feat(vdd): add virtual display management by fatebugs · Pull Request #5114 · LizardByte/Sunshine

fatebugs · 2026-05-14T11:57:27Z

Description

Integrate Parsec VDD to enable dynamic virtual display management on Windows. This allows Sunshine to create and manage virtual displays without requiring a physical monitor, which is essential for headless streaming setups.

Key changes

VDD Core (vdd_control.cpp/h): Virtual display lifecycle management — create, remove, enumerate displays, and handle display mode/resolution configuration
Configuration (config.cpp/h): New VDD configuration options (enable/disable, adapter selection, display count, resolution presets)
REST API (confighttp.cpp): Endpoints for runtime VDD control (add/remove display, query status)
Startup (main.cpp): Automatic VDD initialization on service start when enabled
System Tray (system_tray.cpp): Quick VDD controls in tray menu
Web UI (VirtualDisplay.vue): Full management panel for virtual displays with add/remove/resolution controls
Web UI integration (AudioVideo.vue, config.html): Navigation and display area integration
i18n (en/zh/zh_TW): Full translations for all VDD-related UI strings
Build (cmake + third-party/parsec-vdd): VDD header integration, compile definitions

Screenshot

Issues Fixed or Closed

N/A

Roadmap Issues

N/A

Type of Change

Checklist

Code follows the style guidelines of this project
Code has been self-reviewed
Code has been commented, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
Code docstring/documentation-blocks for new or existing methods/components have been added or updated
Unit tests have been added or updated for any new or modified functionality

AI Usage

None: No AI tools were used in creating this PR
Light: AI provided minor assistance (formatting, simple suggestions)
Moderate: AI helped with code generation or debugging specific parts
Heavy: AI generated most or all of the code changes

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fatebugs · 2026-05-14T12:43:09Z

@ReenigneArcher What else do I need to do to merge this PR into the master?

neatnoise · 2026-05-14T20:14:29Z

That is useful for headless setups. I tried it out.
Few remarks when headless setup was used:

I managed to make it work by setting manually these vars (I couldn't set vdd_enabled and vdd_refresh_rate via gui):

vdd_display_count = 1
vdd_enabled = 1
vdd_refresh_rate = 60

I had to force right adapter with adapter_name setting
I had an issue to save display settings via sunshine gui. It got lost after the sunshine restart even when display was added and clicked "Save" + "Apply"
I suggest to add some information about the parsec VDD installation requirement and links to the drivers.

fatebugs · 2026-05-15T01:07:35Z

That is useful for headless setups. I tried it out. Few remarks when headless setup was used:

I managed to make it work by setting manually these vars (I couldn't set vdd_enabled and vdd_refresh_rate via gui):
vdd_display_count = 1
vdd_enabled = 1
vdd_refresh_rate = 60
I had to force right adapter with adapter_name setting

I had an issue to save display settings via sunshine gui. It got lost after the sunshine restart even when display was added and clicked "Save" + "Apply"

I suggest to add some information about the parsec VDD installation requirement and links to the drivers.

是的，我也发现了这个问题，我今天想办法修一下这个bug吧

- Store each virtual display's resolution/refresh as JSON in config - Restore per-display configs on startup, not just a flat count - Add vdd_enabled toggle in Web UI for auto-start control

Add vdd_display_configs to the internal options list in config consistency tests so the test doesn't fail on the new auto-managed VDD persistence config key.

Kishi85 · 2026-05-15T05:02:54Z

Just a small note as I can't comment on the feature itself since this is a Windows-specific feature: For code maintainability any platform specific files (in this case seemingly vdd_control.cpp/h) should be put into the respective platform-specific source folder (in this case src/platform/windows/).

I'm also not sure if this should be sole part of Sunshine itself or should be rather integrated into libdisplaydevice as that was created specifically for interacting/managing display devices (on Windows for now).

fatebugs · 2026-05-15T05:07:38Z

Just a small note as I can't comment on the feature itself since this is a Windows-specific feature: For code maintainability any platform specific files (in this case seemingly vdd_control.cpp/h) should be put into the respective source folder (in this case src/platform/windows/).

