A native Node.js addon for Electron that enables real-time video sharing via Spout2 on Windows. Send frames from your Electron application to any Spout-compatible receiver (OBS, Resolume, TouchDesigner, etc.).

• Send video frames to Spout receivers from Electron
• Two output modes:
  • CPU mode: Send raw pixel buffers (BGRA format)
  • GPU mode: Send DirectX shared texture handles for zero-copy performance
• Built with N-API for ABI stability across Node.js versions
• Targets Electron 38.x

Windows only - Spout is a Windows-specific technology that relies on DirectX shared textures.

• Windows 10/11
• Visual Studio 2019 or later with C++ build tools
• vcpkg package manager
• Node.js 18+
• CMake 3.25+

# Clone vcpkg if you haven't already
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git
cd vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

# Set environment variable
set VCPKG_ROOT=C:\path\to\vcpkg

pnpm install
pnpm run build

Or with npm:

npm install
npx cmake-js compile

import { SpoutOutput } from 'electron-spout';

// Create a Spout sender with a name
const spout = new SpoutOutput('My Electron App');

// Send a frame using raw pixel data (CPU mode)
const width = 1920;
const height = 1080;
const pixels = new Uint8Array(width * height * 4); // BGRA format

// Fill pixels with your frame data...

spout.updateFrame(pixels, { width, height });

// Or send using a shared texture handle (GPU mode - more efficient)
spout.updateTexture({
  widgetType: 'offscreen',
  pixelFormat: 'BGRA8',
  sharedTextureHandle: textureHandle
});

// Change the sender name
spout.name = 'New Sender Name';

import { BrowserWindow } from 'electron';
import { SpoutOutput } from 'electron-spout';

const win = new BrowserWindow({
  webPreferences: {
    offscreen: true
  }
});

const spout = new SpoutOutput('Electron Browser');

win.webContents.on('paint', (event, dirty, image) => {
  const size = image.getSize();
  const buffer = image.getBitmap();

  spout.updateFrame(new Uint8Array(buffer), {
    width: size.width,
    height: size.height
  });
});

win.webContents.setFrameRate(60);

new SpoutOutput(name: string)

Creates a new Spout sender with the specified name. The name will be visible to Spout receivers.

• name: string - Get or set the Spout sender name

Sends a frame using raw pixel data.

• buffer: Uint8Array - Pixel data in BGRA format
• size: { width: number, height: number } - Frame dimensions

Sends a frame using a DirectX shared texture handle (zero-copy).

• options.widgetType: string - Widget type identifier
• options.pixelFormat: string - Pixel format (e.g., 'BGRA8')
• options.sharedTextureHandle: string - DirectX shared texture handle

# Debug build
npx cmake-js compile --debug

# Release build
npx cmake-js compile --release

# Rebuild
npx cmake-js rebuild

The compiled .node file will be in build/Release/ or build/Debug/.

Your Spout output can be received in:

• OBS Studio - Use the Spout2 Plugin for OBS
• Resolume Arena/Avenue - Native Spout support
• TouchDesigner - Native Spout support
• Unity - Spout4Unity
• Any Spout-compatible application

reito - Original author (2023)

MIT

• Spout2 - The underlying video sharing framework
• cmake-js - CMake-based build system for native Node.js addons