Web Page Renderer

Dynamic content inputs/Web page renderer

A powerful way of getting external web data/images/animations/audio into Composer is by using the Web Page Renderer input. External web pages can be fetched, including web pages running javascript.

The Web Page Renderers supports HTML transparency, meaning content can be partly transparent from a Web Page Renderer.

There are two different Web Page Renderers, Chromium and Ultralight. The Chromium version renders content faster but is incompatible with the runtime version of Linux. At the time of writing, the Ultralight version has limited web page support due to limitations in the underlying library (3rd party). Future updates of Composer will contain updates to the Ultralight version.

 The Web Page Renderer will capture the visual content of a web page at the same frame rate as the scene is being rendered, only limited by the system’s performance.

NOTE!
The Chromium Web Page Renderer is only supported in the Windows version.
Audio support
From Composer R2 2025, embedded audio is supported in the Chromium version. For audio, use the FLAC, MP3, Opus, PCM, Vorbis, or AAC codecs.
Video support
Chromium does not support licensed media codecs such as H. 264. For video, use the AV1, VP8 or VP9 codecs.

Both Web Page Renderers (Chromium and Ultralight) have a similar GUI interface. Below is the Chromium interface.

  • Url - Web page Url. HTTP or HTTPS. (Example: https://composer.docs.vindral.com)
  • Reload page URL (button) - Reloads the webpage
  • Cef renderer load state - Status. 
  • Dimensions:
    • Renderer width - Renderer width (pixels)
    • Renderer height - Renderer height (pixels)
  • Commands:
    • Start page rendering (button) - Load the page and start rendering
    • Stop page rendering (button) - Stop rendering
  • Configuration:
    • Start rendering when loaded - Enable this option to automatically start rendering the webpage when the project loads. (Default)
    • Auto reload page on error - Enable this option to automatically reload the page if the last load attempt failed (HTTP result other than 200)
    • Enable web page console logging - Enable this option to add logs from the webpage console to Composer log file.
  • Performance and properties:
    • Video queue size - number of video frames captured (buffered) but not yet rendered. 
    • Page render performance: Time to render the page.
  • Optional TAGS
    • TAGS - Add a "tag"  that can be used in the input smart search function. It is possible to add several tags by separating them by a SPACE char.

 For more information on Chromium and Chromium Embedded Framework, visit

https://www.chromium.org/Home

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework