Author Topic: Quick Updates  (Read 57763 times)

Offline castortiu

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Quick Updates
« on: August 26, 2010, »
Quick Update: 8-26-10

I haven’t stop and I keep working hard on it.

I have found a problem in performance which some kind limits the application to goes beyond 512 channels and still have frame rate above 25FPS (Frames Per Second), we need 40FPS to do not lose any light state if we run the show with a 25ms frames, or 20FPS running the show with 50ms frames, I’m dumping almost all processing on the GPU and it is not enough (unless you have a $200-$300 video card :)) I’m talking with the APIs developers here at Microsoft and basically this problem is part of the 3D APIs, basically they don’t scale to the magnitude we need to go (above 2K channels), I’m investing a little time in go more low level but that makes the programming be less productive and have to spend too much time on it.

I’m deciding for now stay with the current model at least to make progress in the application but at the same time isolate all the 3D APIs to be able to use a more low level technology in the future when there is good progress in the application.

The problem is in the live preview and not when the sequence is exported to Vixen, so is not a critical problem and will work well under 512 channels, otherwise playing the song a little slower automatically boost the FPS otherwise spending $100 in a medium-high profile video card probably will give you another 512 channels.

I’ll be uploading the current progress in a couple days.

Cas.
« Last Edit: August 26, 2010, by castortiu »

Offline dmaccole

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2010, »
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The problem is in the live preview and not when the sequence is exported to Vixen, so is not a critical problem and will work well under 512 channels, otherwise playing the song a little slower automatically boost the FPS otherwise spending $100 in a medium-high profile video card probably will give you another 512 channels.

Once you've bought enough stuff for 512 channels, an extra $100 to program the next 512 channels is probably not an issue ;) ...

\dmc
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Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2010, »
That's true,

A couple days ago I spent $500 in just 20 strobes, vampire plugs and SPT-2 wire :).

Cas.

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2010, »
Progress 8-29-2010

Sorry about demos getting big in size.

As always I just show incremental progress, if you missed some videos, see previous videos on topic "Started software to create sequences", there you can find all videos from Prancer's beggining.

Cas.

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Offline trekster

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #4 on: August 29, 2010, »
WOW!

Thank You

Ron
My 2010 Videos
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Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2010, »
Progress: 9-1-2010

Pay job is getting a little active and I'm slowing down a little bit  :P, but you can bet I won't stop.

The logic to produce effects is in place, it does just a little for now as you can see in the previous video but that is a good foundation for what is coming later, so a lot monkey work still need to be done for effects.

Switched to the logic to create devices, this small demo is a proof of concept for what I think can be a interactive an easy way.
Devices will be split in categories as trees, arch, strings, etc, and when the category is selected the device can be customized on a pop-up window with preview before is added to the scene.

In the video I show how it could be done.

Cas.

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2010, »
Progress: 09-06-10

New term: Scene object => any object that forms part of the scene, they can be interactive as devices or static like backgrounds.

The work on this week was based on backgrounds and scene objects manipulations. Background can be added to give dimension to the scene; several backgrounds can be added to form a 3D environment where to put the devices.

For scene objects now there is support for Move, Scale and rotate, there are several things that needs to be done but now is usable and allow me to continue with the work to support more devices type.

Support was added for mini-tree, I wanted to know how the interaction was with objects that support only one channel.

I uploaded two files:

Prancer09-06-10.zip: It shows how objects now support the 3 main integrations (Move, Scale, Rotate)

15MinutesSequence.zip: This was a test to see with the elements I have so far what I could do in 15 minutes. Basically I created the environment put the devices in place and created several effects for the archs and mini-tree, there is no copy and paste and multi-object selection yet, so the effects had to be done device by device, I think with multi selection and copy and paste the time can be reduced to less than 5 minutes.

Note: I’m trying to reduce file sizes, so the second file now is an AVI with DIVX encoding; this allows for better appearance, more frame rates and smaller size. If you can’t see the file please install the codec from You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

From now on I’ll be uploading all videos in this way unless there are problem to see them, let me know if you have any problem.

