appmana-unity-plugin

Stream your apps and games with AppMana for Unity Plugin

Join our Discord

Get Started with a Sample and Templates

Visit and fork our templates to start a new project ready to deploy on AppMana:

• For URP: https://github.com/appmana/appmana-unity-starter-urp
• For HDRP: https://github.com/appmana/appmana-unity-starter-hdrp

Plastic is supported. For the best experience, use Git.

Usage and Installation in an Existing Project

1. Add the following scoped registries and dependencies to your Packages/manifest.json file:*

{
  // start selection for copy and paste
  "scopedRegistries": [
    {
      "name": "OpenUPM",
      "url": "https://package.openupm.com",
      "scopes": [
        "com.cysharp",
        "com.neuecc"
      ]
    }
  ],
  // end selection for copy and paste
  "dependencies": {
    // start selection for copy and paste
    "com.unity.inputsystem": "1.5.1",
    "com.appmana.unity.public": "https://github.com/AppMana/appmana-unity-plugin.git",
    // end selection for copy and paste
  }
}

2. Add the RemotePlayableConfiguration component and configure the camera, audio source and CanvasScaler components associated with the player.
3. Use the provided InputSettings and InputActions assets for maximum compatibility with the simulated inputs platform. You can find these in our plugin's entry in your Packages directory in the Asset Browser window.
4. Once you have committed these changes, sign up at appmana.com and supply the repository URL when prompted. We will build and deploy your game.

*If you are upgrading from an earlier version of the AppMana Unity Plugin, you should remove the UniRx and UniTask package references in your manifest.json; then, delete your packages-lock.json file to refresh your package versions. This will resolve errors regarding SemVer in your console, and will improve the reliability of packaging in the future.

Enabling Multiplayer

This example will help you make a 2 player multiplayer game where each player has her own camera and interaction is done with 3D objects and the canvas.

1. Create two layers: Player1 and Player2. These will be used to limit objects to be interactable only by the layer's corresponding players.
2. Create a Player prefab, and create 2 instances of it in your scene. Both should be active.
   1. In this prefab, add a RemotePlayableConfiguration. to its root.
   2. Add a camera and a PhysicsRaycaster to a child game object.
      1. Set the Camera on the RemotePlayableConfiguration to the camera you created.
      2. To limit the player to interacting with only certain objects in the scene, set the Event Mask property to Player1 (created earlier).
      3. You can add Default or other layers to allow multiple players to interact with the same object.
   3. Add a Canvas to another child game object to set up the player's UI. Set it to Screen Space - Camera, and add a GraphicRaycaster.
   4. Setup an Event System in this hierarchy.
      1. Add an InputSystemUIInputModule and a MultiplayerEventSystem component (from the Input System package) to another child game object. Observe you you add these in the wrong order, a StandaloneEventSystem is added, and you must click the "Replace" button in the inspector to resolve this error.
      2. On the InputSystemUIInputModule, set the Pointer Behaviour to All Pointers As Is, and set the Actions Asset to the Input Actions asset located in Packages/AppMana Unity Plugin in your Project tab. Due to a Unity Editor quirk, you cannot locate this asset by clocking the Find button in the inspector.
3. Set up your second player prefab instance.
   1. Set the PhysicsRaycaster's Event Mask property to Player2 to allow this player instance to interact with only "Player2" layer objects. See the Event System documentation for the significance of these options.
   2. Set the Target Display in the camera's Output rollout to Display 2.
   3. Add a Game tab to the editor, and set its Display to Display 2 in the dropdown.

Hit play. Observe your two screens now represent the two distinct player devices.

Troubleshooting

I only see a black screen in stream.

Check your console for errors. The plugin will report any issues it finds.

I don't hear any sound.

Connect your Audio Listener to the RemotePlayableConfiguration's Audio Listener slot.

How do I visualize the layout of UI elements and the size of the stream in editor?

To visualize mobile viewports like Mobile Safari and the Instagram in-app browser, switch to the Simulator view and choose an AppMana device profile by searching the word "AppMana" in the dropdown.

