Use webcam stream as background image (Unity 2017.3.1f1)

Graphics Shaders & Materials
1

I want to use the video live stream of a webcam as a background “image” and tried doing it like THIS.

The first difference between the explenation and my Unity I noticed is:
Culling Mask = “Background” (so only the background layer draws)
There’s only an option for “Background Image”, so I picked that one.

Unfortunately the whole thing fails at step “6. Test BackBuffer texture”:
The background in the “Game” view and the “Camera Preview” are simply blue - it’s the same default blue that is set as the background color of the Background Camera (because “Clear Flags = Solid Color” - see step 4) and neither of them shows the image that I picked as the texture for the Empty GameObject “BackgroundImage”. I’ve tried different textures (even the default “UISprite” one) but no change.

I know how to set the video as a texture for a specific GameObject (you don’t need a second camera for that) but I want to use it as a background “image” and there don’t seem to be any working tutorials for that. I’m guessing that the way Steve Henderson described it in the link doesn’t work anymore but how do you do it then?

2

I’d have a look at the Vuforia shaders and scripts. It’s integrated since 2017.2 and does exactly that besides offering AR.

3

I don’t need the whole Vuforia functionality, including AR, at the moment and don’t want to include it in my project because of that (plus, it increases the size of the project), I just need this one specific thing.

4

I understand you don’t need AR, but there are shaders and scripts in Vuforia that set a webcam stream as background image. So I’m not saying you should use Vuforia, I’m just saying that looking at it might give some inspiration. (I completely agree that you don’t want to include it. More plugins means more sources of trouble, especially with plugins with a native component.)