Open-source alternatives to Virtual Display Driver

BetterDisplay is a comprehensive display management utility and virtual display engine designed to provide granular control over monitor configurations. It functions as a low-level hardware controller that interacts directly with graphics drivers and system APIs to override manufacturer limitations, enabling users to manage resolution, scaling, brightness, and color profiles across complex multi-monitor setups. The project distinguishes itself through its ability to generate synthetic virtual displays and inject custom framebuffers into the graphics pipeline, allowing for arbitrary resolution

BlackHole is a system-level virtual audio driver designed for macOS that enables real-time routing of digital audio signals between applications and hardware. By functioning as a kernel-level extension, it creates a virtual loopback interface that allows users to transfer sound streams across software environments without the need for physical cables or external hardware. The software distinguishes itself through its ability to aggregate multiple physical and virtual audio sources into a single, unified interface. This abstraction layer supports complex signal management, including the mirror

DeskPad is a macOS virtual display manager and window management utility designed to isolate and share specific screen content. It creates software-defined monitors at the operating system level to provide a dedicated drawing surface for mirroring content to an audience without exposing the primary workspace. The tool employs cursor location tracking to automate window focus, automatically bringing application windows to the front when the mouse enters the virtual display area. It allows for the creation and resizing of virtual monitors through system-level preferences to ensure shared conten

BackgroundMusic is a system-level macOS audio management utility that provides an application volume mixer for independent gain and level adjustments for every running application. It functions as a system audio router and pause controller to manage how sound is handled across the operating system. The project features a virtual audio driver that routes internal system sound to recording software and input devices. It also includes automatic music ducking, which monitors system audio activity to pause music playback when other applications produce sound and resume it once that audio ends. Th

Apollo is a remote desktop streaming server designed to transmit a low-latency video feed of a host screen to remote clients using hardware-accelerated encoding. It functions as a remote input controller and virtual display manager, allowing the host to match the resolution and framerate of connected devices. The system includes a gamepad input emulator that simulates controller hardware on the host machine to translate remote inputs into local events. Server configurations and client pairing are managed through a web-based remote access interface. The project also covers bidirectional clipb

This project provides a containerized environment for running Steam games and applications without a physical monitor. It consists of a Docker image designed for headless game server hosting, utilizing a virtual display server to enable remote game streaming of video and audio to a web browser. The system integrates NVIDIA GPU virtualization to provide hardware acceleration for high-performance 3D graphics rendering within the container. A remote desktop gateway allows users to access and manage the virtualized desktop environment and game client remotely. The software includes capabilities

eqMac is a system-wide audio equalizer and volume mixer for macOS. It utilizes a virtual audio driver to intercept system output, allowing users to adjust frequency response, boost system volume, and control independent volume levels for different running software applications. The project functions as an audio unit plugin host, integrating third-party plugins into the system audio stream for professional effects. It also includes a local web server that enables remote audio control via HTTP, allowing users to modify audio parameters from a mobile device or other external hardware on the same

ALVR is a wireless virtual reality streaming tool and headset driver that transmits content from a PC to a headset over Wi-Fi to eliminate physical cables. It functions as a session orchestrator that manages a network-based pipeline for high-resolution frames and a virtual driver layer that enables a computer to communicate with and track wireless hardware. The system utilizes a UDP network protocol to synchronize compressed video frames and positional tracking data. It employs hardware-accelerated H.264 encoding to minimize lag and includes a virtual audio router to redirect microphone input

Flameshot is a cross-platform desktop screenshot tool and image annotation utility. It provides the ability to capture full displays or specific screen regions and save them as image files. The software features a built-in editor for adding arrows, shapes, text, and markers to screen captures for visual documentation. It also includes functionality for transferring captured and annotated images directly to external hosting services for remote storage and sharing. The utility includes a command line interface for automating screen captures, managing application settings via scripts, and trigg

