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The show machine's screen

The show machine's own display shows a status panel: what the machine is running, how to reach it, its license, and what every output is doing. You can read it from across the room, without a browser.

You don't work on the show machine itself; you work from a browser or the desktop app. Its display shows the Moonshine wordmark, the open project, a block of readouts, and a QR code that opens Moonshine on a phone.

The panel is laid out like a projector test card. An orange line runs around the very edge of the image, a fine grid fills the background, and a circle as tall as the screen holds the readouts. Put it up on a projector and you can see at a glance which machine it is and whether the projector shows the whole image: if any of the orange edge is missing, the projector is cropping it.

Where it appears

Moonshine fills every display attached to the show machine. A display with a projector output shows that output. Every other display is black, except one: the status panel takes the first display with no output on it, starting with the machine's main display.

  • Put your projector outputs on displays 2 and up, and the panel stays on the main display for the whole show.
  • When every display has an output, the panel isn't shown. It never takes a display from a projector.

You can't click anything on the panel. To reach the Windows desktop, press Win+D. On a Mac, press Cmd+H to hide Moonshine.

A display with no output is black, not broken

Moonshine fills any monitor you plug into the show machine. Until you give it an output, it stays black, and the panel lists it as no output, so you can tell an unused display from a failed one. The display the panel is on reads status screen. See Outputs.

Turn it off, choose its display, or move it

The quickest way is Projectors → Outputs, where the panel is the Status rectangle on the canvas. Drag it to another display, to a different spot on one, or off every display to hide it, and switch it off with Enabled. See The status screen.

You can also switch it off and choose its display in Settings → Project → Video, on the Status panel card. The setting belongs to the project: each project keeps its own, and the panel follows the project that's open. Each machine also has its own setting. In a show across several machines, set each machine's on the leader's Outputs page. A project opened on another machine starts with that machine's panel on Automatic.

Control What it does
Show the status panel On by default. Turn it off to hide the panel on every display
Display Automatic by default: the first display with no projector output, starting with the main display. Choose a display to keep the panel there

Changes appear on the show machine within a second.

  • A projector output always comes first. If the display you chose has a projector output, the panel is hidden until that display is free. It doesn't move to another display.
  • Dragged off every display, it isn't shown. Drag it back onto a display on the Outputs page, or set Display to Automatic.
  • An unplugged display stays chosen. Until it's back, the panel behaves as if Display were Automatic, and the card says so.

With the panel off, the show machine shows nothing about itself

No address, QR code, license line or output list. Write down the address first, or keep a device signed in. A display with no projector output stays black either way.

What is on it

When Moonshine starts, the panel shows the logo alone in the middle. Once Moonshine has read the machine and the open project, the logo moves to the top and the rest fades in below it.

From top to bottom:

Part What it is
MOONSHINE The wordmark
Project name The open project, or No project
Readouts Two blocks of lines, described below
QR code On a round plate, with Scan to open Moonshine on this network curved over it. Opens Moonshine on a phone or tablet on the same network, at the address shown in the readouts
Links Along the bottom of the circle: docs.moonshine.software, download.moonshine.software and Win+D for the desktop (Cmd+H to hide Moonshine on a Mac)

What this machine is

The first block. Its left column:

Line Example What it tells you
Version Moonshine 0.3.36 · 308cb2be The Moonshine version this machine runs, then a short code for the exact build. Two builds can share a version number; the code tells them apart, and matches the one in the app's Help menu
License Updates until 2027-10-14 The license, one line per fact. See The license line
Engine TouchPlayer Commercial 2025.33230 The Derivative engine Moonshine runs on, its license tier (Pro, Commercial or Non-Commercial, shortened to Comm or Non-Comm when space is tight) and its build

Below both columns, across the whole block:

Line Example What it tells you
Update Update: v0.3.16 available Shown only when there's something to report. See Updating Moonshine
Errors Errors: 2 faults - see moonshine.log, or Warnings: 1 - see moonshine.log when nothing is broken Shown only while something is wrong. See When something is wrong

The right column:

Line What it tells you
Address Where to open Moonshine. The secure https:// address is shown when there is one, because it's the one that carries the video preview. It's the machine's wired network address, or its Wi-Fi address if it has no wired one, and never a VPN or virtual machine network. Reads Waiting for the network... until the machine has an address
Connections no one connected, 1 person connected, 3 people connected: every browser and app with Moonshine open, signed in or not
Transmission Shown only while the Transmission bridge is on: connected, or offline with the reason

The address is always printed in full. Read it out, or type it by hand, when a device can't find the machine.

