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I am trying to set-up grid for capturing OpenGl rendered screen, encoding it and streaming it on remote system.

I searched for available options and realized that Nvidia capture SDK (formerly GRID SDK) will be a good option to solve all these problems. However, it requires a Quadro GPU. Nevertheless, I bought Nvidia Quadro K-5000 and downloaded Nvidia CUDA and Nvidia capture SDK and installed both. Within Nvidia capture SDK samples, I found examples on how to achieve my goals.

While trying to to compile these samples I encountered the error that NvIFROpenGL.dll was missing. I downloaded these files manually and tried to compile it again. This time error was Can't create an instance of NvIFR. This might be caused by the downloaded DLLs and the fact that I need to use IFR instead of FBC so compile the OpenGLIFR samples).

Can someone please guide me on how to setup environment for Nvidia capture SDK (formerly GRID SDK)? What else do I need? Please don't answer to read the documentation, I have read it many times and even posted in Nvidia forums as well (all for nothing on this issue). I am stuck at this for more than a month and really frustrated (for wasting thousand dollars on a GPU and doing nothing).

Also, if there is another way to go around (an easier/better one, maybe with gstreamer/directshow?) please enlighten me on how to go about that?

Seth
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MSM
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  • With your description I don't really get why a normal recording software doesn't suffice. Could you get into some more detail what you're actually trying to do/why you are trying to do it? If I look at [this](http://www.nvidia.com/object/grid-technology.html) it would appear that grid is meant for a different use case? – Seth Mar 20 '17 at 07:35
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    1) I have to capture the screen irrespective of the fact that its window is minimized or open. So I need to access its screen buffer and transmit that buffer. 2) On remote system I need to render that buffer to produce video. This raw buffer will cost me less data/sec to be transferred as compared to the actual screen display data. Yes grid is basically for sharing gpus. But when I read Capture SDK documentation they explicitly said that it is formerly known as Grid SDK. (that confused me as well) That's why I added that phrase in my question . – MSM Mar 21 '17 at 10:04
  • If you know any better alternative please guide me towards it. Since I only need to achieve my purpose of streaming an OpenGl application display on a remote system at atleast 30fps – MSM Mar 21 '17 at 10:05
  • I haven't tested what it does when it's minimized but [Open Broadcaster](https://obsproject.com/) and a [streaming server](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streaming_media_systems) would probably be easier to setup. Plus you could easily just connect more clients to the stream. If it's a fixed setup, why would the application be minimized on the source? – Seth Mar 21 '17 at 10:35
  • Actually I was convinced that the data rate would be too high for streaming and NVidia provided hardware encoders to address these issues. This thing basically drived me into this NVidia capture SDK so as to achieve minimum data/sec. In addition there are other advantages as well (as above). Will try **Open Broadcaster.** Let's hope it can stream @30 fps at 720p. Thank You very much **Seth** – MSM Mar 21 '17 at 11:25
  • OBS supports (at least) the Nvidia Hardware encoder and converts to x264. It would depend on the specs of the machine how well that works and on the bitrate and the content that is being streamed how many artifacts you will see. If you look at the diagrams for the Capture SDK it's likely that OBS is just using that so you don't have to do the lifting. Though I'm not certain here. If you still want to do your own implementation, consider building a MWE and supplying it with your question. – Seth Mar 21 '17 at 11:31
  • yes, Just checked. It captures the screen in its own way but then lets you use nvidia hardware encoder to encode the stream. Seems that my GPU is not a waste of money at all :) **LifeSaver** – MSM Mar 21 '17 at 17:58

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