m ctrl is an audiovisual real time media server framework developed by m box over the course of the last ten years – it is a set of Microsoft Windows based standalone tools and Services developed with the visual live programming environment vvvv.
m ctrl is an interactive prototyping tool for creative workflows and a project-oriented production system for real time and interactive focused installations, exhibits, shows and presentations.
Its approach is to combine the best of both worlds of visual creation workflows: Powerful flexible generative and Realtime oriented graphics programming (in vvvv, DirectX and Dotnet) with a more traditional layer, preset and effect-based workflow more common to classical artist or clients which are used to work with programs like Adobe After Effects and similar.
The system is capable of playing back and integrating multiple video layers in very high resolutions and frame rates (up to 8k with 60 Fps) – theoretically only limited by the underlying hardware. Multiple machines can be combined and synchronized via its own network sync protocol with optional support for Nvidia Quadro Sync. For setting up more complex formats and surfaces there are various warping and soft edge modules available. It also features native support for camera based autocalibration systems like Vioso or Scalable Display.
Beside video playback the real power of the m-ctrl framework lies in its unlimited possibilities in the generative image creation and reactive real-time area. Interactively generated visual modules which are not pre-produced films offer unlimited possibility to be changed and adapted live as well to react to external influences and interfaces (e.g. on the music playback, sensors and so on). These generative modules can seamlessly merge into one another, they can be layered with videos, images, typographical information, live camera feeds and many more. External live data such as social media feeds, databases, video or camera data from the Internet can also be integrated into the compositions and unlimited real time effects can be added.
m-ctrl also features a full 3D environment based on the stride open source game engine and the fuse GPU library which provides state of the art procedural graphic generation tools capable of not only traditional 3D features like shading, lighting and animation, but also advanced procedural modelling, particle systems and fluid simulation, point cloud and volumetric rendering or techniques such as ray tracing and ray marching
On top of the linear, 3D and generative features m-ctrl is fully capable of creating any kind of real interactive application directly with its native GUI features and a visual state machine editor for creating more complex nonlinear scenarios. Various AI technologies like generative image creation and manipulation as well as large language models for data analyzation and creation can be integrated as needed per project, even for offline usage. Touchscreens, Lidar scanners or depth cameras are directly supported as input devices. These m-ctrl applications can be treated as layers and can be embedded in a lager scenario.
Any scenario can be previewed live as real time 3D simulation, enabling you to program your shows and installations on- or offsite. Integrated VR – Support lets you use your favorite VR-Glasses for a more immersive preview experience.
For more content focused projects, we can offer an advanced custom CMS integration (based on directus) not only with the ability to ingest and manage any content like text, videos and images but also manage scenes, presets and settings as well schedule scenarios, and shows. A lightweight Show Controller for managing attached devices like displays, projectors and similar can be added to the same web-based interface. Connections to customer provided and existing content managements or Show Controllers can easily be integrated, too.
For immersive audio-visual installations, we offer our additional s-ctrl solution – a dedicated audio server which supports spatial 3D-mixdown to any amount of speaker as output. Audio sources are directly transferred from m-ctrl and they share the same 3D space and can be attached to any interactive and visual element like 3D objects or particle systems. Offering you the flexibility to do fully interactive immersive audio systems without the need for additional software or hardware solutions.
m-ctrl can be controlled and vice versa via various interfaces such as mobile devices, Kinect or gesture control, classic show and media control systems and it’s just as flexible in terms of control of external devices such as LEDs or kinetic stage elements. Legacy protocols such as DMX/Art-net, RS232, MIDI, OSC are natively supported at the same time as modern web technologies like WebSocket and HTTP/3.
Beyond the already existing and in the GUI directly accessible features m-ctrl’s biggest strength is its expandability – as it is entirely built on vvvv – additionally needed modules for any project can be rapidly created and added by our inhouse developer team or by external partners. We tightly work together with the vvvv core developers to ensure stability and quick reaction and problem solving if necessary.
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