Unofficial DMX in Unreal MegaThread. 4.26+

[raginrenz]

First of all, thank you for making this plugin! When I saw the announcement of the Featured Content page my heart skipped a little. I am really interested in the pixel mapping tools provided in the plugin; I'm trying to make some big custom LED walls, and a Unreal input changes the game in terms of possibilities. Since there is no real documentation for the pixel mapping portion yet, I tried to fix something myself, but to no avail.

I tried to add a DMXPixelMappingFixtureGroupComponent and Matrix component (via the add blueprint class) and then link them with the DMXLibrary within the blueprint menu, but then Unreal instantly crashes instantly with this error message:

Assertion failed: LibraryNameWidget.IsValid() File:/Build/++UE4/Sync/Engine/Plugins/Experimental/DigitalMultiplex/DMXPixelMapping/Source/DMXPixelMappingRuntime/Private/Components/DMXPixelMappingFixtureGroupComponent.cpp] [Line: 49]

I don't know if it's a bug or that I am completely approaching it the wrong way, but this is as far as I got!
Would be great if somebody could share some insights.

Edit: Well, I did it completely wrong. Did not except that the 10 December livestream would also go into detail of the pixelmapping part of the plugin. So anyone who wants to use it, it is the best documentation of it so far! Got my first 100 LEDs over internet and a teensy 4.0 working. Unreal pixel mapped Christmas tree coming soon!

[Pixel_Epix]

Glad you were able to get it going. I want to see this pixel mapped tree!

[Van Ta]

Made a #virtualstage controlled vid dmx
Thanks a lo for this fantastic feature!!!!

[frostic]

Next week Dec. 10 on Twitch livestream. 2pm EST.
https://www.twitch.tv/unrealengine

where can we get the project that has this light show setup in it? i love it so much.

[JimJam182]

Hi is there going to be in future updates the possiblity to update the dmx library at runtime or is it possible now
thank you

[Cyberke202]

Hi,

Tested it today with MagicQ, all was clear except when going into Play mode it is very slow responsive when I change settings (color, dimmer, pan,...) on MagicQ, could this be due to fact that I'm running both applications on the same computer (don't have a second computer for the moment!)

Be sure you set your MagicQ Universe, to visualiser ART/Sacn same PC, if you take another for example Capture the MagicQ becomes very slow, het everything works very fine and fast with correct settings

[Cyberke202]

Does anyone know how to trigger a Niagara FX ( from Realistic Starter VFX Pack Niagara ) with DMX like there is a dimmer channel controlling the start and stop of the fx, Thank you very much I was able to find a solution myself, just took a copy of the Pyro BP en changed the Niagara fx to what I wanted, now everything working like i wished

[Jake_Whitt]

Hi there,

Does anyone from the development team know if the GrandMA3 Viz-Key is something that may be supported in the future? It would be an enormous step toward Unreal being a go-to for pre-vis for professionals in the industry.

https://www.malighting.com/product/g...z-key-4023576/

Thank you for developing this plugin, exciting stuff!

[th3thrilld3m0n]

I am thoroughly enjoying messing around with the DMX components and the tutorial is excellent. I have been able to sift through my issues and am now working on properly implementing DMX heads. I noticed that there is no prism function, so would this be more equivalent to number of beams, or something else? In addition, the moving head I was working with has a channel for gobo selection & shake, gobo wheel, and gobo spin. When I mapped these, I don't think they worked correctly. Nor did mapping the colors work. I was testing the Elation Artiste Mondrian, which uses CMY, CTO, and RGB. In addition, I do not see a function for CTO adjustment (color temp).

[kozakboys]

Hi. I believe I have found a bug within UE4 DMX/Artnet setup. I am trying to get an ArtNet broadcast from Soundswitch (running on a macbook pro laptop) into UE4 running on a PC. I have successfully done this by using Soundswitch on the PC (same CPU as UE4.) The bug comes in here; I can actually get DMX data to show up within the UE4 project DMX monitor, from Soundswitch running on the MBP, and it follows DMX changes correctly, however when I press play the DMX data does not trigger the internal lights. If I use Soundswitch from the PC, data shows up correctly and lights work as well. Am I missing something here? Thanks. fairly new to UE so maybe I'm missing a setup feature within blueprints, etc.

[scaredy_stefan]

hi,

i came across this plugin today, had to download Unreal right away!

But there are som questions in my mind:

*) Is there a way to get a second gobo wheel on a fixture?
*) Are prisms planned?

Thanks!
Stefan

[Pixel_Epix]

It's possible to do these things, but these are really rendering/graphics/material questions and less about DMX itself. If you want to dig into the master material for the beam shader, you can certainly add in whatever things you would like to see.

[Kaleidoscobia]

Hi. I believe I have found a bug within UE4 DMX/Artnet setup. I am trying to get an ArtNet broadcast from Soundswitch (running on a macbook pro laptop) into UE4 running on a PC. I have successfully done this by using Soundswitch on the PC (same CPU as UE4.) The bug comes in here; I can actually get DMX data to show up within the UE4 project DMX monitor, from Soundswitch running on the MBP, and it follows DMX changes correctly, however when I press play the DMX data does not trigger the internal lights. If I use Soundswitch from the PC, data shows up correctly and lights work as well. Am I missing something here? Thanks. fairly new to UE so maybe I'm missing a setup feature within blueprints, etc.

Heyo,
I experienced the same issue:
SoundSwitch seems to send ArtNET on Universe 0 and 1, but the ArtNET-Plugin in UE4 receive only above 0. It's a counting issue from the developers I think. Try to send ArtNET in Universe 2 with SoundSwitch, that should work.
How do you get a connection between SoundSwitch and UE4? I have to use external programs like DMX Control3, because SoundSwitch only sends Unicast and UE4 receives only Broadcast so far.
Greetings Tim

[YitaiArts]

Hello
A question about the Take Recorder. It seems that recording an artnet stream of more than 3 universes causes problems, perhaps because it seems to be writting for all fixtures separately.
Is there a way to set this, or to import artnet data into Unreal Engine and have it played by the sequencer without passing by the take recorder ?
This could be of importance for all kind of big scale projects, such as architectural lighting.
++

[Pixel_Epix]

There were some performance fixes for recording in take recorder that are going into 4.26.1 and I was able to record 20+ universes at a stable framerate but it all depends on what is rendering in the scene as well. You can technically still record with a completely empty level for more performance. You can import data into sequencer tracks if you desire as well.

[th3thrilld3m0n]

I am having trouble getting the pyro/sparkler, strobes, and lasers to respond in UE. What fixtures are these based off of or what is the setup for those in the DMX controller? i.e. parameters and settings for the channels

[OGormanLVS]

So in reference to everyone trying to get custom gobos working, the gobo tables is just a value reference, changing the linked file does nothing sadly...
The way UE4 does it is the whole wheel is one long thin strip and then there are pre-determined points for it to snap to along the 'ribbon' so the way to change it is if you open up the blueprint for your moving light, then go to the GoboWheel_Component and at the bottom of the details panel on the right, open up DMX Gobo Wheel and double click on the Clean Disk image, it'll show you your 'wheel'. What you then need to do is find it in the content browser, download it and either edit it or upload an identically sized image, making sure that you keep each gobo the EXACT same size as they will overlap otherwise, then you need to create a blurry version of that ribbon and put that into the Frosted Disk slot.
If you need to know the size of the image, unreal will tell you when you double click on it in the blueprint editor.

Be careful though that if you change the empty slot, you won't have an empty slot (easy to do with the likes of Vipers and BMFLs etc)

Good Luck!