QLC+ 5 advanced 3D features campaign

[mcallegari]

Hi, today I'm starting something new for this project: a crowdfunding campaign !
In this case, the money raised don't actually go to the QLC+ project, but to a person willing to help the project in return for a symbolic payment.

I open this thread mainly for questions and comments to the campaign announcement.

If you have questions about the techy details behind this amazing task, I'm here to provide answers.

You are all invited to contribute to this, even if it is with just a small amount !
Let's show that "free software" is not just "grab and run" !

[EricArneback]

Hi, I'm Eric Arnebäck, and I'm the computer graphics expert who is developing this feature. And I am also here to provide answers to questions about the features that I am developing

[mcallegari]

Welcome to the forum Eric !
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to believe what we're doing here is EPIC !

[GGGss]

Out of enthousiasm I have to cheer out

So this sets the path free to go into VR-lightning?
No more setting up truss structures, hiring and installing (very) expensive fixtures, no more debugging and all those time consuming tasks? Video framing and pixel mapping - no issues at all now? No more discussions with artistic directors and stage hands how things should be done? Projects well inside of budgets? No more power source constrains?

You simply drop your projects into Virtual Reality (thanks to the work of Massimo, Eric and many others) now and provide VR goggles to the audience.
Ow wait ... that means a potential end for our jobs, us, the Lighting Jockeys ...

Just kidding I'm donating as we speak.

Thanks again and again for this very nice piece of Freeeedom in Lightning.

[mlohrey]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for helping out. It is a great thing that you are doing.
I work in education and the ability for our theatre studies students to experiment with lighting without having to be in the theatre will be fantastic.

Also, Massimo has been very careful to make QLC+ platform agnostic but I am sure you will look after the mac users. lol

Cheers

Mark

[andres robles]

Hello eric, thank you very much !! You are welcome.
I'm really excited, This is great news !!!
Today I made a symbolic donation with a co-worker to support this function.
Thank you Massimo for making the way for this to be a reality and for your hard work and patience.

[mcallegari]

Hey guys, right now I don't have access to the website administration, but I'm glad to inform you that goal #1 has been reached in just around 72 hours (3 days) !

Thanks to everyone who contributed to make it possible !

Now let's head towards goal #2, which is super exciting in my opinion !
Goal #2 means A LOT of work in QLC+ 5, but it is definitely worth it since LED usage cases are very common these days and super eye cacthing !

Later today I'll update the website.

[fooschnickens]

This is wonderful, Massimo. Welcome to the team, Eric.

I'll echo what's already been said on this announcement, this will no doubt speed development of V5 and let Massimo continue to deliver fantastic support on V4.

I guess you could say that the future is rather bright for QLC

[giacomo]

hello Eric and Massimo,
first 2 questions:
1
is it planned the visualization of sharp/soft light beams?
to show the general effetct of a pc vs a fresnel lens, or a frost filter, of course I understand it cannot be an exact parameter but for the sake of the visualization it could be something like a Gaussian Blur filter option.
2
are you considering an integration with Blender or alternatively the possibilty to import a 3D scene?
An empty space can help the programming of a show but it doesn't provide much information about the space, eg. shadows or beam sizes over shapes etc etc.
This would allow us to show an idea to a director (or a client).

Glad to see that QLC+5 is arriving, regards.

[mcallegari]

Hi Giacomo, I think Eric can reply on #1 while I will reply to #2:
yes, importing external 3D objects is definitely planned.
I plan also to make some stage items myself (because of licensing issues we can't include in QLC+ random stuff taken from the internet) and therefore have a basic library available out of the box.
I have also opened a ticket to myself to have a theatre stage preset.
As far as you know, is there any rule for the trusses above the stage ? e.g. one every 2 meters or something like that. Or everyone does a different thing ?

[fooschnickens]

Hi Giacomo, I think Eric can reply on #1 while I will reply to #2:
yes, importing external 3D objects is definitely planned.
I plan also to make some stage items myself (because of licensing issues we can't include in QLC+ random stuff taken from the internet) and therefore have a basic library available out of the box.
I have also opened a ticket to myself to have a theatre stage preset.
As far as you know, is there any rule for the trusses above the stage ? e.g. one every 2 meters or something like that. Or everyone does a different thing ?

Min and max trim height depend on numerous variables from venue to venue, or even event to event. It could be anywhere from being placed directly on the stage, to 10m+ in the air.

