Real-time video capture for Linux and Windows that applies RetroArch GLSL shaders (CRT, NTSC, xBR, handheld, …) to live feeds from capture cards. Includes HTTP MPEG-TS streaming, local recording, and a full web portal for remote control.

⬇ Download 0.6.0-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 PassFeedback and the OriginalHistory alias chain.
• 📡 HTTP MPEG-TS streaming with H.264 / H.265 (VP8 / VP9 experimental) and PulseAudio / WASAPI system-audio capture.
• ⏺️ 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.
• 🎛️ 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).

RetroCapture applies RetroArch presets in real time. Same capture, different shader:

Without shader	CRT Mattias

Without shader	NTSC

Pre-built binaries for 0.6.0-alpha are attached to the latest GitHub release:

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. See docs/CPU_COMPATIBILITY.md for details.

To build from source instead, see Building below.

RetroCapture is alpha and actively developed. Most things work; some edges are still being polished.

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-0.6.0-alpha-linux-x86_64.AppImage
./RetroCapture-0.6.0-alpha-linux-x86_64.AppImage --source v4l2 --v4l2-device /dev/video0

Run the installer (RetroCapture-0.6.0-alpha-windows-x86_64-Setup.exe), then launch RetroCapture from the Start menu. DirectShow is the default capture source on Windows.

tar -xzf RetroCapture-0.6.0-alpha-linux-arm64v8.tar.gz
cd RetroCapture-0.6.0-alpha-linux-arm64v8
./retrocapture --source v4l2 --v4l2-device /dev/video0

For 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.key

Press 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/stream

Multiple 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.js with 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.

Production builds use the Docker scripts, which default to a portable instruction-set baseline. Native CMake builds default to -march=native. See docs/CPU_COMPATIBILITY.md.

./tools/package-release.sh

This 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.sh

All Docker scripts auto-build their image on first run.

./tools/install-deps-raspberry-pi.sh
./tools/build-on-raspberry-pi.sh

Linux: 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.
• docs/DESIGN_PATTERNS.md — patterns, SOLID notes, contributor guidance.
• docs/CONTRIBUTING.md — commit conventions and development process.
• docs/CPU_COMPATIBILITY.md — instruction-set baselines per architecture, diagnostic workflow.

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.