priestd09 / nymphcast

Audio and video casting system with support for custom applications.

Repository Structure · Getting Started · Building From Source · Developer's Guide · SDK · License · Donate

What is NymphCast?

NymphCast is a software solution which turns your choice of Linux-capable hardware into an audio and video source for a television or powered speakers. It enables the streaming of audio and video over the network from a wide range of client devices, as well as the streaming of internet media to a NymphCast server, controlled by a client device.

In addition, the server supports powerful NymphCast apps written in AngelScript to extend the overall NymphCast functionality with e.g. 3rd party audio / video streaming protocol support on the server side, and cross-platform control panels served to the client application that integrate with the overall client experience.

NymphCast requires at least the server application to run on a target device, while the full functionality is provided in conjunction with a remote control device:

Client-side core functionality is provided through the NymphCast library.

Features & Status

The current development version is v0.1-alpha4. Version 0.1 will be the first release. The following list contains the major features that are planned for the v0.1 release, along with their implementation status.

• Streaming media content (files) between client and server.
• Streaming online content by passing a URL to the server.
• Support all mainstream audio and video codecs using ffmpeg.
• Run AngelScript-based apps with a custom API for external communication.
• Multi-cast media content to multiple servers with good synchronization.
• Playback of media content shared on the local network.

Timeline for the v0.1 release:

• Begin implementation.
• Implemented all features.
• Validated features.
• Feature freeze.
• Beta testing start.
• Release candidates.
• Release.

Components

The NymphCast project consists out of multiple components:

Component	Purpose	Status
NymphCast Server	Receiver end-point for clients. Connected to the audiovisual device.	v0.1-alpha4
NymphCast Client SDK	Software Development Kit for developing NymphCast clients.	v0.1-alpha4
NymphCast Client	CLI-based NymphCast client.	v0.1-alpha4
NymphCast Player	Graphical, Qt-based NymphCast client. SDK reference implementation.	v0.1-alpha4
NymphCast Player Android	Native Android-based NymphCast client.	v0.1-alpha0
NymphCast MediaServer	Server application for making media content available to NymphCast clients.	v0.1-alpha0

NymphCast Player Client

The NymphCast Player provides NymphCast client functionality. It is also a demonstration platform for the NymphCast SDK (see details on the SDK later in this document). It is designed to run on any OS that is supported by the Qt framework.

Server Platforms

The server should work on any platform that is supported by a C++17 toolchain and the LibPoco dependency. This includes Windows, MacOS, Linux and BSD.

FFmpeg and SDL2 libraries are used for audio and video playback. Both of which are supported on a wide variety of platforms, with Linux, MacOS and Windows being the primary platforms. System requirements also depend on whether only audio or also video playback is required. The latter can be disabled, which drops any graphical output requirement.

Memory requirements depend on the NymphCast Server configuration: by default the ffmpeg library uses an internal 32 kB buffer, and the server itself a 20 MB buffer. The latter can be configured using the (required) configuration INI file, allowing it to be tweaked to fit the use case.

Client Platforms

For the Qt-based NymphCast Player, a target platform needs to support LibPoco and have a C++ compiler which supports C++17 (<filesystem> header supported) or better, along with Qt5 support. Essentially, this means any mainstream desktop OS including Linux, Windows, BSD and MacOS should qualify, along with mobile platforms. Currently Android is also supported, with iOS support planned.

For the CLI-based NymphCast Client, only LibPoco and and C++17 support are required.

Mobile platforms are a work in progress. An Android client (native Java with JNI) is in development.

Repository Structure

The repository currently contains the NymphCast server, client SDK and NymphCast Player client sources.

/
|- android	(Android client app)
|- player 	(the NymphCast demonstration client)
|- src/
|	|- client 		(basic NymphCast client, for testing)
|	|- client_lib 	(NymphCast SDK files)
|	|- server		(the NymphCast server and NymphCast app files)
|- tools	(shell scripts for creating releases, in progress)

Getting Started

To start using NymphCast, you need a device on which the server will be running (most likely a SBC or other Linux system). NymphCast is offered as binaries for selected distros, and as source code for use and development on a variety of platforms.

Releases

NymphCast is currently in Alpha stage. Experimental releases are available on Github (see the 'Releases' folder).

Some packages also exist for selected distros.

For pacman-based distros (ArchLinux, Manjaro):

• the server: nymphcast-server-git
• the sdk: nymphcast-sdk-git
• the player client: nymphcast-player-git

For Alpine Linux and postmarketOS:

• the server: nymphcast-server
• the sdk: nymphcast-dev
• the player client: nymphcast-client

Player client releases for Android and Windows:

• APK for installation on Android, see 'Releases'
• desktop client for Windows(x64), see 'Releases'

If pre-compiled releases for your target device or operating system are currently not listed above, you may need to build the server and client applications from source.

Running NymphCast

The server binary can be started with just a configuration file. To start the server, execute the binary (from the bin/ folder) to have it start listening on port 4004:

./nymphcast_server -c nymphcast_config.ini.

The server will listen on all network interfaces for incoming connections. It supports the following options:

-h	--help				Get this help message.
-c	--configuration		Path to the configuration file.
-a	--apps				Path to the NymphCast apps folder.
-w	--wallpaper			Path to the wallpapers folder.
-v	--version			Output NymphCast server version and exit.

