Real-time video capture for Linux, Windows, and macOS that applies RetroArch GLSL shaders (CRT, NTSC, xBR, handheld, …) to live feeds from capture cards. Includes HTTP MPEG-TS streaming, local recording, a virtual camera output, and a full web portal for remote control.
⬇ Download 0.8.1-alpha · Documentation · Issues · Changelog
RetroCapture turns a generic capture card into a "retro-aware" capture rig:
- 🎮 Real-time capture from V4L2 (Linux) or DirectShow (Windows) devices.
- 🌈 RetroArch GLSL shaders applied live — single-pass and multi-pass
presets, including
PassFeedbackand theOriginalHistoryalias chain. - 📡 HTTP MPEG-TS streaming with H.264 / H.265 (VP8 / VP9 experimental) and PulseAudio / WASAPI system-audio capture.
- 🔁 Shader-preserving distributed playback — connect another RetroCapture in Remote source mode and it receives the host's pre-shader feed plus the host's current preset/parameters, so the picture renders with the exact same look on the remote machine. (REMOTE_STREAM_PROTOCOL)
- 🌎 Public stream directory (opt-in) — publish your stream to
directory.retrocapture.comwith one click and let other RetroCaptures discover and connect from the in-app browser. (DIRECTORY_PROTOCOL) - ☁️ Cloudflare tunnels — Quick (ephemeral
trycloudflare.comURL) or Named (your own hostname) modes so the publish works behind CGNAT and on networks where you can't open ports. - 🔒 HTTPS everywhere — directory and
/rawtraffic go through TLS by default; the bundled HTTP client probes well-known CA stores so AppImage builds work out of the box. - ⏺️ Local recording to MP4 / MKV / AVI with AAC / MP3 / Opus audio, configurable resolution, FPS and bitrates.
- 💾 Named profiles for both streaming and recording — save / load / delete full configs by name from either the native UI or the web portal.
- 🌐 Web portal: live stream player on Home, recordings browser with thumbnails, full configuration UI, installable as a PWA.
- ⚡ Quick Actions OSD — stream / record / browse / disconnect buttons pinned on-screen and reachable even when the main UI is hidden.
- 🌍 Bilingual UI — English and Portuguese, switchable from Preferences.
- 🎛️ Hardware controls exposed directly (V4L2 / DirectShow brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, gain, exposure, gamma, white balance, …).
- 🥧 Cross-platform: Linux x86_64, Windows x86_64, Raspberry Pi 4/5 (ARM64), Raspberry Pi 2/3/Zero (ARM32v7).
A Windows-hardening release — every Windows bug reported against 0.8.0-alpha is fixed, so capture, streaming, recording, audio and the virtual camera all work on a fresh Windows install (no new features):
- Streaming/recording no longer a gray screen (#129) — the Windows software encoder now uses CRF instead of the broken ABR/VBV rate control.
- Capture-card audio works (#137) — the audio settings window is now available on Windows, the WASAPI float mix format is decoded correctly (was white noise), and a local audio monitor (+ resync) lets you hear the capture live.
- No more monochrome/tiled capture (#135) — NV12/UYVY/RGB32 devices are now converted to RGB.
- Virtual camera shows up in OBS/Zoom (#133) — the DirectShow filter is registered under the video-input category.
- Plus: Windows TLS trust store (#130), working installer shortcuts (#131), persistent window layout (#132), and a calmer no-device placeholder (#134).
- macOS x86_64 port (#18) — first working build of host + client
modes on macOS (AVFoundation capture, Core Audio,
.appbundle). - System tray + minimize-to-tray (#86) — hide the window and keep every pipeline running in the background, with desktop notifications.
- Virtual camera output (#85) — expose the shader-processed picture as a webcam device for Zoom / OBS / browsers.
- Screen capture source (#108) — grab a monitor, window, or region as the capture source (PipeWire / Windows / ScreenCaptureKit).
- System-audio capture (#109) — capture what the machine is playing as an audio source, no routing tricks.
- Real-time chat (#88) — per-stream chat rooms bound to the streamer's identity, in the OSD overlay and the web portal.
- Linux audio refactor (#78) — direct capture + a coherent
RetroCapturesource/sink pair, no moremodule-null-sinkloopback. - Client-side stream volume (#77) and a wave of remote-client
A/V-sync + streaming-stability fixes (shared-epoch sync,
reconnect-to-live, chunked
/meta, dual-encode gating).
See CHANGELOG.md for the full list.
