Flash OSC and Unity OSC communication ⋆ Kasper Kamperman

For the Saxion Art & Technology project “Artist Impression” I’ve created some demo files for the students to make an easy start with Flash OSC (Open Sound Control) and Unity OSC communication. The files are made for the Digixperiment Project from 100% FAT. A big video wall that uses thermal cameras for motion tracking. The data generated by their motion tracking system is send over OSC. You can use the files without this installation, since a motion tracking simulation application is included.

It was kind of a struggle to find some good and working OSC workflows for Flash and Unity. So I post the demo files here as well, so you can use them for other projects where you need to use OSC in Flash or Unity.

By the way TUIO.org has a great overview of software that talks OSC.

Flash OSC

Flash can not communicate directly with OSC, you’ll need a bridge program. After testing some TUIO gateways I chose the UDP-TCP-Bridge developed by Memo Akten. Its cross-platform and the source cde (OpenFrameworks) is provided.
I’ve included a compiled version for OSX and Windows in the .zip file. Pay attention the Windows version on the UDP-TCP-Bridge google code site doesn’t work. You can download a working version for Windows here.

If you prefer to work with AIR you won’t need the bridge software, however I’ve encountered some stability issues with AIR so I’ve decided to stick with the Flash and bridge combination.

For OSC communication I’ve used the excellent TUIO AS3 library. Tuio is a multi-touch protocol that works on top of OSC. The library is great as well for sending/receiving OSC data. See this Sending OSC for more info.

Unity OSC

In order to use Unity with OSC you don’t need to use any bridge software. The Unity package uses the C# files provided by Dave Pentecost in the Unity forum. Please check this forum post in the same forum discussion if you’d like to use event handlers.

Video

Check the videos below for more information and a demonstration of the files in the package. And a video with a walkthrough in the Flash code.

Download Digixperiment Development files

Digixperiment development files