Hap video playback

Decodes Hap-encoded MOV files straight into Texture2D memory, with no GC allocation during steady-state playback.

Hap is a GPU-friendly video codec: frames stay compressed in the format the GPU samples natively (DXT/BC), so playback costs a memory copy rather than a CPU colour-space conversion. This package wraps a native demuxer and decoder and exposes one component, HapPlayer.

It exists because installation work routinely needs many simultaneous video layers at high resolution, which Unity’s built-in VideoPlayer does not hold up under. The trade is that the source files must be encoded as Hap in advance.

Installation

OpenUPM is the recommended route:

openupm add com.bluecadet.hap

Or add the scoped registry to Packages/manifest.json yourself. The registry entry is only needed once per project, no matter how many com.bluecadet packages you install:

{
  "scopedRegistries": [
    {
      "name": "OpenUPM",
      "url": "https://package.openupm.com",
      "scopes": ["com.bluecadet"]
    }
  ],
  "dependencies": {
    "com.bluecadet.hap": "<version>"
  }
}

To pin a git tag instead, release tags are com.bluecadet.hap@<version>:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "com.bluecadet.hap": "https://github.com/bluecadet/unity-packages.git?path=Packages/com.bluecadet.hap#com.bluecadet.hap@<version>"
  }
}

Pick a version from Releases — every released tag is listed there. The openupm add form above always takes the latest.

Requirements

• Unity 6000.3+
• com.unity.collections (declared as a package dependency, so the package manager pulls it in)
• macOS, Windows, or Linux on arm64 or x86_64 — the native plugin ships prebuilt for those six targets

Quick start

1. Add a HapPlayer component to a GameObject.
2. Set File Path to an absolute path to a Hap-encoded .mov.
3. Pick a Render Mode — MaterialOverride (the default) assigns the decoded texture to a Renderer’s material each frame.
4. Enter play mode. Play On Enable is on by default, so it starts on its own.

From script, opening is asynchronous and reports a typed reason on failure instead of throwing:

using Bluecadet.Hap;

async void Play(HapPlayer player, string path)
{
    OpenResult result = await player.OpenAsync(path);
    if (!result.Success)
    {
        Debug.LogError($"Could not open {path}: {result.Status}");
        return;
    }

    player.Play();
}

Where to go next

• Supported formats — which Hap variants decode, and which are detected but rejected.
• HapPlayer — the full component and scripting reference: inspector fields, properties, open/close semantics, seeking, and lifecycle.
• Playing many videos at once — measured per-player cost, why the average understates the load, and how to stagger playback.
• Architecture and the native plugin — how the C# and Zig halves divide up, and how to rebuild the plugin.