Video Material

[trey.coursey]

Is there a good way to include video in a material?  Want to have a video screen inside my world.  I've been told that using an OGV with some coding is a possibility but don't get around code much.  Would really like some sort of plugin or custom shader that you could just point to the video file and walah!  

If you don't know of a way but would want a way, please reply so a new feature could be considered.  Thanks.

[silent]

Hi Trey,

Is there any specific requirements for this feature? At which objects do you need to play video (meshes, billboards, ...)? I would like to add this feature to our internal list for the future updates.

Thanks!

[trey.coursey]

I'm not sure I know enough to answer that question at the moment.  But I will say in general terms what I'd like to see, and I'm sure other artists would enjoy as well.

If I import an object/mesh that has a material on it that is suppose to be a movie screen.  It would be great to be able to drag an OGV (if it needs to be) or MP4 file onto the image map property.  That then might recognize that it's a video file and may give some more options to the user.  Say LOOP or PAUSE a the end.

If it could be that simple it would be fantastic! 

[silent]

Hi Trey,

Thanks for the description, that would be enough for now :)

[werner.poetzelberger]

Is this possible by now?

A video playback as a texture? I need that as well.

It would be amazing, to have the possibility to use movies as textures in general.

Not only in a mesh material, also for a light or a decal, normal maps etc. just treat it as an image file.

The possibility to stream/play a texture via a server e.g. youtube or as well to get a stream from a local camera would be great.

We had these features already with dircetX 9 (but in a different engine).

 

Iam just thinking loud, ... 

if you can use a media texture to simulate monitors, tv, etc. it would be cool to simulate Projectors as well.

So e.g. use a video on a decal or light to project it onto 'screen' or walls or geometry.

So when thinking about implementing the possibility of a 'streaming' media rather than only a static image, it would be very useful not to limit it to a single purpose.

 

Thx.

Werner

 

Edited October 13, 2018 by werner.poetzelberger

[richard.boisvert]

Hi there, I also have need for support of "movie textures".

[binstream]

What video formats are of the highest priorities here?

We are thinking about replacing the very outdated Ogg Theora codec soon, looking for alternatives (may be VP9 by Google).

[richard.boisvert]

The tools I have used in the past would simply convert a common file type, such as uncompressed .avi, into a file format best suited for the engine.

For example: I have an uncompressed .avi file that I import into Unigine. Unigine then could have an import settings dialog window where the user specifies the amount of compression, and video settings. Upon import the movie file is ideally compressed down to a reasonable level for playback on textures.

[rohit.gonsalves]

Seems Interesting... As my product deals with Virtual studio for newsrooms at this moment. It is a die for feature for us.

As consumer and broadcast level heavily depend on mp4 with H.264 and for 4K, h.265 or HEVC encording, the feature of embedding support for this would be appreciated.

By the way we are using Windows Media Framework APIs right now to decode mp4 H.264 media and we generate texture on GPU which can be mapped to any of the surface materials easily. You can seriously try samples from FFMPEG too to support such small requirements.

We are planning to shift to Media looks API soon for various media formats and Broadcast specific containers.

I will see if we can showcase such plugin here with Windows Media Foundation for H.264. So normally most of the mp4 will be covered.

The only limitation would be windows as we will use Windows specific framework. Another most important thing is frame rate. We have media and Video incorporated into Unigine. But when such things are attached we need to fix the frame rate of Unigine rendering. When we output to TV using Video I/O card. for 1080p50 we restrict engine FPS to 50; for 1080p60 or UHDp60 we restrict engine FPS to 60. Otherwise media frame rates manipulation are hard.

Rohit

Edited December 25, 2019 by rohit.gonsalves
Additional Information

[angus]

On 12/21/2019 at 11:41 AM, binstream said:

What video formats are of the highest priorities here?

We are thinking about replacing the very outdated Ogg Theora codec soon, looking for alternatives (may be VP9 by Google).

A bridge to LibAV/FFMPEG would be perfect, because you'd inherit all the deep functionality of their decoders and media handlers.

[silent]

Yep, LibAV looks like a right choice for the video backend (at least if would be much faster than current theora codec). We have internal media framework refactoring in the plans for the next versions.

[tamas.nemeth]

Any news on this?

[morbid]

Hello, video material is still in a development queue. By now we've finished a small research. Now the feature is scheduled for 2.13+.

Thanks.

[tamas.nemeth]

That would be awesome. Thanks for the update.

[Sir_Vad]

Any news on this?

[bmyagkov]

On 6/23/2021 at 9:02 PM, Sir_Vad said:

Any news on this?

Hello!

We did a R&D work, but it turned out that the implementation of this functionality will take much more resources than we expect.

So, we are still planning to use the ongoing research and add this feature in some of future SDK versions, but so far we are moving in accordance with the approved road map and can't provide any ETA right now, sorry.

Thanks!

[rohit.gonsalves]

Dear Community,

If Video Material is a need for the community we can make such thing as we have some things ready for it. 

We can successfully render YUV8 space; mp4, avi, mov with H.264. Which are the most common encoding with common containers.

Fingers Crossed.

Rohit

[Sir_Vad]

22 hours ago, rohit.gonsalves said:

If Video Material is a need for the community we can make such thing as we have some things ready for it. 

We can successfully render YUV8 space; mp4, avi, mov with H.264. Which are the most common encoding with common containers.

That's will be great !!!