The client binary supports the following flags:

Usage:
        nymphcast_client <options>

Options:
-h      --help          Get this help message.
-v      --version       Output the NymphCast client version and exit.
-r      --remotes       Display online NymphCast receivers and quit.
-f      --file          Name of file to stream to remote receiver.
-i      --ip            IP address of the target NymphCast receiver.

The NymphCast Player is a GUI-based application and accepts no command line options.

Building From Source

Note: This section is for building the project from source. Pre-built binaries are provided in the 'Releases' folder.

The steps below assume building the server part on a system running a current version of Debian (Buster) or similarly current version of Arch (Manjaro) Linux or Alpine Linux. The player client demo application can be built on Linux/BSD/MacOS with a current GCC toolchain, or MSYS2 on Windows with MinGW toolchain.

Once the project files have been downloaded, run the setup.sh script in the project root, or install the dependencies and run the Makefile in the client and server folders as described. Either method will output a binary into the newly created bin/ folder.

To build the corresponding client-related parts of NymphCast, in addition to a C++ toolchain with C++17 support, one needs the dependencies as listed below.

Server Dependencies

• NymphRPC
• LibAV (v4+)
• LibSDL2
• LibSDL2_Image
• LibPOCO (1.5+)

On Debian & derivatives:

sudo apt -y install libsdl2-image-dev libsdl2-dev libpoco-dev

and

sudo apt -y install libswscale-dev libavcodec-dev libavdevice-dev libavformat-dev libavutil-dev libpostproc-dev libswresample-dev

On Arch & derivatives:

sudo pacman -S --noconfirm --needed sdl2 sdl2_image poco ffmpeg

On Alpine & derivatives:

sudo apk add poco-dev sdl2-dev sdl2_image-dev ffmpeg-dev openssl-dev

Client Library Dependencies

• NymphRPC
• LibPOCO (1.5+)

Building The Server

If using a compatible OS (e.g. Debian Buster, Alpine Linux or Arch Linux), one can use the setup script:

1. Run the setup.sh script in the project root to perform the below tasks automatically.
2. Run the install_linux.sh script in the project root to install the binaries and set up a systemd/OpenRC service on Linux systems.

Else, use the manual procedure:

1. Check-out NymphRPC elsewhere and build the library with make lib.
2. Install NymphRPC with sudo make install.
3. Change to NymphCast/src/server and execute make command.
4. Use sudo make install to install the server and associated files.
5. Use sudo make install-systemd (SystemD) or sudo make install-openrc (OpenRC) to install the relevant service file.

Building The NymphCast Player Client

This demonstration client uses Qt5 to provide user interface functionality. The binary release comes with the necessary dependencies, but when building it from source, make sure Qt5.x is installed or get it from www.qt.io.

For Windows (x64):

1. Download and extract the binary release.

Or (building and running on Windows & other desktop platforms):

1. Download or clone the project repository
2. Build the libnymphcast library in the src/client_lib folder using the Makefile in that folder: make lib.
3. Execute sudo make install to install the library.
4. Ensure the Qt5 SDK is installed.
5. Create player/NymphCastPlayer/build folder and change into it.
6. Execute qmake .. followed by make.
7. The player binary is created either in the same build folder or in a debug/ sub-folder.

On Android:

1. Download or clone the project repository.
2. Compile the dependencies (NymphCast client SDK, NymphRPC & Poco) for the target Android platforms.
3. Ensure dependency libraries along with their headers are installed in the Android NDK, under <ANDROID_SDK>/ndk/<VERSION>/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/<HOST_OS>/sysroot/usr/lib/<TARGET> where TARGET is the target Android platform (ARMv7, AArch64, x86, x86_64). Header files are placed in the accompanying usr/include folder.
4. Open the Qt project in a Qt Creator instance which has been configured for building for Android targets, and build the project.
5. An APK is produced, which can be loaded on any supported Android device.

Now you should be able to execute the player binary, connect to the server instance using its IP address and start casting media from a file or URL.

Developer's Guide

The focus of the project is currently on the development of the NymphCast server and the protocol parts. Third parties are encouraged to contribute server-side app support of their services and developers in general to contribute to server- and client-side development.

The current server and client documentation is hosted at the Nyanko website.

SDK

An SDK has been made available in the src/client_lib/ folder. The player project under player/ uses the SDK as part of a Qt5 project to implement a NymphCast client which exposes all of the NymphCast features to the user.

To use the SDK, the Makefile in the SDK folder can be executed with a simple make command, after which a library file can be found in the src/client_lib/lib folder.

Note: to compile the SDK, both NymphRPC and LibPOCO (1.5+) must be installed.

Note: For Android, one can compile for ARMv7 Android using make lib ANDROID=1and for AArch64 Android using ANDROID64=1. This requires that the Android SDK and NDK are installed and on the system path.

After this the only files needed by a client project are this library file and the nymphcast_client.h header file.

License

NymphCast is a fully open source project. The full, 3-clause BSD-licensed source code can be found at its project page on Github, along with binary releases.

Donate

NymphCast is fully free, but its development relies on your support. If you appreciate the project, your contribution, Ko-Fi or donation will help to support the continued development.