akvirtualcamera-wiki/Configure-the-cameras.md

Please read [Build and install](https://github.com/webcamoid/akvirtualcamera/wiki/Build-and-install) page before going further.

## Quick rundown

The first step to create a virtual camera is defining a virtual device:

```
AkVCamManager add-device "Virtual Camera"
```

The command will return a message like:

```
Device created as AkVCamVideoDevice0
```

Keep track of **AkVCamVideoDevice0**, that will be the identifier of the virtual device and you will need it for the following operations. The created device is a blank device without any defined capture formats, that meaning it won't work as-is.  
Now, you must define a at least one capture format for that device, as:

```
AkVCamManager add-format AkVCamVideoDevice0 FORMAT WIDTH HEIGHT FRAME_RATE
```

For example:

```
AkVCamManager add-format AkVCamVideoDevice0 YUY2 640 480 30
```

You can list all capture formats with:

```
AkVCamManager supported-formats --output
```

The frame rate can be expressed either as an integer or a fraction, for example 15/2.  
Once you finished defining your devices, you must obligatorily apply the changes to the system with.

```
AkVCamManager update
```

**Note**: You must run an update every time you modify any parameter of the virtual camera. Also **NEVER** modify the virtual camera parameters when a client is running it.

## Managing the devices

List all devices:

```
AkVCamManager devices
```

You can remove a device with:

```
AkVCamManager remove-device AkVCamVideoDevice0
```

Or you can remove all devices:

```
AkVCamManager remove-devices
```

You can change the device description with:

```
AkVCamManager set-description AkVCamVideoDevice0 "My Virtual Camera"
```

Or get the device description with:

```
AkVCamManager description AkVCamVideoDevice0
```

## Managing the formats

List all formats:

```
AkVCamManager formats AkVCamVideoDevice0
```

Add a new format at a given index:

```
AkVCamManager add-format --index 5 AkVCamVideoDevice0 YUY2 640 480 30
```

Remove a device format at INDEX with:

```
AkVCamManager remove-format AkVCamVideoDevice0 INDEX
```

Remove all device formats:

```
AkVCamManager remove-formats AkVCamVideoDevice0
```

You can get the default recommended output format with:

```
AkVCamManager default-format --output
```

## No signal picture

When a client program try to play the virtual camera but it isn't receiving any frame, it will show a random dot pattern, you can change it to show a custom picture instead with:

```
AkVCamManager set-picture /path/to/place_holder_picture.png
```

And you can get place holder picture path again with:

```
AkVCamManager picture
```

You must give a full path to a picture file, the supported formats for the picture are:

* BMP (24 bpp and 32 bpp).
* JPG
* PNG

## Loading configurations from a file

**In-progress**

```
AkVCamManager load settings.ini
```