combine-video-frame-distribution

You can distribute real-time video frames to multiple subscribers in Swift by using a Combine PassthroughSubject to broadcast CVPixelBuffer frames, ensuring thread-safe and low-latency delivery across UI and encoding pipelines.

The best way to handle thread safety when broadcasting CVPixelBuffer frames in iOS is to use a thread-safe publisher like PassthroughSubject with proper threading via receive(on:) to safely deliver frames to multiple subscribers without duplicating work.

Yes, you can use Combine to feed a SwiftUI preview and an encoding pipeline simultaneously by registering multiple subscribers to a single CVPixelBuffer stream, enabling real-time cross-thread delivery without backpressure buffering.

Your video streaming pipeline drops frames when adding multiple subscribers because it lacks a multi-subscriber delivery mechanism; using a Combine PassthroughSubject avoids backpressure buffering and ensures low-latency distribution.

No, this video frame distribution approach does not support backpressure buffering; it is designed for real-time, low-latency delivery of CVPixelBuffer frames to multiple subscribers without duplicating work.

To set up a CameraManager to publish video frames using Combine, configure a PassthroughSubject to broadcast CVPixelBuffer frames and register your UI and encoding subscribers to consume the real-time stream safely.