v1.3 Installation Instructions

This guide will walk you through adding the required components to a scene to enable your Unity project for Igloo compatibility.

If you prefer to work from an exisitng scene, included in the package is the Example Scenes located in IglooToolkit\Resources\Scenes.

Refer to the Reference for a more in-depth look at the components that make up the Igloo camera toolkit, and how it can be customised for certain use cases.

If you are new to Unity, we recommend exploring some of Unity's interactive tutorials to familiarise yourself with the Unity interface and concepts before continuing. More information on Unity can be found at their Learn Site.

Pages within this section

Project Setup

Package Import

It is recommended that you first import the camera package into a new Unity project, this helps eliminate potential issues during installation.

To import the camera package from within the Unity Editor go to Assets > Import Package > Custom Package and open the file with the ‘.unitypackage’ extension.

Open

The package import window will now pop up, just click Import at the bottom.

Open

We do recommend deleting any Igloo Toolkit package you may already have installed from your project.

We’ve changed so many files, and added a lot more stuff into this new package, that it might not import correctly and result in a lot of errors.

Once it’s imported, there is one additional step required before you can drop the Igloo Manager prefab into your scene.

The Igloo Toolkit uses two external plugins that required a lot of effot to maintain internally within the package, however with Unity 2020.3; The addition of Scoped Registries has made it possible to remove the plugins from the Igloo Toolkit, and have them downloaded directly to your system.

This is done automatically via the next step.

Applying Igloo Settings

The Igloo camera package requires some settings to be adjusted within the editor to work correctly. In the previous iterations of this project, a long guide was required to walk you through this process. However, it’s 2022, and it’s now automated.

To start the process, navigate to the Igloo Menu on the top bar of the Unity Editor, and click Apply Igloo Settings within the dropdown.

Immediatly you will some settings will be changed and a popup window will appear informing you of the changes.

If any of the bullet points return False it may be that you already have the correct setting from a previous Igloo version, or there is some sort of permissions issue.

Press Okay to continue, and click anywhere in your project. It should start loading in the background, and then a loading bar will appear. Do not worry, this is the packages being downloaded from the web.

Another popup will then appear informing you of the downloaded packages.

And one of your Unity windows may have opened the Project Settings on the Package Manager tab, showing you the new installed plugins: Unity NuGet, and Keijiro.

Unity NuGet is responsible for downloading the packages and installing them.

Keijiro creates the Klak Spout and Klak NDI plugins we use within the Igloo Toolkit

The final preperation before adding the Igloo Manager is to create a settings file.

Adding the Igloo Manager to your Scene

The final step, is to add the Igloo Manager prefab into your scene and set it up.

This prefab is responsible for reading the Igloo Settings xml, and creating the Igloo camera rig based on it’s instruction.

The Igloo Manager prefab can be found in:

Igloo Toolkit → Resources → Prefabs

Simply drag this object into your scene, and place it where you would like your Igloo Camera system to spawn.

Setting up the IglooManager

To output to the Igloo Warper, the Igloo camera rig uses a protocol called Spout, which you would have downloaded via the Apply Igloo Settings button. The final step in this process is to assign the SpoutResources to the Igloo Manager.

As this is a difficult component to locate, as you need to know it’s exact location within the Packages hirearchy, we’ve made it easier by programming a button that does it for you.

On the Igloo Manager component, of the Igloo Manager Prefab, click the Add Spout Resources button.

This will find the Spout Resources file within the Package hirearchy, and add it to the Spout Resources variable. The button will also hide itself once it is complete.

Creating a Default Settings File

Click the Igloo button on the top menu, and select Settings Wizard

Change the configuration type to Equirectangular Full then select Create Default Configuration

Then finally, click Save

Viewing the Output

Once that is complete, you will be able to preview the output to the Igloo when you hit Play using the Igloo Preview tool that would have been bundled within the IglooUnityToolkit zip.

You can read more about it here: Igloo Preview Tool

Or you can use the Spout2 SpoutReceiver executable available HERE.

Universal Rendering Pipeline Additional Steps

When using URP in the later toolkit version, it is not necessary to add scripting defines. This is handled automatically by the Igloo Assembly Reference within the Toolkit’s root folder. More information regarding this file, and what it means for extending the Igloo Toolkit can be found HERE.

You will, however, need to add a render feature to any renderers you intend to use in your project.

1. Find the renderer you intend to use, in my case it’s a default forward renderer

2. Select the Add Render Feature button, and click Blit Material Feature

    

   Leave the Name as NewBlitMaterialFeature as it helps our script locate it.

    

3. Set the values within the feature to the following:
   Material - URPCameraBlend
   Material Pass Index - 0
   Render Event - After Rendering

    

4. Now this is complete, when you use the Warp & Blend and Window features, the Universal Render Pipeline will successfully create an external window using the Igloo Warper warps grids.