Q Light Controller+

Hi there,

I have developed a Moving Head controll system using the Unity game engine integrated with QLC+ via OSC. This lets me aim multiple fixtures to point at the same location in space,
and to animate them.

My question to all of you is if this is interesting and worth persuing?
A video I made where I demonstrate the system can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-1BYb35rAI

I would be wery gratefull for any feedback on this. Perhaps I am completely wasting my time playing around with this
The image here on the forum, with the lamps and the grand piano, is from a fixture vizuaiser i assume? Does that one come with 3d positioning and aiming allready?

Cheers,
Alexander

I think this could develop into something very interesting, especially if combined with a touch screen to input the target location, select fixtures to be controlled.
Are you aware that QLC5 already has a 3d preview area? No idea if or how this functionality could be integrated there.

You may be interested to read (and/or watch video tutorials) about Augmented3D, the 3d live programming environment in ETC Eos Family software.
https://www.etcconnect.com/Support/Tuto ... ent3d.aspx

You can download the Eos Family software for free, it even runs in Wine on Linux, or in a Windows VM, but to check out the Augmented3D you have to run it in Windows or Mac OS if you don't own a console.

That's the software and lighting console (ETC Ion XE) I work with at my day job in a small theater, since almost a year. I created a 3D representation of our venue, by extruding lines from the 2D CAD ground plan and flipping wall directions until visibility in A3D was correct, in blender 3.6. Then in blender I created objects for the main stage/audience variants that our venue can provide, mainly 3 variants of stage/seating block, and in A3D I can import these objects aand place them. The Fixture Patch in Eos Family has a Augmented3D tab where I can position and orient any of my lights, then in Live mode these show up in roughly correct dimensions, I can select them by tapping them on the touch screen, and then I can tap any point in the 3D window and the selected fixtures will point there, pretty precisely depending on how well the 3D matches reality. There's also a remote app for iOS and Android devices where you can further calibrate the system and in the end a performer on stage can tap a "find me" button and the movers will point at him.

I don't know if or how how other "pro" lighting software implement 3D systems, but this has become my main way to focus the two movers I have at work, as it is pretty accurate and helps me to save quite some time compared to dialing or typing in Pan/Tilt values. I'm not so much interested in using this for my static fixtures even though thats perfectly possible, but it takes too much time to set up their position, orientation, beam edge, zoom, barn doors and gel color in the 3D patch everytime we set up a new light plot for a theater piece, and I don't really need a 3D preview as I have the real stage in front of me...

Love to see stuff like this - nice work

Hi Alexander,
I'd be very interested especially in the animation part, because this approach can lead to different results compared to traditional programming, hopefully also speed up things for complex patterns. I like the 3 points way that you've found to calibrate the system, I wish it can be done once for all the fixtures together to save time.
There is already a project, Blux, that uses Unity to control moving lights in a 3d space, the developer has uploaded a video quite amazing few months ago, the interesting part starts after minute 13th:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVtLv-E ... _e&index=2
Maybe it can give you some ideas, of course I'd love to program effects in that way!
In Qlc-v5 it's already present a focus point in the 3d view but I do not know how it will works in a real space.
Thanks for the proposal.

Hello!

Thanks for taking the time to check my stuff out, and giving your feedback!

edogawa,
It was cool to se that the ETC system have this kind of positioning system allready, and that tapping in the 3D-window is useful to you. It makes perfect sence
Having thje lamps positioned and oriented in 3D gives so much posibilities when it comes to aiming and animating them, especially if you have a digital representation of your venue to play around with. I will have a closer look at the ETC EOS software to see if I can get some inspiration there.

giacomo,
Yeah, its the animation part that gives value to the setup. Beeing able to save intresting hot-spots that multiple lamps can aim at and randomly switch bettween them can probably look cool, just as an example.
In my prototype I can position/orient my fixtures together, as you mention. I click in my 3D room, and then I can aim all my fixtures in the real room to that point. After doing that three times all the lamps jumps to their actual position. Or rather, as close as it gets, given all inacuraces with angles, stepper motors, incorect specifications of max tilt and what have you.

I have tried QLC 5, and just touched on the 3d visualizer there. Of cource it would be the best situation if that one included a 3 point positioning like the one i made, or something like it. At the moment QLC 5 is not stable and with features missing, so I found i could not use it for my tests.
Having a separate tool in Unity like I made is really not what you want, but rather have it as part of QLC itself. The OSC integration is rather cumbersome, as is having to set up all the sliders in the virtual consol.
And then all the problems of having a dependency and having too keep alive a separete unity project... that might be a hussle on its own.

Well.... I gues I have to think about wether its worth continuing with this or not. That Blux project is also worth looking into, but when I tried to read the documentation I got Error 404, and that doesent bode well.

Hi Alexander, I've written to the other developer about the 3 points calibration and he seems interested, maybe you could try to contact him, eventually a collaboration would be better for everybody and opensource projects
edit: most of commercial software have a 3 points calibration, I don't do advertising, I was surprised that you've a similar solution and especially that the head is inserted automatically in the right place, this it's also a great help !