What it is made of

The second block. The left column describes the graphics card: its name, driver version, graphics memory in use out of the total, temperature and load. Below that is the frame rate Moonshine is rendering at, then Audio: and the output device, which is shown even when everything is fine (see Sound). On a Mac, or a Windows machine without an NVIDIA card, the card's name, driver version, temperature and load aren't shown, because they come from NVIDIA's own tool.

The right column, under OUTPUTS, has room for eight lines: one for each enabled projector output, in order of projector name, then one for each display that nothing is using. When several show machines play one show, each lists only the projectors it runs:

Line Meaning
Back Left · Monitor 0 · 1920×1080 A display output: the projector, the display it's on, and its resolution
Projector 2 · NDI · "Front" · 3 receivers An NDI output: its source name and how many receivers are using it
Projector 3 · SDI · DeckLink 8K Pro (1) · 1080p59.94 · genlocked An SDI output: the device, the signal format, and the genlock state when the card reports one
Projector 4 · not running - <reason> An output that couldn't start, with the reason
Monitor 2 · DELL P2419H · 1920×1080 · no output A display that no output is using. It shows black
... and 3 more More than eight lines: seven are shown, and this line counts the rest

The brightest lines are the ones to read: the address, the frame rate, the outputs, and anything that needs attention, such as warnings, an update or a license problem. Supporting values are dimmer, and labels and specs dimmest.

An output's line shows dropped or skipped frames only when there are some. The numbers on a line are the same ones the status badges show in the Outputs view. A line too long for the column ends in a period where it was cut off; the Outputs view has the rest.

The license line

The license appears under the version, one line per fact.

Lines Meaning
Updates until <date> Licensed, with updates until that date. Licensed when the license has no update period
Beta - 12 days left / Trial - 12 days left A time-limited license, with the days remaining when the license has an end date
License expired - outputs stopped, Activate from the app The license has ended, and every output shows the license card. See When a license ends
No license The machine has never been activated, or its seat was released. A reason may follow in brackets
Build unsupported, Updates ran to <date> This build is newer than the license's update period allows. See When the build itself is out of date
License check unavailable, Serving normally Moonshine couldn't reach the license server. It keeps running, and you don't need to do anything

The fastest answer to “is the server even up?”

Walk up to the panel. A changing frame rate, a printed address and license lines in the dimmer gray mean the server is running, and the problem is between it and your device. Start with Network.

When something is wrong

Errors: 2 faults - see moonshine.log counts the faults active right now, not how many times they've been reported. When there are warnings too, a warning count is added. With warnings and no faults, the line reads Warnings: 1 - see moonshine.log instead, and nothing is broken. A machine with a Non-Commercial TouchDesigner key shows a warning briefly at every start, for the cap on preview resolution. The line doesn't name the faults or warnings; the log does.

The log also marks each session. A === Session started line is written when Moonshine opens, and a === Session ended: closed cleanly === line when it closes normally. A session with no end line didn't close cleanly: Moonshine crashed, was forced to quit, or the machine lost power. Owlette reports every close as a crash, so check the log to tell the two apart.

moonshine.log is in the show machine's data folder: C:\ProgramData\Moonshine\data on Windows, /Users/Shared/Moonshine/data on a Mac. It records warnings and errors. An administrator can download it, together with the machine's version, displays, outputs and audio device, with Download diagnostics in Settings → Admin → Server. See Diagnostics.

Where to go next