But, a lot of you probably don't know much about how to fiddle with settings and such. Never fear! Here's a guide for you.
First, pro's and con's:
Con's
1. Manycam is pernicious. It is really hard to uninstall it once you've installed it. Almost as bad as getting rid of a virus. So make sure you really do want it on your computer before you go installing it.
2. Manycam is a resource hog. This means that it uses a ton of your ram and cpu power. Even when you're not using it, it could be running in the background taking up your resources. I can show you how to fix that. In fact, that's the first thing I'll show you how to do.
Pro's
1. You can show multiple cameras at once to the same site.
2. You can show your camera feed on multiple sites at once.
3. You can do fun stuff with the camera feed, like make it look like you're on fire, or make it look like the camera is under water.
Three pro's, and two cons, one of which you probably never have to worry about and the other of which I'll be telling you how to fix. Pretty good choice, eh?
So you got manycam, and now you want it to quit hogging your computer's power while you play candycrush after your show is over. Or before your show even started. Here's how to do it. In this tutorial, any purple ovals and letters are my addition, everything else is a screen shot.
Turning Off ManyCam
At the bottom right of your screen, next to your clock, there is a little arrow. Click that, and you should see what is pictured below.
The only two things to concern you are A and B. A is the manycams icon, B is the logitech icon. Right-click (that's the other click, not the normal one) on the manycams icon. You should now see the picture below.
First, the "Run On Startup". Make sure there isn't a checkmark next to this. If there is one, uncheck it by clicking on the checkmark. That will keep manycams from running before you tell it to. Next, the big red X for the exit button. Don't click on that until you're ready for manycams to stop running. This is what you want to click when you're done with camming, logged off the site and all. If you do click on it, don't worry. It'll come back on when you use the desktop icon. You can also shut down the logitech software through here, but it doesn't use much and letting it run allows the toolbar to pop up automatically when you use it.
Using Manycam
Next, left-click on the same icon. Or, if you shut it down, find it on your desktop. I'm sure all of you know how to do this, but since I have a visual mind and can find something easier if I know exactly what it look like, here's what the manycams desktop icon looks like:
So, one left-click on the toolbar icon, or double-click the desktop icon, or click on the desktop icon and press enter, or whatever your favorite way of opening a program using a desktop icon is. The manycam window will pop up, and you can play around with settings (I'll do a settings post on the actual logitech settings, and then the manycams settings, later). First thing to do is not select the proper camera, but get rid of that pesky icon in the bottom of your feed. Refer to the picture below (Please forgive my expression, I did these while cooling off from a workout).
So, there's an "effects" and a "sources" tab. Click on "effects", then click on "text over video". I've circled both in the picture above. You should get a window that looks like the picture below.
Uncheck the box next to the bit I've circled on that picture for you. Next I'll show you how to do two pictures at once on your feed, called "picture in picture". Back at the top, click "Sources", then click "Cameras", circled below. Select the camera that you want for your main one. Fix settings now, and exit Manycams all the way (even exiting with the start-bar icon like I showed you). This makes sure that your settings get saved for next time. Reenter, and find your way back to the picture below.
Right below the feed, there are three buttons. The leftmost one is normal, that should be highlighted. Click the middle one. A little black square should pop up.
Now, select the camera you want as the little one. It will show up in the black box, and your main camera is intact, like so:
You can move the little one! With your mouse over the picture, hold the mouse-button down and drag the picture. You can even put it off-screen a little!
Want to show off your desktop? Click that desktop button that you see. There will be a bunch of buttons visible under the P-i-P button. Like so:
The first one is "Capture Entire Desktop". Mine has a drop-down because I have two monitors, so I can choose to show both, the external monitor, or the laptop monitor. The second one captures the area around the cursor. This is useful for youtube video tutorials, but if you do it on camera you will probably accidentally show something you don't want to. The third one is what I use most often, "capture custom desktop area". This lets you select an area to show. You will see a preview of the area that will be shown as you select it. If you mess up, you click on it again and restart. The last one is "capture area of application". If you already have up the window that you want them to be able to see, you click on this and then click on the window you want to show. It will continue to show that area even after you minimize, so be careful what you have up under the area.
Making ManyCams the Camera being Streamed
I only really cam on two sites, and only one of them, MFC, do I use the software. The other, Streamate, I use the Adobe Encoder, so I can't show you using that one. But this is the same on every site, it's specific to the adobe flash program the camsites use to stream our cams. So, I'll use MFC. Since I'm not sure how much screen-shot I can give you to keep from getting in trouble, I've cut everything except enough for you to be able to tell that it really is MFC. Like so:
Before you start, make sure that manycams is running and your main camera is selected properly. Then log into your account. On MFC, I suggest going into preview mode to mess with the settings before you start actually streaming. Adobe might already have a window about the verification. If so, skip to that part. If not, you need to get the adobe settings up. First, right-click (that's the other one) anywhere in where your picture feed will be. I'm already set up, which is why my feed is showing, but you might have a blank feed, or the wrong camera up. You should see a menu like below. Click on settings, which I've circled.
Before you allow or deny, you need to tell it which camera to use. Otherwise, it might be trying to access the camera that manycams is using. but you will be going back to this screen, it's the second tab at the bottom. Click the right-most tab, that looks like a camera.
If ManyCam Virtual Webcam is not the camera it's showing, then you need to select it. Click on the circled triangle to see the drop-down menu, and click on ManyCam Virtual Webcam. If it is the one selected, you can skip down to the last part.
Go back to the first window. Remember, it's the second tab at the bottom. Click "Allow" and check "remember my answer". Then click "close".
And now, you're ready to cam!
