Live data from Hacker News

DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

github.com

21–30 of 167 posts

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#21
post #3

This is _genius_. I have been using RegionToShare in Windows to share only a section of a widescreen monitor, but didn't have a good Mac equivalent. Now I have something that may well work _just as well_ with Windows inside Parallels (need to try that ASAP, am on the "wrong" Mac now). Edit: A quick test shows that yes, the Windows VM sees the additional display just fine--but, alas, Parallels doesn't let me pass _jus…

+1 for RegionToShare on windows. It's not perfect but it has made sharing on a 49" monitor much much easier.

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#23
post #6

The title could clarify it's for MacOS X.

Linux users probably already have some weird workflow with X11 virtual buffers to do this.

It's not exactly the same, but as an alternative to what jauntywundrkind you can use V4L2-Loopback and OBS to create a virtual webcam and use that to share your screen. I find it really handy being able to switch between either just my cam, my desktop or both.

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#25
post #16

With my 6480 x 3840 (three 4k screens) desktop resolution, in Zoom I just select "Share a portion of screen", and I can resize the area that gets shared to something close to a common screen size.

I used that until we moved to Teams for all video calls. And it doesn’t have that feature :(

I’ve looked around for an app like this. But they’re all paid and the security prompts are a little scary.

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#26
post #6

The title could clarify it's for MacOS X.

Linux users probably already have some weird workflow with X11 virtual buffers to do this.

Xnest is probably enough. I've used it for similar purposes a few times. Don't know the equivalent for Wayland though.

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux users probably already have some weird workflow with X11 virtual buffers to do this.

Yeah. On Wlroots or Sway, we can setup virtual displays pretty easily (swaymsg create_output, done). Run wayvnc, and both the other person and yourself connect over vnc or rdp to see what's over there. Available May 2020, https://github.com/any1/wayvnc/issues/7#issuecomment-6256611...

For Hyprland, the command is `hyprctl output create headless NAME`

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#29
This looks great - really useful!

I have always wondered how these virtual desktops work. A cursory looks shows that this is using some undocumented APIs. How do people learn they can create a virtual desktop in this way if the knowledge to do so is hidden/obfuscated?

Does apple allow distribution of an app that use these "private" APIs?

Is anyone aware of what mechanisms are there for achieving something similar in windows?

Re: DeskPad – A virtual monitor for screen sharing

#30

I’ve been using https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay for this purpose. Does something similar and more. Works great!

But not open source? I mean, its fine if its closed, but no point in linking to a github repo, and if so its not a like-for-like.

Edit: I see looking at the branches an old version was open source some years ago.

Post reply on HN