Frame-accurate playback and projection mapping. Open-core. Built for live shows.
A C++ media server for projection mapping and multi-layer playback. Multi-projector calibration, real-time GPU compositing, show control.
GPLv3 core · Apache 2.0 plugin API · Windows (DX12) · Pre-release
- Multi-layer playback. Composite many video and image layers in real time with GPU blend modes, transparency, and frame-accurate scrub. Decode pipeline is per-clip and lock-free.
- Professional codecs. ProRes 4444 (with alpha), HAP / HAP Q / HAP Alpha, PNG sequences. Mixed frame rates handled natively — a 24 fps clip on a 60 fps timeline plays at its own rate.
- Projection mapping. Anchor-point calibration with a lens model, soft-edge blending across multi-projector arrays, persistent display identification by EDID.
- Show-grade timing. A dedicated show thread owns GPU compositing and output Present. Editor modals, file dialogs, and resize loops don't freeze the projectors.
- OSC control. Inbound OSC over UDP — play, pause, seek, fire sections, jump to cues. Pairs natively with Bitfocus Companion.
- Projects travel. A project is a folder. Copy it to a USB stick, sync to another machine — media, timeline, calibration, and settings move together as one tree.
- Layered timeline. Three layer kinds on one timeline: clip, object-animation (keyframe-drive screen and prop transforms), generative (procedural content like Muncher).
- Per-layer effects. Ordered shader chain on every layer with nine engine effects (blur, sharpen, vignette, pixelate, chromatic aberration, edge detect, brightness/contrast, hue/saturation, invert) plus a node-graph editor and HLSL effect packs for user-authored shaders.
- Content routing + Feed Maps. Route logical content to screens independently of how those screens reach physical outputs. Tiled routes split a canvas across LED panels. Feed Maps name regions on a source canvas and export an SVG template content creators can author against.
See the feature overview and concept docs for more.
Pre-1.0, active development. Core engine (playback, mapping, OSC, effects, layers, content routing, plugins) is shipping and used day-to-day. 510 / 510 ctest green at current HEAD.
Latest shipped milestone: Content Routing library + Feed Maps (ADR-0022, May 2026).
The editor/show thread split is complete — timeline, decode, animation, and section scheduling all keep running on the show thread when the editor thread stalls, so the projector output never freezes.
Prereqs: Visual Studio 2022 (Desktop C++), CMake 3.21+, vcpkg.
git clone https://github.com/duremovich/Entity.git
cd Entity
cmake -B build -S . \
-DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=C:/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
cmake --build build --config Release
# Editor lands at:
build\bin\Release\EntityMediaEditor.exeFull install guide with system requirements and troubleshooting: entitymedia.art/docs/getting-started/install.
- C++20 + ECS (EnTT) + Data-Oriented Design — components are POD,
systems iterate
view<Components...>()for cache-friendly bulk processing. Seedocs/reference/ECS_PRINCIPLES.md. - D3D12 renderer on Windows. The
IRendererabstraction is in place for future Metal (macOS) and Vulkan (Linux) backends; both are deferred until customer demand makes the case (ADR-0001). - FFmpeg decode workers per clip writing into lock-free ring buffers.
- Editor / show thread split — the editor thread is the sole
registry writer; a dedicated show thread owns GPU compositing and
Present. Editor stalls don't pause the projector output. See
docs/adr/0014-editor-show-thread-split.md. - Plugin system — Apache-2.0 plugin API with first-party plugins
for OSC and bus-logging. Pro plugins live in a sibling private repo
and link via
EXTRA_PLUGIN_DIRS. Seedocs/adr/0005-open-core-dual-license.md. - Tracy profiling integrated with on-demand capture, named frame
contexts for Editor and Show, per-system zones, and D3D12 GPU zones.
See
docs/adr/0015-profiling-with-tracy.md.
Architecture decisions live in docs/adr/ — start at
docs/adr/README.md. The full ADR index covers
twenty-plus decisions spanning licensing, threading, codec strategy,
calibration math, and the layer / effects / content-routing data
models.
entity/
├── apps/editor/ Editor application
├── include/entity/ Public headers (components, systems, ...)
├── src/ Implementation
│ ├── core/ Engine, settings, plugin context
│ ├── render/ D3D12 renderer
│ ├── systems/ ECS systems (Decode, Compositor, ...)
│ ├── timeline/ Timeline state
│ ├── effects/ Engine effect registry
│ ├── director/ Snapshot bake, R2D/D2R bus drains
│ └── ui/ ImGui windows
├── plugin-api/ Apache 2.0 plugin API headers
├── plugins/ First-party plugins (osc-receiver, bus-logger)
├── shaders/ HLSL shaders
├── tests/ ctest suites
├── docs/
│ ├── adr/ Architecture Decision Records
│ ├── reference/ ECS principles, system ordering, archetypes
│ └── status/ HISTORY.md + CURRENT.md pointer
└── images/ Brand assets (logo, lockups, favicons, OG)
- Engine core — GPLv3 with a linking exception. See
LICENSE. - Plugin API (
plugin-api/,entity-bus,plugins/) — Apache 2.0. SeeLICENSE-PLUGIN-API. - See
LICENSING.mdfor the dual-license explainer.
Commercial-friendly: GPLv3 obligations attach to the engine itself, not to plugins built against the Apache-2.0 API. Running shows with entity (without redistributing the engine) is unrestricted commercial use.
Pull requests welcome. The architecture context for contributors lives
in docs/adr/ and docs/reference/.
For bugs and feature ideas: github.com/duremovich/Entity/issues.
| Marketing site + user docs | entitymedia.art |
| ADR index | docs/adr/README.md |
| ECS / DOD principles | docs/reference/ECS_PRINCIPLES.md |
| Entity archetypes | docs/reference/ENTITY_ARCHETYPES.md |
| System ordering | docs/reference/SYSTEM_ORDERING.md |
| Troubleshooting | docs/reference/TROUBLESHOOTING.md |
| Development history | docs/status/HISTORY.md |
Tech stack — C++20 · EnTT · D3D12 · FFmpeg · CMake / vcpkg · ImGui · Tracy
Platform — Windows 10 / 11 (DX12). macOS (Metal) and Linux (Vulkan) on the roadmap.