I'm also not sure if this should be sole part of Sunshine itself or should be rather integrated into libdisplaydevice as that was created specifically for interacting/managing display devices (on Windows for now).

so，perhaps the author of Sunshine has maintained other solutions, but I think in many cases, it would be better for Windows to directly create virtual displays in Sunshine rather than having to download other software to accomplish this task

- Catch nlohmann::json::parse_error instead of generic std::exception - Use C++17 init-statement in vdd config parsing loop

Kishi85 · 2026-05-15T07:35:36Z

Just a small note as I can't comment on the feature itself since this is a Windows-specific feature: For code maintainability any platform specific files (in this case seemingly vdd_control.cpp/h) should be put into the respective source folder (in this case src/platform/windows/).
I'm also not sure if this should be sole part of Sunshine itself or should be rather integrated into libdisplaydevice as that was created specifically for interacting/managing display devices (on Windows for now).

so，perhaps the author of Sunshine has maintained other solutions, but I think in many cases, it would be better for Windows to directly create virtual displays in Sunshine rather than having to download other software to accomplish this task

I think you're misunderstanding my comment, it absolutely makes sense to have this as a feature in Sunshine. But since Sunshine is already using a separate (self developed) library for display management (at least on Windows) everything related to that including virtual displays might be better integrated there (and exposed using the library to Sunshine) from a coding point of view. So everything is in one place, stays extensible/reusable and is able to integrate other solutions (and maybe other Sunshine supported platforms) easier in the future.

Right now it's a feature that is specific to Windows as a platform (hence also my note about moving your new vddcontrol files to src/platform/windows) for one specific VDD (Parsec) that could be extended in the future and would benefit from a good codebase to do so.

fatebugs · 2026-05-15T07:37:40Z

Just a small note as I can't comment on the feature itself since this is a Windows-specific feature: For code maintainability any platform specific files (in this case seemingly vdd_control.cpp/h) should be put into the respective source folder (in this case src/platform/windows/).
I'm also not sure if this should be sole part of Sunshine itself or should be rather integrated into libdisplaydevice as that was created specifically for interacting/managing display devices (on Windows for now).

so，perhaps the author of Sunshine has maintained other solutions, but I think in many cases, it would be better for Windows to directly create virtual displays in Sunshine rather than having to download other software to accomplish this task

I think you're misunderstanding my comment, it absolutely makes sense to have this as a feature in Sunshine. But since Sunshine is already using a separate (self developed) library for display management (at least on Windows) everything related to that including virtual displays might be better integrated there (and exposed using the library to Sunshine) from a coding point of view. So everything is in one place, stays extensible/reusable and is able to integrate other solutions (and maybe other Sunshine supported platforms) easier in the future.

Right now it's a feature that is specific to Windows as a platform (hence also my note about moving your new vddcontrol files to src/platform/windows) for one specific VDD (Parsec) that could be extended in the future and would benefit from a good codebase to do so.

好的呢，我看一看先

Relocate Windows-only virtual display driver control files to the platform directory. Update include paths and CMake references.

sonarqubecloud · 2026-05-15T08:40:39Z

Quality Gate passed

Issues
0 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
0.0% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

ReenigneArcher

Please keep the discussion here in English.

I agree with @Kishi85 on moving some of the code to libdisplaydevice and simplifying what needs to be done on the Sunshine side, as well as putting windows specific code into platform/windows.

We can also add a downloader for parsec-vdd, like we do for vigembus in the web-ui.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:00:41Z

I notice your PR modifies localization files other than the default language (en). We do not accept contributions on GitHub for these files, but you can contribute on Crowdin. Please see https://docs.lizardbyte.dev/latest/developers/contributing.html#localization for more information.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:01:39Z

+            const i18nKey = 'config.' + key;
+            const translated = this.$t(i18nKey);
+            const label = translated === i18nKey
+              ? key.replaceAll('_', ' ').replaceAll(/\b\w/g, l => l.toUpperCase())
+              : translated;
            options.push({
              key: key,
-              label: key.replaceAll('_', ' ').replaceAll(/\b\w/g, l => l.toUpperCase()),
+              label: label,


