OdinOnDemand

Introducing OdinOnDemand 1.2: The Ultimate Media Experience for Valheim!

OdinOnDemand (OOD) adds tons of unique mediaplayers to Valheim that allow you to watch YouTube, direct video files, listen to Soundcloud, music, and dynamic radio stations all on in-game screens and radios! It's fully multiplayer synced, low resource, and easy to use.

1.2 updates OOD for Valheim 1.0 and is rebuilt on top of LibVLC: higher quality video, no more bad formats, and a new Max Quality setting. See below and changelog for more.

What's new in 1.2

• Valheim 1.0 support - updated for the latest version of the game. The OdinOnDemand build-menu group (category) is back, rebuilt on 1.0's new usage-tag system.
• VLC-powered streaming - video and audio streams are decoded by a packaged LibVLC 3.0.23 runtime and rendered into screens and audio sources. Quality is no longer limited to YouTube's old combined "muxed" formats. VLC streams media without full-file downloads or remuxing. Tested working on Proton too!
• Twitch and Kick Playback! - Full Streamlink support, allowing HLS playback from sites like Twitch and Kick in-game.
• Max Quality setting - pick 360p through 2160p (1080p default) from the cog menu. Affects performance.
• External JS status - modern yt-dlp needs a JavaScript runtime to unlock full YouTube formats. The cog menu now tells you whether one was found and links the setup guide if not. This is really important for YouTube playback, so please check it if you have issues.

Please enjoy OdinOnDemand 1.2! — Moddy

Found a bug? -> Nexus || GitHub Issue Tracker

About the VLC runtime: OOD now runs with LibVLC and LibVLCSharp (LGPL 2.1+) alongside the plugin in libvlc/win-x64. It is self-contained, you don't need to install VLC yourself. This is a huge change in the way OOD handles YouTube playback, but it should be more reliable and higher quality than previously. However, if you have any issues with the new playback, please check your JavaScript runtime and see if it is working properly. If still having issues, please report them on Nexus || GitHub Issue Tracker and include your BepInEx/LogOutput.log and Player.log files.

ValMedia recommends playing without bloom while watching cinema for the best viewing experience.

If you are enjoying the mod, please consider donating to my Ko-Fi.

Features

• Universal media support
• Full time sync and multiplayer integration
• Cinema screens
  • Theater Screen, Flatscreen TV, Table TV, Monitor, Old TV, Laptop
• Musicplayers
  • Gramophone, Boombox, Radio, Receiver
• Speakers that can be linked to any stationary mediaplayer using remote control
  • Linked speakers change center of audio location
• Remote control to use screens from a distance
• Mobile Players;
  • Cart - "Bard's Wagon", buildable. Used by pointing and clicking with remote control.
  • Belt - "Skald's Girdle", purchased from Haldor, with configurable recipe. Used by equipping & using remote control when pointing at empty space, e.g. not at a mediaplayer. Admins can point and click at other user's Belt and open it's menu.
• YouTube playlist support
• Online radio streams and Twitch/Kick channels (live channels require optional Streamlink on each client).
• Wide website support: Vimeo, TikTok, Dailymotion, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, reddit, etc. Just try your site of choice and it may return a valid file.
• Unique dynamic radio stations system with easy radio addon support
• New Music Waveform Visualizer
  • Configurable scaling factor
• Full mediaplayer configuration
  • Audio control, looping, admin only options
• Custom Piece and Item Recipe Configuration

YouTube error reporting has been completely changed to increase verbosity. If you find harmless exceptions that could be classified as a user UI message, please open up a suggestion on GitHub. Please report any other issues on the Nexus or GitHub tracker.

Installation

Installation of the plugin is fairly straightforward, just install into Bepinex/plugins or use r2modman. It must be installed on both server and client.

YouTube playback runtime

YouTube playback uses yt-dlp (single videos), YoutubeExplode (playlists), and VLC (LibVLC); Pure Unity VideoPlayer is not really supported for YouTube anymore. Streams are decoded without downloading the complete file or requiring ffmpeg.exe.

