LaserBoy 09-01-2008 !!!

[carmangary]

I completely disagree with you there but I won't get into it here.

[James Lehman]

I agree with you completely and have suggested the same eons ago. I even started a thread awhile back called "To the laser software companies" or something like that asking that they come up with a show format that makes sense. However, it went no where and I got a lot of opposition to the suggestion.

There is only one way to change things and that is to come up with your own better format it and openly share it with other members of the laser show community completely independently of ILDA. If it is a good format then others will adopt it and it will become an industry standard on its own.

So, if you think you have the answer then put it down on paper and implement it and pass it around. I'd certainly be willing to support something like that in my Spaghetti software. You might get some interest from OldGrumpy with the Mamba software, too. He seems open to things. But, I think perhaps the first order of business would be to trade in some of that salt for some sugar. You're not going to get any help if you come across as a know-it-all.

Oh really! ................................

[carmangary]

Yes, really, and that is not contradictary to what I said earlier.

As far as the ILDA standard goes, I fully support formats 4 & 5 and think format 3 is complete nonsense. It seems silly to read all of the colors for a frame and then read the points. Formats 4 & 5 combine it into a single step. Perhaps at the expense of a little disk space but disk space is cheap and it makes loading and saving simpler and faster. Actually, I think that format 5 is completely unnecessary but I am not too opposed to it.

But, after formats 4 (and 5) are approved I would like to see it die and to see something more object oriented created that contains more information about the vectors, the objects that they represent, and the frames that are made up of those objects. Then, those frames could be combined into animations that make up clips. The clips could be combined with music to create shows. Shows would contain information such as frames per second, required hardware, etc. For instance, it would be cool to load up an ILDA2 file and see how many scanners should be used, how the scanners should be oriented, what kinds of strobes and fog machines should be used and when they should be triggered. It would also be cool to see what music file should go along with it as well as the name, artist, name of the laser show, etc. Currently, every software package has their own format for this and it is crazy. The software/hardware companies (Pangolin) love it because it forces their software and hardware to be used to display shows written for their software/hardware. But the customers hate it because it forces them down a path with no exits. THAT is what I was complaining about. I have no problem with the current ILDA format. But, it is only a tiny piece of the puzzle.

[James Lehman]

Anything beyond ILDA sections 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 is not part of this discussion. If you don't see how a properly implemented section 3 is better than separate sections 4 & 5, then I don't what more to say.

I thought YOU got it!

If you think opinion has anything to do with it, then make your case.

James.

[carmangary]

I don't think you ever did say what is good about format 3. So enlighten me? Obviously, everyone else thought it sucked too because it was killed before it got off the ground. LOL.

[James Lehman]

I'm not talking about busted section 3. I'm talking about the first real section 3 that was proposed, before it got busted.

BTW can Spaghetti read section 2?

James.

[carmangary]

Yea, Spaghetti reads 0,1,2,3,4,5. Just not your 3.

[James Lehman]

So you can convert vector art in LaserBoy to use one of the other palettes there and save that from LaserBoy as "good ilda" and open that in Spaghetti and the colors are correct?

And you still don't see why section 3 is better than having sections 4 & 5?

Huh?

It doesn't really matter anymore anyway... LaserBoy can now read and write sections 4 & 5.

James.

[carmangary]

Pallettes suck in my opinion. That's for old computers with limiting processing resources. I'd rather just write it all out.

[James Lehman]

That is an opinion. And it goes against the grain of the original concept of the ILDA file format.

Palettes don't suck. The only thing that sucks is if you need more than 256 colors. But wait, that was fixed....... NOT.

The problem with doing 24 bit color in sections 4 & 5 is that if you are going to save any frames that way, you save ALL the frames that way. So it blows away the use of 0, 1, 2 & 3. In doing so, you lose information, like what palette did these frames all come from. Fortunately, you can regenerate this information in................................................ .................................................. ....... (you guessed it) LaserBoy!

James.