Ok, so I have done a search, and the only solution seems to be to hardware oriented.

Is there not another way to retrieve information from multiple webcams simultaneously?

As of now I am trying the laptop cam and an external cam...

As expected, only the laptop cam is detected as I switch that patch on first.

@lovelovevideo It depends whether the OS reports the second webcam, and whether Gem has the correct backend to read its input. On my MacBook the built-in FaceTime camera is not recognised and crashes Pd unless it is correctly initiated as Gem starts..... which adds to the difficulty building a patch.
If you download "Extended View"...... http://www.marianweger.com/projects/extended.shtml from....... https://github.com/extendedview/extended_view_toolkit then you might have a better chance getting the second webcam to work. It is designed to work with Vanilla though...... so you need to get Gem working with Vanilla or many abstractions will fail.

Opening 03b_ev_example_360_degree_livecam.pd from "extview" will make my FaceTime camera work. One day I might find the time to figure out why..... as that is the only patch that succeeds!..... and only using Gem 0.94-test3......https://github.com/avilleret/Gem/releases/...... with Vanilla 64-bit on Windows7.

Getting the dimensions correct for the cam output helps as well.........
Try this...... twin_cam.pd and report back...

Do get "extview" anyway, even with only half of it working (in Extended) you will absolutely love it.
David.

@whale-av Cheeeeeerrs....thanks so much for your response. This is for the installation I've been patching in extended, so vanilla would be a no-go unfortunately.....I'll check this stuff and report back:)

@whale-av finally got a chance to try twin_cam.pd

I don't understand how but it is working as I`m writing this, I haven't even tried the extended view yet, I had to change a couple things and play around a biit and then finally it worked!!

@lovelovevideo That is great!
Make sure you remember what you did, and I hope it will then work when you start it again.....
David.

@whale-av thxx for that(reminder)

i just tried it again, worked with no probs

eventually i'd like to get like 5 cams around the room working