1 About nDisplay
2 Why Use nDisplay over the Unreal Toolkit Plugin
3 Setting up nDisplay using Igloo nDisplay Toolkit
- 3.1 Installation Instructions
  - 3.1.1 Recommended Additional Plugins
  - 3.1.2 Adjust Project Settings
    - 3.1.2.1 Ensure nDisplay is enabled
    - 3.1.2.2 Set the default RHI as DX11
    - 3.1.2.3 Ensure that Raytracing is Disabled
    - 3.1.2.4 Exposure Control
  - 3.1.3 View Plugin Assets
    - 3.1.3.1 Igloo nDisplay Test configuration file
    - 3.1.3.2 Igloo Crosshair
  - 3.1.4 Setting up your level
    - 3.1.4.1 Placing Actors
    - 3.1.4.2 Corrupt Crosshair
  - 3.1.5 Delivery
  - 3.1.6 Advanced Guides

About nDisplay

The Unreal Engine supports advanced Igloo structures through a system called nDisplay. This system addresses some of the most important challenges in rendering 3D content simultaneously to multiple displays:

It eases the process of deploying and launching multiple instances of your Project across different computers in the network, each rendering to one or more display devices.
It manages all the calculations involved in computing the viewing frustum for each screen at every frame, based on the spatial layout of your display hardware.
It ensures that the content being shown on the various screens remains exactly in sync, with deterministic content across all instances of the Engine.
It offers passive and active stereoscopic rendering.
It can be driven by input from VR tracking systems, so that the viewpoint in the displays accurately follows the point of view of a moving viewer in real life.
It is flexible enough to support any number of screens in any relative orientation, and can be easily reused across any number of Projects.

Every nDisplay setup has a single master computer, and any number of additional computers.

Each computer in the network runs one or more instances of your Project's packaged executable file.
Each Unreal Engine instance handles rendering to one or more display devices, such as screens or projectors.
For each of the devices an instance of Unreal Engine handles, it renders a single viewpoint on the same 3D scene. By setting up these viewpoints so that their location in the 3D world matches the physical locations of the screens or projected surfaces in the real world, you give viewers the illusion of being present in the virtual world.
The master node is also responsible for accepting input from spatial trackers and controllers through connections to Virtual-Reality Peripheral Networks (VRPNs), and replicating that input to all other connected computers.

The image above shows a possible nDisplay network. Like all nDisplay networks, one of its PCs acts as the master node. This master node accepts input into the system from a VRPN server, which relays signals that come from spatial tracking devices and other controller devices. The network also contains several other PCs that run other instances of the Unreal Engine Project. Each of these cluster nodes drives one or more display projectors.

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Why Use nDisplay over the Unreal Toolkit Plugin

There are some inherent problems with the Unreal toolkit that are difficult to overcome. These include:

Slow performance with large complex, or optimized models.
No-post processing available
Issues with Lumen lighting engine not rendering correctly
Miss matched colours compared to the console view.
Limited to cubemap output, that only works in Igloo Core Engine.

nDisplay removes all of these issues, and adds even more features which include:

Clustering for complex and highly detailed models.
Large scale resolutions
True to life colours
Optitrack and VRPN support
Doesn’t require an external plugin
Doesn’t require an update from Igloo every time there’s a new Unreal update.

The only current issue with nDisplay is the lack of a method to input warps generated by the Igloo system. Requiring the use of scalable to do curved screens at this stage.

Setting up nDisplay using Igloo nDisplay Toolkit

The easiest way to setup nDisplay is to use the Igloo nDisplay Toolkit which can be found on the Igloo Downloads Center

It includes:

All the required nDisplay plugins
Some helpful blueprints for using Igloo gyro based controls
A live link profile example for using VRPN tracker data

Installation Instructions

Copy the Igloo nDisplay Toolkit plugin to the Plugins folder in the root of your project.

If a plugin’s folder doesn’t yet exist; You can make an empty folder called ‘Plugins' in the root of your project.

Plugin folder located in root of a sample project

To check that the plugin has imported successfully;

Click Edit → Plugins
Under the Installed section on the left will be the Livestreaming group
In this group the Igloo nDisplay Toolkit plugin should be installed and active.

Recommended Additional Plugins

We recommend you also install the nVidia DLSS plugins from their web page.

NVIDIA DLSS

DLSS provides increased framerate by up-scaling the camera’s output. As most of nDisplay systems use high resolution outputs, this is incredibly beneficial.

To activate DLSS, please follow the included instructions within the plugin. There are several commands that can be entered on Begin Play.

It’s unwise to use the included HUD display, as that will only enter the commands on the master node, unless you write additional blueprints to synchronise the cluster.

Adjust Project Settings

Ensure nDisplay is enabled

Even though the plugin may be enabled, often it can be disabled in project settings leading to an error when trying to load it using switchboard

Set the default RHI as DX11

In Project Settings, navigate to Platforms → Windows and change the Default RHI field to DirectX 11

Ensure that Raytracing is Disabled

In Project Settings, navigate to Engine → Rendering, and ensure that Support Hardware Ray Tracing is turned off

Exposure Control

Due to the location of the sun in each viewport, the exposure of each camera can potentially be very different. This leads to artifacts and disjointed visuals within the cave, that ends in a loss of immersion.

To combat this, we recommend setting all exposure to Manual within the project settings.

By navigating to Engine → Rendering and setting Auto Exposure to Manual

You can still utilise exposure zones based on post processing volumes, but the exposure needs to be set to manual in these volumes exposure settings.

View Plugin Assets

To view the assets within the plugin you’ll need to enable “Show Plugin Assets” within your Content Browser Settings.

Then you should be able to see the Plugins folder on the left hand panel of the content browser. Which can be expanded out to view the Igloo nDisplay Toolkit content.

Igloo nDisplay Test configuration file

This is a test file, that enables you to view the nDisplay output on your system that will be sent to the cave. It looks like this when previewed:

You can use nDisplay Preview to launch this which is found on the top ribbon of your editor

nDisplay Preview

Igloo Crosshair

This is a blueprint that attaches to your player, and replicates itself across the nDisplay system. It provides a crosshair for direction, and allows both OSC and Optitrack to control the player’s location.

Setting up your level

Placing Actors

Drag both the Igloo Crosshair and the nDisplay Test actors into your scene. It doesn’t matter where they are, as their position is dictated entirely by where your player is.