VLED Blender Plugin User Guide

Bake a Blender scene into VoxelStudio's depth-map .mkv format. The baked file is opened in VoxelStudio via File → Import Baked Scene… and plays back as a volumetric scene on a Voxel display.

Requirements

Requirement	Notes
Blender 5.1+	Blender 5.1 and newer are supported.
ffmpeg	Required for baking. Must be on your PATH, or point the add-on's ffmpeg Path field at ffmpeg.exe.
VoxelStudio	To import the baked .mkv.

Install ffmpeg on Windows:

winget install --id Gyan.FFmpeg

Restart Blender afterward so the new PATH takes effect. Verify with ffmpeg -version in a terminal.

Installing the add-on

1. Edit → Preferences… → Add-ons → Install…
2. Select voxelstudio_bake.py and click Install Add-on.
3. Tick the checkbox for Render: VoxelStudio Bake to enable it.
4. (Optional) Hamburger menu → Save Preferences to keep it enabled across sessions.

You'll then have two entry points, both with the same actions:

• 3D Viewport → press N → "VoxelStudio" tab — the main panel (settings + buttons).
• Top bar → Render menu → "VoxelStudio Bake" submenu.

Quick start (demo scene)

1. File → Save As… — save your .blend first. The default output paths use Blender's // (relative-to-blend) prefix, so a saved location is required.
2. Open the VoxelStudio N-panel (N in the 3D Viewport).
3. Pick a Format (VX2 or VX2-XL) to match your hardware.
4. Click Create Demo Scene to drop in a test scene (torus + orbiting sphere + bouncing cube), sized to the volume, with the 6-camera rig and a black world.
5. Set your frame range in Properties → Output Properties (the demo uses 1–120).
6. Click Bake to MKV and watch the progress bar.
7. When it finishes, the output folder opens automatically. Import the .mkv into VoxelStudio.

Settings reference (N-panel)

All settings live on the scene and are saved with the .blend.

Bake settings

Setting	Meaning
Format	Target Voxel hardware. VX2 = square volume, 256×256 per face, 1536×512 frame, bounds 2·2·2. VX2-XL = wide volume, 512×256 sides + 512×512 top/bot, 3072×1024 frame, bounds 4·4·2. VoxelStudio auto-detects the format from the imported frame size.
FPS	Output video frame rate. Match it to your scene's fps.
Output .mkv	Destination file. // = relative to the .blend.
Temp Directory	Working folder for intermediate renders. Safe to delete after a bake.
ffmpeg Path	Leave as ffmpeg to use your PATH, or set an absolute path to ffmpeg.exe.
Faces to capture	Six toggles (+X, +Y, −X, −Y, Top, Bot). Disabling a face skips its render entirely — up to a 6× speedup when only some faces matter (e.g. a flat billboard that only needs +Y). Skipped faces read as empty in VoxelStudio.
Open Folder When Done	After a successful bake, open the output folder in your file browser with the .mkv selected. On by default.

Volume placement

The capture volume is centred on the VS_CamRig empty. Select it in the viewport to move / scale where the bake samples. Geometry must sit within ±bounds (see Format) or it's clipped. The 6 cameras sit further out as a visual gauge.

Baking your own scene

1. Position/scale your geometry inside the volume (select VS_CamRig to move the capture region over it).
2. Set the frame range (Properties → Output Properties).
3. (Optional) Click Setup Bake Rig to create/refresh the cameras, black world, and compositor without baking — useful to eyeball the cameras first. The bake runs this automatically anyway (it's idempotent).
4. Click Bake to MKV.

The bake progress bar

The bake runs modally so Blender stays responsive:

• The Bake to MKV button is replaced by a progress bar showing percent complete and a status line like Frame 6/20 · VS_CamPosX.
• The bottom status bar mirrors this with a [Esc to cancel] hint.
• Press Esc (with the mouse over the 3D Viewport) to cancel cleanly — your render resolution and settings are restored.
• When it finishes, the output folder opens (unless you turned that off).

The system console (Window → Toggle System Console on Windows) still prints per-face progress and full error tracebacks if anything goes wrong.

Importing into VoxelStudio

1. In VoxelStudio: File → Import Baked Scene…
2. Select the produced .mkv → Open.
3. Activate the new scene (double-click it in the scene navigator).

If the geometry plays back upright and in the right place, your pipeline works end to end. You can preview the raw .mkv in VLC — it looks like a 6-up colour strip stacked over a 6-up depth strip.

Updating the add-on

1. Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → find VoxelStudio Bake → expand → Remove.
2. Install… the new voxelstudio_bake.py.
3. Re-enable the checkbox and Save Preferences.

For rapid iteration, Run Script (Alt+P) on the new file in the Text Editor — it unregisters any prior version and re-registers immediately.