DesktopBuddy

A Resonite mod that spawns world-space desktop/window viewers with touch input, GPU-accelerated capture, remote streaming, and virtual camera/microphone output.

Quick Start

Option A — Manager (recommended)

1. Install Resonite with ResoniteModLoader
2. Download DesktopBuddyManager.exe from Releases (inside the .zip, or download standalone if provided)
3. Place DesktopBuddyManager.exe in your Resonite root folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Resonite\)
4. Run DesktopBuddyManager.exe as administrator
5. The manager will auto-detect your Resonite install, or browse to it manually
6. Click Install / Update — it will download the latest release zip, extract all files, register the virtual camera, and install the virtual microphone driver
7. Restart your PC when prompted — the virtual microphone driver requires a reboot
8. Launch Resonite and open the context menu → Desktop to get started

Option B — Manual zip extract

1. Install Resonite with ResoniteModLoader
2. Download the latest DesktopBuddy-Alpha-*.zip from Releases
3. Extract the zip directly into your Resonite root folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Resonite\) — the zip is already structured to match
4. Run DesktopBuddyManager.exe as administrator to register the virtual camera and install the virtual microphone driver
5. Launch Resonite and open the context menu → Desktop to get started

First-Run Setup (Automatic)

DesktopBuddy automatically sets up virtual devices on the first launch:

Step	What happens	User action
Virtual camera registration	Registers "DesktopBuddy - Camera" DirectShow filter via regsvr32	Accept UAC prompt
Virtual microphone install	Installs VB-Cable virtual audio driver	Accept UAC prompt

Both prompts may appear on your desktop monitor (behind VR). If you're in VR, check your desktop.

After accepting both prompts, restart your PC. The virtual microphone driver (VB-Cable) requires a reboot to become active. The virtual camera works immediately after a Resonite relaunch, but the mic needs a full restart.

On subsequent launches, no prompts will appear — the setup persists across updates.

Troubleshooting

Virtual camera "DesktopBuddy - Camera" not showing in Discord/Zoom/Chrome

• Restart Resonite after the first-run setup
• Restart Discord/Zoom — they cache the device list at startup
• Check Windows Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras to verify the device appears

Virtual microphone "CABLE Output" not showing

• Restart Resonite after the first-run setup
• If still missing, try a full PC restart — VB-Cable sometimes needs it
• Check Windows Settings > System > Sound > Input to verify "CABLE Output" appears

Virtual camera shows black

• Open a desktop window in DesktopBuddy first — the camera renders from the in-game camera on your panel
• Make sure a consumer app (Discord, etc.) has selected "DesktopBuddy - Camera" as its camera — the camera only renders when something is actively using it

Virtual mic is silent

• Make sure the mic indicator (small panel next to the camera) is green (unmuted). Click it to toggle.
• In Discord/Zoom, select "CABLE Output" as your microphone input
• The mic captures spatial in-game audio — make sure there are audio sources in the world

Streaming not working for other users?

• The mod runs a local HTTP server on port 48080. If streaming isn't working, run this command once as Administrator:

  netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:48080/ sddl="D:(A;;GX;;;S-1-1-0)"
  

  The mod tries to do this automatically on first run.

Features

• GPU-accelerated capture via Windows.Graphics.Capture (WGC)
• GPU BGRA-to-RGBA conversion via D3D11 compute shader
• Hardware H.264/HEVC encoding via NVENC (NVIDIA) or AMF (AMD) through FFmpeg
• Remote streaming via MPEG-TS over Cloudflare Tunnel — other users see your desktop in VR
• Per-window audio capture via WASAPI process loopback
• Virtual camera — in-game camera view exposed as "DesktopBuddy - Camera" in Discord, Zoom, Chrome, OBS
• Virtual microphone — spatial in-game audio captured via AudioListener, routed to VB-Cable virtual mic for Discord/Zoom
• Touch/mouse/keyboard input injection from VR controllers
• Child window detection — popups and dialogs auto-spawn as separate panels
• Context menu integration — pick a window or monitor from the Resonite context menu
• Auto-reconnecting Cloudflare tunnel with error detection and restart

Usage

1. In Resonite, open the context menu (right-click or equivalent VR gesture)
2. Select Desktop to open the window/monitor picker
3. Pick a window or monitor to spawn a viewer panel
4. Interact with the panel using VR controllers (touch, scroll, keyboard)
5. Other users in the session see the stream via Cloudflare Tunnel

Virtual Camera

Each desktop panel has a small dark indicator mounted on top. When a consumer app (Discord, Zoom, Chrome, OBS) selects "DesktopBuddy - Camera" as its webcam, the indicator turns red and the in-game camera starts rendering automatically. Click the indicator to manually disable/enable the camera.

Virtual Microphone

Next to the camera indicator is a green mic indicator. It captures spatial in-game audio from an AudioListener positioned at the panel. The audio is routed to VB-Cable's "CABLE Output" virtual microphone. Click the indicator to mute/unmute — it turns dark red when muted.

In Discord/Zoom, select "CABLE Output" as your microphone to share in-game audio.

Prerequisites

• Windows 10+ with an NVIDIA or AMD GPU
• Resonite with ResoniteModLoader

For building from source

• .NET 10 SDK
• Windows SDK 10.0.19041.0+ (for fxc.exe shader compiler)
• Visual Studio 2019+ Build Tools (for SoftCam DLL compilation)

Building

scripts/build.bat -r

Builds the mod and restarts Resonite. The build process:

1. Compiles the HLSL compute shader (if fxc.exe available)
2. Builds the mod DLL with ILRepack (merges all managed dependencies)
3. Deploys to Resonite: rml_mods/DesktopBuddy.dll, rml_libs/ (ffmpeg, softcam, cloudflared)

Add -d for desktop mode: scripts/build.bat -r -d

Packaging

scripts/package.bat

Creates DesktopBuddy-Alpha-<date>_<sha>.zip ready to extract into the Resonite root:

DesktopBuddy-Alpha-*.zip
  DesktopBuddyManager.exe              ← manager lives at Resonite root
  rml_mods/
    DesktopBuddy.dll                   ← mod (all managed deps merged)
    DesktopBuddy.sha                   ← build SHA for update checks
  rml_libs/
    avcodec-62.dll … (FFmpeg DLLs)    ← runtime native libs
    softcam64.dll                      ← virtual camera filter
    cloudflared.exe                    ← Cloudflare Tunnel binary
  Renderer/BepInEx/plugins/
    DesktopBuddyRenderer.dll
  vbcable/
    VBCABLE_Setup_x64.exe + drivers    ← virtual audio cable installer

Extract to <Resonite root>\ and run DesktopBuddyManager.exe as administrator.

Third-Party Components

• SoftCam — MIT license — Virtual camera DirectShow filter
• VB-Cable — Donationware by VB-Audio — Virtual audio cable driver. If you find it useful, please consider donating.
• FFmpeg — LGPL — Media encoding libraries
• Cloudflare Tunnel — Cloudflare — Network tunneling

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Areas where help is especially needed:

• Linux support — WGC is Windows-only, needs PipeWire/XDG portal capture + VA-API encoding
• Code review — if you spot anything, please open an issue or PR

License

AGPL-3.0 — see LICENSE.