Visualiser in 2D

[dandaka]

Right now

Latest Macbooks (and many more devices) aren't capable of full support of 3D graphics. Current implementation of a Visualiser in 3D isn't working [in my case], browser/REPL hang up with little FPS on 20 fixtures.

Still there is a need to develop and test shows without physical access to devices.

Should be

A simple 2D visualisation tool. Plain simple HTML blocks, which are draggable around. They are changing colors with respect to DMX values.

Something like this http://mzabriskie.github.io/react-draggable/example/
Inside every block there is an ID of it
Position in 2D could be remembered for future launches, but its completely optional

Maybe its easy to implement with existing 3D visualisation. With more people using your library, it could be a very useful feature.

[dandaka]

Where is the src of existing implementation? Doesn't seem like a huge task at the moment. I might have a look after the first show this Friday.

[brunchboy]

The current visualizer does not work usefully on any system, it is simply a proof of concept. Maybe that will be the next area I will work on over the next couple of weeks, because it would definitely be handy. I am not personally much interested in a 2D visualizer, because Afterglow is so incredibly well positioned for 3D visualization. Unlike all other show control software that I am aware of, it already understands the exact 3D relationships among the lights in a properly configured show, and how they respond to movement and color control at a deep level, so most of the tedious work normally required to set up a 3D visualization of a show is unnecessary. So it is just a matter of figuring out a less accurate but less GPU intensive way of representing the light cones, and rendering them.

That said, I can definitely see the kind of 2D visualization tool you are talking about being useful to people, including me, especially until we get the 3D one finished. I’d suggest creating it as a separate project that works with Afterglow to begin with. I may want to pull out the 3D visualizer as well, and have all visualizers work as plug-in modules to Afterglow so people can easily create different ones to suit their needs.

The current visualizer Clojure code is visualizer.clj, the main HTML template is visualizer.html, and that references current-scene.json, current-scene-fragment.js, and fragment.glsl in the same directory, as well as things in the shaders and textures directories. And possibly other stuff that I am not remembering right now, it’s been a long time since I played with it—but even if the basic rendering was practical, there is also a lot of work to be done yet on that code to make it something stable and useful.

[brunchboy]

And good luck with your upcoming show! I love that you are working on one, and hope that you capture some video of it. 👍