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If you are wanting to do lighting the traditional way with software such as grandMA2, you will want to use a “Dummy Rig” of the venue you are performing at.
Ask the venue owner for this, or see if it is publicly available!
More info about making a Dummy Rig for your venue is available in VRSL DMX: Lighting Your World.
Using a Dummy Rig
These steps will guide you through the process of using an already prepared Dummy Rig.
Since the 9-Universe Update, a newer, now recommended, alternative to uDesktopDuplication has been implemented to allow for direct OSC input instead of needing a full screen. Be sure you know what your dummy rig is using!
0. Have a Dummy Rig
Have a Unity 2019.4 Project with VRSL installed and light fixtures placed and patched. This can either be a world of your own creation or a dummy rig provided by another venue owner.
If you don't have one, but want to go ahead and jump straight into controlling lights, the
VRStageLighting-ExampleScene-DMX-DesktopViewerExample*.unity scenes in Assets/VRStageLighting/ExampleScenes are provided so you can do just that.
1. Setup in your software
Open your Artnet compatible software of choice. Add and Patch the fixtures in the world according to their specs.
2. Launch the Gridnode
Run VRStageLightingGridNode.exe and ensure it's correctly connected to your DMX software. Make sure it is correctly configured for Vertical, Horizontal, or Legacy mode as well. If your dummy rig is using TekOSC, check the box next to Enable OSC Output.
If your Dummy Rig us using an OSC reader, then you are done here! You should be good to go to start controlling fixtures.
3. Setup OBS (uDesktop ONLY)
Open OBS and create a new Scene with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Add a new window capture source and set “VRStageLightingGridNode.exe” as the source.
If the full grid isn’t showing, set the capture method to this:
If needed, resize the grid to fit the entire height of the scene. The resolution of the grid is 208 x 1080px, so ensure that the ratio of the scaling isn’t changed (I.E. the width and height must scale evenly.) No scaling should be required if the scene is already 1920x1080, however, the screen the grid is running on could influence the size OBS detects from the source.
(NOTE: Due to limitations, the grid will pause updates while minimized, so ensure that the grid is not minimized. The grid can work while behind another window however.) Add the source in the correct position for your dummy rig's DMX form factor.
Lock the source and ensure any other sources place go under the node's source so it is not blocked. Bring the scene into full screen preview on a separate monitor.
4. Setup Unity (uDesktop ONLY)
Go back to Unity, and ensure that both the game tab and scene tab are visible at the same time in a similar manner as shown below as this is only to ensure that uDesktop will update properly
Begin playing the project. Go to the “Texture” script on the screen mesh and under the “Monitor” section, and select the monitor that is currently full screen previewing your OBS scene.
If the image is in the wrong orientation, click on the screen mesh object and go to the “Texture” script and hit one of these options:
You should now see your OBS preview inside of unity on the screen. The lights will react accordingly depending on what the last DMX output was.
Finished
Congrats, you are ready to go! From here, you can start working on your project in whatever DMX compatible software/hardware of your choice!
This method enables you to see the changes in Unity in real time, and how it would reflect inside of VRChat. You can also use the Dummy Rig when it comes time to stream to know how the lights are behaving for viewers without having to be inside VRChat, or deal with latency.
If you wish to change some settings about the fixtures at runtime, such as sector or pan/tilt inversion, go ahead and make the changes to the settings you want on your fixture in the Udon inspector, then hit this button:
Note: The changes made after hitting this button won’t save once you exit play mode. You’ll have to make the changes when not in play mode, then re-enter playmode once you want to save them.
Getting Started
VRSL AudioLink
- Start Here
- Initial Setup
- Setting Up Fixtures
- Controlling/Animating Fixtures
- Controlling/Animating Fixtures Pt2
VRSL DMX
- Start Here
- Using the Gridnode
- TekOSC, DesktopDupe and Dummy Rigs
- Your First Stream
- Lighting Your World
- DMX via Audio
- Creating Custom DMX Shaders