A different way to make shows: Improvements in 3D rendering

[mixedgas]

shark optimized by anarchy

see attached.

Steve

[werner1619]

drlava,

will you be making the software/ plugin available for free or are you considering a license?
leadtime to release?

...hope it is soon

[Zoof]

WOW ... that looks stunning!
Are you using the local search sorting algorithm?

[seanharrison]

WOW ... that looks stunning!
Are you using the local search sorting algorithm?

I think he has reconfigured the warp core modulators

[James Lehman]

Just had a look at those samples! Really amazing!

Btw... how can I optimize/reduce blanking lines with LaserBoy? Don't quite get it yet...
Here's a sample of what I want to improve.

Are you still having problems with LaserBoy and your keyboard?

James.

[decix]

Thanks for the hint. Optimization seems to be working.

@James: I cannot access the function "auto show", rest seems to be okay.

[Zoof]

DrLava,

does 3DSMAX help you do the hidden line removal and lighting or did you have to implement that yourself?

[drlava]

Thank you for the comments everyone, it's good to hear some significant interest. The future of the project looks good. I am currently acquiring multiple versions of 3D Studio for compatibility testing. The final form is still being worked on, but most likely it will be in a hobbyist version and professional version. I don't believe basic capability should be reserved only for pros, but ease of use and speed are a few of the things pros can benefit from. It is too early to talk about specific details concerning algorithms and such, as parts are still waiting to be optimized and finalized.
Again, thanks for the interest; it's what keeps this going at this early stage!

[Pangolin]

To my knowledge this is the first demonstration of lighting effects calculated from a 3D scene for laser display.

Let me applaud your effort, but correct something you wrote above. Please see our "continual innovation" page here:
http://www.pangolin.com/LD2000/software_innovation.htm

Take a close look at two things. First, on the "contunual innovation" page, look at September 2002 -- Pangolin was the first to introduce Lighting, Shading, Shadows and Textures for laser. This has been available in our plug-in for 3D Studio MAX and also in Cinema 4D since around 2002. You can see the picture we have used for years in this PDF file which describes our LC-MAX plug-in:
http://www.pangolin.com/_Files/LC-Max.pdf

Then flip to the "Awards" page and take a look at 2006. Lighting, Shading, Shadows and Textures was also made available in a laser show creation tool that, up until now has been known internally as "Lasershow Designer 4D". A partial screen shot is below, showing lighting, shading, shadows and textures.



Lasershow Designer 4D won the Software Product Of The Year award in 2006.

Hopefully this gives you some idea of what this new solution is capable of and sparks some creative ideas of what you can do with it!

For people with LD2000, take a look at the show Revelation 2006. It gives a good idea of how shading and shadows can be used in a very subtle way.

One thing to keep in mind: People pay a hell of a lot of money for laser light. Laser light must surely be the most expensive kind of light you can buy. Therefore, there is usually an emphasis on using it to its fullest extent, and, for that reason, many laser shows only use what's known as the "big 8" colors. The use of lighting, shading, and shadows tends to reduce the amount of light because it necessarily attenuates the beam. That's one reason why you don't see it used very often, although I agree it is a beautiful effect, which is why we put some effort into it, and even continue to do so even today... The Revelation 2006 show really does a great job of using this effect and yet still maintaining what we internally call "high efficiency" -- basically a lot of brightness on the screen. Revelation 2006 was made by Dave Oxenreider -- one of the industry's brightest users of 3D animation. Dave has been using 3D with laser for the past 20 years.

Best regards,

William Benner

[drlava]

Very good, this is why I wrote 'to my knowledge'. All of the demos I have seen (which isn't that many) including the revelation demo here:
http://www.pangolin.com/LD2000/lc-max_videos.htm
and here:
http://www.pangolin.com/projects/3dsm_demo/index.html
and even the text on your 3D max plugin and LaserShow Converter 4D page did not point to the capability that I show here (edit: ok, it could be that it's too subtle to see, but what I'm talking about here is sub-object shading, not whole-object shading). Also, I can not find a page about lasershow designer 4D
http://www.pangolin.com/_borders/bottom.htm
even google only finds 4 pages about it, all references to an award, but no page on the software itself.
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22la...designer+4D%22


If you would, it would be great to see some demo ilda files posted that show this off from your software!