LFI live Player updated for sound card DACs

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10-20-2008, 09:58
drlava

LFI live Player updated for sound card DACs

There has been some interest in this area, and the author has released the latest version, 1.1.5 of the LFI player with EzAudDac support. (Also, easylase USB support is right around the corner, I'll add it soon, along with updated RIYA support.)

LFI player is a scriptable live show controller that acts as a kind of 'laser show synthesizer' for live shows. As the music plays, even live freestyle music which can't be pre-timed, you can press control buttons in the live control panel to activate laser animations and moving beam sets to go with the mood of the music. LFI player can import ilda formats 0-2 files, or have laser data generated via the abstract control panel or via a script.
LFI player is open source, so can be extended by 3rd parties as long as the source for the extensions is contributed back to the LFI player author.

One note: when loading the CLV show sets, the base path needs to be set properly in the preferences/live control tab (Default: C:\laser\). See page 17 of the manual for details.

Screen Shot 1
Screen Shot 2

Home page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lfiplayer3d/

Contact the author or me if you want an additional demo show file.
10-20-2008, 10:14
thesk8nmidget

thanks for the info just to clarify i did it right all i need to download is the
LFI_Player_V1_1_5_EzAudDac
and then extract it all and open the exe?

all the other things dont concern me? besides maybe the manual and the demo files?
10-20-2008, 10:20
drlava

yep, the manual and the demo files are the only other things I'd get.
the 'LFI_Player_V1_1_5.zip' is the source.. it's a ms visual C++ 6.0 project which is an extremely common and easy to use dev package.
10-20-2008, 10:42
thesk8nmidget

awesome thank you!
10-20-2008, 10:58
keeperx

Lava, are you in contact with the LFI developer?? if so could ya help him make it a little more intuitive?? its very ugly cumbersome software right now..
10-20-2008, 11:20
Lasernerd

LFI player is this Michael S. version?
10-20-2008, 11:28
drlava

keeperx, if there is something in particular about its use and the answer isn't in the manual, I can try to answer. But just because it is free doesn't mean it's not worth a few minutes of your time to figure out how to use it.

Lasernerd.. yep Michael S is the author.
10-20-2008, 11:48
keeperx

um.. hello.. i a big supporter of free software... i was just saying that it would be nicer if the interface were a little friendlier.. i have played with it and found it a bit awkward and cumbersome to work in.

the MAIN thing is that (and your gonna think im being picky) it needs a skin with larger buttons and easer to click sliders..

Im not saying its bad software, im just saying its a bit difficult to work in
10-20-2008, 13:11
thesk8nmidget

i agree it is a little tricky. im still trying to figure out how it all works.
10-20-2008, 17:24
Lazerus

For what it's worth (probably not much), I'm the author. As drlava pointed out, the software is free and open source. If you want to add/modify/chop/hack/slice/dice/spice the code, knock yourself out. I wrote it years ago to do what I needed it to do, and generally the only work I do now on the code is to fix or add things that suit me. The EzAudDac functionality was added at the request of an old friend. All that having been said, if you *do* decide to take the time to get past the cosmetics, I think you'll find it can be quite a powerful tool.
10-20-2008, 17:41
Lasernerd

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazerus

For what it's worth (probably not much), I'm the author. As drlava pointed out, the software is free and open source. If you want to add/modify/chop/hack/slice/dice/spice the code, knock yourself out. I wrote it years ago to do what I needed it to do, and generally the only work I do now on the code is to fix or add things that suit me. The EzAudDac functionality was added at the request of an old friend. All that having been said, if you *do* decide to take the time to get past the cosmetics, I think you'll find it can be quite a powerful tool.

Great to see you here Lazerus!!
Surely do miss hanging out with you talking laser..
10-20-2008, 19:43
thesk8nmidget

welcome to the forum michael

its good to see the people behind the software joining and hopefully hgelping us learn all we can!

thanks for the free software! im still trying to get the hang of it! :)
10-20-2008, 20:18
mixedgas

welcome Mike and thank you, btw, I did send you the box and the postal service bounced it back to me. L3D on modern hardware, christmas just came with awesome abstracts and very early!!!! Say hiya to the Misses and MKa for me and thank you for your time.