RetroCapture applies RetroArch presets in real time. Same capture, different shader:
| Without shader | CRT Mattias |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Without shader | NTSC |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Pre-built binaries for 0.8.1-alpha are attached to the latest GitHub release:
| Platform | Artifact |
|---|---|
| Linux x86_64 | RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-x86_64.AppImage |
| Linux ARM64 (Raspberry Pi 4 / 5) | RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-arm64v8.tar.gz |
| Linux ARM32v7 (Raspberry Pi 2 / 3 / Zero 2) | RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-arm32v7.tar.gz |
| Windows x86_64 | RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-windows-x86_64-Setup.exe |
| macOS x86_64 | RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-macos-x86_64.tar.gz |
A SHA256SUMS file is published alongside the binaries.
The Linux x86_64 build targets a portable instruction-set baseline (no AVX/AVX2) so it runs on a wide range of CPUs including older Sandy/Ivy Bridge, low-power and virtualized systems.
To build from source instead, see Building below.
RetroCapture is alpha and actively developed. Most things work; some edges are still being polished.
| Area | State |
|---|---|
| Live capture (V4L2 / DirectShow) | ✅ Stable |
| Shader pipeline (single-pass, multi-pass, PassFeedback, OriginalHistory) | ✅ Stable |
| H.264 streaming | ✅ Stable |
| H.265 streaming | ✅ Stable |
| VP8 / VP9 streaming | |
| Local recording (MP4 / MKV / AVI) | ✅ Stable as of 0.6.0 (PTS fix landed) |
| Web portal | ✅ Stable (full overhaul in 0.6.0) |
| Profiles (streaming + recording) | ✅ Stable since 0.6.0 |
| Raspberry Pi (ARM64 / ARM32) | ✅ Headless via SDL2 + DirectFB |
Remote source mode (/raw + /meta) |
✅ New in 0.7.0-alpha |
| Public stream directory + Cloudflare tunnels | ✅ New in 0.7.0-alpha |
HTTPS / TLS for directory and /raw |
✅ New in 0.7.0-alpha |
| Bilingual UI (EN / PT-BR) | ✅ New in 0.7.0-alpha |
| Quick Actions OSD + Shortcuts helper | ✅ New in 0.7.0-alpha |
| macOS x86_64 (host + client) | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
| System tray + minimize-to-tray | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
| Virtual camera output | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
| Screen capture source (monitor / window / region) | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
| System-audio capture source | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
| Real-time chat (per-stream rooms) | ✅ New in 0.8.0-alpha |
Shader compatibility note: most CRT, NTSC, upscale (xBR, Super-xBR) and handheld presets work cleanly. A handful of complex multi-pass presets are still being shaken out — bug reports very welcome.
For the full per-version history see CHANGELOG.md.
# Download from Releases, then:
chmod +x RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-x86_64.AppImage --source v4l2 --v4l2-device /dev/video0Run the installer (RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-windows-x86_64-Setup.exe),
then launch RetroCapture from the Start menu. DirectShow is the default
capture source on Windows.
tar -xzf RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-arm64v8.tar.gz
cd RetroCapture-0.8.1-alpha-linux-arm64v8
./retrocapture --source v4l2 --v4l2-device /dev/video0For Pi 2 / 3 / Zero 2, use the arm32v7 tarball instead.
# Apply a shader preset
./retrocapture --preset shaders/shaders_glsl/crt/crt-guest-dr-venom.glslp
# Custom resolution and framerate
./retrocapture --width 1920 --height 1080 --fps 60
# Fullscreen on monitor 1
./retrocapture --fullscreen --monitor 1 --maintain-aspect
# No capture device (dummy mode for testing)
./retrocapture --source none
# Custom web portal port + HTTPS
./retrocapture --web-portal-port 9000 \
--web-portal-https \
--web-portal-ssl-cert ssl/server.crt \
--web-portal-ssl-key ssl/server.keyPress F12 to toggle the native UI. Run ./retrocapture --help for the
full list of command-line flags (source selection, hardware controls,
streaming, web portal, …).
Once streaming is enabled (UI Stream tab, web portal, or --stream-enable),
the MPEG-TS stream is served at http://<host>:8080/stream:
# ffplay
ffplay http://localhost:8080/stream
# VLC
vlc http://localhost:8080/stream
# mpv
mpv http://localhost:8080/streamMultiple clients can connect simultaneously. Bitrate, codec, resolution and audio are configured from the UI or via the REST API.