Thanks,
Cas.

P:S: I’m watching the video and it skips a lot of frames, so the arch sequences don’t look good, on Prancer they are perfect on visualization and timing, I guess I need  another program to record Prancer progress, if you have used one in the past let me know.
« Last Edit: September 07, 2010, by castortiu »

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #7 on: September 19, 2010, »
Quick Update: 9-19-10

Work was based on create an effect that is related to multiple devices, so there was not specific work and I had to touch everything as effects, selections, engine and new objects.

The pattern that I showed for the effects in the previous update was quite useful and now introduces more functionality like work with channels for multiple devices and fade-in/fade-out.

Added objects:
Stars
Snowflakes
Megatrees
Strings (single and multichannel)
Strobes
RGB Flood

Logic:
Single and multiselection support
Effects now support Fade-In Fade-Out

The demo shows the new functionality and how affect the devices, there was not work trying to sync with the music so they are randomly played.

Cas.

Offline RJ

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2010, »
Very cool looking stuff Cas!   <res.

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #9 on: September 20, 2010, »
Thanks RJ,

The time is limited but I’m committed to Prancer, now that the ideas have started to materialize I gained more confidence about what I had in mind on December 2009 and it can really be done!, I downloaded several programs about sequencing to see if Prancer is ahead of the curve and oh boy…

When Prancer is released people will remember that day as the day the Grid died on sequencing software, we are going to see sequences very shortly that can be only dreamed been made on the grid, probably vendors will have to update their software or they will be in a bad shape against Prancer/Lynx :).

Still a lot to do but I’m not far from the basic functionality needed to create manual effects, after that is done I’ll use Prancer to produce the first sequence.

Next stage will be add support to export the sequences to Vixen and later will come the automated tools and there is where the powerful stuff will start to appear since devices effects will be created based in several premade or custom functions.

Looking ahead I see a “bright future” with a lot of blinkies and the future looks much closer than I imagined 1 month ago.

Cas.

Offline dmaccole

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #10 on: September 20, 2010, »
Cas:

This is really great stuff. If people are reluctant to spend the whole seven minutes watching this video (thanks, BTW, for changing formats), I'd suggest skipping to the last 90 seconds or so ... it is truly unbelievable.

When are you going to beta this? ;) ...

\dmc
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Offline lortiz

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #11 on: September 20, 2010, »
I'm now absolutely amazed with your progress. I can see the huge benefits now.

Keep up the great work!!

Leo
Barbara Sher - "Doing is a quantum leap from imagining."

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #12 on: September 20, 2010, »
Still is too early to know when a beta will be available, there are several milestones that have to meet before Prancer is usable, at least it needs to export files to vixen and working with effects have to be rock solid even on the primitive state as it is today with the patterns.

Probably, first there will be a several internal alphas before the public betas, in the alphas I’ll receive feedback to know whether I’m smoking crack or not in the way I work with some stuff.

Prancer beta can’t be released until I’m confident the user will get what he expects from it :).

Cas.

Offline Rod R

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #13 on: September 20, 2010, »
Cas,

Nice job, looks like you made some great progress.  What type of a system are you running it on.  Is it a resource hog?  Looks like it going to be extremely powerful tool.  <la..

Rod
« Last Edit: September 20, 2010, by Rod R »

Offline castortiu

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Re: Quick Updates
« Reply #14 on: September 20, 2010, »
Currently the code is highly unoptimized and there are several things that I’ll be working on once I can get the first alpha, but my goal is allow to run a full sequence and 512 channels at least with 30FPS on my machine which was a high end machine 2 1/2 years ago and now is OLD :P.

It is a Core2Duo with 4GB Ram and NVidia 7950GT 512MB DDR.

I dump most of the stuff on the GPU so at this point the CPU speed won’t matter much but helps (I'm using about 20% CPU Time), a good video card will make a great difference.
My Video card now cost about $35, I spent $250 when I bought it :P.

I expect will need about 500MB RAM when is running since everything get cached to improve playback performance.

Cas.