What's in the beta
Free beta for Windows 10 / 11 and macOS 13 or newer. Plug in a game controller and play live visuals that react to you. Project them on anything.
Got this as a Windows beta tester? BETA_TESTERS.md is the one page to read: install, the Windows prompts, controllers, camera, how to send feedback.
13 scenes
| Scene | What it is |
|---|---|
| Cube Bloom | Glossy cubes breathing in a wave. Fly through them, barrel-roll, spin, put your video on the faces |
| Frame Stack | Your picture as a timeline in space: cards receding into the distance with a liquid afterglow |
| Goop (fluid dynamics) | A real fluid driven by your motion: ink, water, metal, glass, neon |
| Plane Drift | Drifting planes with colour born on their edges |
| Test Stage | The first scene you see: your controller on screen with every button, stick and trigger lighting up, two fluid balls you steer with the sticks, ✕ shock waves. Checks your controller is calibrated. Free to play; hold L2 + R2 to leave it. Hold L1 + tap R1 (or HIDE CONTROLLER on the monitor) hides the controller: then the output carries the watermark unless Test Stage is unlocked |
| Corridor Panels | A tunnel of tiled panels flying toward a lit core; flashes carry your picture down it. This month's free scene: plays clean, no watermark, through Nov 30 |
| Cube Stack | A crooked stack of old monitors climbing forever, every screen playing you at its own delay |
| Custom Particles | Particles made of symbols, born wherever you move |
| Blob Tracking v3 | Finds the people moving in your camera and draws the tracking live. ✕ scoots the boxes across the screen, carrying their picture. △ fills everything outside the blobs with liquid |
| Pixel Smear | Your own picture is the paint: where you move, its pixels smear and melt along with you, then flow back home. 5 presets |
| Flashpoint | Fire driven by the motion in your own picture: movement becomes force in a fluid and colour burns through it as flame. Nothing pre-rendered, nothing loops. Includes Machine Vision Fire (the Machine Vision HUD over the fire) and four Machine Vision looks. Sold at $50 with its Resolume plugin, includes Custom Particles and its plugin, and in Everything |
| Machine Vision | A computer-vision HUD that locks onto your picture: detection boxes with IDs, centre symbols, satellites and link lines that track what moves. 7 presets |
| Typewriter Terrain | Letters and numbers type themselves across your picture in a black-and-white glyph field, with giant letters that spell your own word. 26 presets. Not on the store yet |
Every scene comes with its own presets (32 for Cube Bloom, Goop's 10 favorites). Star your favorites, save your own with SAVE PRESET.
Controllers
PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox, 8BitDo Micro, and most USB gamepads. L2 = next scene, R2 = next preset, the face buttons and d-pad do each scene's tricks, + / − put your camera on / off the scene. A controller that is already paired works after its first button press; HOW TO CONNECT on the CONTROLLER card walks you through pairing. Every button can be remapped on the CONTROLS tab, saved as a button layout, and shared as a file. Guides: CONTROLLER.md, CONNECT_A_CONTROLLER.md, every button in every scene: CONTROLLER_MAP.md.
Camera, or your phone
Any webcam. No webcam, or want a better one? ⧉ INPUT → USE YOUR PHONE AS THE CAMERA (Android, iPhone or a cable, with free apps). MEASURE DELAY tells you how late your camera's picture arrives. Without a camera the scenes play a demo clip. CAMERA.md
Effect Layer
A fluid on top of any scene, from one button: the centre button (PS / Xbox / ⊡) switches the face buttons to the layer, + turns the effect on and − turns it off, ◀ ▶ walk the fluids, ✕ sends a shockwave, ○ an ink burst, △ an electric look, □ a reaction pattern, ▲ ▼ set the energy. SOURCE decides what it is born from: the scene's own motion, or you on the camera (AUTO picks for you). LEARN BACKGROUND teaches it the empty room so only you drive it.
Music (AUDIO)
Audio reactivity is coming in a later beta update, so the ♪ AUDIO chip is gray and reads COMING SOON for now.
Projector and mapping
With a projector plugged in (Windows: Extend) the projector gets the picture only and your laptop keeps the app. The MAP tab pins the picture to the corners of a wall, a box or a screen, and can import a Resolume Arena Advanced Output preset. OUTPUT.md, MAPPING.md
Show tools
- SHOW: tonight's scenes in order (your first show is made for you).
SHOWS.md - CHECK: a show checklist (projector, mapping, controllers, camera, audio, power, sleep) with a button to fix each one.
- GUEST: hand the controller to anyone; the app stays on PERFORM and can't be closed or changed. It lives in the Plugin Player ▾ menu, top left, and asks first. Press Ctrl+G to turn it on or off, or click the badge and hold the on-screen EXIT 2 s.
- REC: records exactly what the projector shows (no buttons on it) to
Videos\Plugin Player. - FEEDBACK / REQUEST: always at the bottom. Bugs, ideas, a controller you want supported.
Known limits
- Unsigned. Windows shows "Windows protected your PC" (More info → Run anyway). On some new PCs Smart App Control blocks unsigned apps with no way past it; signing is on the way.
SECURITY_PROMPTS.md - First launch is slower. Heavy scenes are prepared once by a hidden helper copy of the app; your antivirus may ask about it (allow it). Later launches are quick.
- Spout is built in (both ways, nothing to install). To send to Resolume, click ⧉ OUTPUT and turn on SPOUT OUT · SEND TO RESOLUME at the bottom of the box (it works with one screen too); it stays on for the next launch on this computer, and the button says SPOUT ON.
OUTPUT.md§4 - Feedback sending: SEND goes straight to RexAffects. If it says Couldn't send right now. Copied it., paste your note into an email to feedback@rexaffects.com (or a reply to the email the beta came in).
- Updates: the app checks for updates by itself, but the update feed is not live yet; until it is, a new version comes as a fresh installer (your shows and settings stay).
- MIDI controllers and OSC: built in, off until you turn them on (CONTROLS › MIDI · OSC): learn any knob, fader or pad on any row, or drive Plugin Player from TouchOSC / a phone over Wi-Fi. Not yet: MIDI / OSC out.
MIDI_OSC.md - Windows 10 / 11 or macOS 13+, with a real graphics chip (any recent NVIDIA, AMD or Intel; Apple silicon on a Mac). If yours struggles, Plugin Player says so once.
Install: INSTALL.md · first launch: FIRST_RUN.md · something wrong: TROUBLESHOOTING.md