Unity

Real-time engine that dominates XR work. If a project involves headsets, handheld AR or an interactive exhibit on modest hardware, the device SDK you need almost certainly exists for Unity first. Scripted in C#, lighter to start with than Unreal, and less turnkey for camera-tracked broadcast and LED volume work.

Content creationUnity TechnologiesProprietaryFree tier, paid upgradeWindowsmacOSLinuxReported

Protocols it speaks

Protocol	Direction	Notes
osc	bidirectional	Through community packages rather than built in.
art-net	bidirectional	Through community and vendor packages.
ndi	bidirectional	Through vendor plug-ins.

What to watch for

Licence tiers and their terms have changed more than once. Confirm what applies to your seat and your revenue before committing a long project.

Show-specific plumbing — timecode, Art-Net, tracking — is community-supplied more often than it is first-party. Check maintenance before depending on a package.

Typical use

VR, AR and MR applications
Museum and exhibition interactives
Interactive content on constrained hardware

Sources

Unity — Unity Technologies primary

Understand the mechanism

Node graphs and game engines Code on a show

Something wrong, or missing?

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