1
Projector Simulator
White Games
White Games
2
Table of Contents
Table of Contents...................................................................................................................................2
Overview................................................................................................................................................3
Release Notes........................................................................................................................................4
How to use.............................................................................................................................................7
Getting started.................................................................................................................................7
Positioning the image.......................................................................................................................7
Projecting content............................................................................................................................9
Shader-based method properties...................................................................................................11
Image Import Settings.........................................................................................................................12
1.4 Shader Method import settings................................................................................................12
Quasi-video (precalculated video effect with ImageProjector)...........................................................15
Loading multiple images into the projector.........................................................................................16
Playback Control..................................................................................................................................17
Synchronising projected content with an audio track.........................................................................18
Projecting a video file or RenderTexture.............................................................................................19
Known Issues/Troubleshooting...........................................................................................................21
White Games
3
Overview
Projector Simulator is a Unity package which allows you to project any video, image, or series of
images, in colour. It also simulates off-axis projection (lens shift) to create realistic shadowing effects
and allowing projectors to be placed, for example, on a ceiling or table offset from the centre of the
image.
White Games
4
Release Notes
V1.52
• Rewrote shader processing method
◦ Shader method now supported from 2017.4 (previously 2018.3)
◦ Shader method previously relied on a Graphics.CopyTexture call which is not supported
on all platforms.
◦ Now uses a custom single-pass shader which should improve performance and be
supported on more platforms (e.g. WebGL)
◦ “Border size” setting removed as no longer required with custom shader
◦ Removed restrictions on Image and RenderTexture format requirements under the
Shader method.
V1.51
• Minor bugfix in initial light colour in Unity versions prior to 2018.3.
V1.5
• Added support for HDRP (2018.4 and later)
◦ HDRP package is included as a .unitypackage
◦ Legacy processing method has been removed under HDRP, meaning keystone
adjustment is no longer possible until it is added to the shader method
V1.42
• Minor bugfixes
V1.41
• Improved performance when projecting multiple RenderTextures simultaneously with the
new Shader method (tested with 8 projectors)
V1.4
• Implemented new shader-based method, massively improving both performance and quality
◦ Keystoning is not yet supported under this new method. Keystoning can still be used,
but the projector will drop down to the “legacy” pre-1.4 pixel-by-pixel CPU-based
method
◦ You can also choose to force the legacy method to be used should you see any problems
with the shader-based method
V1.33
• Made RenderTextureProjectors and VideoProjectors aware of each other's processing, so
two projectors will not be processed in the same update in order to maintain a steady
framerate.
White Games
5
Note: this functionality was removed in 1.41 from the shader method, which is fast
enough to render multiple projected images in a single frame. The following still applies to
the Legacy method.
◦ If a projector has already processed this frame, then any other projectors will wait for
the next frame, and so on.
◦ If you still experience frame rate issues with multiple projectors, you may need to
reduce the projector's framerate (increase the image interval) to allow enough frames
for all projectors to process before the first needs to update again.
V1.32
• Added light path geometry for simulating volumetric light
• Custom materials can be applied to the light paths
• Light paths do not currently take keystoning into account
V1.31
• Fixed a minor bug that prevented the new prefabs from working with default values
• Renamed the original “Projector” prefab to “ImageProjector” to be more in keeping with the
new prefabs' naming conventions
V1.3
• Added ProjectorSim_RenderTexture script. This new type of projector is able to project
RenderTextures (and by extension, video files) instantaneously, removing the need to
manually extract a video's frames.
• Added RenderTextureProjector and VideoProjector prefabs
V1.23
• Added script to synchronise projected frames with an audio track (projected content will
only progress when audio clip is playing - audio clip and projected content will have same
length – see https://youtu.be/a1bsCE3JCPM)
V1.22
• Reduced cookie generation time by 10-30% depending on projector resolution/colour
mode/number of images
• Memory optimisations
V1.21
• Added “Range” setting, as previously a projector's range was fixed at 10
• Increased default projector range to 20 instead of 10
V1.2
• Added keystone adjustment sliders
• Optimised generation of images after the first image in a projector (subsequent images now
use the first image as a starting point)
White Games