QuickRecorder is a screen recording software designed for capturing desktops, application windows, and system audio. It functions as a multi-device video recorder and tutorial capture tool, synchronizing video feeds from a computer and connected mobile devices into a single stream. The system distinguishes itself through an alpha-channel video exporter that produces recordings with transparent backgrounds. It also includes a presenter overlay system that renders a floating camera feed over screen captures and a specialized tutorial toolset that provides mouse movement highlighting and a magni

term.everything is a terminal-based graphical compositor and renderer that converts framebuffers into ANSI escape sequences to display GUI applications within a terminal emulator. It functions as a remote GUI streamer and framebuffer-to-ANSI converter, allowing for the visualization of headless systems and the execution of graphical software over SSH connections. The project includes a specialized mouse input handler that utilizes SGR 1006 reporting to capture movements and clicks, enabling user interaction with rendered graphical interfaces. It emulates a compositor to coordinate window beha

Bazzite is an immutable, atomic-image-based operating system designed for gaming performance and handheld hardware. It utilizes a read-only root filesystem and versioned images to provide atomic updates and instant system rollbacks, ensuring a stable core environment. The system is distinguished by its deep optimization for portable gaming devices, featuring dedicated handheld hardware management for CPU undervolting, fan control, and display refresh rate overclocking. It includes a specialized gaming mode that boots directly into a console-like interface with integrated input mapping and a t

Open-smartwatch-os is an operating system designed for resource-constrained wearable devices. It provides a development and testing environment that allows developers to build, validate, and debug firmware for smartwatches within a simulated desktop environment before deploying to physical hardware. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive suite of tools for hardware emulation and remote diagnostics. By utilizing a hardware abstraction layer and modular driver architecture, it decouples core system logic from specific physical components. This enables developers to run the ope

MAME is a vintage hardware emulation platform designed to recreate the circuitry of arcade games, computers, and consoles to run original software on modern devices. It functions as a retro gaming preservation framework for managing, verifying, and archiving ROM sets and disk images to ensure long-term software accessibility. The project features a system debugging tool for inspecting emulated memory, CPU registers, and execution flow via breakpoints and disassembly. It also includes a Lua-based automation layer that exposes core system state and hardware controls for custom behavior and anal

Dolphin is a software environment that simulates GameCube and Wii console hardware, allowing users to execute game discs and digital software on modern computing platforms. It functions by translating original console processor instructions into native host machine code at runtime and intercepting low-level graphics commands to render them through modern graphics APIs. The project distinguishes itself through a comprehensive netplay engine that enables online multiplayer for local games by synchronizing game states and input timing across remote instances. This system enforces deterministic e

Camoufox is a Firefox-based stealth automation browser designed to evade detection during automated browsing. It combines a fingerprint randomization engine that generates thousands of unique device attributes per session, native-level API interception to spoof WebRTC, WebGL, media, and other fingerprintable properties, and human behavior simulation that moves the cursor along natural, distance-aware trajectories. The browser is compiled from source with build-time stealth patches and runs headlessly via a lightweight virtual display buffer, making it suitable for web scraping, automated testi

Deskreen is a wireless screen mirroring and virtual display tool that streams a computer screen or specific application windows to any device with a web browser. It functions as a virtual display streamer and a web-based secondary monitor, allowing users to extend their desktop workspace to remote devices over a local network. The system supports end-to-end encrypted screen sharing to protect display data and utilizes virtual display adapters to treat remote browsers as extended screens. It includes capabilities for multi-device broadcasting, enabling a single video source to be mirrored acro

Gamescope is a Wayland micro-compositor that manages frame rates, resolution upscaling, shader application, and virtual displays. It functions as a system to isolate applications within a sandboxed session and control their display output. The project provides a virtual display manager that spoofs resolution and refresh rates to create a consistent screen environment independent of physical hardware. It includes a GPU post-processing wrapper to apply visual shaders and filters to an application stream and a game resolution upscaler to improve visual clarity on larger displays. The system man