Steve
10-20-2008, 21:09
mixedgas

[hints from a more seasoned user.

want to make a abstract, load a existing abstract file and mod it, remember to save it under a different name, MSDOS style! Click on "track focus" for that abstract's track and the abstract controller will come up.

want a new live console, load a existing .clv file and go from there!

Mixedgas votes LFI player best software generated abstracts on the planet! Followed closely by Dean's software shown at SELEM. I havent had a shot at Pango Pro yet, so I can't comment about that one.

Steve Roberts[/QUOTE]
10-20-2008, 21:25
mixedgas

bugg or user error.

when I try to load demo.clv,

I get a view of the live console, then this error pops up:

OnOpenClvFile(): failed to open file for reading

then you click ok in the error box and the error message and the live control screen vanish.

I do have my path set correctly in preferences.
Steve
10-20-2008, 21:31
drlava

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixedgas

when I try to load demo.clv,

I get a view of the live console, then this error pops up:

OnOpenClvFile(): failed to open file for reading

then you click ok in the error box and the error message and the live control screen vanish.

I do have my path set correctly in preferences.
Steve

Just checking, do you have the backslash at the end?
10-20-2008, 22:32
mixedgas

I do now! That cured it!

OK, now to rock....
Thanks Dr Lava!

I JUST WATCHED 3D TEXT OVER ABSTRACT! MIKE, U ARE A GOD! (APPOLOGIES TO BIG GUY UPSTAIRS!)

Steve
10-20-2008, 23:27
dave

Wow!

I remember when LFI player was made freeware, having a look at it and thinking it was pretty cool. Maybe I might have to make up one of these DAC's, so i can really have a mess round with the software. How stable is the DAC?
10-20-2008, 23:52
Things

hi dave. The DAC is pretty stable. If you have a fast computer it should be fine! the only thing I noticed is that it sometimes "freezes" for a second if you do somethng on the computer while its playing a show. But it doesnt freeze to a signle dot, it keeps the original pattern or whatever that was going.
10-21-2008, 03:58
keeperx

ok im giving LFI another shot, but i cant find the live control or the abstracts... where are they hiding?
10-21-2008, 07:13
Lazerus

I'm pretty sure your path is just incorrect. The "demo" ZIP contains a folder named DemoFiles. If, for example, your "Content Base Directory" in Options->Preferences->Live Control is set to 'C:\Laser', then for demo.clv, LFI Player will be looking for the folder 'C:\Laser\DemoFiles'.

On a related note, LFI Player writes a "log" file for each session, which includes additional information about errors. If you encounter an error, open the resulting LFI_Player_log.txt file to see what went wrong.

Please let me know if this resolves the problem.
10-21-2008, 07:35
Lazerus

Okay, I'm a day late and a dollar short on that last response. Please be patient with me as I get used to this site.

Please note that the best way to become familiar with LFI Player is to become familiar with the different LFI Player script files and how they fit together. It will take some time and effort, but (I believe anyway) it will be worth it. The 30,000 foot overview for LFI Player file types is this...

.CLV - This is the "live" show script, which associates individual LFI Player scripts (more later) with cues on the LFI Player live console. The console has 12 pages of 48 cues each, so each live .CLV file can accomodate a total of 576 cues. These cues can be triggered by clicking with the mouse, the F1-F12 keys, or a MIDI keyboard (NOTE-ON...NOTE-OFF always triggers cue 1, which is usually beam off). Likewise, you can go through the pages by clicking on the console with your mouse, TAB (shift-TAB) keys, or MIDI program change. The sliders on the live console provide additional "global" control, but that's more than I want to get into here.

.CTS - The individual script file. Allows you to take one or more ILDA, LFI Player abstract, and/or scrolling text, and do interesting display things (fade in/out, rotations and translations, zoom in/out, to name just a few).

.TXT - Will read a text file and display the contents as scrolling text.

.ABS - LFI Player abstract file. To launch the abstract console, load an existing .ABS file. If no other laser content files are currently open, this will be assigned to track 1 by default. Press the "Play" button, and then click on the "Track Focus" button for track 1. This will launch the console.
10-21-2008, 07:59
keeperx

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazerus

I'm pretty sure your path is just incorrect. The "demo" ZIP contains a folder named DemoFiles. If, for example, your "Content Base Directory" in Options->Preferences->Live Control is set to 'C:\Laser', then for demo.clv, LFI Player will be looking for the folder 'C:\Laser\DemoFiles'.

