Chapter 16

Troubleshooting

Nothing happens when the video plays#

  • Press Lint and fix every error first.
  • Check that the Dreamer Pro Player is in the scene and that the Dream's Video panel points at the right video player. The Inspector button "Repair Dreamer/TXL Wiring" reconnects them.
  • A Local Dream on hosted video needs its own video player. Until it has one, it plays as a Shared Dream and the Video panel says so.
  • A time Dreamer Pro cannot read counts as 00:00:00:0, so that node fires at the very start. Times read HH:MM:SS:F or HH:MM:SS:fff. Lint flags a bad one.

An object will not appear, or will not disappear#

  • The object is switched off in the Inspector. Switch it back on. Dreamer Pro hides every cue object when the world loads and shows it at the cue's start, so an object that starts switched off never appears.
  • Check the Cue track's checkbox in the Content Drawer. With the track off, no cue object appears. Cue and FX share one checkbox. Turn FX off and Cue goes off too. Lint reports this as Info, not an error.
  • To keep an object on stage to the end, drag the cue's end to the end of the Dream. The Dream lasts until the latest thing on the timeline ends, so dragging further only makes the Dream longer.
  • Two cues on one object do not fight over showing it. The object shows while any of its cues is running, so it hides only after the last one ends. Only the motion picks a winner. That is the cue that started last. Lint does not list this, so check the cues' times yourself.

An effect plays twice#

A slide that loops plays its entrance effects again on every loop. Turn off Loop transitions on that slide to play them once. Do not tick Loop on the video player. Dreamer Pro cannot follow a looping video, Lint calls it an error, and the upload stops.

A sound plays nothing#

  • No Audio Clip on the node. Lint flags this.
  • The scene has no audio listener, or it is muted. VRChat provides one on the player camera.
  • The sound is 3D and its 3D Position Object is far away, so it is faint rather than silent.
  • 3D Sound is on with no 3D Position Object. It plays from the Dreamer Pro player's own place instead. Lint flags this.

The controls do not respond#

  • Who May Control decides who can press the transport. A viewer it does not allow sees the bar with no buttons and no handle to drag, so nothing on it responds. Volume and resync still work.
  • In a gated Dream the transport is locked until the gate opens.
  • A control may be waiting for the clock. The first press claims it. The next press drives.

A viewer sees a different show#

Conditions do that. A conditional node plays only for viewers who match its name or prompt answer. A name must match the VRChat display name exactly, including capitals. A conditional node with an empty name plays for nobody. Other things also change what one viewer sees. A performer hides for a viewer who walks within its distance, and that switch is on by default. On Quest only three performers animate at once and the rest hold their pose. In a Local Dream every visitor has their own timeline.

The preview does not match the world#

  • The preview plays the slide you are editing. The world plays the slide the presenter is on.
  • Animation nodes preview from the source clip. The world plays baked data. Press Bake Animation Data.
  • A Local Dream's video does not play in Unity's Play mode. The video engine does nothing there. Test in VRChat.
  • Posing only exists in the world, in VR. Hand surfaces do preview: open the Preview page, set Platform to VR, and tick Hand Panel Out.

Recording#

  • Nothing is picked up from VRChat. Check four things: Preferences, under Dreamer Pro, has Pick up recordings from VRChat's log turned on; the Dreamer Pro window is open; the Presence node's Record in VRChat section is showing; and the node has a Dreamwalker. If the section says it is not reading anything, VRChat has never written a log on this computer. Start VRChat, then look again.
  • The node does not grow. The panel in the world has not started the take. Press Record on the panel.
  • The node says to press End on the panel first. You pressed End here while the panel in the world kept recording that take. Press End on the panel, then press Record. Nothing from the old take is replayed.
  • No microphone found. The recording will have motion only. Windows sees no microphone at all, so there is nothing to pick. Plug one in, then pick it in Microphone in the node's Recording box before you record.
  • The voice clips. Lower Recording volume. What has clipped stays clipped.
  • Monitor is silent. Monitoring needs an Audio Listener in the scene. The Main Camera usually has one. Monitor plays while the Record in VRChat section is open. Unity plays through the Windows default output, so if that is not your headphones, press Output beside Monitor and send Unity to the right one.
  • No face parameters arrive. In VRChat, open the Action Menu, then Options, then OSC, and turn it on. The Face row shows only while a take is being recorded. If OSC is on and nothing arrives, turn on "Read VRChat's port 9001 directly" in the node's Recording box. If that says the port is in use, another app holds it: turn it back off and use the normal mode.
  • The voice cuts out partway through a take. Dreamer Pro writes the gap as silence and keeps the timing true. A line in the Console names the microphone. If the microphone cannot restart, the take says the voice ends there. Try a different microphone, or change that microphone's format in Windows sound settings. Dreamer Pro has no input rate to set.
  • You opened the section after Record was already pressed. The take is in the list under Takes in this log once it ends. Put this take on the node brings its movement in; the voice was not recorded.
  • The section says to pick a Dreamwalker. The node has none yet. Set its Dreamwalker, and the section starts watching.
  • The take saved but its voice is not on the Sound track. Select the node and press Put it back. Lint says the same.
  • A take replaced the whole node when you wanted to keep the start. Dreamer Pro asks only when the playhead sat in the middle of the node as the take started. Put the playhead there before you press Record. Undo brings the old take back.

Importing a .dream file#

  • "This file is not a Dream file." The file is damaged, or is not a .dream file.
  • Written by a newer Dreamer Pro. Update Dreamer Pro, then import.
  • The report lists something it could not find. The file was exported without that object. Ask for a fresh export.

An image card has no frame#

Select the Image node. If its panel says the gallery frame may need a rebuild, press Rebuild Image Cards. Lint says the same.

The upload stops with "Dreamer Readiness"#

The message says how many problems there are. The Console lists them, and most show in Lint with the node that causes each one. Clear them and upload again.

Performance#

A Dream with several hundred nodes can cost frame time on a lower-end machine. Splitting a very long Dream into several shorter ones is the reliable way to keep it smooth. On Quest, keep the number of Local Dreams low and remember that three performers animate at once.

Report a bug#

The Report a Bug button in the editor footer opens a mail message in your browser, already addressed and with the version filled in. If that is not the mail you use, copy the message and send it from your own account. Tell us what you did, what you expected and what happened. Include the Unity Console if it shows a red line.