[ANN] myu Max-Unity Interoperability Toolkit v.1.0 Released

[slipstream]

It is my great pleasure to announce immediate availability of the μ [myu] Max-Unity Interoperability Toolkit version 1.0. μ [myu] is designed to simplify communication between the Max/MSP/Jitter http://www.cycling74.com and Unity3D http://www.unity3d.com rapid prototyping environments. Utilizing the TCP network packets, μ [myu] allows for easy bi-directional control of Unity3D and Max/MSP/Jitter assets, as well as importing of dynamic Jitter textures into Unity3D scene. Apart from the Jitter-specific texture communication protocol, μ [myu] relies upon the netsend/netreceive framework, thus making it also compatible with Pure-Data http://www.pure-data.info.

Max/Msp/Jitter and Unity3D logos are trademarks of their respective owners.

WHY μ?
Max/MSP/Jitter and Pure-Data offer unprecedented flexibility in digital signal processing, particularly audio, as well as easy integration of external controllers and sensors, video, and 3D assets, while Unity3D is an advanced scalable and optimized 3D gaming engine with integrated intuitive scene editor and physics engine. By coupling their strengths μ [myu] aims to expand their rapid prototyping potential with minimal integration overhead.

μ [myu] was developed at DISIS http://disis.music.vt.edu and is available for download from the DISIS website http://disis.music.vt.edu/main/portfolio.html

For a YouTube tech demo please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137huPA9sto
A high-resolution video available at http://disis.music.vt.edu/main/portfolio.html

COPYRIGHT
μ [myu] copyright DISIS 2008.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the version 3 of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

For additional info on the GNU General Public License see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

Questions, Comments, and PR Contacts: ico@vt.edu

[Yann]

BRAVISSIMO !!! You are opening us wiiiiiiide windows. Your demo is really thrilling. Just when I thought I had finished my working day... now I will think all the evening long about some new apps based on your toolkit !

[edit ] ...thanks a lot !

[edit #2] ...and it works perfectly ! I have just reproduced your entire demo, including the realtime webcam... added a "drag rigidbody" script to the camera, dimmed the cube's mass, set it to a bouncy physical material, added 2 extra walls to the room... and now I can move the cube with the realtime webcam texture, throw it everywhere... like we say in French, "c'est énorme" !

[slipstream]

Thank you very much for your kind words! Very glad to hear you found myu useful.

Best wishes,

Ico

[aNTeNNa trEE]

You're my new hero man, this looks absolutely fantastic! Finally, my 2 favorite applications combined. Communication between Max and Unity has been done before, but this is just awesome.

Now I just have to find the time to actually roll up my sleeves and dive in... the weekend can't get here fast enough

Ethan

[Edit] Link to other Max/Unity thread on the forum:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=5291

[Yann]

OK, today I made further successful experiments with this great tool : simply by lowering Jitter's webcam video texture size (down to 160 x 160 or 128 x 128) the live video feed can be sent over a local network (802.11n here) to another machine running the Unity app. This allows the cube's texture to update in realtime...

So, thanks to this toolkit, with a few clicks I could achieve my very first Unity "videochat" in full 3D !

Of course, real videochat will probably need image and audio compression/decompression + some other refinements to be useable on anything else than local network or ultra-fast Internet connection, but I guess we're approaching the Grail...

[slipstream]

Many thanks to all for your words of encouragement! They are much appreciated.

Regarding networked textures, we tested textures on a Gigabit LAN for up to 1024x1024 without a problem (although at the expense of considerable CPU overhead due to heavy TCP traffic). In that respect the WiFi is your bottleneck due to its limited bandwidth when compared to wired LAN.

There are also other options to explore in this respect, namely compressed video streams and the like. Lots of opportunities as they say

We are currently working on an implementation of shared memory that would circumvent the TCP stack entirely (hence ostensibly lowering the CPU overhead), as well as Unity3D->Jitter texture importing.

Best wishes,

Ico

[memedesigner]

This is one of the coolest things ever. Congrats!

[milkytreat]

that is amazing! well done

[VoxelBoy]

I only used Max for a Digital Music Composition course but I can definitely see how useful this interoperability would be to some folks. The tech demo is absolutely mind-blowing. Great job.

[VJ_Anomolee]

sweet . that will help give me new tools to build into my art installations beyond what Ive already accomplished with Ma/msp+Unity!
thanks!


Here is an example of what Ive got going on between Max and Unity without aforementioned interoperability toolkit:

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=130676#130676

[slipstream]

Once again, many thanks all for your interest and kind words!

Finally got around to posting another video, this time showcasing [myu] in a real-world setting.

Part of the Revo:oveR collection, "elemental" is an interactive communal soundscape installation that premiered last November (2008) in Roanoke, VA (USA) as part of the grand opening of the Taubman Museum of Art. The exhibit ran non-stop for approximately 5 months and relied upon a bi-directional communication between Max/MSP/Jitter and Unity3d.

For those interested, a brief online preview of the exhibit can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA-9BOgc1gk

Best wishes,

Ico

[Yann]

Would be a full port of the project to PureData, including the video part, feasible ?

[slipstream]

It should be doable, although it may require a custom Pd object for texture import/export functionality (should the netsend/netreceive prove to be inadequate).

Hope this helps!

Ico

[Yann]

Thank you, will investigate

[CarlEmail]

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!! The jitter texture plug-in is absolutely lovely! Very easy to use and surprisingly fast. I hope it will attract more people working with live visuals for music to the community.

=D

~ce