This project is an educational resource and virtual environment designed to teach the fundamentals of embedded systems and internet-connected device development. It provides a structured curriculum that guides learners through the essential skills required to program, connect, and integrate hardware components. The platform distinguishes itself by offering virtual hardware emulation, which allows users to test electronic circuits and device logic within a digital environment. This simulation capability enables students to practice building and testing projects without the requirement for phys

This project is a cross-platform emulator designed to execute software originally developed for the PlayStation 2 console on modern computing hardware. By replicating the original processor and graphics architecture, it allows users to run legacy game discs and digital backups within a virtual environment on contemporary desktop and laptop systems. The software distinguishes itself through advanced graphics enhancement engineering, which enables users to adjust rendering resolutions, apply texture filtering, and utilize community-created patches to improve visual fidelity beyond original hard

Tiny-gpu is an educational hardware emulator designed to model the fundamental operations of a graphics processing unit. It provides a software environment that simulates hardware data flow and parallel computing logic, allowing users to visualize the internal execution cycles and memory structures characteristic of graphics hardware. The project distinguishes itself by implementing a cycle-accurate execution model that tracks the progression of operations through discrete processing steps. It utilizes a fixed-function pipeline to process geometric data through sequential transformation and r

UTM is a comprehensive virtualization suite that provides a unified interface for running guest operating systems on host hardware. It functions as a cross-platform system emulator and hypervisor, coordinating both hardware-accelerated virtualization and software-based instruction emulation to execute diverse operating systems. By leveraging native kernel-level virtualization frameworks, the software achieves near-native performance while maintaining strict security through sandboxed process isolation. The project distinguishes itself by enabling full-featured desktop operating systems to run

This project is a system audio processor and digital signal processing engine designed to enhance system-wide sound volume and clarity. It functions as a high-fidelity sound enhancer and parametric audio equalizer that shapes the sonic profile and timbre of audio across all output devices. The software utilizes a virtual audio device driver to intercept system audio streams at the kernel level, redirecting them through a processing pipeline. This allows for real-time sound processing and low-latency audio filtration to minimize the delay between sound generation and output. The system covers

NoiseTorch is a cross-platform audio processor and real-time noise filter designed to suppress ambient sound from audio streams. It functions as a virtual microphone noise suppressor and routing tool, capturing system audio sources and directing filtered signals into virtual input or output devices. The application uses a recurrent neural network to distinguish between human speech and ambient noise. It provides a virtual denoising microphone that removes background noise from a selected input, alongside tools for filtering audio output streams. The system includes capabilities for audio dev

LittleBigMouse is a multi-monitor DPI mouse manager designed to synchronize cursor movement and transitions across displays with differing pixel densities. It functions as a cursor transition controller and display geometry optimizer to ensure consistent mouse navigation in diverse monitor setups. The software provides tools for adjusting virtual screen sizes and positions to match a physical desk layout. It implements mouse movement normalization and transition coordination to eliminate cursor jumps when crossing boundaries between monitors with different DPI settings. The system includes c

86Box is a low-level x86 hardware emulator and vintage PC simulator designed to replicate early IBM PC compatibles. It provides virtualized environments for executing legacy operating systems, such as MS-DOS and early versions of Windows, by simulating processors and system designs ranging from the 8086 through the Pentium era. The project distinguishes itself through cycle-accurate processor simulation and high-fidelity hardware emulation. This includes the ability to route retro MIDI audio data to emulated hardware modules or external synthesizers to achieve authentic audio playback from le

Bitwise is a computer architecture education kit and a comprehensive set of guides for building a custom CPU, operating system, and compiler from scratch. It serves as a CPU design tutorial and a practical framework for implementing a unique instruction set architecture. The project provides a custom instruction set architecture toolchain, including resources for creating a matching assembler and compiler. It further includes a hardware development guide for synthesizing computer components and peripheral controllers for deployment on programmable logic devices and FPGAs. The kit covers full