Creating Media surface

Creating Media Surface

Media surfaces allow you to play web content in your scene using Chromium Embedded Framework, meaning that you can display most content that could normally be displayed in a web browser. Each scene can support one media URL at a time, but can be displayed on multiple objects.

Web content is currently not interactive; visual media playback, such as an embedded YouTube video, is shown on objects that are uploaded with the Media Surface shader. Audio from the media plays back separately, from a position designated in media surface scene settings.

You can create media surfaces yourself, or you can purchase one from another creator on the Sansar Store.

An avatar watching a YouTube video on a media surface.

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Creating a media surface

Any object can be used as a media surface, but flat planes are typically most suitable for video and web playback. To upload an object as a media surface while in edit mode:

1. Click Import > 3D Model.

2. Click Browse under 3D model file and choose a suitable model (.fbx) from your computer. Here is a 16x9 screen that we have provided.

3. Click Materials Settings to open the Materials Settings panel.

4. From the Use shader dropdown, choose Media Surface.

5. (Optional) Choose an Albedo Map, Normal Map, Roughness Map, Metalness Map, and/or Emissive Map to apply to your media surface. Note that these maps can potentially interfere with media playback if they are not designed to look like part of a media screen.

6. Click Save Settings to close the Materials Settings panel.

7. Click Upload to upload your media surface.

8. Drag your media surface from your inventory to the scene in order to place it in your scene.

To set a media stream for your media surface, see Using and previewing media streams.

Note: To display side-by-side 3D content, choose the Media Surface + Stereographic shader. For more details on this shader and how to properly align side-by-side 3D content using the Media Surface + Stereographic shader, see Materials editing and shaders.

Tips

Here are some suggested settings for setting up a media surface:

• In the Materials Settings panel, under the Media Surface shader:

  • Set Emissive intensity to 0.25 for optimal results. The higher this scale, the more "glowy" the media surface becomes. Try to keep this setting below 1.0.

  • Set UV scale to 1.0, unless you want the video to be duplicated across the surface.

  • Set Tint to white (255, 255, 255) or gray (127, 127, 127).

Download links

• 16x9 media surface screen

Have more questions? Ask in our Discord!