The visualizer isn't accurate because it would need to know the speed of your servo motors, etc as well.
It's very useful, but there's no substitute for seeing your actual lights in an actual room. It's a great starting point though. You can set up your show and try out your ideas, and then when you see it with your actual lights, you can make any adjustments required to get the look you want.
In my situation, I was able to learn how the light movements worked before I received the shipment of lights. If I didn't have the visualizer, I would have lost a few weeks of setup time, because I wouldn't have any idea what my lights looked like.
If you want the visualizer to be 100% accurate, it couldn't work in real-time, because of all the calculation involved. It would be easier to implement though if the DMX protocol was bi-directional and the lights could tell the software exactly where they are aimed, and what settings they are currently showing (colors, gobos, iris, etc).
Does this help?
-Eric
Visualizer Accuracy....???
Moderators: simonB, dylan, RichterMC, florent
-
Shep2112
You are 100% correct. It could be done if more information about each light was provided, but not with the current setup.
For example, my Martin MX-1's take about 1 second to spin the gobo/color wheel from open (white spot light) to the other end of the wheel, which has 3 different colored balls. In Easy View, it appears they switch instantly, but in real life, the wheel spins through all of the colors and gobos it has before it gets there. It's a very impressive effect, and works great for a rapid flash of color.
If I right-click on the last gobo button for less than a second and then let go, then right click again and let go, I get an impressive super-fast flashing of color, as the lights display every gobo/color they have (I think 17), in about 1 second. If I let go of the button before the wheel arrives at its destination gobo, it spins back the other way towards white at the same speed. So if I keep right-clicking on the last gobo button and letting go within about 1 second and repeating, I get an amazing display of all the colors my lights contain happening so quickly that the audience just sees a colorful flash of light for 3 or 4 seconds.
Easy View won't show this effect at all, it will only show white, 3 colors from the last gobo on the wheel, and then white again. So the actual lights are more impressive than Easy View sometimes. But for the most part, Easy View is very useful. Each light has its own special effects like the spinning wheel I described which won't look as nice in Easy View. But it's a great place to get started designing your show. And normal scenes, with just movement of lights, etc, work quite well with Easy View.
For example, my Martin MX-1's take about 1 second to spin the gobo/color wheel from open (white spot light) to the other end of the wheel, which has 3 different colored balls. In Easy View, it appears they switch instantly, but in real life, the wheel spins through all of the colors and gobos it has before it gets there. It's a very impressive effect, and works great for a rapid flash of color.
If I right-click on the last gobo button for less than a second and then let go, then right click again and let go, I get an impressive super-fast flashing of color, as the lights display every gobo/color they have (I think 17), in about 1 second. If I let go of the button before the wheel arrives at its destination gobo, it spins back the other way towards white at the same speed. So if I keep right-clicking on the last gobo button and letting go within about 1 second and repeating, I get an amazing display of all the colors my lights contain happening so quickly that the audience just sees a colorful flash of light for 3 or 4 seconds.
Easy View won't show this effect at all, it will only show white, 3 colors from the last gobo on the wheel, and then white again. So the actual lights are more impressive than Easy View sometimes. But for the most part, Easy View is very useful. Each light has its own special effects like the spinning wheel I described which won't look as nice in Easy View. But it's a great place to get started designing your show. And normal scenes, with just movement of lights, etc, work quite well with Easy View.
-
Shep2112
I see. What kind of show are you doing? What is your bulb life on your lights?
I think it would be perfect for setting up your show without using the actual lights. It does take a little while to get used to, and to build your set within it. But once that's done, it should be fairly simple to position your lights and get the basic look that you desire.
In the case of my touring show, our stage size and shape changes every day, so I had to make a few changes to mine, and can't rely solely on Easy View, but for the most part, it's very useful. I imagine it would be great when used with a stage size that doesn't change, because every distance and angle could be measured, and then inputed into Easy View for an exact representation of the stage area.
I think it would be perfect for setting up your show without using the actual lights. It does take a little while to get used to, and to build your set within it. But once that's done, it should be fairly simple to position your lights and get the basic look that you desire.
In the case of my touring show, our stage size and shape changes every day, so I had to make a few changes to mine, and can't rely solely on Easy View, but for the most part, it's very useful. I imagine it would be great when used with a stage size that doesn't change, because every distance and angle could be measured, and then inputed into Easy View for an exact representation of the stage area.
-
Shep2112
Yep, I've added the shapes and all. The problem with my show is we perform the show in schools. Some days we have a stage, sometimes on the floor. Sometimes we have 10x10 meters, some days we have 5x5 meters. Sometimes 10x5, sometimes 5x7.. So every day is a new challenge
I have it worked out pretty well now though. I manually focus my fresnel lights, and then position my 4 scanners (2 on each side of the stage) for each of my scenes. I can focus all 13 lights in about 5 minutes, so it works fairly well for me.
