VideoPlayer

Description

Plays video content onto a target.

Content can be either a VideoClip imported asset or a URL such as file:// or http://. Video content will be projected onto one of the supported targets, such as camera background or RenderTexture. If the video content includes transparency, this transparency will be present in the target, allowing objects behind the video target to be visible. When the data VideoPlayer.source is set to URL, the audio and video description of what is being played will only be initialized once the VideoPlayer preparation is completed. This can be tested with VideoPlayer.isPrepared.

Movie File Format Support Notes

The VideoPlayer uses native audio and video decoding libraries in its implementation and it is your responsibility to use videos that match the requirements for the target platform. The VideoClipImporter offers an option to transcode the VideoClip assets into one of H.264 or VP8 video codecs, along with a few options to experiment with, such as resolution. This uses the matching codec for audio tracks: AAC and Vorbis respectively.

See Also: VideoClipImporter.SetTargetSettings and VideoImporterTargetSettings.enableTranscoding.

You may choose to omit this transcoding and instead use videos that you already know are supported by the target systems, keeping finer control over the encoding process using an external program. Over time, the VideoClipImporter editor will provide guidelines and warnings to better help making proper format and encoding choices.

For now, vendor recommendations must be followed, and are especially constrained on older mobile platforms. For example, videos you find on the web will often require inspection and manipulations before they can be used reliably in the context of a game running on multiple devices. The following are examples of recommendations and known limitations:

* Android: Supported Media Formats. See additional notes below.
* Windows: H.264 Video Decoder (see Format Constraints)
* iPhone 6-7: Compare iPhone Models (see TV and Video)

The best natively supported video codec for hardware acceleration is H.264, with VP8 being a software decoding solution that can be used when required. On Android, VP8 is also supported using native libraries and as such may also be hardware-assisted depending on models. Key values to look for in your encoding parameters:

* Video Codec: H.264 or VP8.
* Resolution: For example: 1280 x 720.
* Profile: Applicable for H.264. The profile is a set of capabilities and constraints; vendors often specify this, such as "Baseline" or "Main". See here.
* Profile Level: Applicable for H.264. Within a given profile, the level specifies certain performance requirements such as "Baseline 3.1". See here.
* Audio Codec: Typically AAC (with mp4 videos using H.264) or Vorbis (with webm videos using VP8).
* Audio Channels: depends on platform. For example, the Android recommendation is for stereo files, but many devices will accept 5.1.

Android Notes

* Support for resolutions above 640 x 360 is not available on all devices. Runtime checks are done to verify this and failures will cause the movie to not be played.
* For Jelly Bean/MR1, movies above 1280 x 720 or with more than 2 audio tracks will not be played due to bugs in the OS libraries.
* For Lollipop and above, any resolution or number of audio channels may be attempted, but will be constrained by device capabilities.
* The Vulkan graphics API is not yet supported.
* Format compatibility issues are reported in the adb logcat output and are always prefixed with AndroidVideoMedia.
* Also pay attention to device-specific error messages located near Unity's error messages: they are not available to the engine, but often explain what the compatibility issue is.
* Playback from asset bundles is only supported for uncompressed bundles, read directly from disk.

The following demonstrates a few features of the VideoPlayer:

// Examples of VideoPlayer function

using UnityEngine;

public class Example : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        // Will attach a VideoPlayer to the main camera.
        GameObject camera = GameObject.Find("Main Camera");

        // VideoPlayer automatically targets the camera backplane when it is added
        // to a camera object, no need to change videoPlayer.targetCamera.
        var videoPlayer = camera.AddComponent<UnityEngine.Video.VideoPlayer>();

        // Play on awake defaults to true. Set it to false to avoid the url set
        // below to auto-start playback since we're in Start().
        videoPlayer.playOnAwake = false;

        // By default, VideoPlayers added to a camera will use the far plane.
        // Let's target the near plane instead.
        videoPlayer.renderMode = UnityEngine.Video.VideoRenderMode.CameraNearPlane;

        // This will cause our Scene to be visible through the video being played.
        videoPlayer.targetCameraAlpha = 0.5F;

