Spaghetti update

[carmangary]

1.5.1.0 is out. Added image correction to scanner settings. Corrects for pitch, yaw, and skew. Also, since I now have a RIYA DAC I was able to test and debug the RIYA driver. It was actually broken this whole time but now it works with both USB and Ethernet. I am now able to control my scanner through my wireless laptop. Pretty cool!

Any ideas for what to work on next? I'm thinking I might work on making it easier to synchronize the animations with the music since that is a tedious process.

Other ideas: Abstracts, live control, frame editor tool.

[Things]

Nice! I will try it out later since my wireless corrupts my downloads, but it sounds great! I think the frame editor would be a good edition! A all in one laser show software, for free, that supports a load of different hardware!

[FourDee]

Nice work so far!
Live control and frame editor are something I'm looking forward to

[carmangary]

I just released 1.5.3.0. I made some changes so that it will work better with sound card DACs, TTL modulated lasers, and single color lasers that are connected to the Intensity pin on the ILDA connector.

[carmangary]

I just uploaded 1.5.4.0 that has a new feature: time cues. This will make it a lot easier to sync up music or remember places in the time line. There are a couple ways to use them:

(1) Right click on the time portion of the time line and you can insert, delete, or delete all cues.

(2) Click the "Start" button and it will play your music from the starting time on the time line. You can click or tap the keyboard and a cue will be added at the time of each click or tap.

A cue is nothing but a visual marker. You can add or delete as many as you want and they do nothing to the actual show. But, you can add them to help you know where to add animations or apply effects.

I still have a few kinks to work out and will enhance them a bit but they work OK as they are for now so I am letting you all have it.

[allthatwhichis]

It isn't that easy. With normal screen graphics the bottom stuff gets covered up when you draw stuff on top. Laser graphics are transparent by nature. Only the outlines are drawn so nothing underneath gets covered up.

I meant to reply to this when I first saw yours, but... forgot. Computer graphics don't get "covered up"; the computer has, I think it is called a Z buffer, that takes the z value and calculates what is covered up and just doesn't draw it. Instead of not drawing, can't you blank everything that would be "covered up" or not drawn using the same z buffer idea?

[seanharrison]

I just uploaded 1.5.4.0 .....

Nice work I like the cues feature

[carmangary]

I meant to reply to this when I first saw yours, but... forgot. Computer graphics don't get "covered up"; the computer has, I think it is called a Z buffer, that takes the z value and calculates what is covered up and just doesn't draw it. Instead of not drawing, can't you blank everything that would be "covered up" or not drawn using the same z buffer idea?

It isn't that simple because laser graphics are comprised of segments, not pixels. If you want to cover or hide up the center portion of a segment, you have to create two new segments that don't meet in the middle. But first, you have to detect the collision and determine the intersection points. And as I said before, if two concentric circle (a donut) are on top of your image, how do you know which circle is solid and which is the hole? It could either be a donut, or it could be a disc sitting in the center of a washer.

[carmangary]

For the few who use Spaghetti here is an update of where it is and what's going to happen next.

As of now, I have implemented all of the features (and a few more) that I initially planned on implementing in the first phase of the application. I'll probably spend some time tweaking code and tracking down bugs but I don't plan on adding any new functionality for awhile.

After that, I have several things I would want to work on: New effects, multiple projector support, live control, abstracts, and a frame editor. I also want to add some tools to it that will allow you to merge, split, and optimize ILDA frames, tools to import other file formats from other generic drawing apps, and a TraceIt type utility to convert bitmaps to ILDA files.

Whether or not I implement any or all of the above will probably depend on what kind of feedback and community support I see. There is a Spaghetti Google Group that has been set up to report issues or talk about how to do certain things in the application that so far only has me as a user. Also, I haven't seen anyone sharing any shows they have created and that is the number one goal of Spaghetti. So, what I am saying is that the future of Spaghetti is in your hands. It can stay like it is (and possibly disappear) or it can grow.

Also, if there is anyone out there who would be interested in helping to create a Help file for it that would be great. I don't know how to make Help files (.chm files) and could use some help at least getting started with that. I would also like to support other languages, especially German, since there seems to be a lot of German speaking laserists for some reason. So, if anyone wants to sign up to be a translator that would be cool. Currently, there is very little text in the application so it would be easy. The text is mainly limited to what is in the menu items.

Thanks
Gary

[buffo]

I don't get it... 2 days after you release a new version of your software you de-activate the download link so people can't download the file now.?.

You say you can still send the file via E-mail, but for many people (like me) that use G-mail, that's not an option. (Can't send executable files via G-mail. They are stripped from the message automatically - even if they're zipped.)

How are people going to give you feedback on the newest version if they can't download it?

Adam