Should I buy Beyond? Idea to make a Laser game with Pangolin Beyond and Pango script

[MrM]

Well thanks soooo much all of you for your contributions. I think I am going to buy Beyond
because, why the hell not... that is just the discovery route I am on at the moment...
(unless anyone from Pangolin wants to donate it to me , just for my home use purposes, please )

So I am not really clear about if you get an SDK with Beyond or not?
@Norty303 : from where do you know about the SDK? Is there any documentation about it?

@MasterPj : You indicate that I can only use the SDK if I buy the QM2000 DAC?

So, anyway, if there is an SDK, this means I may program the game model in any language (e.g. for me C#, Microsoft .Net would be easiest), and then call the
SDK to render the graphics only... the entire game world would be under my control, and the graphics rendered via calls to the laser API (meaning I could perhaps transport
to different DACs)...

If there is no SDK /API with Beyond then I would try to write everything internally in Beyond with Pangoscript...

@JohnYayas : I did play with Unity too... cool platform. I totally agree, augmentation with lasers is a cool idea too. I could imagine having an RGB beamer for the game
world and a laser projector to augment the effects... how exciting would that be!

@Mixedgas... yea, I will ask Bill Benner... Is he a member here? How do I contact him?

Bye for now, good night, back to my laser... I will keep you posted on any progress.

[norty303]

Bill spoke to me about the Beyond SDK some time ago now in emails. However, I have never personally seen details of it because its outside of my programming knowledge.
I was offered to start with the LD200.dll docs and then the Beyond.dll docs, so that says that at the time, they existed. Whether their roadmap has shifted since then i don't know, but there's an easy way to find out
My advice to you, if your purchase depends on an sdk, is to email Pangolin/Bill directly, explain what you want to do with Beyond, and confirm they can supply what you need before making any purchase.

Go the Pangolin website and use the contact form there. Bill Benner is his user name here if you want to try a PM as well, and I believe he may use the 'Pangolin' user account too.

P.S. one of the reasons why Bill says the beyond.dll is better than an FB3 sdk, is that its largely irrelevant what hardware you are using to deal with the frames, as beyond handles that aspect for you. So be it QM, FB3, FB4, etc

[masterpj]

MrM what I mean is that aside from the pangolins software you can use third party SDKs with say like the easylase, riya dac, etherdream.
However with pangolins FB3 there is no SDK outside of BEYONDs. I dont know yet how to properly utilise this so I cannot recommend it yet.

However if you buy beyond with the QM2000 DAC you can use both BEYOND with pangoscript and the SDK from pangolin for the QM2000 (LD2000 SDK).
But you can also use the third party SDK's with this. I recommend it for the reason that you will have access to it all making this decision.

When using the third party SDK you can make it support more laser controller hardware but it might be harder to use.
The Pangolin LD2000 SDK for instance is in more languages and has more example code.

[m0f]

There are already a few games and 3rd party apps that work with the qm2000, but nothing for the fb3. With so many fb3's out there I'd say if it is possible, if there is an sdk that works with beyond, there would be more people who could potentially use it and more in demand. Though only a small fraction of fb3 owners also own beyond, so unless the .dll file or whatever is part of the sdk is redistributable then that would cut down the number of potential users.

The qm2000 while still slightly superior to the fb3, isn't their most popular controller anymore. With the fb3 working over the startech or icron usb to ethernet boxes, many people opt to purchase fb3's instead nowadays due to the fact that you can get 3 or 4 + a usb to ethernet box for the price of one qm2000 + .net box. So there are a lot of fb3's out there and as of yet no 3rd party apps, which is why I question whether there is a working sdk for it yet. Pangoscript is powerful for manipulating and adding functionality within the software but I'm not so sure it'd be suitable for programming a game.

[colouredmirrorball]

The big question is indeed if programs using the beyond sdk work for people without beyond. If not, you are creating a niche product for a product which is already niche... which is of course not a problem if you do this for your own enjoyment but if you want to create something useful for many hobbyists this is not the right way.

[norty303]

In terms of laser show software, I'm not sure Beyond could really be considered niche.

[m0f]

Definitely not a niche at this point, very much the industry standard for professional shows, and seems to have vastly taken over the Livepro marketshare. That aside, night clubs will typically only own/use quickshow if that, in fact seem the majority use auto or dmx with many not even knowing there's a better option and others too cheap to purchase it.

The hobbyist at home is where Beyond doesn't quite fit, as many just can't afford or justify the expenditure, though can think of nothing better for those who like to tinker, and definitely opens the doors wide open to ones potential creativity.

[swamidog]

this guy (i'm pretty sure he's a forum member) is programming video games with his laser projector and etherdream DAC. you might hit him up for code and tips.
the etherdream costs about 200$ and might be a much cheaper way to go than beyond/ld2k. it does have an open source and documented api.

[Picasso]

Swamidog that is this same project https://github.com/echelon/light-engine The other video by him shows two projector/DACs splitting up the drawing. I gave him one of those etherdreams.

[colouredmirrorball]

Definitely not a niche at this point, very much the industry standard for professional shows,

That is what I would call a niche.