Virtual/Shared Camera for VMware Workstation on Windows Host?

[DanGilbertTX]

I would like to share my Logitech Brio between my guests and the host. Fusion has a virtual camera device that can be added. I am not sure why Workstation does not have that as well. I need the camera to be on multiple OSes at once and not just 1 host or guest. Is this possible with VMware Workstation? Thanks in advance for answers.

[RDPetruska]

I would doubt that this is possible.  Nearly all devices can be accessed by only one OS/computer at a time... you can't have a USB device connected to both the host and a guest at the same time (or serial port, or parallel port, or hard disk, or CD-ROM device, etc.). 

[DanGilbertTX]

Well, it can be done on Fusion on Mac. So, I am not sure why a virtual camera could not be created on Windows. 

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/11/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-CA34C957-66BB-45FB-B4BC...

[RDPetruska · Accepted solution]

Probably because it's a built-in camera that the Mac OS has special APIs that VMware can use in Fusion, if I had to guess.

And, again, the camera is still only available to one OS at a time - either the Mac OS host, or the virtual machine OS.

[DanGilbertTX]

I guess you may be right that it is still only connected to one at a time. 

What bugs me about this with VMware though is that Citrix has figured out how to do passthrough of the camera to VDI and still have it work on the host system. That is probably an API, but that shouldn't be impossible for VMware to implement as well. 

[KhaimovMR]

But OBS and all the similar products are already creating the virtual web cameras through Windows API that supports it.
Why there is no such feature in VMWare (at least Workstation Pro) that can mirror at least on of the virtual cameras of Windows into virtual webcam inside the guest os?