GDTF Hub

GDTF Hub - An Independent Resource for GDTF & MVR News, Tools, and Documentation.


Latest news

Real World Physical Properties of GDTF Devices Newly Supported in BlenderDMX v2.0.1

The BlenderDMX addon has been released with support for real world physical properties, transforming it from a “nice effects generator” into a lighting visualizer representing real lighting fixtures behavior.

Posted May 24, 2025  ‐ 3 min read  ‐ Categories: GDTF, MVR, BlenderDMX

GDTF Share Crossing the 7000 Total File Count Mark

The total number of manufacturer- and user-generated GDTF files in the GDTF Share has surpassed 7000, marking a significant milestone, as the entertainment industry manufacturers move towards general support for this technology. Recent GDTF Share Reports of the past few months indicate a consistent increase in support for GDTF from multiple lighting fixture manufacturers, including the newly joining JB Systems, ER Productions, EK Lights, Rasha Professional, Volux, and others. Do note that the monthly reports are focused on total count of devices and do not include counts for multiple file revisions.

Posted May 15, 2025  ‐ Categories: GDTF, GDTF Share

Building Moving Lights in UE5 by Caleb Hoernschemeyer

Caleb Hoernschemeyer showcases adding GDTF-based assets for moving lights into the DMX Plugin of Unreal Engine 5.

Posted May 7, 2025  ‐ Categories: GDTF, Unreal Engine

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GDTF & MVR

GDTF: The General Device Type Format is an open standard for describing devices of the entertainment industry. These devices may be lighting fixtures, trusses, distribution boxes, media servers, lasers or other devices used in the entertainment industry. This documentation describes DIN SPEC 15800:2022-02 also known as GDTF Version 1.2.

MVR: The My Virtual Rig file format is an open standard which allows programs to share data and geometry of a scene for the entertainment industry. A scene is a set of parametric objects such as fixtures, trusses, video screens, and other objects that are used in the entertainment industry. This documentation describes DIN SPEC 15801:2023-12 also known as MVR Version 1.6.



Describing devices of the entertainment industry

DMX Modes

Fixtures can have many modes which change its available capabilities. These are all specified in a single file.

Channel Mappings

Channel mappings available in the fixture are associated with which values produce which responses.

Color & Gobo wheels

Bundled image files provide gobo patterns and color mappings define virtual or physical color wheels.

Fixture Geometry

Bundeled glTF, glb or 3DS files specify the specific geometry of lighting fixtures. Fixture functions are tied to these models.

Color Information

sRGB, ANSI standard, and ProPhoto values can be used to specify the calibrated color space of the light.

Physical properties

Power consumption, weight, operating temperature, and more specify the physical properties of a fixture.


Describing the entertainment scene

Scene description

Scenes are organized into groups, layers and child lists of objects with custom classing, positions, rotations, geometries, addresses and connections.

GDTF Fixture

Using the GDTF Specification, detailed description of lighting fixtures, trusses, distribution boxes, lasers and other devices is possible.

Symbol reuse

Objects can be defined as symbols and inserted into the scene multiple times with instance specific properties.

MVR xchange

MVR-xchange - allows multiple clients within the same network to share MVR files.