On a related note, LFI Player writes a "log" file for each session, which includes additional information about errors. If you encounter an error, open the resulting LFI_Player_log.txt file to see what went wrong.

Please let me know if this resolves the problem.

that fixed it...
10-21-2008, 12:17
thesk8nmidget

wow! this software is pretty impressive ESPECIALLY the abs generator! i have spent about 30 minutes playing around with it now i just need my damn scanners back from repair! now i just need to play around with some of its other features! :)
10-21-2008, 14:47
Things

Cool software!!

Lazerus, do you have any other fontsets for it, or if not, how is it used?

:)
10-21-2008, 17:35
thesk8nmidget

you simply make a new .txt file and use any font :)
10-21-2008, 17:46
Things

I mean, when you open a txt into LFI player, it only outputs 1 font...
10-21-2008, 18:44
mixedgas

1 Attachment(s)

OK some premade cts files and frames for LFI PLAYER, THESE are freeware frames from the FTP site someone posted. see attached zip.

It should be easy to turn these into a CLV file for live player

copy them into the demo scripts and ild directories.

these have been tested.

This sample CTS file works for simple animations:

LFI_PLAYER_SCRIPT

CAT
RIF 1 DemoFiles\ILD_Files\YOURFILEHERE.ILD 1
SFP 1 0.0 0.0 75000
SBV 1 0
SDM 1 1
SBD 1 10
STS 1 100
STD 1 1000
STR 1 1
SCF 1 1.0
JD 1000000
ES

mixedgas
10-21-2008, 19:45
Lazerus

Lazerus, do you have any other fontsets for it, or if not, how is it used?

================================================== ===

It's not a font in the technical sense...it's just an ILDA file with a frame for each ASCII character. If you want a new font, you can use an ILDA editor (I use Anarchy) to create a new LFI Player font file, name it 'default_font.ild', and replace the existing file. Make sure to use the original file as your template for the characters to include.
10-21-2008, 19:59
Lazerus

The format of the .CLV file should be pretty self explanatory. FYI, I did recently added a feature which can make it easier to add cues to each page. If you want to explicitly assign a cue number to a cue, you can still do so at the start of the line, for example...

PAGE 1
1 BeamComposite\Global\Blank.cts beam_OFF
2 BeamComposite\sinewaves\BigCut.cts Big_Cut
4 BeamComposite\sinewaves\BigSne1.cts Big_sine_1

...will assign cues 1, 2, and 4. This is useful if you want to order types of cues by, let's say row or column.

However, if you want to let LFI Player add the cues sequentially and automatically number them, specify a '0' at the start of the line, e.g....

PAGE 1
0 BeamComposite\Global\Blank.cts beam_OFF
0 BeamComposite\sinewaves\BigCut.cts Big_Cut
0 BeamComposite\sinewaves\BigSne1.cts Big_sine_1

...will assign cues 1, 2, 3, and so on. This is useful if you shuffle things around a lot, and don't want to manually renumber when you reorder the entries. Note that you don't need to use every cue or every page...just as little or as few or as many.

One final reminder, if you use MIDI to trigger, cue 1 on the current active page is triggered by NOTE OFF.
10-22-2008, 04:27
dar303

This looks like a really cool piece of software! I haven't tried it with the USB DAC yet but just playing around with the abstract generator is fun...and i like the "beam wiev"-function!
10-22-2008, 06:35
keeperx

ok im digging it what it CAN do.. but im still unable to get past the interface problems, as in the manual file editing etc..

i guess its nice for some things but ill stick to other stuff i like better...

sorry, i really tried to like it, its just unfinished..
10-22-2008, 07:06
mixedgas

sorry, i really tried to like it, its just unfinished..[/QUOTE]

Sad to hear that you feel that way, if enough of us sat down and banged out the text files, or wrote a show script editor add on etc, this would be better then many commercial programs out there, and good live control isnt cheap, you have to work at it. I intend to hang around and bang out the ASCII files for distribution as I have time. I've already posted the first 12 beam effects, and I intend to head for 3 pages of 48, all good and all PD, so you could go do a rave or a home party with it. I have to be careful, as I nearly released a Pango animation I use for system testing into the 12 I uploaded last night, so Its gonna take a while.

