Dual Monitor Application
Dual monitor functionality is intended to enable the creation of dual monitor applications. Using this pipeline, you can have a windowed application on your 2D monitor while rendering a holographic scene on your Looking Glass device. This is achieved by creating an inter-process communicator (IPC) between two Unity applications.
Reviewing the Example Scene
To fully load the example scene:
Open
LookingGlass\Examples\7 - Dual Monitor Application
Select the
DMA Builder
GameObject from the scene hierarchyIn the
Dual Monitor Application Manager
script, select theSetup\\Open Scenes
button
The Setup\\Open Scenes
button loads in the _extendedUI
scene of the same name. This scene drives the UI on the 2D window. If a scene doesn't exist by this name, this button will create it.
The additional example scene that gets incorporated includes:
It's own DMA Builder
game object, with the Dual Monitor Application Manager
script field for Display
set to Window 2D
. This is required so that the scenes can identify which displays they drive.
A canvas to manage the UI. Any Unity content is allowable here.
An IPC (inter-process communicator) that sends events between the two scenes.
Creating your Own Scene
Follow these steps.
Create a New Scene
Remove the default Unity camera and add a
Hologram Camera
to the scene, found inAssets/LookingGlass/Prefabs/
Add the
Dual Monitor Application
prefab to your sceneSelect the
DMA Builder
from the scene hierarchy, and clickSetup/Open Scene
- you'll need to save your scene firstAdd a
DMA Builder
to the second sceneSet the second scene's
Dual Monitor Application
'sDisplay
toWindow 2D
Add a
DMA IPC
object to each scene (if cross-application communication is requiredSet the
DMA IPC
'sDual Monitor Application Base IPC
toLooking Glass
for the Looking Glass scene, andWindow 2D
for the 2D sceneSet the
Inter Process Communicator
'sRole
toReceiver
for the Looking Glass scene andSender
for the 2D sceneChange the
Inter Process Communicator
'sSigning Char
to something new that matches in both scenes (recommended)
If the app requires UI elements on the 2D, this can be done using conventional Unity UI elements. There is a prefab provided for you for convenience, DMA Canvas
, though you will need to additionally add an Event System to your scene for Unity UI events.
Building a Release
In order to support all Looking Glass Pro functionality, you must build your applications in an unconventional way. Unity's built-in build pipeline will not work. To build the proper way:
Open File > Build Settings... and add both your scenes and click Add Open Scenes to add both scenes to the "Scenes in Build" field
Close the Build Settings window
Select any DMA Builder
game object
Click the Build (Dual Monitor Application) button in the Dual Monitor Application Manager
script in the inspector
Select an empty folder to bundle your application into
Scripting IPC Functionality
In order to script your own functionality, follow the following steps:
In your script, add a reference to the
InterProcessCommunicator
in your scene.To send data (typically from the 2D UI to the Looking Glass display) call
InterProcessCommunicator.SendData
with a string as the parameter. This will be sent to the receiver. You can call this function either from a script or from UI events.In the receiving scene (typically the Looking Glass scene), in a script, create a reference to the
InterProcessCommunicator
in that scene.Create a function named
ReceiveMessage(string message)
.This function will now be called when a message is received. Write some logic within this function to handle the various messages the scene will be receiving.
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