The web portal runs on the same port as the stream (default 8080) and
gives you full remote control of the application from any browser on
your network:
- Home — live MPEG-TS player (vendored
mpegts.jswith native fallback) plus live status (FPS, bitrate, connected clients). - Recordings — browse, download, rename and delete recordings with generated thumbnails.
- Configuration — every other setting: source, shader, image processing, stream, recording, hardware controls, profiles.
- Offline / PWA — Bootstrap and Bootstrap Icons are fully vendored and the portal works offline via a service worker; can be installed as a PWA on mobile and desktop.
For PWA installation over a local-network IP, HTTPS is required.
See ssl/README.md for certificate generation.
RetroCapture can run in the background with its window hidden — handy when you've armed the virtual camera and just want it feeding OBS / Zoom / Discord all day, or you're hosting a stream and want the screen back.
- A system-tray icon appears on launch (configurable). Right-click it for quick actions — start/stop streaming, start/stop recording, open the web portal, show/hide the window, and quit.
- The window's close button minimizes to the tray by default (toggle to quit-on-close under Preferences → System tray). While hidden, capture, shaders, streaming, recording, the virtual camera and chat all keep running — only the on-screen view is paused.
- Left-click the tray icon to toggle the window.
Platform notes:
- Linux uses StatusNotifierItem (D-Bus). KDE/Plasma, XFCE, Cinnamon and MATE support it natively; on GNOME install the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension. If your desktop has no tray host, the icon won't show and the close button quits instead.
- Windows and macOS use the native tray (
Shell_NotifyIcon/NSStatusItem).
Production builds use the Docker scripts, which default to a portable instruction-set baseline. Native CMake builds default to
-march=native.
./tools/package-release.shThis runs every platform build in sequence (AppImage x86_64, Linux ARM64,
Linux ARM32v7, Windows installer) and emits artifacts under dist/ plus a
SHA256SUMS file. Use --only-x86, --only-arm, --only-win etc. to
build a subset.
# Linux x86_64 AppImage (Docker — portable baseline)
./tools/build-linux-appimage-x86_64.sh
# Linux ARM64 / ARM32 cross-compile (Docker + qemu)
./tools/build-linux-arm64v8-docker.sh
./tools/build-linux-arm32v7-docker.sh
# Windows installer (NSIS via MXE Docker)
./tools/build-windows-installer.sh
# Native Linux build (uses your local toolchain)
./build.shAll Docker scripts auto-build their image on first run.
./tools/install-deps-raspberry-pi.sh
./tools/build-on-raspberry-pi.shLinux: V4L2, OpenGL 3.3+, GLFW 3.x, libv4l2, libpng, X11, CMake 3.10+, C++17 compiler.
Windows: DirectShow-capable device, OpenGL 3.3+, CMake 3.10+, MinGW-w64 or MSVC.
Both: FFmpeg 6.x (libavcodec / libavformat / libavutil / libswscale / libswresample) with libx264 (mandatory) and libx265 / libvpx (optional); nlohmann/json (auto-fetched by CMake); OpenSSL (optional, for HTTPS).
CHANGELOG.md— full version history.docs/ARCHITECTURE.md— system architecture, components, data flow, threading model.docs/DESIGN_PATTERNS.md— patterns used in the codebase, SOLID/DRY notes, contributor guide and the "how to add a new subsystem" worked example.docs/PATHS.md— on-disk layout (assets / config / data / cache / recordings) and the env-var overrides for each role.docs/REMOTE_STREAM_PROTOCOL.md— wire format of/stream,/raw,/metaand the Remote source client.docs/DIRECTORY_PROTOCOL.md— opt-in public stream directory protocol.docs/CONTRIBUTING.md— commit conventions and development process.
Bug reports, shader-compatibility reports and PRs are very welcome.
Before opening a PR, please read docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
for commit conventions and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md
for an orientation tour of the codebase.
When reporting a shader that misrenders, please include:
- The preset path (e.g.
shaders/shaders_glsl/crt/<name>.glslp) - Any error messages from the log
- Expected vs. actual behavior (a screenshot helps a lot)
- GPU + driver version
MIT — see LICENSE.
- The RetroArch community for the extensive shader library and the GLSL spec that this project implements against.
- The maintainers of GLFW, Dear ImGui, FFmpeg, mpegts.js, Bootstrap and nlohmann/json.
Note: RetroCapture is an independent project and is not affiliated with RetroArch, Libretro, Sega, Nintendo, or any other trademark referenced.