Ghost Arcade Community v1.0 — Open-Source Projection Mapping & VJ Software, Now Public on GitHub

Ghost Arcade Community v1.0 is now public

Today we open-sourced Ghost Arcade Community v1.0 under AGPL-3.0.

The repo is live, the binaries are on the GitHub releases page, and

the Community landing page explains what's in the box.

This is the foundation edition: projection mapping, layer pipeline,

MIDI control, mobile companion, recording, ISF shader playground.

Same foundation code that powers Ghost Arcade Pro — but as a standalone

AGPL-3.0 product you can run, fork, and build on.

→ github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community

→ Download binaries

What's in v1.0

The full list lives on the Community landing page, but

the headline surfaces:

per-corner curves

point cloud, gaussian splat, SVG, lines, text, light painting,

Three.js scene

touch-controllable surface for clip launching, mixer, master, shader

params

Cross-platform: Windows, macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux

(AppImage). Built on Svelte 5 + Three.js + Electron. ~150k LOC. CI

builds reproducible binaries from a git tag.

Why open source, why AGPL, why now

Three reasons.

1. The foundation surfaces are infrastructure

Projection mapping, MIDI control, layer pipelines, shader playgrounds

— these are the raw materials of working with light. Charging for them

would be like charging for a paint brush. Charging for them and

competing with the existing open-source options (VPT,

Splash, and the long tail

of openFrameworks projects) is a losing game over the long run.

The right move is to put the foundation in the commons and charge for

the live-performance + AI surfaces that take real engineering effort

to maintain (dual-deck, macros, snapshots, MIDI clock sync, AI

generation, Spout/Syphon). That's what Pro v0.5.0

is now.

2. AGPL is the right license for live-performance tools

We picked AGPL-3.0 over MIT / Apache for one specific reason: this is

software that runs in shows. We want forks to ship back to the

community, not to disappear into closed-source licensing schemes that

get sold to operators who then can't inspect or modify what's running

on their stage machines.

AGPL adds a server-side requirement that most operators won't ever

trigger (you'd have to host a modified version as a SaaS), but for

the rare case where someone takes the code, runs a modified network

server, and won't share the source — AGPL says you have to. That

matches the values of the live-performance scene.

If you're concerned about AGPL obligations for a commercial

distribution scenario, Pro has a standard commercial license.

3. Sustainability now, not later

The honest economic picture: we've been building Ghost Arcade for two

years, mostly in the dark, while figuring out what the actual product

was. The dual-deck + crossfader + macros work that landed in Pro

v0.5.0 is the moment Pro became a real product worth paying for. With

that shipped, the foundation surfaces don't need to be gated anymore.

They benefit more people more quickly as open source.

So we open-sourced them. The Pro edition pays for the engineers who

keep both editions moving forward.

What's NOT in Community

To be transparent — these live in Pro v0.5.0:

beat-grid auto-pulse)

If you need any of those, [Pro starts at $19/mo or $399

lifetime](/pricing). For VJs with cash-flow constraints we shipped a

new Pro Path tier: $25/mo × 18 months → you own the perpetual

license outright.

Build it yourself

```bash

git clone https://github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community.git

cd ghost-arcade-community

npm ci

npm run dev # development server

npm run build:electron # cross-platform binary

```

Pre-built binaries (unsigned — Gatekeeper bypass on first launch):

github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community/releases/latest

Contribute

Pull requests welcome. The repo has CONTRIBUTING.md with the workflow,

DCO sign-off, and the issue tracker is [open for bug reports +

feature requests](https://github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community/issues).

Discussions for general questions:

github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community/discussions.

We're particularly interested in:

welcome)

Fedora / NixOS welcome)

src/lib/effects/)

place)

Thanks

To everyone who tested the betas, ran early shows on it, filed issues,

and pushed for the open-source release. This wouldn't have happened

without you.

→ github.com/riskcapital/ghost-arcade-community

→ Download v1.0.0

→ Read more about Community

→ See what's new in Pro v0.5.0