• Use Nightly yt-dlp requests nightly updates for local playback. Disabling it does not downgrade yt-dlp or affect a remote NodeJS server.
• Max Quality sets the preferred resolution limit from 360p to 2160p (1080p default). YouTube's final fallback may exceed this limit if no compatible format fits; the Streamlink live-video cap is strict. Lower it to reduce software-decoding and frame-upload costs, especially with multiple players.
• External JS shows the detected challenge-solving runtime. Install Deno 2.3+ beside yt-dlp.exe; Proton requires Windows x64 deno.exe. The plugin also searches PATH for Deno, Node, Bun, or QuickJS, including the Windows registry PATH, and passes the detected executable path directly to yt-dlp. Without one, quality or audio availability may be limited. See the EJS setup guide.

High-quality playback requires the packaged LibVLCSharp 3.10.1, LibVLC 3.0.23, and complete libvlc/win-x64/ directory beside OdinOnDemand.dll on every client. Copying only the plugin DLL is not enough.

Online radio, Twitch and Kick

Paste the URL into any player's normal URL field:

• Radio: paste a direct HTTP(S) station URL. VLC streams it without downloading the broadcast or requiring a file extension, yt-dlp, or Streamlink. Audio-only sources show the radio panel and waveform visualizer.
• Twitch and Kick: install Streamlink on every client. The cog menu shows its detection status. Streamlink resolves the channel, and the packaged VLC runtime plays the HLS stream in-game.
  • Windows: place streamlink.exe on PATH, beside OdinOnDemand.dll, or in the game directory. OOD also reads registry PATH values; reopen the cog menu to re-probe after changes.
  • Wine/Proton: use Windows Streamlink, or install Linux Streamlink in /usr/bin, /usr/local/bin, or $HOME/.local/bin with Python 3 in /usr/bin/python3 or /bin/python3. OOD bridges to the host automatically, including from Steam's pressure-vessel container. Keep Steam running; do not install Streamlink in the Steam runtime. Other Linux locations are not detected.
  • Max Quality caps live video by height and prefers higher frame rates at the same resolution. If no video fits, OOD uses audio-only when available.

Live streams have no shared seek position. Pausing freezes and mutes local output while the stream continues; resuming rejoins it. Each multiplayer client resolves the URL independently, so latency may vary. Finite media remains synchronized.

Before playback, OOD probes direct HTTP sources to identify websites, radio, and live or finite HLS. HLS probing allows 10 seconds, four playlist levels, and 256 KiB per playlist. Malformed or oversized playlists produce a playback error.

Use

MediaPlayers

In game, place down a mediaplayer. Interact with it to open the GUI.

Remote Playback

You can paste direct HTTP(S) audio/video stream URLs into the URL field; these use the packaged VLC decoder. Website pages identified by their HTML response still use the configured yt-dlp backend. You can also paste youtube/youtu.be links and the plugin will process this for you on all mediaplayers.

All mediaplayers have the added ability to play audio files of compatible codecs, as well as soundcloud.com links - some SoundCloud songs are unavailable, depending on the artist and how they upload/license their art.

Local Playback

Mediaplayers can play files from your computer's local filesystem. You can use absolute and relative path lookup for local files.

Absolute path lookup includes a drive letter, and is not synced over multiplayer unless players have identical file path structures (which is unlikely). For example, C:\videos\bunny.mp4 or file://C:\videos\bunny.mp4

Relative path lookup begins searching for files from OdinOnDemand's folder. Relative path lookup must include prefix local:// or local:\\ To load files from the plugin's folder, identify your media location - for example, a media subfolder in OdinOnDemand's plugin folder - here the path would belocal://movies/media.mp4 <- insert this into the URL field in-game. This would translate into F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim\BepInEx\plugins\Valmedia-OdinOnDemand\movies\media.mp4 or wherever the user's Valheim installation may reside. You can bundle video files with your modpacks or instruct Vikings to place files in appropriate locations for easier synced local playback. Play them in-game for events and lore and more. You can pull from anywhere in the local plugin folder.

Youtube Playlists

Mediaplayers have support for Youtube playlists. When a playlist is set, new info will appear in the UI. The Viking who initially sets the playlist handles playlist logic, so if they leave the area or disconnect playlist playback will stop. It is multiplayer synced. Do not skip through tracks too fast. You can choose to shuffle or loop the playlist. If looping, the whole playlist will loop - not individual videos. The last video played will be saved as the autoplay video.

