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Thread: Spaghetti progress

  1. #1
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    Default Spaghetti progress

    I've been working on a new time line that allows multiple layers. You'll see two time lines in the picture. The bottom is the old one. The top one is the one I am working on. It shows two layers but it will allow you to add as many as you want. I have been doing a lot of optimization so when you scroll the repaint is immediate, unlike Mamba Black where when you scroll it takes a moment to update. I still have a lot to do, though.
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    awesome work, nice to see your putting your money where your mouth is and actually developing something...

    have you thought about adding audio layers? at least a 2ch track so you can keep your timing just right...

    also now that your stacking layers of images the next thing would be to develop some A to B/B to A type transitions

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    It works with an audio file (WMA, WAV, MP3, etc). Once you select an audio file you can play it and while it is playing you can click on the mouse to add markers to the time line. You can then go back and use those markers to help you synchronize the laser sequences to the music. So, the times you see on the timeline are actually the times within the song.

    I don't currently have any plans to transition between layers. Basically, the layers are just summed together. So, if there is a circle on one layer and a square on another you would see both the circle and square in the final output. I will have faders that make the sequences fade in or out. So, if you overlapped the square and the circles and set the faders you would see, for example, the circle fading into view while the square fades out of view. So, perhaps this is a way of doing the transitioning you were thinking about?

    In addition to fading I'm also going to allow morphing of sequences, rotation (x, y, and z), exploding of frames, and scaling and movement. I have a few other ideas planned as well such as abstracts and warping. I'm open to ideas.

    There won't be any live control for the first release. In fact, in the first release I might not even support any hardware at all. It would just create a big ILDA file that you can play back in your own software (ie Pangolin, Moncha, Mamba, whatever). I think that just about every package allows playing of ILDA files so that should be OK. I'll eventually add support for DACs that have a public API but one step at a time.

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    Is the ILDA an open-source format? Are you using a Class file to read/write the ILDA files, or is it binary or text format?

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    clandestiny is offline Eleventy-Billion Watt Ar/Kr >:)
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    carmangary-
    I've been following your various posts. Basically speaking the frame creation tools and the timeline based playback options of the various manufactures are what sets them apart-
    plus ultimate cost- I would imagine we all generally agree on these items.
    You have expressed various desires, the bigggest one I guess is to simply have some type of ILDA or multi-format playback software so people would have a free or low cost platform to creat and exchange shows-
    Hope I'm correct thus far-

    The issue I see- or my question to you is this-

    -You could output a series of frames as a show - even with audio, in the direction your going-
    but how about the various transitions or "effects" that people will be using to create those shows-? will it be possible for your software to somehow "pre-compute" those transitional items into the show?and save them somehow so they will be carried over to the next users softwarefor playback?
    Just Curious-
    go big or go home

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    Good question. I will support at least two formats.

    One format will be a native Spaghetti format. Most likely, it will only be useful to my software and will have information necessary to build the show from the starting point. For example, it might have a reference to some ILDA file and then have data that says which frame is to be used and then what effect will be applied to it, etc.

    The second format will simply reference a music file, an ILDA file, and contain some information such as frame rate. The ILDA file would be generated by precomputing the entire show and then spitting it out into a huge file.

    The first format is useful for sharing between other Spaghetti users. It would allow multiple users to work on the same project. The second format would only useful to Spaghetti and to other software that is able to read it. I was approached by another laser show software company that we all know that is possibly interested in being able to read this in. So that is great news. But even if no other companies support this format, it will simply be an XML file so anyone could open it up with notepad and figure out what song, ILDA file, and framerate they need.

    And, if the above doesn't sound good I am certainly open to suggestions.

  7. #7
    mixedgas's Avatar
    mixedgas is offline Creaky Old Award Winning Bastard Technologist
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    Quote Originally Posted by carmangary View Post
    I've been working on a new time line that allows multiple layers. You'll see two time lines in the picture. The bottom is the old one. The top one is the one I am working on. It shows two layers but it will allow you to add as many as you want. I have been doing a lot of optimization so when you scroll the repaint is immediate, unlike Mamba Black where when you scroll it takes a moment to update. I still have a lot to do, though.
    One little bug, zippy, the UA mascot Kangaroo is James Lehmans Artwork, done for a show we did together, for the university I work at. Do you have James' permission to use it?

    Steve

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    I'm sure I can use them if I want. I'm not distributing them, however. But, if anyone does want those ILDA files they can be downloaded from the LaserBoy website.

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    If you haven't checked out Spaghetti lately you might want to take a look. You can create shows using as many tracks as you want. You can play them with Moncha or you can simply export the entire show into one big ILDA file. I have added support for effects like scaling, rotating, and repositioning.

    I have a lot of stuff planned - this is just the beginning.

    You can find it as well as all the details on my website.

    Here is a list of new features I plan to possibly support in the near future:
    Riya DAC support (if I can get one for testing)
    Morphing
    Color effects

    And much more!

    Oh yea, it is completely FREE!

  10. #10
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    Default EasyLase support added!

    I just finished adding support for the EasyLase USB DAC to Spaghetti. It is ready for download on my website.

    Caveat: I do not have EasyLase hardware so I have not tested it! If someone does use it with EasyLase please let me know how it goes. You can reach me here or via my website Contact Us page.

    Thanks,
    Gary

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