Spectrum Development Documentation

This is the internal technical documentation for the Spectrum engine and its accompanying modules. It is intended for engine developers and plugin creators — not end users. End-user documentation is maintained separately.

What is Spectrum?

Spectrum is a framework for building control systems, with a primary focus on show control and DMX lighting. It is built on the Godot engine and follows a modular, networked architecture. The core product is a DMX lighting engine split across two separate programs — SpectrumServer, which runs the engine, and SpectrumClient, which provides the user interface. Both are managed and launched by SpectrumLauncher.

The engine is built on top of a set of internal modules that handle networking, input, UI, and shared utilities. These modules are documented here alongside the core applications.

Applications

SpectrumClient

The user-facing interface for Spectrum. Connects to a running SpectrumServer instance and provides the operator with control over the lighting engine. All user interaction — patching, programming, playback — happens through the client.

SpectrumServer

The engine. Manages DMX output, the show file, and all internal state. The server can run headlessly on dedicated hardware or alongside the client on the same machine. It exposes its state to connected clients via the Constellation network layer.

SpectrumLauncher

The entry point for end users. Manages the lifecycle of SpectrumClient and SpectrumServer instances — starting, stopping, updating, and configuring them.

Internal Modules

These modules are not standalone products. They are shared libraries and subsystems used across the Spectrum applications.

Constellation

The networking layer for Spectrum. Constellation handles multicast discovery, node and session management, TCP/UDP communication, and command routing between SpectrumClient and SpectrumServer instances. It is also available as a standalone module for use in third-party integrations and plugins that need to communicate with a Spectrum network.

NetworkManager

The abstract networking foundation that Constellation is built on. Defines the base classes for network nodes, sessions, and handlers. Most developers will interact with Constellation directly rather than NetworkManager.

Axis

The input handling system. Axis manages MIDI, serial, HID, and network inputs and normalises them into a centralised control interface used by both SpectrumClient and SpectrumServer. Plugin developers building input-driven functionality should refer to the Axis documentation.

Vertex

The UI module. Vertex provides the shared theme, style definitions, and reusable components used across all Spectrum GUI applications. Developers building UI extensions or plugins that integrate with the Spectrum interface should build against Vertex components.

Utils

A collection of shared utilities, base classes, and types used across the entire codebase. Key components include:

• GlobalBaseClass — the structural interface all GBC-compatible classes must implement. Defines the required signals, methods, and serialization contract.
• Data — the canonical type enum used throughout the engine to describe and identify data values.
• ChildManager — a utility class for managing parent-child object relationships through a unified callable-based interface.
• Promise — an async result type used across the engine for operations that may resolve locally or from a remote network response.

Developer Guides

• Code Style Guide — formatting, naming conventions, and commenting rules for all GDScript files in the codebase.
• How to Write Documentation — rules and templates for writing API documentation from source files.