Now Playing

Without a playlist, these rows show the current title and time (elapsed / total or LIVE <elapsed>). Long titles are truncated.

Time Sync

Mediaplayers will regularly send out requests to sync time with current mediaplayer (ZDO) owner. You can configure the time between requests sent in the Config file.

To manually seek to a time in the media, use the "Set Time" button under the Cog wheel settings menu. Input time in seconds.

Remote Control

Mediaplayers can be controlled from a distance with a remote control. A remote control can be crafted with 1 bronze. Simply equip, point at a Mediaplayer and click. Point and click at Bard's Wagon to use it. Point and click at no other mediaplayer with Skald's Girdle equipped to use it. Admins can point and click at other player's Skald's Girdle. You can link speakers with mediaplayers using the secondary remote control action. Select a speaker, then select a mediaplayer to pair. Repeat this process to unpair. You can view speaker count and unlink all speakers from the mediaplayer's settings panel. Config options include key configs, max controller distance, and an option to make remote control access private.

Locking

Mediaplayers can be locked in the top right corner of the menu. When a Mediaplayer is locked, Vikings can only access it if they have access to the private area created by a Ward. Admins can lock down mediaplayers from the cog menu, preventing normal Vikings from interacting with specific screens.

Additional Options

The cog button in the bottom right displays extra options. Options for admin only access, listening distance and master volume exist here.

• Master volume controls the overall volume level for that type of mediaplayer, from every single mediaplayer. It is a client sided option designed to allow Vikings to mute or boost audio for mediaplayers to their personal liking. There is an individual mixer for each type of media player - Cinema screens, radios, and mobile players.
• Listening distance is a multiplayer synced parameter that changes how far away audio is heard from individual mediaplayers. This can be limited in the plugin's config, which is not enforced on admins.

Default values and client sided master volume values can also be changed in the config.

Most features are synced over multiplayer through RPC events including player time. Volume is client sided.

Waveform visualizer

You can configure the scale factor of the audio waveform visualizer from the config settings. If you play with the volume turned down, you will want to turn this up.

Dynamic Radio Stations

To use the Dynamic Audio Loader, you need to prepare your audio files and additional assets in a specific format. You can create your own station from an asset bundle or from a folder containing audio files, then distribute them via mod repositories or modpacks.

Note: File names cannot include the character "#".

Create From Asset Bundle

1. Prepare Asset Bundle:

   • Your asset bundle should contain all the audio clips you want to include in your station.
   • Include a title text asset that contains the name of your station.
   • Optionally, include a thumbnail sprite asset to represent your station visually. Ensure it is set to "Sprite" type asset in the properties Inspector.
   • If you want your station to play tracks in a random order, include a shuffle text asset.

2. Loading Station:

   • The station will be automatically created when the asset bundle is placed in (Plugin Path, e.g. OdinOnDemand)\assetbundles.

Create From Folder

1. Prepare Folder:

   • Place all your audio files (supported formats: .ogg, .wav, .mp3, .flac) in a single folder.
   • Create a title.txt file containing the name of your station and place it in the same folder.
   • Optionally, add an image file named thumbnail with one of the supported extensions (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, .tga, .gif) to be used as the station's thumbnail.
   • If you want your station to play tracks in a random order, create an empty file named shuffle.txt in the folder.

2. Loading Station:

   • The station will be automatically created when the folder is placed in (Plugin Path, e.g. OdinOnDemand)\radio.

Radio Station Addons - Example Mod

To create a custom radio station addon for easy distribution, follow these simple steps:

1. Create your station folder
2. Create Essential Files:
   • odinondemand.txt: This file signifies that the folder is a radio station addon. Simply create an empty odinondemand.txt file in your station's folder.
   • title.txt: This file should contain the name of your radio station. Create a title.txt file in your station's folder and write your station's name in it.
3. Add Audio Files: Include your audio files (.ogg, .wav, .mp3, or .flac) in the station's folder. The plugin will recognize these files as part of your radio station.
4. (Optional) AssetBundle Support: If you prefer using AssetBundles, follow the instructions above to create your AssetBundle, then place your AssetBundle file in your station folder with the file extension ".assetbundle".
5. Zip the files up inside for upload to Thunderstore / Nexus, or place the folder in Valheim\BepInEx\plugins\

Station Playback

When you the game world is initialized, the Server Station Manager initiates the playback simulation:

1. Track Selection: If shuffle mode is enabled, the tracks are shuffled to create a random playback order. Otherwise, tracks are played in the order they appear in the station.

