Chapter 03

Your first Dream

This chapter walks from an empty scene to a Dream you can watch in your world. It takes about ten minutes.

1. Put the player in the scene#

Choose Dreamer Pro > Add Dreamer Pro to Scene. The Dreamer Pro Player appears in your scene. It carries the video player, the player controls, and every panel a Dream can show. It is also your first Dream. Run this menu item once. After that, add more Dreams with the plus on the tab row, which places another player for you.

2. Open the editor#

Choose Dreamer Pro > Dream Editor. Your Dream is already there, with its tab at the top of the window and the timeline under it. To add a second Dream later, press the "+" at the end of the tab row.

The Dream tabs at the top, with the plus at the end.

The window is the timeline. Everything else lives in panels around it: the Properties panel on the right, the Scene Objects list on the left, the Content Drawer, and a footer with Lint and Preview.

A new Dream shows three tracks: Cue, FX and Move, with one lane each. Lane rows appear only once a track has two.

The Cue, FX and Move tracks. This Dream has two lanes under Cue.

The others are there too, turned off. Turn one on with its checkbox in the Content Drawer, and it appears on the timeline.

The Content Drawer. Each track has a checkbox. A new Dream has Cue, FX and Move ticked.

3. Give it a video, or not#

A Dream can run in time with a video, or on its own clock. A new Dream starts on its own clock.

With a video: press the cog on the Timeline bar, then open Video. Under Playback choose Hosted. Paste the link into URL. Then press Fetch Timeline Audio, and Fetch Audio to confirm. The first time you fetch on this computer, Dreamer Pro asks to download two free tools, about 90 MB. Press Download. It happens once. Dreamer Pro fetches the sound of the video and draws its waveform under the ruler, so you can place things on a beat.

The Timeline bar: the cog opens the Dream's pages, the buttons play it.

Without a video: leave Playback on Non-hosted.

The Playback switch on the Video page, set to Non-hosted.

Either way, the Dream lasts until the last thing on its timeline ends. Its length is set for you, from the timeline, and shown locked in the Video panel.

4. Put something on stage#

Pick an object in your scene that you want to appear during the Dream. Leave it switched on in the Inspector. Dreamer Pro hides every cue object when the world loads, and shows it at its cue times.

Right-click the Cue track at the time you want and choose "Add Cue at" that time. A node appears. In the Properties panel, set its Object: drag it in from the Scene Objects list, or pick it. Set when it starts and when it ends, and choose an In Effect and an Out Effect under Transition. Fly, Spin, Bounce, Scale and Shake are all there.

The Cue's Source and Timing in the Properties panel.

Drag the node's body to move it in time. Drag its right edge to make it longer.

A Cue node on the Cue track, with an edge each side.

5. Watch it in the editor#

Press Preview in the footer, then press Space. The editor plays the Dream in the Scene view, with your object flying in and out at its times. The Timeline bar has buttons that play it too. They also jump to the start or the end. Drag the playhead on the ruler to scrub. Preview is for checking timing and placement. What a viewer sees in the world can differ in small ways, which The Dream Editor explains.

The Preview switch in the footer, on, with its time.

6. Check it#

Press Lint in the footer. Errors are things that will not play at all: a cue with no object, a sound with no clip. Fix those. Warnings are advice, like two things fighting over the same object, where Dreamer Pro picks one and tells you which.

The Lint window, with Errors, Warnings and Info counts.

7. Watch it in VRChat#

Build and test your world the normal VRChat way. In VR, raise a hand and glance at it, like checking a watch, and the player controls appear. On a computer they sit on your screen to start. Press play. Your object flies in on time.

If the upload stops with a "Dreamer Readiness" message, it says how many errors it found. Each one is written to the Console, tagged [Dreamer Readiness]. Read those first. Most of them also show up in Lint.

What to try next#

Your second Dream builds a short show out of five tracks working together, which is the fastest way to feel how a Dream fits together. Recipes starts from what you want and tells you which settings get you there.

Turn each track on in the Content Drawer as you need it.

Add a Sound node and set its Audio Clip.
Add a Text node to put a caption in front of each viewer.
Add a Prompt node to ask a question, then make another node depend on the answer.
Turn on Slideshow at the top of the Video panel to make scenes a presenter steps through.
Add a Dreamwalker and record a performance for it.

Each of these has its own chapter.