What I can say is that having a catalog of common truss sizes/shapes and lengths would be very helpful. Box and Triangle would easily be the most common shapes, though each come in several different sizes that don't always overlap (9", 12", 16", etc). Length is slightly easier to cover as straight pieces most often come in 1m, 1.5m and 3m lengths. Having the ability to place those pieces in custom orientations and placements would be stellar (ie not limited to perpendicular or parallel or as one contiguous structure) since some of the staging setups we have made in the past had a pyramid-style element or other geometric-shaped structure. Additionally, many productions make use of truss spans that are not arranged to a 90° pattern or have single lengths that act as an independent structure as seen in the images below:






It's probably wishful thinking, but that would be a huge boon to medium/large event users like us.

[giacomo]

hi Massimo,
everyone does it different : )
and in theatre trusses are not the standard but we use the bars from the grid, normally they're spaced 25/40 cm covering all the stage depth, they're used for everything, lights or set.
The position of lights really depend on the performance and so I'm not sure it will be very useful a theatre model, anyway if you like to have a very generic medium size theatre/dance model, I'd say 1 bar every 2 meters, for an area of 10 x 10 m, plus a bar for the frontal lights, 8 m from the stage.
To extend the topic, because we're speaking of a 3D model, traditionally what it's specific to a theatre building it's the presence of the proscenium arch, in all its modern variants or provisional masking... and yes after this building element - and eventually the curtain - there is the "first lighting bar" (or in big equipped venues the "first bridge").

[giacomo]

@ Taylor
I'd rather keep QLC+ sleek and flexible, focusing on lighting ideas.
Luckily Massimo is going to implement 3D import so everybody will draw whatever he needs with an external software.

[mcallegari]

@giacomo, thanks for the explanation. I suspected something like that, that's why a theatre preset was not there since the beginning
@taylor, indeed, placing trusses with arbitrary position/rotation is in the plans. Actually 1m and 2m trusses, plus square corners, are already in the library. That's what I use to create the rock stage preset. It's just a matter of adding more and more items (e.g. the triangular ones you mentioned)

I'm wondering though what lengths are used in America. Do you guys have trusses in inches/feet or are they standardized in meters ?

It would be nice also to have truss snapping, otherwise it will take a lot of time to position them. Maybe that'll come later in time.
For now I just want to have all the necessary building blocks and then over time add helpers.

[EricArneback]

@giacomo

Yes, I do plan on implementing some kind of visualization of sharp/soft light beans. I've played around with it some, but haven't yet been able to achieve a visual result that I like. but it's definitely something I will implement.

[fooschnickens]

@taylor, indeed, placing trusses with arbitrary position/rotation is in the plans. Actually 1m and 2m trusses, plus square corners, are already in the library. That's what I use to create the rock stage preset. It's just a matter of adding more and more items (e.g. the triangular ones you mentioned)

Sounds awesome, looking forward to testing it out.

I'm wondering though what lengths are used in America. Do you guys have trusses in inches/feet or are they standardized in meters ?

Unfortunately, exact truss lengths tend to vary between manufacturers. Some are strictly metric, some strictly imperial. The good thing is that even between those two standards there's only an inch or two of difference so it's not really the end of the world for making an accurate lighting diagram. That being said, you would be safe focusing on 1.5m (5ft) and 3m (10ft) lengths for now, as those are easily the most common lengths. 1m (3ft) would be in a distant third and is mostly used in lighter duty truss or in special cases for medium/heavy duty truss.

It would be nice also to have truss snapping, otherwise it will take a lot of time to position them. Maybe that'll come later in time.
For now I just want to have all the necessary building blocks and then over time add helpers.

Perfectly reasonable, just having the rock stage preset is a huge plus and will cover most simple stages. I'm all for having a solid core to start with before expanding features.

[djmg]

@giacomo, thanks for the explanation. I suspected something like that, that's why a theatre preset was not there since the beginning
@taylor, indeed, placing trusses with arbitrary position/rotation is in the plans. Actually 1m and 2m trusses, plus square corners, are already in the library. That's what I use to create the rock stage preset. It's just a matter of adding more and more items (e.g. the triangular ones you mentioned)

I'm wondering though what lengths are used in America. Do you guys have trusses in inches/feet or are they standardized in meters ?

It would be nice also to have truss snapping, otherwise it will take a lot of time to position them. Maybe that'll come later in time.
For now I just want to have all the necessary building blocks and then over time add helpers.

@mcallegari
Here in America, trussing is still sold standardized in meters. When spec'ing shows now, we typically quote in meters, and if the customer needs to convert, they are welcome to google it.

[mcallegari]

...working on the theatre preset !

That's for starters. I might add some side dividers (where actors hide/enter) but the most important thing for now is the truss positions. I set a 2 meters distance between each other. Would it do ?

[GGGss]

You forgot the (important) strut in front of FOH (8m)

[mcallegari]

What is a strut ? A truss ?
And by the way, I haven't placed anything outside of the stage on purpose. When I implement object import, you can add anything you want anywhere you want