HNode

Open source Artnet DMX to video grid node renderer, built in unity 6, created for maximum data standard flexibility

Features

• Optional manual change of ArtNet Address/Port
• Spout2 output as serializer
• Spout2 input as deserializer
• Many generators
• MIDIDMX
• Nerdy statistics
• Support for VRSL, Binary Stage Flight and others

Install

Get recent version of HNode in releases tab

Usage

There are a few ways you can use HNode to run lights in world:

HNode with OBS

Setting up HNode to work with OBS Studio

OBS Studio is a free-to-use software avaliable at GitHub or Steam.

1. You have to get plugin Spout2 for OBS
2. Add Spout2 Capture source
3. Set field SpoutSenders to HNode Output or the one you set in HNode application
4. Set Composite mode to Default to allow transparancy from HNode
   • Also you can (but not required):
     • hold LeftAlt and Left Mouse Button to crop unused part of Spout2 Capture, just don't over do it.
     • Also you can Right Click on it Transform > Edit and set Crop values from there.

So now we have HNode that outputs texture into OBS, but how do we put this into VRC World or similar?

There are a few ways to do this:

• YouTube Live: High latency, possibly bad compression and okay bitrate
• Twitch: High latency, possibly bad compression and okay bitrate
• VRCDN: Low latency, okay compression and okay bitrate
• Other streaming service (Please check their ToS before doing anything)
• Local streaming (MediaMTX): Low latency, okay compression and good bitrate (depends on your hardware)

For an local-test example we'll go with MediaMTX

1. Get latest binary for your system from MediaMTX releases
2. Extract it in empty folder, run main file (on Windows it's mediamtx.exe)
3. Go to your OBS Studio settings > Stream
4. Set Service to Custom, Server: rtmp://localhost/

• tip: if you want to have a custom text after your base url, you can add any text you want (it needs to be in ASCII format), if you get any errors when you try to stream - you put something bad in there probably.

5. Go to Output > Streaming
6. Set things below:
   1. Streaming Settings:
      1. Audio Encoder: FFmpeg AAC
      2. Video Encoder: For NVIDIA: NVIDIA NVENC H.264. (This is mostly depends on how good your hardware is, with great CPU you can go with x264)
      3. Rescale Output: Disabled
   2. Encoder Settings:
      1. Rate Control: Constant Bitrate
      2. Bitrate 5000 Kbps or above for crazy visuals
      • only if you use Binary or Ternary gridnode, otherwise it is mostly not useful
      • And don't set it too low or too high or you'll experience issues like high stream delay, low FPS etc.
      3. Keyframe interval: 1s
      4. Preset: Slow (Good Quality)
      • You can set it higher if your hardware is way too good but not recomended in most cases
      5. Tuning: High Quality
      • You can try Ultra low latency but there's no guarantee that it'll be actually low latency since it may give you issues.
      6. Multipass Mode: Two Passes (Quarter Resolution)
      7. Profile: high
      8. Look-ahead: Off
      9. Adaptive Quantization (or Psycho-Visual Tuning): Off
      10. B-Frames: 2
7. Go to Output > Audio
8. Set on each track Audio Bitrate to 320

• If you experience audio issues, try lower values (192 works good on MediaMTX).

10. Go to Audio
11. Set things below:

• Sample Rate: 48 kHz
• Channels: Stereo

12. Go to Video and set things below:

• Base (Canvas) Resolution: 1920x1080
• Output (Scaled) Resolution: 1920x1080
• Common FPS Values: 30 (You can set higher but if your client has less frames, you will experience stream delays and other issues, but 30 is the most common around clubs)

13. Go to Advanced and set things below:

• Color Range: Full

This should be good to go, Apply your settings and try Start Streaming. Go to your world and put in video player url rtspt://localhost:8554/(anything you put in Stream key/Server)

HNode with MIDIDMX

VRC-MIDIDMX

Troubleshooting

1. I don't have any options in Spout2 Capture SpoutSenders

• You most likely need to restart your PC

2. Lights don't do anything when I run sequences in Lighting console

• Make sure you use correct gridnode for your world
• Check if you have put your gridnode in correct place according to your world

3. I have lights run in Lighting console but not in HNode

• Make sure you have ArtNet output set on correct address and port.

LICENSES

HNode

VRC-MIDIDMX

KlakSpout

DryWetMIDI

CrcSharp

YamlDotNet

Graphy