Pangolin Quickshow for FB3 released!

[Things]

Livepro also locks up whilst saving so I'm sure its just an artefact of the save process for such a large file.

Yeah, though the time required could be decreased greatly by only saving the cues you have modified, and not the ones that are already there over again.

[Pangolin]

Livepro also locks up whilst saving so I'm sure its just an artefact of the save process for such a large file.

I am not sure that LivePRO always and forever locks up while saving. Otherwise how could people create the workspaces in the first place?

Rather, I believe that it has to do with the amount of memory in your compuer. In order to Save, LivePRO (and also QuickShow) needs to allocate memory to do things. If your computer is "tight" to begin with, it really can't allocate memory and it might lock up. This was discovered recently and changes have been made (including adding a "free memory" indicator to QuickShow and making it color coded).

I am not sure about LivePRO, but we absolutely recommend at very minimum of 1GB of memory for QuickShow. As I wrote in a previous post, that workspace might look like only 100MB on disk, but when it loads into your computer's memory, it is well over 350MB!!!

These days you can buy another gig of ram for around $35. With QuickShow that would be well worth it... Probably the same can be said of LivePRO.

Bill

PS: Norty, have you ever written to Pangolin privately to describe your problems? I have to say, I've never received an email about LivePRO and locking up. If we had, we would have done more investigating. I keep saying it but public forums are REALLY not the place to discuss problems...

[Pangolin]

Yeah, though the time required could be decreased greatly by only saving the cues you have modified, and not the ones that are already there over again.

First let me make statement of general principal. At Pangolin, we're strong believers in conservative principals and the power of the individual. If you are a programmer, please join our team. That way, you can work on the parts that are important to you. Otherwise you'll have to wait until we get around to working on those parts.

With that statement about general principals having been said, I will tell you that since build 128 (the build everyone here is using) there has been work done to improve the speed of loading and saving workspaces. And I will also say that if you've got a computer that is "tight", it will take longer to load and save the workspace. If you've got a computer that's "really tight", it might take hours...

Now, a few definitions. QuickShow is an amazing program. That's a fact. But it takes memory. That's also a fact. If you've got a computer with "only" 1GB, do all of us a favor and spend $35 on another gig. It makes QuickShow run a whole lot faster and better. If you've got a computer with 512MB (like my desktop computer for example), QuickShow will indeed run with 512MB, but expect to wait hours while saving a workspace.

In the literature, we state 1GB as a *minimum* requirement.

Best regards,

William Benner

[Pangolin]

1. If i want to use Quickshow, i just have to buy fb3?

Essentially yes. Anyone who has a Pangolin FB3, QuickShow will run. (A distinction was made about "Pangolin FB3" because there are other companies who use FB3 such as NEO-NEON, and whose license terms were different.)

And from now on, anyone who purchases an FB3 from Pangolin will receive QuickShow.

2. Is there new fb3 hardware? (i read somewhere something about fb3 QS version...)

There will be a new FB3 being released next year. It doesn't have removable memory (which some people value) and can be seen as a USB-to-Laser converter (of course Pangolin hardware is always much more than this, but this is a simple way of looking at it).

As I wrote, it doesn't have removable memory, but does have six color channels. I am not sure if the older FB3-related software will run on this hardware or not. We'll have to do some testing to see. After all, we call it "FB3-QS" because it is our intention to include this with QS and not really run other software...

3. Will price change because of such major update/upgrade?

No the price will stay the same. Even in the case of the FB3-QS hardware, it costs less money because the memory connector is removed, but more money because of additional color channels. It's a wash in cost, so we have kept the price the same.

4. Do Pangolin really has central europe branch office in Slovenia??? i thought America doesnt know that our small country exists

Pangolin has a small office in Slovenia. And we have a small office in China too. The fact is, we'll work with anyone who is competent and honest. We have people working with Pangolin all over the world, including several in Germany, some in France, one guy in Polland, three guys in Ukraine, some in California, etc. I am sure I am forgetting someone...

Just recently hooked up with a guy in UK who might be doing some SMS-related work.

Bill

[Things]

First let me make statement of general principal. At Pangolin, we're strong believers in conservative principals and the power of the individual. If you are a programmer, please join our team. That way, you can work on the parts that are important to you. Otherwise you'll have to wait until we get around to working on those parts.

With that statement about general principals having been said, I will tell you that since build 128 (the build everyone here is using) there has been work done to improve the speed of loading and saving workspaces. And I will also say that if you've got a computer that is "tight", it will take longer to load and save the workspace. If you've got a computer that's "really tight", it might take hours...

