Unity Player in Resolume

What is this?

UnityPlayerExample is an example project showcasing my Unity player for Resolume. It consists of a library of classes that let you create controls for your Unity projects and a plugin to display your projects and control these parameters live in Resolume. Although the example project uses Spout and OSC to communicate between Resolume and your Unity project, it's all automated. Aside from using the parameter classes, no additional setup is required.

How to get the example project up and running:

From the Assets/Hybrid/Software folder, run HybridLedgerSetup.exe. This will install the HybridLedger system tray app and the FFGLHybridUnityPlayer.dll in Resolume's effects folder. HybridLedger is started whenever you use the plugin in Resolume and handles the communication between multiple instances of the plugin and multiple Unity executables. It runs in the background and doesn't need any setup. If you want, you can open it from the system tray to…

What is this?

How to get the example project up and running:

From the Assets/Hybrid/Software folder, run HybridLedgerSetup.exe. This will install the HybridLedger system tray app and the FFGLHybridUnityPlayer.dll in Resolume's effects folder. HybridLedger is started whenever you use the plugin in Resolume and handles the communication between multiple instances of the plugin and multiple Unity executables. It runs in the background and doesn't need any setup. If you want, you can open it from the system tray to get feedback on what is happening under the hood.

Build the Unity project, making sure the build folder is set to Desktop/Build. Let the scene run once as a fullscreen standalone build. This will ensure that the plugin knows what parameters to display. Once the build has run, you can close it.

Launch the plugin from Resolume's sources. After a few seconds, the output from your scene will be visible.

How to use the library with your own project:

Copy the Hybrid and Plugin folders to the Assets folder of your own project. If you prefer, you can also install KlakSpout and extOSC from source instead.

From the Assets/Hybrid/ResoLink folder, apply the ResoLinkSetup.cs script anywhere in your Unity scene. This script does all the setup for running your project in windowless mode and communcating with the plugin.

From the Assets/Hybrid/Param folder, create your interaction using the Param class. The different Param types can be created like you would a regular primitive variable, ie your script would use public ParamFloat myFloat; instead of public float myFloat;. You can then use either myFloat.GetValue() in Unity's Update call, or you can assign a UnityEvent method to be triggered via the inspector under the Advanced options.

Resolume will recognise ParamFloat as an unranged int, ParamRange as a ranged float, ParamEvent as an event button, ParamBool as a toggle and ParamColor as a color.

Build your project, again making sure the build folder is set to Desktop/Build. After running once, the plugin will then control the new project.

What about running different Unity projects side by side?

This is entirely possible and the Ledger app is ready for it. However, it requires the plugin to be recompiled with a new unique identifier and the location of the new project. This is relatively simple to do, but does require access to the plugin source code. If this is something you are really interested in, get in touch with me.

Why is this open source?

I was very excited about the possibilities of realtime 3D performance in Resolume and I think that Unity has the quality we should expect in 2021. However, after a lot of testing, trying and thinking, I've realised that Resolume is not the right environment for how I'd like to perform in realtime. The exact how and why goes beyond the scope of this readme, but Resolume, although still great for video, is a dead end for me here and I'm going to focus my energy on making my vision work some other way. However, I completely understand this stuff is still lots of fun and opens up possiblities other than my specific style of VJ'ing, so I'm sharing my progress with the community.