What's important to you in laser show software

[carmangary]

What do you spend your most time doing? What features are most critical to you. What do you do that is tedious that could be improved?

Please don't say creating animations and frames. I know they are tedious. Imagine that they have already been created and you just need to piece them together.

[JimBo]

Timing to music, so the frame changes on the beat.

Jim

[DZ]

What's important to you in laser show software

Abstracts, masking, multiple tracks, real-time morphing, animation and abstract rates of change on a timeline, multiple levels of effects that can be applied to a frame on the timeline at the same time, built in geometric correction, color palette wizard, advanced preview window.

[mliptack]

Hmmm I am sure my DAC has that (FB3)

Hmmm sure wish I knew how to use half of it

[Banthai]

easy..... LIVE CONTROL via Midi keyboard / interface or touch screen or assignable to DMX desk etc....

all the best .... Karl

[carmangary]

Live control is a good idea but beyond the scope of what I will be doing, at least initially. My first step is to simply allow people to create shows in ILDA format that can be played back using their own laser show software.

I don't really want to worry about hardware compatibility right now so this software won't allow playing back shows except in preview mode on your screen and possibly on the DAC I currently use. So, that pretty much rules out live control for now. In the future, I might add support for hardware with open SDKs but that's for another day.

The goal of this is to provide free software that allows easily and quickly creating shows that are synchronized to music. I have already been successful in the prototype phase. I was able to create a completely synchronized ~5 minute laser show (music was Don't Crash by Front 242 by the way) in under 30 minutes. I'm currently rewriting portions of it to handle multiple tracks on the timeline and to be able to produce a big honking ILDA file. I'll also support a native format that allows sharing the show development project so that others can easily modify it if they want.

[nanoWatt]

I may need to talk with you later. I'm just beginning my interest in some laser shows. I'm just waiting on the laser I ordered.

I had written in another thread and then came across this one. That's my goal exactly to time to music.

I'm going back to study calculus, and I do have programming experience, just not in the ILDA stuff. Maybe later I'll be able to add something mathematical.

Live control is a good idea but beyond the scope of what I will be doing, at least initially. My first step is to simply allow people to create shows in ILDA format that can be played back using their own laser show software.

I don't really want to worry about hardware compatibility right now so this software won't allow playing back shows except in preview mode on your screen and possibly on the DAC I currently use. So, that pretty much rules out live control for now. In the future, I might add support for hardware with open SDKs but that's for another day.

The goal of this is to provide free software that allows easily and quickly creating shows that are synchronized to music. I have already been successful in the prototype phase. I was able to create a completely synchronized ~5 minute laser show (music was Don't Crash by Front 242 by the way) in under 30 minutes. I'm currently rewriting portions of it to handle multiple tracks on the timeline and to be able to produce a big honking ILDA file. I'll also support a native format that allows sharing the show development project so that others can easily modify it if they want.

[carmangary]

I could definitely use some help with some mathematical things. For example, I need some really good methods of creating abstract images. I have some ideas but haven't had time to code them to see if they are any good. I also need a good morphing algortithm. I have come up with one method but it isn't the best. There are other things I could use help with but those are the two biggies.

This offer goes out to anyone, actually. If you have any cool effects that you know how to code please run them by me. My requirement is simple: The effect must be able to generate new frames from scratch or based on existing frames. For example, a morphing effect would take two frames and compute n-number of frames between them. An abstract frame would create n-number of frames based on some settings. It really isn't that difficult because frames are nothing but a series of points that occur within a timeslice.

[nanoWatt]

Would you just need a function that takes in an integer (like t for time), and spits out a function of that to give X,Y coordinates? A function usually gives one output for one input, or it can pass on an array.

A frame as I understand is a collection of X,Y coordinates, and their corresponding values of 0 or 1 (off or on). But that's more how a bitmap works. It wouldn't be very fast though.

If you're talking vector math, then you need a good coordinate system. Polar coordinates are good for circular stuff. Rectangular (or cartesian) are good for linear and square stuff.

What inputs and outputs are needed to work with your system?

I could definitely use some help with some mathematical things. For example, I need some really good methods of creating abstract images. I have some ideas but haven't had time to code them to see if they are any good. I also need a good morphing algortithm. I have come up with one method but it isn't the best. There are other things I could use help with but those are the two biggies.

This offer goes out to anyone, actually. If you have any cool effects that you know how to code please run them by me. My requirement is simple: The effect must be able to generate new frames from scratch or based on existing frames. For example, a morphing effect would take two frames and compute n-number of frames between them. An abstract frame would create n-number of frames based on some settings. It really isn't that difficult because frames are nothing but a series of points that occur within a timeslice.

[carmangary]

"Would you just need a function that takes in an integer (like t for time), and spits out a function of that to give X,Y coordinates? A function usually gives one output for one input, or it can pass on an array."

This is exactly what is needed in order to generate abstract images.

The final result has to be XY vectors but the base formulas can certainly be polar based. It isn't hard to convert coordinate spaces.

I have a class that represents a frame. It basically an array of x,y,r,g,b values. (Starting point to end point). Each coordinate should be about 1/25000th second apart.