New format for laser shows - time to upgrade the show production

It's worth noting that the wave format allows the inclusion of an unlimited amount of non audio info in the header.
You can add channel assignments, signal polarities, color and blank timings, correction tables, NFL scores and such.


Color channels do not require all 16 bits, so the low bits can hold subcode such as end of frame and unique frame marks.
Together with the extra header info, 'laser formatted' waves can be baked, unbaked, and rebaked again. There are many
left over bits for things like lumia cues, or whatever else you might want to cram in together with your synchronized audio.

Without some type of formatting, I agree that wave would not have much use beyond a means for ADAT playback.

Plus 1 for Dean.

You really should get yourself hooked up with the Vector Synthesis peeps. They are all about what you and I are really into. No one there would throw any shade on your will to make art and share it.



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(shrug) no one here is doing that.

you turned this thread into proclamation of your undying love for wave files and when it was rightly pointed out that wave files are not the best medium for laser show creation and work, you somehow managed to conflate that into an attack on people wanting to make and share art... i have no idea how you managed to make that leap. it is irrational.

oh well.

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Originally Posted by james

Plus 1 for Dean.

You really should get yourself hooked up with the Vector Synthesis peeps. They are all about what you and I are really into. No one there would throw any shade on your will to make art and share it.



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Originally Posted by swamidog

(shrug) no one here is doing that.

you turned this thread into proclamation of your undying love for wave files and when it was rightly pointed out that wave files are not the best medium for laser show creation and work, you somehow managed to conflate that into an attack on people wanting to make and share art... i have no idea how you managed to make that leap. it is irrational.

oh well.

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The title of this thread is pretty clear. It is a discussion about new file formats. We talked about ilda, text and wave. You seem to cast shade so easily, you don't even know you're doing it.

I'm here. I'm doing that. So are others. You are one not doing it.

stop projecting.

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Originally Posted by james

The title of this thread is pretty clear. It is a discussion about new file formats. We talked about ilda and wave. You seem to cast shade so easily, you don't even know you're doing it.

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Originally Posted by swamidog

stop projecting.

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Actually it's been a long time since I turned on my projector. ;)

I'm well aware I'm casting shade on the ilda file format. It sucks and I explained why.

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Originally Posted by james

Have you considered my questions?

What can you store in an ild file that you can't store in a wav?

What can you store in an wav file that you can't store in an ild?

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You can't efficiently store clip art or anything in a generic fashion. The WAV files are designed to be played at enumerated bit rates so a WAV file of a square, with four points, can't just have four data points. Extrapolation and optimization has to be performed before it can be played. On the other hand, ILDA files can contain the minimum amount of points and can be interpreted in real time and sent to a controller in an optimized fashion. It would be idiotic to store clip art in WAV files and the convert from and to them in real time. It doesn't even make sense. How would it even make sense to have a bunch of WAV files in a live setting where a DJ is pushing different buttons, zooming, panning, in an arbitrary manner? ILDA files completely work in this situation. WAV files do not. Even for just static storage, WAV files are pretty goofy if you want to store a show with 12 independent projectors.

The beauty of wav files is that the can be directly played back using standard audio equipment. But, there is hardly ever a case where playing back content, as-is, is ideal, if there is any desire to play back at more than one location where screens and distances are different.

You have a narrow view of what a wav file is because you are basing it on the way you are familiar with how they are used. People are doing exactly what you described. That's why I added the wav clip features in my app. You can save vector art in any state that ilda can store and more. Tons of applications can read waves.

Wav is much easier to read and write because it is just an uninterrupted uniform data stream. There are no headers between the frames. There may not even be any frames.


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Originally Posted by james

You have a narrow view of what a wav file is because you are basing it on the way you are familiar with how they are used. People are doing exactly what you described. That's why I added the wav clip features in my app. You can save vector art in any state that ilda can store and more. Tons of applications can read waves.

Wav is much easier to read and write because it is just an uninterrupted uniform data stream. There are no headers between the frames. There may not even be any frames.


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I wasn't aware that your app had anything remotely close to the ability to play back in real time while manipulating the parameters. Name an application where wav files are used for storage and provide this capability, or anything close to it. I'd be genuinely interested in learning more about it.

Scroll back in this thread and watch the Vector Hack Festival video, the whole thing.

Like I said... that's because it's a bicycle.

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