BlenderDMX Addon

An addon for Blender to design and render DMX lighting

Entertainment and architectural DMX lighting visualization and rendering tool designed to offer a free and easy solution for Lighting Designers.

Complete scene can be imported and exported as MVR (My Virtual Rig), with all fixtures, trusses, 3D scene objects, textures, addressing, fixture IDs, unit numbers and more. Import and export can be done via Blender menu, Drag-and-Drop or via MVR XChange protocol.

Device definition is based on GDTF (General Device Type File) Specification, utilizing and fully integrating the Fixture library on GDTF Share, with support for static and moving devices, LED bars, lasers, cameras, trusses and more. Any GDTF can be imported, using 3D objects, 2D symbols, Textures, Physical Real World definitions and more.

BlenderDMX Addon is built on strong foundation of Blender, which runs equally well on Linux, Windows, and macOS computers.

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Status and Realtime Performance

BlenderDMX provides large number of supported GDTF and MVR features. Currently notably missing is Framing shutter support. Laser support is working in Blender 4.2, but not in Blender 5.x.

Real-time rendering and DMX capture requires a powerful computer. As Blender runs the extension in a single thread, once network DMX signal input is enabled, performance goes down rapidly. So while rendering slow or static scenes is great, performance in fast dynamic scenes is less then optimal.

Motivation

As lighting designers, we have always wanted a free, libre, and open-source DMX visualizer capable of ray tracing, with capabilities for real-time programming of dynamics, as well as the ability to produce photorealistic output.

BlenderDMX Addon offers both possibilities: Eevee real time renderer offers the dynamics, while Cycles offers stunning photorealistic results.

The combination of tools like Blender, Python, and GDTF provides a transparent and accessible platform, allowing designers to deeply comprehend how each component works and make improvements or modifications as required.

Advanced Networking

  • External DMX signal from sACN or Art-Net can be used for controlling, and it can be recorded as keyframes into Blender or the signal can be used for a special #bdmx driver in Blender to control other Blender objects/properties.
  • OpenSoundControl can send fixture selection to external DMX consoles.
  • PosiStageNet can receive position information from different trackers connected to a PSN server, it's followers can be moving lights or any other Blender objects.
  • GDTF Share and format integration provides source of fixture data.
  • MVR-xchange protocol offers seamless MVR workflow.

Open Source

The source code is completely open source under the GPLv3 license and openly available on GitHub. Feel free to inspect, share, and contribute!

By leveraging open-source technologies, designers can fully learn and understand every detail of the system, empowering them to make informed decisions and tailor the solution to their specific needs.

BlenderDMX Addon is using General Device Type Format (GDTF) and My Virtual Rig (MVR) - open-source file formats that let you share anything with anyone.

The Project

BlenderDMX Addon allows using lighting fixture's definitions from GDTF and also loading of complete scenes from MVR. Fixture's manipulation can be done internally in Blender or externally via DMX like ArtNet or sACN. External DMX or internal Programmer state can be recorded into Blender's timeline via Keyframes recording. BlenderDMX Addon also offers dedicated DMX driver for Blender to control any Blender property via external DMX signal.

Beautiful Renders

Blender can achieve very eye pleasing photorealistic renders thanks to it's raytracing rendering method called Cycles. The Cycles renderer as well as the OpenImageDenoise can run on GPU on supported hardware. Image by 21 Production. See more examples in the Gallery.

How to Get Started

Our Getting Started Guide walks you through the steps of downloading BlenderDMX Addon.

Detailed usage documentation is available in the User Guide. Also head over to our Documentation & FAQ page for more information.

Recent Blog Posts

BlenderDMX Addon 2.3.2 Released

By vanous
Posted on  in Releases

2.3.2

  • Translated using Weblate (French)
  • Added translation using Weblate (Slovenian) [Katja Štefanič]
  • Wait for the Art-Net receiver to stop before going offline
  • Handle class registration and prevent blender crash
  • Stop the Art-Net receiver reliably, so Blender quits on macOS [Jaan Pullerits]
  • Handle new readonly name of PropertyGroup base class
  • Apply transforms to glbs when loading

What’s Changed

  • Stop the Art-Net receiver reliably, so Blender quits on macOS by @Suva in https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/pull/370
  • Translations update from Hosted Weblate by @weblate in https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/pull/371
  • Release v2.3.2 by @vanous in https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/pull/372

New Contributors

  • @Suva made their first contribution in https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/pull/370

Full Changelog: https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/compare/v2.3.1…v2.3.2

BlenderDMX Addon 2.3.1 Released

By vanous
Posted on  in Releases

2.3.1

  • Added translation using Weblate (Ukrainian) [Ahha]
  • Add option to remove a Universe, use Blender style UI for universe adding/removing
  • Fix Focus Point on Blender created data, fix UUID assignment, for correct MVR export
  • Set SO_REUSEPORT on the Art-Net socket so a console on the same machine can share port 6454
  • Initial support for Sinette protocol - a very simple plain data receiver added
  • Use non-fixture GDTF data during import from MVR
  • Fix emitter dimmer while strobing, cap strobe to fps/2 thanks to @EricNakamura in #363

New Contributors

  • @CristianDeluxe made their first contribution in https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/pull/366

Full Changelog: https://github.com/open-stage/blender-dmx/compare/v2.3.0…v2.3.1

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GNU General Public License

BlenderDMX Addon is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

BlenderDMX Addon 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.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.