[QLC+5 or later]Add offline 3D preview rendering to a video

Request a feature that you would like to see in QLC+.
Explain in details why you would need it and which is your usage case.
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nilsvanzuijlen
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I am using a quite old PC to try QLC+5alpha3 but currently, when I run the demo for alpha3 with medium quality (the low is really too ugly), the FPS drops to 7.

I think it would be really nice to still be able to get a 3D render of the show at a decent FPS (30 is a good rate), not in real-time, to show up what I imagine to my colleagues.

A way to put that function in the interface, to me, would be to add a button in the show manager to render what a show would look like.
Last edited by nilsvanzuijlen on Mon Dec 03, 2018 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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mcallegari
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How do you render a show not in real time but at 30fps, and on an old PC ?
Please elaborate, cause your request looks like a big nonsense as it is.
nilsvanzuijlen
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I mean, being able to generate a video file which has the 30 fps, but generating it at a slower pace (like 1 generated frame per second, it does not matter) to get all the details. That's why I think it may only be usable with a programmed show editor, because all of it is known in advance, it does not need live interaction.
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mcallegari
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So your request is actually "add offline 3D preview rendering to a video" ?
nilsvanzuijlen
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Yes ! That's it ! I want to be able to get a video file from a show.

Excuse me for being unclear.
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mcallegari
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It's a good idea actually. Not sure how difficult it is in terms of graphics programming and video encoding, but I see its usefulness.
Krsound
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This would be cool to implement also and option is to hit record then once the first cue goes it starts. If you need this right now there is third party software such as OBS Studio that records your screen
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mcallegari
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Krsound wrote: Wed Dec 05, 2018 2:26 pm If you need this right now there is third party software such as OBS Studio that records your screen
Non sense again. If your graphics card does 7fps, Your video will be crappy anyway.
This has to be done frame by frame, when the gfx card completes a frame, and DMX value by DMX value. It's not easy even for the QLC+ core clock, which has no way to be controlled in speed at runtime. Can't imagine either strobos and gobo rotations.
Not talking about the encoding part...a nightmare.

Again, the idea is good, the implementation is pure hell.
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andres robles
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I think I understood it and I understand that a feature like this is very complex at the code level.
It is a great idea to be able to export a lighting design to video, it opens many possibilities to expose a design.
Easyview has a similar capacity, you can record a video while moving lights in your 3d design, and take pictures, it is not an export in itself, rather it is a real time recording and the video recorded to the FPS that the PC gets. In any case you need a graphic capable of doing the calculations, before making the video, you have to create the design and the show, if your PC does not reach the minimum requirements it will be very difficult to obtain good results ...

Returning to the feature, and assuming that the cpu and gpu offer good performance, it can be interesting that qlc can take screenshots and / or video with external applications built-in type (screenshot command) or an own capacity of QLC for this task ... (I guess everything is very complex)
The option of obtaining a render (no matter how long it takes to render) with a final video at 30fps is good, but you still need a good GPU to create the design ....

In some way it is an extra interesting function but I do not know if it is so necessary to develop it because of the complexity it may have (taking into account that there are other external means to achieve that goal)
nilsvanzuijlen
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I think at the moment that QLC+ is able to take screenshots, it will be just a tiny step away from rendering a 30fps video on any PC.

The way I think it could be done is by running the show once in background, and saving each DMX frame.
Then, it would go from one frame to the other (it may even push them to the interfaces), taking screenshots.
At the end, it would be able via a software like ffmpeg to concatenate all the frames into a video.

I think it is possible without it being too much of a headache.

But of course, I may be totally wrong as I don't really know how QLC works under the hood.
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