Why Mapshroom is free
Mapshroom exists to reduce setup time, so more of the process can go into artistic production.
It is free and open source because a tool gets more valuable when more people can use it, change it, and build on it.
A starting pointWhat we build on it01Capture
02Map03Create01 / The mission
Mapshroom is not here to make artists better at configuration. It is here to make configuration disappear. Every minute saved between picking up a projector and starting the mapping is a minute returned to artistic production.
Setup time → 0 · Artistic time → ∞
02 / The premise
I believe software today cannot afford not to be free: free to use, study, change, and extend. Anyone could take Mapshroom, build on it, clone it, or try to make it their own.
That is not the risk. The real risk would be never creating the tool at all—or keeping it behind a wall where too few people can help it become what it could be.
The real value is not owning this tool. It is making sure this tool exists.
03 / The first bet
Even if Mapshroom reaches only 5% of today’s projection-mapping users, that group is only the seed inside a huge market of artists who want less setup and more time to create.
01 / The people already in reach
Event crews, visual artists, cultural spaces, shops, creators, and coders all want the same thing: less time inside the process and more time making the work.
Less process. More art.02 / Now zoom out
The 5% is only the seed. Around it is a huge community of artists who want the process to disappear so the work can begin.
The 5% is the seed of a much larger market.04 / Free and local-first
The complete local workflow is free to open and use.
Nothing stands between an idea and the first projection.
Images and projects can stay on your machine instead of leaving it just to begin.
The return is participation: more users, shaders, experiments, and shared possibilities.
The complete local workflow costs €0. Open the app and start creating without making an account.
Local-first matters because access should be immediate and private. Your images and projects do not need to leave your computer just to use the tool.
I get no direct return from that first local use. The return I care about is participation: more people creating more shaders, experiments, fixes, and unexpected possibilities for everyone.
Free to start. Local by default. Shared only when you choose.
05 / The second bet
The bet is simple: you should not need software that costs €800 every year to make a small, medium, or large-scale projection-mapping installation. The complexity of the idea should not dictate the height of the paywall.
06 / If the bet is right
Open tools do more than remove a price. They change who gets to participate—and what the rest of the market must do next.
More people can start, more shaders can be shared, and a common visual language can grow for everyone.
Established companies are pushed to build better products and open projection mapping to a much wider public.
The invitation
The only way to know whether this bet is true is to let as many people as possible try it.