camera_desktop #

A Flutter camera plugin for desktop platforms. Implements camera_platform_interface so it works seamlessly with the standard camera package and CameraController.

Platform Support #

Installation #

Add camera_desktop alongside camera in your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  camera: ^0.11.0
  camera_desktop: ^0.0.6

That's it. All three desktop platforms are covered — no additional packages needed.

Usage #

Use the standard camera package API:

import 'package:camera/camera.dart';

final cameras = await availableCameras();
final controller = CameraController(cameras.first, ResolutionPreset.high);
await controller.initialize();

// Preview
CameraPreview(controller);

// Capture
final file = await controller.takePicture();

// Record
await controller.startVideoRecording();
final video = await controller.stopVideoRecording();

Platform-Specific Setup #

Linux #

Install GStreamer development libraries:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-plugins-good

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel gstreamer1-plugins-good

# Arch
sudo pacman -S gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good

macOS #

Add camera and microphone usage descriptions to your Info.plist:

<key>NSCameraUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs camera access.</string>
<key>NSMicrophoneUsageDescription</key>
<string>This app needs microphone access for video recording.</string>

For sandboxed apps, add to your entitlements:

<key>com.apple.security.device.camera</key>
<true/>
<key>com.apple.security.device.audio-input</key>
<true/>

Windows #

No additional setup required.

Features #

Mirror / Flip Behavior #

On macOS and Linux, the preview frames are mirrored at the native capture level (like a webcam selfie view), so buildPreview() returns the texture as-is.

On Windows, the native backend does not mirror, so the example app wraps the preview in a horizontal Transform in Flutter:

if (Platform.isWindows) {
  return Transform(
    alignment: Alignment.center,
    transform: Matrix4.diagonal3Values(-1, 1, 1),
    child: Texture(textureId: textureId),
  );
}

The same applies to video playback — recorded files from macOS/Linux are already mirrored, while Windows recordings need a Flutter-side flip if you want a mirror-style playback.

Limitations #

Desktop cameras generally do not support mobile-oriented features:

• Flash/torch control
• Exposure/focus point selection
• Zoom (beyond 1.0x)
• Device orientation changes
• Pause/resume video recording

These methods either no-op or throw CameraException as appropriate.