2. Synchronization: In multiplayer games, the Station Manager ensures that all players hear the same track at the same time, creating a shared audio experience. This is done by regularly syncing the current track and playback time with all players.

3. Track Advancement: Tracks are played in sequence. When one track ends, the next one begins. If shuffle is enabled, the order will change after each full cycle through the station tracklist.

4. Looping: The station continuously loops through its tracklist. Once the last track finishes, playback returns to the first track (or a shuffled track if shuffle is enabled).

The server will simulate station playback position or "time" and send this to players when needed. Once a player initiates playback of a station via a mediaplayer, they receive the most recent station data from the server, load the radio station client side, and play the media.

Clients and servers must have identical files for proper playback.

Config

Starting with OOD 1.0, config files are now stored in BepInEx\config\OdinOnDemand
The config includes settings for YouTube API selection, volume control, distance parameters for audio playback, server and client-side configurations, remote control functionalities, VIP mode settings, and audio fade options. It allows for extensive customization of media player behavior in the game, including options for enabling or disabling certain features, adjusting volumes, setting distances for audio reception, and specifying admin-only settings.

VLC audio diagnostics

To diagnose audio issues, enable this client-side option in the existing [YouTube] section of BepInEx/config/OdinOnDemand/config.cfg:

[YouTube]
Decoder Audio Stats = true

It defaults to false and covers all VLC playback. While enabled, [VLC audio #N] summaries are written to the output log every five seconds and when playback ends or the game shuts down.

Logs include the PCM format, Unity output rate, DSP buffer settings, and:

• Callback and frame counts from VLC through Unity. Submitted does not mean audible; measurement stops before mixing, spatialization, and device output.
• Queue underruns, scheduled silence, inactive reads/writes, dropped or cleared frames, timing resets, flushes, callbacks, and seeks.
• Queue and prefetch duration, backpressure, callback gaps, and AudioSource state, pitch, and volume.

Recipes

Recipes (piece and items) can now be tweaked through a json file located at BepInEx\config\recipes.json & recipes_item.json. the mod will automatically create these. However the default recipe files can be found here if needed.

Some helpful links to help you edit this file are here

Beautify/Validate JSON Valheim Item List

Do not change item names unless you want them removed. If you have any issues keep in mind you can delete your .json file and the mod will re-create it with default values.

VIP System (Beta)

When enabled, Only VIPs can place, remove, and interact with OdinOnDemand Pieces (admins excluded)

Enabled via Config files. Set VIP Mode to True, and add SteamIDs for VIPs. You may customize the message as well. The system is very barebones, so please provide any feedback to Github or Nexus.

Known Issues

• Boomboxes are currently difficult to place. Just.. keep trying. They place easier on terrain it seems. I'm not quite sure why this is happening. Gramophones are not affected.

If you have V-Sync force enabled in your GPU driver control panel, the mod may not function.

If the mod fails to play any sort of video file, not just YouTube - Please check your GPU driver's control panel and make sure the vertical sync setting is either identical your in-game settings or set to "match application setting". You can also check your Player.log. If there are errors about Direct3D and refresh rate / v-sync you may have to do this.

Screenshots

_{Build by DanAugust Last picture is with back-light setting turned off.}

For any tech-savvy Vikings out there, there is a backup YouTube api that can be self hosted using Node and youtube-dl. This is completely optional and not required as long as the built in library is maintained (YouTubeExplode)

Tutorial Video

Github Instructions

Acknowledgements

• SoundCloudExplode | YouTubeExplode | youtube-exec-dl | nodejs | yt-dlp | LibVLCSharp | LibVLC
• Inspired by Raft Cinema Mod
• Special shoutout to the Valhalla server Community and Administration
• Any and all other project supporters - thanks for all the interest and support along the way.