]

Goal

The user should be able to pick an application window to show up in the virtual environment

Description

At the moment, the desktopCapturer API is used to stream the entire screen to the virtual environment. However, the API also offers an option to stream a single application window. By using this, it would be possible to let the user stream separate windows, disconnected from the desktop screen.

There are some caveats. The user will not be able to actually interact with these windows in the virtual environment. If he wants to do this, he would still need to do this on the desktop. What this feature would add is to easily be able to monitor a process which can still have its advantages.

From a technical point of view, it would also need a lot of development and research. What happens if a window is minimized, resized or closed? Can this work on all operating systems? What happens if I'd stream a lot of windows and how much lag can this cause? The user interface would also need a revamp to be able to easily accommodate being able to move multiple windows around.

I have done a bit prototyping and hacking to see if this is possible, and the early test shows promise. For the application, there is no real difference between getting a video from a desktop or a single application. It's nothing more than a playing a video on a plane, really. My attempts can be found in the feature/windows branch.

Truth be told, this item may need some more thought and is really more of a concept. At the very least, some more basic features, like multiple displays and controller support, will need to be implemented before giving this a serious look.

Deliverables

• Letting the user pick an application to show up as a separate window in the virtual environment

[rvdleun]

https://www.npmjs.com/package/active-win - This might help