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Disguise User Guide
⚠️ In r30.0.1 and r30.0.2, RS streams cannot be received on Actor machines. Please revert your Designer version to r30.0 as the current workaround. This has been fixed in the next release.
Reminder: You can freely move a project from r30.0.1 and r30.0.2 to r30.0 without consequence.

RenderStream Overview

RenderStream is the proprietary Disguise protocol for controlling third party render engines from Designer.

RenderStream allows for the sequencing and sharing of content from a third party render engine to Designer, much like how Notch works onboard a gx, albeit running on the rx, our proprietary external render node.

This topic is intended to outline the basic steps involved in configuring RenderStream for use with Unreal Engine, Unity and Notch. Once the configuration steps explained here are complete, sequencing of the third party render engine can be accomplished via the RenderStream Layer within Designer software.

RenderStream explained

Render nodes can be used to scale content endlessly - rendering them across different surfaces including projection canvases and LED screens.

Uncompressed vs. Compressed

RenderStream Uncompressed requires the use of a 25G Mellanox network interface to stream uncompressed, 10bit video data. To test RenderStream Uncompressed appropriately, access to multiple machines and the networking equipment specified is required. Testing RenderStream Uncompressed also requires both a RenderStream Send License and a RenderStream Uncompressed License.

RenderStream Compressed provides consistent content quality with advanced H.265 compression. You can now choose high frequency compression, and ensure that even the finest details of your content are shown via our superior, reliable networking.

RenderStream Assets

RenderStream assets are the files that are used to create the content that is rendered by the render nodes. These assets can be created in Unreal Engine, Unity, Notch, TouchDesigner, and other third-party render engines integrated via the RenderStream SDK.

Assets are stored in a specific location on the render node, by default this is the D:\Renderstream Projects folder on Disguise Hardware and C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\Renderstream Projects otherwise. This path is defined by a registry key, Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\d3 Technologies\d3 Production Suite\RenderStream Projects Folder. The path can be changed by modifying the registry key. The change will be automatically detected and the new path will be scanned for assets.

Assets are discovered automatically by d3service, which watches the RenderStream projects folder path for changes, and are shared via the network. Any Designer instance, connected to the same network will be able to select the asset.

Engine Support

Disguise provides first-party support for Unreal Engine, Unity and Notch with RenderStream. In order to communicate with Disguise, both Unreal Engine and Unity require the installation of a plugin on the render node. Visit the Disguise GitHub for the latest plugins. Other engines, such as TouchDesigner and Volinga, are maintained by their developers. RenderStream is open source for developers to implement their own support - take a look at Extending RenderStream to learn about making your own implementation of RenderStream for custom engines.

Cluster Rendering

Here are just some of the benefits of using :

  1. Cluster Rendering allows you to span your render engine content over more than one Disguise server by scaling out real-time content up to an unlimited capacity.
  2. Each machine will let you render a fragment of your final content frame to increase the render power and get your content onto your displays at your desired quality.
  3. Use Cluster Renderingto render real-time content of the highest quality, detail and framerate without worrying about GPU power.

Cluster Rendering is configured within Disguise Designer using the RenderStream Layer.

Further Reading

Read the Disguise Whitepaper to learn more about how the Disguise architecture words with RenderStream.