        // Set the video to play. URL supports local absolute or relative paths.
        // Here, using absolute.
        videoPlayer.url = "/Users/graham/movie.mov";

        // Skip the first 100 frames.
        videoPlayer.frame = 100;

        // Restart from beginning when done.
        videoPlayer.isLooping = true;

        // Each time we reach the end, we slow down the playback by a factor of 10.
        videoPlayer.loopPointReached += EndReached;

        // Start playback. This means the VideoPlayer may have to prepare (reserve
        // resources, pre-load a few frames, etc.). To better control the delays
        // associated with this preparation one can use videoPlayer.Prepare() along with
        // its prepareCompleted event.
        videoPlayer.Play();
    }

    void EndReached(UnityEngine.Video.VideoPlayer vp)
    {
        vp.playbackSpeed = vp.playbackSpeed / 10.0F;
    }
}

MovieTexture Migration Notes

Since the VideoPlayer is fundamentally different from the legacy movie playback solution MovieTexture, we are providing a few examples to help you migrate your project using MovieTexture to the new VideoPlayer solution.

Playing the Movie Example :

MovieTexture :

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayMovieMT : MonoBehaviour
{
    public AudioClip movieAudioClip;
    public MovieTexture movieTexture;

    void Start()
    {
        var audioSource = gameObject.AddComponent<AudioSource>();
        audioSource.clip = movieAudioClip;
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetButtonDown("Jump"))
        {
            var audioSource = GetComponent<AudioSource>();
            GetComponent<Renderer>().material.mainTexture = movieTexture;

            if (movieTexture.isPlaying)
            {
                movieTexture.Pause();
                audioSource.Pause();
            }
            else
            {
                movieTexture.Play();
                audioSource.Play();
            }
        }
    }
}

VideoPlayer :

using UnityEngine;

public class PlayMovieVP : MonoBehaviour
{
    public UnityEngine.Video.VideoClip videoClip;

    void Start()
    {
        var videoPlayer = gameObject.AddComponent<UnityEngine.Video.VideoPlayer>();
        var audioSource = gameObject.AddComponent<AudioSource>();

        videoPlayer.playOnAwake = false;
        videoPlayer.clip = videoClip;
        videoPlayer.renderMode = UnityEngine.Video.VideoRenderMode.MaterialOverride;
        videoPlayer.targetMaterialRenderer = GetComponent<Renderer>();
        videoPlayer.targetMaterialProperty = "_MainTex";
        videoPlayer.audioOutputMode = UnityEngine.Video.VideoAudioOutputMode.AudioSource;
        videoPlayer.SetTargetAudioSource(0, audioSource);
    }

    void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetButtonDown("Jump"))
        {
            var vp = GetComponent<UnityEngine.Video.VideoPlayer>();

            if (vp.isPlaying)
            {
                vp.Pause();
            }
            else
            {
                vp.Play();
            }
        }
    }
}

Downloading a Movie Example :

MovieTexture :

using UnityEngine;

public class DownloadMovieMT : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        StartCoroutine(GetMovieTexture());
    }

    IEnumerator GetMovieTexture()
    {
        using (var uwr = UnityWebRequestMultimedia.GetMovieTexture("http://myserver.com/mymovie.ogv"))
        {
            yield return uwr.SendWebRequest();
            if (uwr.isNetworkError || uwr.isHttpError)
            {
                Debug.LogError(uwr.error);
                yield break;
            }

            MovieTexture movie = DownloadHandlerMovieTexture.GetContent(uwr);

            GetComponent<Renderer>().material.mainTexture = movie;
            movie.loop = true;
            movie.Play();
        }
    }
}

VideoPlayer :

using UnityEngine;

public class DownloadMovieVP : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        var vp = gameObject.AddComponent<UnityEngine.Video.VideoPlayer>();
        vp.url = "http://myserver.com/mymovie.mp4";

        vp.isLooping = true;
        vp.renderMode = UnityEngine.Video.VideoRenderMode.MaterialOverride;
        vp.targetMaterialRenderer = GetComponent<Renderer>();
        vp.targetMaterialProperty = "_MainTex";

        vp.Play();
    }
}

Static Properties

Properties

Public Methods

Events

Delegates

Inherited Members