Pangolin Quickshow for FB3 released!

[norty303]

Just in case it had passed anyone by, Bill posted on another thread today that Quickshow is now available for download from the Pangolin website.

Look in the 'whats new' section for PDf and link to software.

[Doc]

I've just been playing with it, very simple interface and I may be wrong but my galvos seemed quieter running QS?

[buffo]

Quite possible, Doc.

According to Bill, one of the things that is so cool about quickshow is that "points don't exist". Now, he never implied what that really meant, but I interpret it to be that the software is using the computer's CPU to solve the "traveling salesman" problem for the entire image (all tracks, all layers) each time a frame is displayed. That means that it's picking the optimal path to draw everything with the least amount of galvo hammering. So yeah, it would make sense that your scanners would be quieter, as they may well be moving in a more efficient path now.

Adam

[norty303]

I'd be interested to hear what experience others are having with different levels of computer hardware.
I was somewhat surprised to see the minimum PC specs for this as they seem quite high. Now it could be just that its a default safety spec for good running of the software, but personally I run a P4 laptop with 1GB of ram and I'd like to not have to change my computer. The comp doesn't do anything else and has been stripped of any unneccessary software so I'm hopeful it'll be sufficient. I'll post back some findings once I've downloaded and installed QS.

[Doc]

Running sweet as a nut here on an old notebook (1.7gig Pentium M, 1 gig ram) with plenty of resources free.

[norty303]

Cool, sounds about what I've got - HP NC8000

[badger1666]

this thread is usless with out pics

can anyone post some i wanna see what the fuss has been all about
ie whats the gui look like ??

thanks

[Doc]

this thread is usless with out pics

can anyone post some i wanna see what the fuss has been all about
ie whats the gui look like ??

thanks

http://www.pangolin.com/_Files/QuickShow.pdf

[norty303]

I gotta say, some of the preview images look like they sort of taper at the ends of the lines in a very pleasant looking smoothed way - imagine my surprise to see that the actual projected image looks exactly the same! Gives it a really classy refined look, and Doc is right, my scanners can runa bit quicker than on LivePro and with less noise now.

Doc, I may have found the limits of my machine. Does your output go choppy when you use QuickFX?

[oliverst14@hotmail.com]

just a quick one, im so happy this is out. im planning on running a clock on new years all evening now mmmmmm jus 1 question, i will be doing the lighting and lasers and have 1 dedicated laptop for lighting and 1 dedicated laptop for lasers.

i dont think there is but im wanting to run livepro running 3 lasers and quickshow running the other laser for the clock. i have 2 fb3s and was wondering if this will be possible from the same pc. im pretty sure it wont be.

if not ill have to bring my mums laptop too and run it off that. i shouldnt ever have to touch it tho so can stow it away somewhere out the way.

cheers everyone

[Pangolin]

I was somewhat surprised to see the minimum PC specs for this as they seem quite high.

Here's a funny story. A lady calls Pangolin and asks us about the minimum requirements to run our IMU software. There are none. So I tell her "there are none".

OK, during the conversation it comes out that she is a soccer mom. Unsophisticated computer user. Only thing she knows is that other products have "minimum requirements" and so therefore, it must be an important thing to ask. So she REALLY REALLY wants me to tell her the minimum requirements. Really, there are none...

I tell here "any PC that you can lay your hands on will work with IMU". But still that isn't good enough for her... In the end, she got so mad at us that she didn't buy our software. I think she believed we were trying to be evasive. But really -- IMU will work on any PC!!

So as a result of that "lesson", and also looking at brochures for other products, we figured we should list a "minimum requirement" of some kind.

Now, here's the deal. While working with clients recently and demonstrating QS, I installed QS on lots of PCs. Amazing vareity. QS ran on all of them.

My own PC is a P4 with only 512MB of memory. QS will indeed run on my PC but it is "tight"...

Yes, the previewing of those QuickFX does take up CPU time and you will notice a slowdown of responsiveness if you've got a "tight" PC.

And there is another factor. Although the workspace is only 100MB on disk, it expands to around 350MB in your computer's memory. My PC having only 512MB of memory -- again, is "tight".

So although QS will run on every PC we tried, we gotta list some minimum requirements -- if for no other reason, to appeas the soccer moms out there. And we've also got to have some kind of "headroom" so if someone starts complaining about "hey, these QuickFX make it choppy on my P4 computer" we can come back with "we told you so"...

We also plan on adding more to QS. More capabilities (which will require more CPU speed) and more real laser shows which, if we put them into the same workspace, is clearly going to take more memory. So we list a "minimum requirement" which is really greater than is needed today, just so we have some headroom for tomorrow.

These days I doubt you could even buy a computer without a dual-core processor and a gig of ram. I don't think that's an unreasonable requirement. So that's why we put it there.

Bill

[XysteR]

Thanks so much for this Bill, highly appreciated! Really glad you managed to get it out to us before Christmas & Newyear. Sterling effort

*EDIT*

I just had a play with QuickShow. My DT25's run totally silent now with QS? Fantastic! I just spent a while trying out the presets, everything looks as it should, in the past circles wouldn't display 100% with QS everything is drawn miles better, fantastic! I'll be having a play again tomorrow evening if its dry out. Now i'm really chuffed.

Am i right to say winamp can be used with this?

[Lexat8]

Morning All,
Just a quick post to say thanks to Bill and the team for the realease of this! 56% downloaded so far, but know its gooding to be good!

Lex!

[Doc]

Doc, I may have found the limits of my machine. Does your output go choppy when you use QuickFX?

Not that I noticed but I only played briefly.

[Yag]

I'm liking this a lot already!

Ta Pangolin!