Disclaimer

Virtual Production is a complex topic. It is mandatory to understand the basic setup to be able to advance to the advanced techniques.

Here is a list of the essential VP related documentation for running PIXERA, with Unreal being Display Facing, in chronological order:

XR System Design 

Unreal 5.2.1 Tips and Tricks (Performance and Testing) 

PIXERA Texture Sharing to Unreal 

Introduction

In this article, we will point out the steps and articles to look into for how to set up a PIXERA to Unreal nDisplay workflow. This involves:

1. Unreal nDisplay Switchboard setup (Unreal Article).
2. Interop setup (This Article)
3. PIXERA sending textures to Unreal as a “Sidecar” software (Pixera Article).
4. Using Control to send data to the Unreal project being run, making PIXERA a control interface for the project (Pixera Articles).

This article will not be going into detail on how to set up Unreal nDisplay running via Switchboard. It instead is to act as a first article to then setup the workflow using the following referenced articles.

For an example of the workflow being used, here is a link to a YouTube video put together by the PIXERA team of a Sidecar Demo event held in our Santa Monica Office: PIXERA Unreal Sidecar Demonstration - YouTube

Unreal nDisplay Switchboard Setup

First Unreal running via nDisplay using Switchboard must be setup with whatever project you are aiming to use. Here is an article going over this workflow: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/rendering-to-multiple-displays-with-ndisplay-in-unreal-engine

PIXERA Interop Setup

The Interop is an important part of the Unreal workflow, as it is required for textures to be shared to Unreal from PIXERA.

Download the PIXERA Interop from here: Downloads (PIXERA.one)

Select correct root path. This is the same path as the Unreal Engine installation.

From here follow this article for setting up Texture Sharing to Unreal, the steps are the same for running Unreal natively or inside PIXERA: PIXERA Texture Sharing to Unreal

 

Data From PIXERA Control to Unreal

Control in PIXERA can be used to communicate to other software using basic protocols. In the case of Unreal, multiple plugins exist for various protocols that can allow sending and receiving of data to blueprints.

In this article we are focusing on OSC as the OSC plug-in is straightforward in its use.

As already mentioned, this article will not go into deep detail on how to set up OSC in Unreal, for this information please follow this detailed article on the OSC plug-in: https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/osc-plugin-overview-for-unreal-engine

On the PIXERA end, you have two options on how to send or receive OSC to/from Unreal:

1.  OSC Module:
   1. The base OSC Module can be used for simple receiving of one path of data at a time, as well as sending data, with this being its main usage. Here is an article going over its use: https://help.pixera.one/en_US/osc_module
2. DirectNetworkOSC Module:
   1. A more performant OSC Module that only allows receiving multiple paths of data at once. This Module however, cannot send out any data. Here is an article going over its use: https://help.pixera.one/en_US/direct-network-osc_module

It is recommended to use both of these Modules for the most organized setup, with the OSC Module handling sending data to Unreal and the DirectNetworkOSC Module being used to receive data from Unreal. With PIXERA's open API, a variety of workflows can be made depending on what your setup needs.

For more information on how to use Control and set up a network of nodes to get and set data, please refer to this section of articles:
https://help.pixera.one/control