Knowing a bit of the history of this program, and whom its author worked for, means that there is not much artwork or files the author can provide, it is therefore up to us to generate the content. So we users have to make the clipart, no big deal. You'd be surprised where this software has been used commercially.

If we build up a user base, the bugs will get fixed. If not, a great chance to improve the quality of low end shows will be missed.

It already has surpassed or equaled the full show mode funtionality of FULLAUTO/x29 or the older QM32 version of LIVE!, plus the abstract engine bonus.

Steve
10-22-2008, 07:24
Lazerus

Quote:

Originally Posted by keeperx

ok im digging it what it CAN do.. but im still unable to get past the interface problems, as in the manual file editing etc..

i guess its nice for some things but ill stick to other stuff i like better...

sorry, i really tried to like it, its just unfinished..

I'm familiar with what's out there, and I know for a fact that LFI Player can do as much or more than some of the commercially available software. Bear in mind that finished versus unfinished is completely subjective. I'm a programmer (embedded, not desktop BTW), so writing scripts doesn't bother me...and I wrote the software to do what *I* want it to do. If you want a pretty GUI and drag-and-drop with minimal effort, then LFI Player isn't the tool for you. It's all about expectations. Realize that if my intent was to create the next Pangolin, I certainly wouldn't be giving it away for free.

If you like it, great. If you don't, write (or buy) something better. Really makes me no difference to me. At any rate, thanks for giving it a shot.
10-22-2008, 07:27
mixedgas

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixedgas

sorry, i really tried to like it, its just unfinished..

Sad to hear that you feel that way, if enough of us sat down and banged out the text files, or wrote a show script editor add on etc, this would be better then many commercial programs out there, and good live control isnt cheap, you have to work at it. I intend to hang around and bang out the ASCII files for distribution as I have time. I've already posted the first 12 beam effects, and I intend to head for 3 pages of 48, all good and all PD, so you could go do a rave or a home party with it. I have to be careful, as I nearly released a Pango animation I use for system testing into the 12 I uploaded last night, so Its gonna take a while.

Knowing a bit of the history of this program, and whom its author worked for, means that there is not much artwork or files the author can provide, it is therefore up to us to generate the content. So we users have to make the clipart, no big deal. You'd be surprised where this software has been used commercially.

If we build up a user base, the bugs will get fixed. If not, a great chance to improve the quality of low end shows will be missed.

It already has surpassed or equaled the full show mode funtionality of FULLAUTO/x29 or the older QM32 version of LIVE!, plus the abstract engine bonus. Both were bestsellers a few years ago.

Steve[/QUOTE]
10-22-2008, 08:01
keeperx

I will definetly look into the scripts that have been written. Im not tossing it aside, im just (sa said above) a "drag and drop pretyy gui" kind of guy...
10-22-2008, 08:37
TL

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixedgas

.... or wrote a show script editor add ....

Some years ago I wrote a little script editor which highlights the keywords and gives help to every command... I will digg it out later and upload it... :)
10-22-2008, 08:53
mixedgas

TL, would you tell our collegues on Laserfreak that it is upgraded?

Steve
10-22-2008, 09:36
keeperx

Where are the script files you guys have made?? ilda swap??
10-22-2008, 09:41
drlava

I have compiled a version with easylase support. If you have a easylase DAC and want to test, PM me!
10-22-2008, 11:33
TL

1 Attachment(s)

I've uploaded the script editor to the ilda swap ftp.
Don't expect too much, I did this a few years ago to help me with the script creation...
10-22-2008, 14:24
mixedgas

Quote:

Originally Posted by keeperx

Where are the script files you guys have made?? ilda swap??

look for my post about 10 posts back, its a attached zip file.

Steve
10-22-2008, 17:26
Lazerus

Quote:

Originally Posted by TL

I've uploaded the script editor to the ilda swap ftp.
Don't expect too much, I did this a few years ago to help me with the script creation...

