3D Stage Visualizer User Guide

3D Stage Visualizer is a Windows application that displays a light show in 3D in real time — it loads scenes in the MVR format, GDTF fixture profiles, and receives live DMX data over Art-Net or sACN. This guide covers everything from first launch to troubleshooting.

Quick start

1. 3D Stage Visualizer is part of the DMX Music Visualization AI program (download here) — it is installed together with it and launched directly from it.
2. Drag an .mvr file with your show into the visualizer window (or use File → Open MVR…). The camera frames the whole stage automatically.
3. On your console or software, enable Art-Net or sACN output into the network where the visualizer runs. (DMX Music Visualization sends the data to the visualizer by itself.)
4. Done — fixtures react to live DMX data. Control the view with the mouse; F reframes the scene at any time.

Working with DMX Music Visualization

The typical workflow of the whole SOH ecosystem looks like this:

1. In the GDTF Stage Studio library at gdtf-lights.com (over 8,500 fixture profiles), pick your lights and set the unit count and DMX mode for each.
2. Click DMX → Export TXT or MVR 3D. Choose one of 21 light layouts (truss rows, gates, circle, towers, floor rows…), the hanging height and spacing — the generated MVR contains lights with embedded GDTF files, a complete DMX patch and truss structures.
3. Drag the file into the DMX Music Visualization program and confirm with Enter — AI generates a complete show including scenes, chases and quick-function buttons.
4. The MVR automatically appears in 3D Stage Visualizer — DMX Music Visualization opens the visualizer by itself, hands over the scene and streams Art-Net data right away — and you watch the show, driven by your music, live in 3D.

A detailed walkthrough is available in the DMX Music Visualization manuals and the GDTF Stage Studio guide. The same MVR also opens in grandMA3, Capture, Depence, Vectorworks, MagicQ, WYSIWYG or BlenderDMX.

System requirements

On a computer without OpenGL 4.3 support, the application offers at startup either a driver update link or a one-time download of a software rendering mode (slower, but works everywhere).

Opening a show (MVR)

MVR (My Virtual Rig) is the standard scene exchange format — most consoles and planning tools export it. It contains fixtures with DMX addresses, positions and embedded GDTF profiles, plus scenery (trusses, stages, set pieces).

• Open the file via File → Open MVR…, or simply drag it into the window.
• If a scene already exists, the application asks: Add (add to the current scene) or Replace (replace it).
• File → New Scene clears the stage completely.
• After import the camera automatically takes an audience view of the whole stage including the floor.

Manual patching (GDTF)

Fixtures can also be added individually without an MVR — all you need is a .gdtf file (the fixture profile, available e.g. at gdtf-share.com or gdtf-lights.com):

• Drag the .gdtf into the application window — you pick the DMX mode, universe, address and the number of units.
• The Patch panel shows all fixtures, their addresses and live parameter values (dimmer, color, pan/tilt…).
• Adjust a fixture's 3D position by selecting it and editing the coordinates in the Patch panel.

Connecting DMX (Art-Net / sACN)

The visualizer receives DMX over the network — nothing to configure, both receivers run right after startup (they can be disabled in Settings → Network):

Console / software on another computer

• Being on the same network is enough. Set Art-Net or sACN output and the correct universe on the console — the visualizer sees the data immediately (the DMX Monitor panel shows received packets).

Console / software on the same computer

• Set the sender's output address to 127.0.0.1, or to broadcast 255.255.255.255 — otherwise the packets never leave the sending application.

Camera controls

Application panels

The panel layout is fully dockable — drag panels wherever you need; the application remembers it. Reopen closed panels via the View menu.

Scene

• Scene tree by MVR layers; click to select a fixture (Ctrl+click = multi-select, also works by clicking directly in 3D).
• Lights: Live / All off / All on — switch between live DMX data, blackout, and full on (identification, working without a console).
• Highlight lights up the selected fixtures fully — quickly find a unit in a large rig.
• Clear scene empties the whole stage.

Patch

• Fixture list: type, mode, universe and address, live physical parameter values.
• Universe occupancy — collisions and free space at a glance.

Settings

• Display — background color, grid and axes, haze density, volumetrics, fixture 3D models, exposure, bloom, movement smoothing, VSync.
• DMX — universe numbering (1-based / 0-based).
• Network — enabling/disabling the Art-Net and sACN receivers, sACN multicast interface, received packet counters.
• Movement — fixing broken Pan/Tilt ranges from low-quality GDTF files, head movement speed limit.
• Camera — reset and view bookmarks; FPS indicator at the bottom.

DMX Monitor

• Universe table: source IP, packets per second, sequence gaps.
• A grid of all 512 values with change highlighting — ideal for patch debugging.

Log

• Import progress, patching, network and any errors; level filter. The same content is written to stageviz.log in the settings folder.

What gets rendered

• Volumetric beams — beams in haze with adjustable density, zoom, iris, frost, strobe/shutter.
• Gobos — projections from GDTF wheels including indexing, rotation and shake; the gobo is visible in the beam and in the floor impact.
• Colors — CMY mixing, RGBW/pixel fixtures, color wheels, CTO.
• Movement — pan/tilt with smooth catch-up like a real moving head (optional speed limit).
• Light impacts — light pools on the floor compose with the scene.
• Fixture 3D models — real fixture bodies from GDTF (can be switched to simple placeholders).

Lasers

Laser fixtures are recognized automatically (by the GDTF <Laser> geometry or the channel profile) and drawn like a real laser: the pattern sent into space forms a sheet of light — a circle becomes a hollow cone, a line a flat fan — with a bright floor impact.

• Where the patterns come from: 1) vectorization of images inside the GDTF (the wheels/ folder — works even from a photo of the pattern), 2) from DMX value names (Circle, Line…), 3) from a built-in shape library (line, circle, triangle, square, star, wave, fan…).
• DMX control: pattern selection, rotation, tilting (rolling X/Y), X/Y position, X/Y size, progressive drawing, colors including color macros.

Scene appearance

• Haze (Settings → Display) is essential for beam looks — higher value = milkier, more pronounced beams. For a laser show try 1.4–1.6.
• Exposure and Bloom tune the overall brightness and the glow of bright sources.
• With many wash fixtures on, the scene turns "milky" — less is sometimes more, just like on a real stage.

Troubleshooting

License and contact

The full unrestricted version of 3D Stage Visualizer is included with the DMX Music Visualization application — download at soh.cz. For questions and support contact SOH.