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Thread: LFI Player Software Rides Again

  1. #1
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    Default LFI Player Software Rides Again

    24 years after writing the first version, 17 years after originally open sourcing the software, and 13 years after my last release (V1.1.6) of the software, I have decided to pull LFI Player software out of the proverbial mothballs and start playing with it again. After all this time away from lasers, there are a couple of reasons for this...
    * After years of not having any luck getting the LFI Player project to build with later versions of Visual Studio, I was finally able to successfully port the project from VC++ 6.0 (only runs on XP) to Visual Studio Community 2019, and then 2022
    * Finding the low cost Bitlasers Helios Laser DAC, and successfully adding support to the software
    * The generous long-term loan to me of a Unity Raw 1.7 projector by a good friend so I can actually project
    * And last but not least, a little extra time due to being semi-retired and craving to play with coherent light again

    So for anyone who might be interested, I have released the latest version (V1.2.2) of LFI Player application, an updated version of the User Manual, and some minimal updated demo material on SourceForge here...

    LFI Player 3D Laser Display Software - Manage /LFI Player/V1.2.2 at SourceForge.net

    V1.2.1 was quickly superceded with a bug fix, but includes...
    * Port to Visual Studio 2022 Community
    * Addition of support for Helios Laser DAC
    * Removal of support for non-driver based devices such as GWS as the needed _outp() and _outw() functions are no longer supported by the C Runtime
    * Addition of a MIDI controlled slider on the "Live" control panel so that master "Color Intensity" can be controlled with the MIDI controller Volume or Expression Wheel controls (for nice live fade in/out)
    * Updated ILDA file support, both read and write, to reflect True Color RGB (i.e. non-indexed) option.
    * Too many bug fixes to count (having a real projector brought a ton of bugs out of the woodwork)
    * A bunch of code cleanup

    V1.2.2 fixed a significant latency issue with the MIDI processing of the new master Color Intensity control

    I will be making updates and additional bug fixes as I identify them and have time. As SorceForge does have GitHub integration, my plan is to go ahead and get the source code into GitHub and link to the existing SourceForge page where I will continue to release the application.

    Please let me know if you have any questions and/or comments. Hope there are some who will find this useful.

  2. #2
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    Glad to see that you have resurrected LFI Player, I still have an old copy on my machine. I learned some things playing with it years ago.

    Quote Originally Posted by Lazerus View Post
    * Too many bug fixes to count (having a real projector brought a ton of bugs out of the woodwork)
    Having written some code without a decent projector myself, I know that feeling.

    I couldn't get the EZAudDac version to come up in this new release...

    Thanks for posting!

  3. #3
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    Out of curiosity, did the EzAudDac version of V1.1.6 work. If I broke something, I'd like to fix it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Lazerus View Post
    Out of curiosity, did the EzAudDac version of V1.1.6 work. If I broke something, I'd like to fix it.
    Yes, the earlier version would start up.

  5. #5
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    To be honest, I hadn't even tried starting the EzAudDac and EasyLase versions of the software as I don't have hardware to test them with. That said, both should start and run even without output hardware attached, so my bad for not even doing that much of a check

    Since I leveraged the EzAudDac interface for the Helios DAC, I did make changes to the original EzAudDac code. Should be straightforward to go back and diff to see what changed, and fix what I broke.

    Do you have EzAudDac based hardware to actually run LFI Player? And if so, would you be willing to try it out with hardware once I get a fix? I'll be able to verify the app starts and runs without hardware, but not much beyond that.

    Please ping me at lazerus_ls@yahoo.com if you would be willing/able to assist. Much obliged either way.

  6. #6
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    I feel an Etherdream on for keeps and a few other things are in your future. PM me with address.

    Steve
    Last edited by mixedgas; 04-25-2022 at 10:29.
    Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
    I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
    When I still could have...

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lazerus View Post
    To be honest, I hadn't even tried starting the EzAudDac and EasyLase versions of the software as I don't have hardware to test them with. That said, both should start and run even without output hardware attached, so my bad for not even doing that much of a check

    Since I leveraged the EzAudDac interface for the Helios DAC, I did make changes to the original EzAudDac code. Should be straightforward to go back and diff to see what changed, and fix what I broke.

    Do you have EzAudDac based hardware to actually run LFI Player? And if so, would you be willing to try it out with hardware once I get a fix? I'll be able to verify the app starts and runs without hardware, but not much beyond that.

    Please ping me at lazerus_ls@yahoo.com if you would be willing/able to assist. Much obliged either way.
    I have a 7.1 USB soundcard, o-scope and a good set of ears... I can give it a try.

  8. #8
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    @Steve It's been way to long since we last chatted. Very much looking forward to catching up.

    @dchammonds Awesome, thank you. I appreciate any and all assistance you are willing to spare!

  9. #9
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    I reviewed the EzAudDac version of the code, and realized I hadn't conditionally compiled out all references to the shutter control function (added for the Helios DAC) which isn't present in the EzAudDac.dll. The header file reference for the function was there so it built, but choked when you actually tried to run it since it didn't actually exist. I fixed the issue, and am able to verify that LFI-Player-EZUDDAC.exe runs, and based on the EzAudDac.txt log file produced by the DLL, is doing what it should. But that's as much as I'm able to verify. For what it's worth, I also did ensure the EasyLase version at least launches and runs even if there's no hardware present.

    I didn't see any reason to update the version number since this was a minor fix for the one variant, so I simply updated the ZIP file on SourceForge with the fixed EzAudDac version of the executable.

    Any additional verification of LFI_Player-EZAUDDAC.exe and LFI_Player-EASYLASE.exe by folks with supporting hardware would be appreciated.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lazerus View Post

    Any additional verification of LFI_Player-EZAUDDAC.exe and LFI_Player-EASYLASE.exe by folks with supporting hardware would be appreciated.
    Got the EZAudDac version to load, but the XY output is extremely low. When coding my apps for the Helios, I ran into the same issue.
    If I recall correctly, there is a byte swap issue in the XY data with the Helios DLL vs EZLase/EZAud DLL data structure.


    Grix was kind enough to make a custom DLL so I could drive EZLase/EZAud or Helios with the same code.


    The older ver of LFI has proper signal levels.


    Good to see support for 24bit color ILDA files!

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