How can I connect my Cinemachine camera to an Input System-driven input?

Use the CinemachinePressableInputProvider component to get Input System-based input for your Cinemachine cameras. Reference the UI/Delta input action for the XY Axis, and UI/Click for Enable When Pressed if you want to limit camemra looking while a pointer (touch or mouse) are pressed.

I have scripts which use Input and Screen. How can I resolve errors in the console quickly?

Add using Input = AppMana.Compatibility.Input and using Screen = AppMana.Compatibility.Screen to your scripts which are using the unsupported features of Input and Screen.

Generally, using the Screen component is flawed in this platform.

I observe freezes in my stream, or the game is stuttering in a way I cannot reproduce in editor or player builds.

Your machine has cached shader compilation. Shader compilation can take a long time. To resolve this:

1. Open the editor on Windows.
2. Make sure your Unity editor title bar says DX11 (the default). If it doesn't, change the order of your player graphics backends. DX11 should be first.
3. Vist the Graphics tab in Project Settings. Observe at the bottom, you should see "Currently tracked: X shaders, Y variants" or similar.
4. Hit play.
5. Play through all the content in your game, ensuring that all the shaders have been compiled and loaded. Be thorough.
6. Click off play.
7. In the Graphics tab, observe now a greater number of shaders and variants are tracked.
8. Click the Save to assets button at the bottom of the Graphics tab.
9. Drag and drop the saved shader variants asset into the preloaded shaders list in this tab.
10. Save your project, save your scene, then commit.

How do I access PlayerPrefs?

1. Check the Enable PlayerPrefs in the inspector for your Remote Playable Configuration.
2. Access remotePlayableConfiguration.playerPrefs. This will only be ready after the On Player Connected Unity event callback is called. You can see this event callback in the Remote Playable Configuration inspector.
3. Observe you will receive errors if you attempt to access this field before On Player Connected is called. In other words, you must wait until a player has connected before you can modify their RemotePlayerPrefs.

My changes to PlayerPrefs aren't saved.

Make sure to call remotePlayableConfiguration.playerPrefs.Save(). This is also how the Unity API for PlayerPrefs works.

How do I embed my stream?

Use the following iframe snippet. You will have to modify its width and height for your purposes.

<iframe width="100%" height="100%" src="https://appmana.com/watch/your-url" referrerpolicy="same-origin"></iframe>

How do I read the URL parameters from the visiting page?

1. Check the Enable URL Params in the inspector for your Remote Playable Configuration.
2. Access remotePlayableConfiguration.urlParameters and read the documentation for the methods on it there. This will only be ready after the On Player Connected Unity event callback is called. You can see this event callback in the Remote Playable Configuration inspector.
3. Observe you will receive errors if you attempt to access this field before On Player Connected is called.

How do I limit the aspect ratio of my streaming player to be portrait-only?

1. Visit your project in the AppMana dashboard.
2. Visit the Settings tab.
3. Set the Max Player Width to 56vh.
4. Click Update.

Requirements and Limitations

• Unity 2021 or higher.
• Built-In Render Pipeline, HDRP or URP.
• Use only one camera and one scene. Use Cinemachine wherever you would ordinarily use multiple cameras.
• You can develop on a Windows or macOS device. Vulkan, DirectX 11, DirectX 12 or DirectX DXR will be used to render your game.
• You must use InputSystem ("com.unity.inputsystem": "1.5.1"). Input.mousePosition and other legacy input approaches are not supported. See here for migration tips. To ease migration, use AppMana.Compatibility.Input.
• You cannot use overlay canvases. Use Camera Space in your canvases. In HDRP, use a custom pass to bypass postprocessing in your screen space canvas. See the HDRP template for a complete example.
• Use a Constant Physical Size setting for your Canvas Scaler.
• Use the AppMana.Compatibility.Screen class instead of UnityEngine.Screen.
• PlayerPrefs are not supported. Use AppMana.Compatibility.PlayerPrefs or the RemotePlayableConfiguration.playerPrefs property.