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SpoutStereoServer

This program helps to render graphics for tiled QuadBuffered VR displays from programs that do not support opening QuadBuffered graphics windows. The approach is generate offscreen textures for the view seen by the left-eye and right-eye and then share these textures with this "stereo server" using the Spout API for GPU-enabled, inter-process texture sharing. This server program will run continuously in a minimized state until a new Spout stream becomes available at which point it maximizes itself to take over the screen and display the graphics. A config text file is used to define the size of the graphics window, number of tiles, resolution, and other options. Mouse and keyboard input from the server window can optionally be sent to the application generating the graphics over a MinVR3 Event Connection.

Install for UMN Cave / required files

Open Git bash shell

cd /c/V/dev/SpoutStereoServer
source install.sh

To run, the .exe is needed along with a config file (e.g., see spout-stereo-config-umncave.txt) and the file of font sprites used by the app CourierNew-32.spritefont.

Running for UMN Cave / in general

Double-click SpoutStereoServer-UMNCave.bat

In general, run the exe and specify the config file to load on the command line with a -f flag, e.g.,

SpoutStereoServer.exe -f spout-stereo-config-umncave.txt

Expected Behavior and Keyboard Commands

  • The app will start minimized.
  • It will automatically un-minimize itself when it detects that it can receive a texture from a spout sender.
  • When no senders are active, it will re-minimize itself to get out of your way.
  • Pressing the / key (same as the ?) will minimizes the window even while spout senders are active so you can see your Unity Editor or other important windows while the app is running.
  • All other mouse and keyboard input can be sent to apps over a network connection using the MinVR3 VREventConnection functionality.

Conventions for the UMN Cave

  • For Unity, use MinVR3-UnityPackage and install the MinVR3Plugin-Spout.
  • Select from the menu GameObject -> MinVR3 -> VRConfigs -> VRConfig_UMNCave
  • This will actually install multiple VRConfigs.
    • VRConfig_UMNCave_SingleProcess can run directly from the Unity editor. Your Unity app will share 8 textures with the SpoutStereoServer!
    • VRConfig_UMNCave_Server_LeftWall and VRConfig_UMNCave_Client_[otherwalls] can be used to drive the Cave in a cluster mode. This can double the framerate, but it achieves that by running four copies of your application simultaneously, which means that you need to do a Build of your app and then use the RunCave.bat file that is created to launch those four processes. In this case, each of the four processes will share two textures over spout for the total of 8 textures.