Using the video library outside the pde

[clankill3r]

I wanted to use the video library outside the pde and the process to get it working was far from easy. In this case i'm using VSCode.

I bundle the video library with the project.

From the Video.java source:

    // The video library loads the GStreamer libraries according to the following
    // priority:
    // 1) If the VM argument "gstreamer.library.path" exists, it will use it as the
    //    root location of the libraries. This is typically the case when running 
    //    the library from Eclipse.
    // 2) If the environmental variable is GSTREAMER_1_0_ROOT_(MINGW/MSVC)_64 is defined then 
    //    will try to use its contents as the root path of the system install of GStreamer.
    // 3) The bundled version of GStreamer will be used, if present.
    // 4) If none of the above works, then will try to use default install locations of GStreamer
    //    on Windows and Mac, if they exist.
    // In this way, priority is given to the system installation of GStreamer only if set in the
    // environmental variables, otherwise will try to load the bundled GStreamer, and if it does not
    // exist it will look for GStreamer in the system-wide locations. This gives the user the option
    // to remove the bundled GStreamer libs to default to the system-wide installation.

vmArgs ❌

In launch.json:

 "vmArgs": [
     "-Dgstreamer.library.path=${workspaceFolder}/lib/video/library/windows-amd64",
     "-Dgstreamer.plugin.path=${workspaceFolder}/lib/video/library/windows-amd64/gstreamer-1.0"
]

This gives:

Seems like you are trying to use GStreamer native libraries older than 1.20, which are not supported.
Processing video library using bundled GStreamer 1.20.3
Scanning GStreamer plugins...
(Processing core video:12380): GStreamer-WARNING **: 12:12:29.229: Failed to load plugin 'C:/Users/clank/Desktop/03 - ACTIVE_PROJECTS/25 - Room-Activity/lib/video/library/windows-amd64/gstreamer-1.0\gstaccurip.dll': The specified module could not be found.
This usually means Windows was unable to find a DLL dependency of the plugin. Please check that PATH is correct.
You can run 'dumpbin -dependents' (provided by the Visual Studio developer prompt) to list the DLL deps of any DLL.
There are also some third-party GUIs to list and debug DLL dependencies recursively.

And the DLL errors keep coming. The dll's all exists. I also tried backslashes etc. This actually seems more like a gstreamer bug to me.

In the end you get a java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: No such Gstreamer factory: playbin

(I'm not a big fan of this anyway cause it requires the user to change the vmArgs depending on the OS).

2. java.library.path

I think this is the easiest way to get the video library working outside the pde:

 public void setup() {
        
        if (PApplet.platform == MACOS) {
            
        }
        else if (PApplet.platform == LINUX) {
        
        }
        else if (PApplet.platform == WINDOWS) {
            System.setProperty("java.library.path", System.getProperty("java.library.path")+";"+sketchPath()+"/lib/video/library/windows-amd64");
        }
        else {
            throw new RuntimeException("Unsupported platform");
        }

        // now load a movie...
}

Then everything works. I didn't fill in the path for MACOS and LINUX yet cause I didn't test yet on those machines and I didn't want to make assumptions that it works there as well.