Change is unrelated and should be separated from this PR.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:05:38Z

  const std::set<std::string, std::less<>> internalOptions = {
-    "flags"  // Internal config flags, not user-configurable
+    "flags",  // Internal config flags, not user-configurable
+    "vdd_display_configs"  // Automatically managed by VDD persistence


Shouldn't be in config.cpp if not user configurable. "flags" are because these are CLI options that temporarily override the config file.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:07:47Z

+<div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">
+    <strong>Acknowledgement:</strong> The virtual display feature is powered by the
+    <a href="https://github.com/nomi-san/parsec-vdd" target="_blank">Parsec Virtual Display Driver</a>
+    created by <a href="https://github.com/nomi-san" target="_blank">nomi-san</a>.
+</div>


Suggested change

<div class="alert alert-info" role="alert">

<strong>Acknowledgement:</strong> The virtual display feature is powered by the

<a href="https://github.com/nomi-san/parsec-vdd" target="_blank">Parsec Virtual Display Driver</a>

created by <a href="https://github.com/nomi-san" target="_blank">nomi-san</a>.

</div>

This doesn't match any existing patterns in the configuration.md file.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:09:32Z

+      1920,   // virtual_display_width
+      1080,   // virtual_display_height
+      144,    // virtual_display_refresh_rate
+      0,      // virtual_display_count


Can we just set these based on what Moonlight requests?

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:10:50Z

+      std::stringstream config_stream;
+      for (const auto &[k, v] : vars) {
+        config_stream << k << " = " << v << '\n';


Unrelated change, should be a separate PR.

ReenigneArcher · 2026-05-15T13:13:16Z

+#ifdef _WIN32
+    server.resource["^/api/vdd/status$"]["GET"] = getVddStatus;
+    server.resource["^/api/vdd/add$"]["POST"] = addVddDisplay;
+    server.resource["^/api/vdd/remove$"]["POST"] = removeVddDisplay;
+    server.resource["^/api/vdd/remove-all$"]["POST"] = removeAllVddDisplays;
+#endif


remove ifdef and handle in the endpoint itself when not on Windows.

feat(vdd): add virtual display management

56f15d4

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings May 14, 2026 11:57

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ReenigneArcher marked this pull request as draft May 14, 2026 12:35

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fatebugs added 3 commits May 14, 2026 22:12

fix(vdd): resolve SonarCloud code analysis issues

1bb448e

docs(vdd): add code comments for VDD functions

374c7d0

fix(vdd): use std::to_underlying and add missing includes

fe5e09c

fatebugs and others added 5 commits May 15, 2026 09:12

fix(vdd): use C++17 init-statement for devProblemNum

ae16085

Merge branch 'LizardByte:master' into master

b8d6e2c

feat(vdd): persist per-display configs and add auto-start toggle

a0092cc

- Store each virtual display's resolution/refresh as JSON in config - Restore per-display configs on startup, not just a flat count - Add vdd_enabled toggle in Web UI for auto-start control

test: mark vdd_display_configs as internal config option

ae38175

Add vdd_display_configs to the internal options list in config consistency tests so the test doesn't fail on the new auto-managed VDD persistence config key.

fix(confighttp): merge config on save instead of overwrite

fff4efb

fix: narrow exception type and minor C++17 cleanup

4652fdb

- Catch nlohmann::json::parse_error instead of generic std::exception - Use C++17 init-statement in vdd config parsing loop

fatebugs marked this pull request as ready for review May 15, 2026 05:26

refactor(vdd): move vdd_control to src/platform/windows/

23fd2a5

Relocate Windows-only virtual display driver control files to the platform directory. Update include paths and CMake references.

fatebugs force-pushed the pr/vdd branch 2 times, most recently from 23fd2a5 to 6625780 Compare May 15, 2026 08:18

fatebugs marked this pull request as draft May 15, 2026 08:18

Merge branch 'LizardByte:master' into master

6ae5ab1

fatebugs force-pushed the pr/vdd branch from 6625780 to 6ae5ab1 Compare May 15, 2026 08:26

fatebugs marked this pull request as ready for review May 15, 2026 08:29

ReenigneArcher reviewed May 15, 2026

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Description

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fatebugs commented May 14, 2026 •

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