How many lights are you using on your show?
I have it worked out pretty well now though. I manually focus my fresnel lights, and then position my 4 scanners (2 on each side of the stage) for each of my scenes. I can focus all 13 lights in about 5 minutes, so it works fairly well for me.
How many lights are you using on your show?
great discussion
this is a great discussion of the visualizer and other parts of sunlite. definitely something to be considering as I will be starting the programming of an extremely complex multimedia show starting in january with this system. Shep, you never answered the other person's question about the reliability of the software and how well it does with the triggers of sound/video files and such.
I will be putting together a very powerful computer to run sunlite and also for playing the video files that will be sent out to a projection system for the show. Have you experimented with easy show with putting in many light cues along a video or audio timeline and is it 'dead on'? That is my main concern with this system and I hope it is truly as good as it is supposed to be. I have been demoing the system for a long while and waiting for it to get to its 'sweet spot' and it seems to be there now, so I hope I'm not disappointed when I truly go for it in the spring.
thanks for any help/advice/info you can give......
I will be putting together a very powerful computer to run sunlite and also for playing the video files that will be sent out to a projection system for the show. Have you experimented with easy show with putting in many light cues along a video or audio timeline and is it 'dead on'? That is my main concern with this system and I hope it is truly as good as it is supposed to be. I have been demoing the system for a long while and waiting for it to get to its 'sweet spot' and it seems to be there now, so I hope I'm not disappointed when I truly go for it in the spring.
thanks for any help/advice/info you can give......
-
Shep2112
Sorry I guess I overlooked that question in my response.
I used EasyShow for a few weeks, but found for the show I do, it was actually easier to run sound/music cues on one laptop (trigged by the spacebar with a free program called Q-Manager) and then manually triggering the lights with hotkeys on another laptop.
I need to program my show into EasyShow, but I haven't quite settled on my final scene designs, etc yet. So once I do that, I'll etch it in stone with EasyShow.
I haven't installed the latest update, I've been running the July 31 update for the duration of my tour (since the first week of september). It's been perfectly stable, the only thing I've noticed is that when I click a switch or scene for the first time since starting Sunlite, there's about a 1/2 to a 1 second delay before the button on-screen pushes down (at which point the dmx signal goes out and the lights switch immediately). I don't know if this has been seen by anyone else, and/or if it was fixed in the most recent update. I'll install that soon and see what the differences are. I've found if I just click all the switches and scenes before I run the show, I never have the delays when I click them a second or third time.
So the short answer is, it's perfectly stable, has a bit of a learning curve but it's worth the time since it can do very powerful stuff after you've learned the basics. Most other software takes a while to learn and then when you want to do more advanced stuff, there's a lot more learning to be done, but not so with Sunlite, which I find very cool.
When I used EasyShow previously, I found if I put all of my wave files back to back, with a stop between each one, that playback wouldn't always stop on the marks. I don't know if this was fixed in the update or not, but it's been part of what's held me back from using it. I didn't try spacing the wave files apart by a few milliseconds but that may be a possible solution.
I hope this helps.. I tend to find flaws in everything that most people never stumble upon, but I guess that happens when you're a programmer yourself.
-Eric
I used EasyShow for a few weeks, but found for the show I do, it was actually easier to run sound/music cues on one laptop (trigged by the spacebar with a free program called Q-Manager) and then manually triggering the lights with hotkeys on another laptop.
I need to program my show into EasyShow, but I haven't quite settled on my final scene designs, etc yet. So once I do that, I'll etch it in stone with EasyShow.
I haven't installed the latest update, I've been running the July 31 update for the duration of my tour (since the first week of september). It's been perfectly stable, the only thing I've noticed is that when I click a switch or scene for the first time since starting Sunlite, there's about a 1/2 to a 1 second delay before the button on-screen pushes down (at which point the dmx signal goes out and the lights switch immediately). I don't know if this has been seen by anyone else, and/or if it was fixed in the most recent update. I'll install that soon and see what the differences are. I've found if I just click all the switches and scenes before I run the show, I never have the delays when I click them a second or third time.
So the short answer is, it's perfectly stable, has a bit of a learning curve but it's worth the time since it can do very powerful stuff after you've learned the basics. Most other software takes a while to learn and then when you want to do more advanced stuff, there's a lot more learning to be done, but not so with Sunlite, which I find very cool.
When I used EasyShow previously, I found if I put all of my wave files back to back, with a stop between each one, that playback wouldn't always stop on the marks. I don't know if this was fixed in the update or not, but it's been part of what's held me back from using it. I didn't try spacing the wave files apart by a few milliseconds but that may be a possible solution.
I hope this helps.. I tend to find flaws in everything that most people never stumble upon, but I guess that happens when you're a programmer yourself.
-Eric