Now, a few definitions. QuickShow is an amazing program. That's a fact. But it takes memory. That's also a fact. If you've got a computer with "only" 1GB, do all of us a favor and spend $35 on another gig. It makes QuickShow run a whole lot faster and better. If you've got a computer with 512MB (like my desktop computer for example), QuickShow will indeed run with 512MB, but expect to wait hours while saving a workspace.

In the literature, we state 1GB as a *minimum* requirement.

Best regards,

William Benner

I see what you are saying, and I don't mind waiting, it's just one of those things that could be beneficial in the long run

Quickshow doesn't lock up when saving, though.

But I do agree it's a very impressive program.

Yes, my computer isn't impressive (1.6Ghz Atom, 2GB DDR2 etc), but it works fine other than that.

[norty303]

PS: Norty, have you ever written to Pangolin privately to describe your problems? I have to say, I've never received an email about LivePRO and locking up. If we had, we would have done more investigating. I keep saying it but public forums are REALLY not the place to discuss problems...

Hi Bill

I think you've misunderstood a couple of my posts recently. If I have a problem that I want you to look at (that I know you aren't already e.g. the low power thread) then I email you about it.

In this case I was simply offering an explanation that the lock ups weren't exclusive to Quickshow. I haven't logged it as an issue because it isn't an issue for me. When I've finished a show, having to wait 30secs to a minute whilst LivePro closes is not a problem, and quite understandable given the size of the file (nearly 1/2GB in my case) it's having to save.

That said, I'm not sure that I agree that public forums aren't the best place to discuss issues. I personally think they are great for getting a concensus of opinion about whether a problem exists in the first place (e.g. aforementioned power output thread) before raising it as an actual issue (or not, if concensus agrees it's a user/machine issue).

So in this case, someone says lockups/slow saving, others confirm its normal - no problem.

[Phredy1]

Quickshow is a great program. I am excited to see what Beyond will bring!

A question: Does anyone know how to create a new cue in the Atmospherics / Q-clicks 1 page? I have found some nice combinations of cues and tried to save them to a new cue in the Q-clicks 1 folder, but have not had any success. There must be something I am not doing right, but I can't figure out what it is. I really like the multiple cues in one click.

-Gene

[Pangolin]

I'm not sure that I agree that public forums aren't the best place to discuss issues.

Many times -- perhaps even most times, I don't even see a post about a Pangolin product being discussed on PL. Many times it is a user who sends me an email and says "Hey, a Pangolin product is being discussed here, go take a look". But this only happens a little bit of the time.

So you have your choice between discussing things in public amongst a bunch of people who may be able to commiserate with you, but can't help you a bit. Or sending one private email to Pangolin and have us start working on it right away.

It's really your choice...

Personally I've considered purposely ignoring all posts regarding problems reported here on PL, and only responding to those who write directly. That way only those people who do it the right way get their prayers answered, and people who took it publicly don't get anything...

If you've got a problem with a Pangolin product, there is one sure-fire way to get it resolved, and that's to write to the people who created the product in the first place...

We have a lot of tools to help privately (past EXE versions, debug versions, log files, etc.) but I am not going to involve the public in this.

I'm the only person on the Pangolin team who monitors PL, and, as I wrote in previous posts, due to my travel and otehr factors, it could be weeks or months that go by between the time I have a chance to look at this forum. But I answer around 100 emails per day, so it's not like we aren't responsive (see the post from Mr. Coffee who reported that we responded on Thanksgiving day -- actually one of only 30 emails that went out that day.)

So again, you've got your choice between airing a problem amongst a bunch of people who can't help you, or sending a single private email to the only people who can...

Bill

[norty303]

between airing a problem amongst a bunch of people who can't help you

Oh contraire, I think you'll find that a good number of questions are very ably answered about your products on this forum that never involve your good selves. In fact it probably keeps a good amount of traffic from your door, particularly those questions that have been answred previously.

Hell, if it didn't work, why would you have your own forums?

I don't even see a post about a Pangolin product being discussed on PL

Good. Please do not think I'm implying that I think that we should be able to discuss stuff here AND expect you to see everything. However, don't expect people to NOT talk about your products here. It is after all a discussion forum and knowledge base for all things laser related, including your products.

[Pangolin]

OK Norty,

You've made a few good points .

But if it seems like a bug, you'd get fastest service by going right to our doorstep.

Bill