Pangolin Quickshow for FB3 released!

[Shawnb]

Is the new Version Of Quick Show Ready and Avail?

[Stuka]

I don't think it's quite ready yet -

but I imagine we will get a good insiders' update at SELEM, since one or two folks from Pangolin usually show up!

[XysteR]

Is the new Version Of Quick Show Ready and Avail?

Going off snippets of info from Bill around the forums, i wrongly made an asumption that it'd be around the 18th of July lol

Can't be too long now tho. Saying that, i think a plan to include bluray was supposed to be looked into - Pretty pointless now due to the 445's mefinks. Fair enough lots have bluray in their projectors but i bet they will all be swapping the blurays out for 445's.

I'm looking forward to V2. I don't really mind how long it takes. I'd rather it took a little longer if need be than it be released half cooked.

I'll ask tho: Any idea when we'll see the new version of QuickShow?

[White-Light]

Its still being tested but I'd imagine release is close.

[Bubba_Zanetti]

The update Marc sent me is pretty damn awesome, timeline works much better, having the virtual vj option is very cool too, can just point it at your library of animations and off it goes, really nice, great stuff.

[instinct]

Here is my conversation with Bill regarding QueMania and the new stuff on the workspace.

Me:
I downloaded Quickshow, but I noticed on
> some of the youtube videos that have the demonstrations of it,
> there are many more QuickFXs than I have. I read that they are
> using CueMania 1.52, a workspace for it. Is this available to
> the public?

Bill:
Not yet, but it will be soon as part of version 2.0. Please wait a little.

[White-Light]

Must admit the cool / warm effect for whites looks really good and potentially changes the need to tune for white at the power stage.

[norty303]

Wonder how much of this cool new stuff is going to make it into the 'Professional' products like LivePro?

Given that Bill says that we can't expect too much from the hobbyist products, it would be nice to think that the people paying the extra dollars for the Pro gear might also get to use software that incorporates some of this stuff. Otherwise it sort of devalues the Pro stuff doesn't it?

[XysteR]

Wonder how much of this cool new stuff is going to make it into the 'Professional' products like LivePro?

Given that Bill says that we can't expect too much from the hobbyist products, it would be nice to think that the people paying the extra dollars for the Pro gear might also get to use software that incorporates some of this stuff. Otherwise it sort of devalues the Pro stuff doesn't it?

I wouldn't say this devalues the pro stuff - Far from it. LivePro is still way more powerful.
When i bought my FB3 i did feel like the software could have been a bit better. The idea of messing around with a few different limited programs didn't go down too well with me as i found it a bit confusing.

When Quickshow came out i found it suited my hobbyist needs very nicely. Everything i need to do as a hobyist in one piece of software. I love it and i feel Q2 will further justify my FB3 choice.

I've seen posts from people who own the higher end pro Pangolin stuff whinging about us FB3 owners getting Quickshow simply because they think we are 'getting something better' and they want it too, cos they paid more so that entitles them to it. lol This is stupid, they clearly have not exhausted the features of their own software and want for wanting sake.

Quickshow is still hobbyist software. Livepro does a lot more stuff that a 'pro' would need.

Saying that tho, the gap between so-called 'pro' and 'hobbyist' software is closing in software of all kinds. People demand a certain level of functionality. Quickshow is becomming the perfect software tool for the FB3. I feel that my outlay for a FB3 has been a wise move and as i've said before, totally justified for the outlay.

So no, Quickshow does not devalue the 'pro' Pangolin stuff, not even in the slightest.

[norty303]

I've seen posts from people who own the higher end pro Pangolin stuff whinging about us FB3 owners getting Quickshow simply because they think we are 'getting something better' and they want it too, cos they paid more so that entitles them to it. lol This is stupid, they clearly have not exhausted the features of their own software and want for wanting sake

People who've bought LivePro USB get to use QS anyway, so its not a case of 'I want some of that' - they have it already.

What I'm saying it that the Beyond engine (which I'm assuming is the backbone of QS) obviously brings many great new features to the table. It would be nice to think that at some point LivePro will be adapted to also run on the Beyond engine (if it doesn't do already) so that some of these neat features are part of the Pro product range as well.

And of course it devalues Livepro. If people have a great product that does most of what LP does, plus some extra neat stuff that LP doesn't, then why bother splashing the money for LP?

What I can see happening, is for people who are using LP already, they'll then be torn between using QS for some of it's neat features, or having to 'make do' with LP in order to get the level of control, but sacrifice the neat features they might like.

I can't be the only one to think that the QS cues look soooo pretty, but can't run a show on QS (as one example)

Perhaps already in the pipeline, but I think once QS reaches a certain level of maturity, the other flagship products might need a bit of a 'catch up' to stop them looking outdated.

I think you might also find that some people do use LP to a very high level, but no amount of 'exhausting features' is ever going to make it do something it doesn't.

[aijii]

I agree. Nothing livepro does is as powerful as the quicktimeline feature in qs.

