Virtual Drivers for macOS
Virtual devices for the Mac
Virtual Drivers for macOS is a native SwiftUI control center for virtual devices. Spawn displays, audio cables, cameras, MIDI ports, network interfaces and disk-image volumes — multiple instances of each — then configure, test and stop them from one app.
Module by module
Each device type gets its own workspace, and every available module can create and stop multiple independent instances. Status below is for build 26.9.6.1, tested in September 2026 — none of it is downloadable yet.
640 × 480 up to 7680 × 4320, 24–240 Hz, 72–360 PPI, HiDPI, and placement left, right, above or below. Four presets to start from.
Core Audio HAL drivers at 44.1 or 48 kHz, 32-bit float. Route microphones and cable returns into speakers, interfaces or other cables.
320 × 240 up to 3840 × 2160 at 1–60 fps, with mirroring. The source is generated color bars — a test signal, not a webcam or screen feed.
MIDI 1.0 with channel filtering, transpose, velocity scaling, latency, clock, MTC and SysEx forwarding. MIDI 2.0 isn't implemented.
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, DNS, routes, MTU, on-demand and sleep policy. Not a VPN: packets that enter it are discarded, not forwarded.
Sparse bundles, sparse or fixed images from 1 GB to 8 TB, in APFS, case-sensitive APFS, Mac OS Extended or ExFAT. No encrypted images yet.
The module needs Apple's approval and a signed helper, and neither is in the current build. Until both land it appears only in the app's small Planned Features strip — no controls, no switch, and no date promised.
Flagship module · Display
Spawn a display and macOS gives it a display ID like any other screen — arrange it from Displays settings whenever you like. Name it, give it vendor, product and serial identifiers, and set resolution, refresh rate, pixel density, HiDPI scaling and where it sits next to your main screen.
Presets: Studio Display 2560 × 1440, Streaming Canvas 1920 × 1080, 4K Retina 3840 × 2160 and Portrait Desk 1440 × 2560. The display uses an undocumented CoreGraphics interface, so compatibility can vary by Mac and macOS update, and displays last only while the app is running.
Audio · Mixer & Loopback Matrix
Install up to eight independent stereo virtual audio cables. Whatever an app plays into a cable's output comes back out of its input, at 44.1 or 48 kHz in 32-bit float.
The mixer routes any device with inputs — a physical microphone or a cable's return — into any device with outputs: your speakers, an audio interface or another cable. Routes to the same destination are mixed, each with live gain, mute, left/right channel choice and a sample delay.
Devices in a route must share a sample rate; there's no resampling or clock-drift compensation, and the mixer doesn't capture individual apps. Setup needs a one-time macOS approval for a helper that can only install or remove the app's own eight audio drivers.
Real captures · build 26.9.6.1
Captured from the current build on PyroSoft's test Mac. Click any image for full size.
The VirtualDrivers family
Virtual Drivers for macOS comes from the developers of the Windows Virtual Display Driver and Virtual Audio Driver, and the Linux Virtual Display Driver. As of September 2026 the Windows driver has more than 10,000 stars on GitHub and more than 745,000 downloads from its GitHub releases.
Same idea — devices that exist only in software. Very different plumbing.
Virtual Display Driver for Windows · Linux Virtual Display Driver
Nothing on the Mac needs SIP turned off; macOS asks you to approve each privileged piece.
Display, audio, camera, MIDI, network and storage share one dashboard and one activity log.
HDR, rotation, color depth and underscan aren't offered by the Mac app in this release.
Quit the app and they go away. The display's settings are saved, so Spawn Display brings the same canvas back.
Status — honestly
Build 26.9.6.1 is Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple and stapled. It was installed on PyroSoft's test Mac and each of the six available modules was exercised through the app itself. These are specific results from that Mac, not a compatibility promise.
| Latest build | 26.9.6.1 (build 29) — in testing, not yet available |
|---|---|
| Requires | macOS 14 or newer on an Apple Silicon Mac |
| Distribution | Direct download, outside the Mac App Store; Developer ID signed, notarized and stapled |
| First-run approvals | Move the app to /Applications. Approve the camera and network system extensions in System Settings, and the audio helper once. Microphone access is used only while an audio mix route is active. |
| Security settings | No SIP changes or reduced-security mode required |
Questions people actually ask
Not yet. Virtual Drivers for macOS is coming soon and there's no public download today. No release date or price has been announced; join the PyroSoft Discord to follow along.
No. No SIP changes or reduced-security mode are required. The camera and network modules are system extensions macOS asks you to approve in System Settings the first time (the app must be in /Applications). If macOS asks for a restart, restart before trying the device again.
The audio cables are Core Audio drivers installed system-wide, so setup uses a one-time macOS Service Management approval for a least-privilege helper. That helper can only install or remove the eight signed audio drivers bundled with the app, and it never stores or receives your administrator password. macOS may still ask for administrator approval during setup or updates.
No. Displays are session-scoped: they exist while the app is running and disappear when it quits. The app saves your display settings, so the same canvas is one Spawn Display away next time.
No. It creates an isolated packet interface with its own addresses, DNS, routes and MTU, for testing network-aware software. Packets routed into it are discarded rather than sent to a server, and broad routes or DNS changes can interrupt your normal connection.
Not in this release. It publishes generated color bars with a moving band that makes frozen frames easy to spot — useful for checking that an app can find and use a camera. Other live sources aren't part of this build.
No. It relies on private CoreGraphics classes that Apple doesn't document or guarantee, so compatibility can vary by Mac and macOS update. The app is distributed directly, not through the Mac App Store.
The Windows Virtual Display Driver is open source under the MIT licence. Virtual Drivers for macOS is a separate app, and its source isn't public.
Coming soon
Virtual Drivers for macOS isn't available to download yet. Follow along in the PyroSoft Discord — and if you need a virtual monitor on a Windows PC today, the Virtual Display Driver is ready now.