Desktop UI - Layer Types for Integration

Apart from WebViews, the most common layer types used for integration with other applications are Spout and NDI.

Tutorial Video

Creating a Spout Layer

Spout is a texture sharing toolkit (https://spout.zeal.co/ ) and enables applications to acts as Spout senders and receivers. The toolkit works locally and both the senders and receivers must be using the same graphics card (GPU).

Press the Add Content button and select New > Spout.

This creates a new layer which acts as a Spout receiver.

The layer properties on the right hand side displays a dropdown list of currently available Spout senders.

The Spout toolkit contains a demo SpoutSender.exe program which creates a sender called Spout DX11 Sender. Run this program and select the demo sender. This will appear as a rotating cube in the workspace as shown below. The Spout layer type enables any application which acts as a Spout sender to be integrated with ICE.

Creating an NDI Layer

Network Device Interface (NDI) is a protocol developed by Newtek for network transmission of video and audio ( https://ndi.tv/about-ndi/ ). The NDI Toolkit and API enables applications to act as senders and receivers across the network.

Press the Add Content button and select New > NDI .

This will create a new layer to act as an NDI receiver.

The NDI Toolkit includes an application called Screen Capture. This will create NDI senders of your local monitor displays. Run this application and select one of the monitors in the dropdown list of NDI senders in the layer properties.

TIP: NDI screen capture apps are available for iOS and Android phones and provide a good method for integrating your phone display or camera with the Igloo canvas.

Next Section: Desktop UI - Setting up a Game Engine Layer