We absolutely cannot wait for beyond

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

Norty that is so true. I love live pro USB and used it every gig before QS came out but now I'm torn between the two as both are so good but in different ways. Live pro is truly amazing but so is QS.

One thing I will say though is I expressed my worries about this a while ago and I'm sure you said that it would never replace livepro for you. I may be wrong and it may have been someone else but if you can remember and it was yourself what do you suppose has changed your mind.

Ollie

[norty303]

One thing I will say though is I expressed my worries about this a while ago and I'm sure you said that it would never replace livepro for you. I may be wrong and it may have been someone else but if you can remember and it was yourself what do you suppose has changed your mind.

I'm not sure anything has changed - QS still doesn't seem to be moving in the direction of control that I like in LP - and at the time there were a number of things in QS that simply didn't work (BAMs, midi mapping memory - all now subsequently 'fixed')

So its all down to UI for me - however what goes on under the hood is also a key point - QS is apparently better for your scanners (at least until users forced Pangolin to make changes they didn't want to do)

As with all of these things, Pangolin only has so many resources - and the demands from the FB3 owners have in a way ensured Pangolin has diverted a lot of resources to QS to keep them occupied - and I'm sure commercially its helping sell a lot more FB3's - certainly more than LP on its own, even if it did have all the bells and whistles.

[Pangolin]

Hi Norty,

Some things that happen aren't really meant that way from the very beginning. If we had progressed along the path we started, BEYOND would be out, but we would not have anything more than LiveQ for the FB3 and for, lets call it, the "mid-level market".

Around October of 2008 we realized that there was a whole market segment that wasn't being served by us at all, and wasn't being served very well by competitors either, so we put out BEYOND developments on hold, but build a product that we felt would best serve the mid-level market -- that product being QuickShow.

One year later we released QuickShow to the world, and it really took the market by storm. For the next 8 months, we could not make FB3 and QuickShow systems quickly enough to satisfy market demand.

We kept working on QS because there were some features we felt needed improving (for example, the timeline and DMX) and also some new ideas we had and that we wanted to bring out, once they were far enough along in the patent process (such as our new Virtual Laser Jockey which, when I make the video and show you all how it works, will absolutely amaze people).

We are just about to release a BETA of QuickShow 2.0. I'd like to release the final version, but Alexey just went on vacation so we'll release something that's almost finished and then release the final version in a week or so. The BETA will have the new workspace from Derek with tweaks from me. Lots more beam cues, more graphics, and everything has been fine-tuned. Plus a mini show thrown in just for good measure ;-)

I've verified performance of this version and this workspace on three separate projectors ($250 10K Chinese RGV projector, mid-level projector with rather ordinary scanners, and our high-end Kvant projector with Cambridge 6215) to make sure it looks absolutely as good as possible even when scanning full size. It's all looking very good and I am sure all of you will really love the new features, new workspace, and great level of performance.

From here we'll turn our attention back to the professional-level products and will resume our path on BEYOND development. Certain parts of BEYOND have continued to develop, even as Alexey, Valery, Ante and myself have worked mostly on QS for the past 8 months. Specifically our new 3D software which is now nearly 1 million lines of code and having a brand new user interface, which is also completely customizable by the user. The 3D software has been worked on extensively by Alex Stompel. Cathleen continues to work on our plug-ins for 3D Studio MAX and Cinema 4D as well.

As for old-looking user interface or face-lift or however you put it, we already made a newer experimental version of LivePRO and put it out to some people to test. As always, we appreciate feedback and anyone can contact us and ask for a new version.

Regarding the LD2000 software, the look of the user interface is a bit harder to change, but we are continuing to develop that as well and we'll have more shows available and some very interesting features as well.

Getting back to the main point, LivePRO and QuickShow are really two completely separate animals with vastly different live control philosophies. LivePRO is really for laser professionals who need space-shuttle-like controls but also requiring the training and skill of an astronaut to operate. QuickShow is for "everyone else". But in our observation, there are a lot more "everyone else" in the world than there are astronauts...

BEYOND will definitely strike a better balance -- being a possible upgrade path for QS-users, once the "everyone else"-level users gain some additional skills, but still not requiring the astronaut-level of expertise of LivePRO.

I suspect LivePRO will be around and be in use for a very long time. There are some things that it does, and some ways in which it operates that are not duplicated by any other software, whether written by us or anyone else.

Best regards,

William Benner

[norty303]

such as our new Virtual Laser Jockey

Yeah, just spotted that in 217, but my Quickfx tab isn't showing so I could only get it to cue jump on the beat division... I guess its a more clever version of the cue jump to tempo in LP?

As for old-looking user interface or face-lift or however you put it, we already made a newer experimental version of LivePRO and put it out to some people to test. As always, we appreciate feedback and anyone can contact us and ask for a new version.

I think i'm using it actually, is that the silver looking skin in the '700' package?