That looks pretty cool TL. How do I access the ILDA FTP swap?
10-22-2008, 17:37
Lazerus

BTW, has anyone discovered my spin-the-bottle "feature" yet? As the preview image is displaying on the screen, take the cursor, click and hold down the left mouse button, and then "spin" the image left-to-right or right-to left, letting go of the mouse button while still dragging. The faster you spin the image, the faster (and longer) it will rotate. The cool part is that it applies to all active tracks, and is "additive" with respect to any other translations or rotations currently being carried out by the script. Lots of fun for "live" control of beams and abstracts. The settings for drag speed and inertia can be found "Options -> Preferences -> Live Control".
10-22-2008, 18:08
drlava

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazerus

That looks pretty cool TL. How do I access the ILDA FTP swap?

http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...66&postcount=2

:D
10-23-2008, 07:43
Lazerus

Thanks drlava, and thank you TL. I just tried out your script editor, and it's great! Simple, robust (so far), and having the documentation with the hyper links right there absolutely ROCKS! Much obliged.

As long as I'm doing the "thank yous", I've neglected to thank drlava for creating the EzAudDac.dll, and for assisting me with the LFI Player integration. Without him, the old version of LFI Player would still be languishing on SourceForge. Thanks also to mixedgas for convincing me that I needed to add the EzAudDac support.

And finally, there's been much in this thread about the LFI Player abstracts. While I've said as much in the user manual and LFI Player FAQ on SourceForge, I'd like to again tip my hat to Rick Gebhardt of Laser Illusions. It was with his kind and generous assistance 10 years ago when I first decided I wanted to write my own software for is Graphics Workstation (GWS) DAC card that I was able to not only get things rolling, but eventually add the abstract console as well. While I've made lots of changes over the years, Ricks's basic abstract algorithms are still the foundation.

P.S. I added the samples from mixedgas to the LFI Player "DemoFiles" and live console, and posted on the ILDA swap FTP. I've started looking through my stuff at home for frames that I've created, and as I have time, will create scripts for them and add to them to the "demo".
10-23-2008, 07:56
thesk8nmidget

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazerus

And finally, there's been much in this thread about the LFI Player abstracts. While I've said as much in the user manual and LFI Player FAQ on SourceForge, I'd like to again tip my hat to Rick Gebhardt of Laser Illusions. It was with his kind and generous assistance 10 years ago when I first decided I wanted to write my own software for is Graphics Workstation (GWS) DAC card that I was able to not only get things rolling, but eventually add the abstract console as well. While I've made lots of changes over the years, Ricks's basic abstract algorithms are still the foundation.

that is so cool because about 3 years ago when i first got into laser projections i used laser illusions and i really enjoyed the abstract generator the most!

it was a lot of fun!
10-23-2008, 15:29
buffo

One of the things I liked about Rick's Abstract generator was the fact that some of the best patterns arose out of aliasing distortion...

He had two virtual oscillators that could run up to 100Khz. Of course, that's several orders of magnitude too fast for a set of scanners. But that didn't matter. When the resulting waveform was down-sampled to generate points that would be sent to the scanners, the natural aliasing distortion from such a huge step down in frequency would produce all sorts of strange waveforms (remembering that the base waveform was always a sine wave). I got hard angle corners, square shapes, feathery, spikey patterns, and some really crazy stuff that defied description when I played around with his abstract generator.

Of course, for every combination of settings that worked there were a couple hundred that looked like hash, but after a while you got a feel for what would work and what wouldn't. I would set the two oscillators way up in the range at some goofy multiple of each other and then slide them back and forth until I got something that looked promising. Then I'd tweak one or the other until I got a stable pattern, and finally I'd play with the color speed until it synced up.

Great stuff, really. There are things you can do with that old-school Alphalite software that I haven't been able to re-create with the Pangolin abstract editor yet. (Probably because I don't know enough about it yet.)

Adam
10-23-2008, 17:06
Lazerus

Hmmmm...interesting you bring that up. The huge jumps and crazy changes in scanner direction are the very things which drove me nuts...mostly because what was actually displayed by the scanners did look like hash, while what appeared on the screen generally looked cool. For LFI Player, I added extra points along long jumps and extra points at sharp corners. The result is abstracts that look more in laser like they do on the computer screen...but perhaps I should look into adding a checkbox to disable that...to give the "GWS Classic" look. Not sure my scanners would like it much though...
10-23-2008, 18:56
Lasernerd

Quote:

Originally Posted by drlava

Just checking, do you have the backslash at the end?

From the player I get the same msg.
Backslash at the end of what?

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