Thread: Visualizer

First, I'm new to sequencing and decorating, but when I jump in, I jump in all the way.

I found LOR hardware and software first and bought a "starter" kit. After some looking around, I found the DIY controllers and then LSP. I've now built a Renard and have several more on order -- all in DMX mode.

I find LSP to be a fantastic program that is fun to work with and makes sequencing, both simple and complex fairly straight-forward. The interface is nice and up-to-date. My kids (10 & 12) sat down and in 5 minutes were making simple sequences with LSP.

If there is one part of the program that I think needs A LOT of work, it is the visualizer. My first thoughts, after seeing some real blinky lights, was that I will put my yard in the visualizer to see what props and lights I wanted to put up and how far I could take this new, crazy hobby of mine. In very short order, I found that the visualizer was very hard to use and was very rudimentary at best. Isn't this the part of the program most people "live" in for 11 months before they put their display up? I went as far as to find a program by HolidaySoft that I would have been willing to buy... but I couldn't figure out a way to link it to LSP. I've been setting up my yard using the one in LOR which works very nicely -- my problem is I MUCH prefer sequencing in LSP and would rather not use LOR.

I'd even be very happy with a way to link to the LOR or HolidaySoft visualizer from LSP.

Things I'd like to see in he LSP visualizer: remote network support, prop resizing and moving, aspect ratio maintained, better drawing tools, ability to see a perspective grid, channel wizards to assign channels. I guess the easiest way to say it is something that has the features of the LOR offering and adds additional features that it is missing.

I know this is not a simple "feature request"... it is something I think LSP needs, though.

Thanks,

Derek

One of the things that first drew me to LSP was the visualizer in the fact that you could use a real picture of your home and add lights to it to get a representation of what your real display would look like. Having come from LOR (using both v1 and v2 (and now v3)) there visualizer was like using a light bright (you know putting the colored plastic pegs in the wholes to create a picture) so to me there is no comparison. Yes the visualizer in LSP is not perfect and could use a few more tools but it is light years ahead of most of the competition. The only thing I would suggest to David is to make the full screen visualizer a separate program thus allowing you to use the small side visualizer when you are working on sequence and the full screen one when you are ready to view your sequence much like they do with professional lighting desk software. But here in lies a problem in that if it where a separate program David would have to charge more for it which would make some users unhappy so as of now he is trying to do his best to balance features vs. price and above all quality of product.

Maybe I'm missing something? I think the visualizer in LSP is capable, but it would take me a long time to get everything right. The biggest thing, I guess is not being able to move/resize props easily. To move things around is just tedious. I find the prop and channel management is tedious too. I think I could, if I knew exactly where I wanted everything, set it up fairly quickly in LSP, but I don't. I've not got any idea where I'm going to place all my props at this point.

I've seen pics of the visualizer in LOR 1 & 2 and it looks to me like their v3 is no comparison -- completely rewritten and moved to a separate program. My biggest complaint about their visualizer is that it is written mainly for their hardware (understandably).

I own Holidaysoft, (bought when I was using LOR software) and I like LSP visualzer much better than Holidaysoft. I understand what you are saying about moving and resizing if you have multiple channels on one item, but if it is just a single channel it is not difficult to move or resize. LSP could certainly use some improvements. It is far better than anything that I have used.

Originally Posted by rdebolt

I own Holidaysoft, (bought when I was using LOR software) and I like LSP visualzer much better than Holidaysoft. I understand what you are saying about moving and resizing if you have multiple channels on one item, but if it is just a single channel it is not difficult to move or resize. LSP could certainly use some improvements. It is far better than anything that I have used.

Hi guys, You are correct on moving and resizing. They along with some other suggestions, are in the project system as a requests.Obviously LSP will prioritize it according to the other requests. They have however be requested by a number of users so hopefully to be included in a future release.

Reference the press release here http://www.lightshowpro.com/blogs/ad...s-release.html

I see in the recent Blog entry, the visualizer is on the radar for updates, too.

Derek

Originally Posted by Caretaker

One of the things that first drew me to LSP was the visualizer in the fact that you could use a real picture of your home and add lights to it to get a representation of what your real display would look like. Having come from LOR (using both v1 and v2 (and now v3)) there visualizer was like using a light bright (you know putting the colored plastic pegs in the wholes to create a picture) so to me there is no comparison. Yes the visualizer in LSP is not perfect and could use a few more tools but it is light years ahead of most of the competition. The only thing I would suggest to David is to make the full screen visualizer a separate program thus allowing you to use the small side visualizer when you are working on sequence and the full screen one when you are ready to view your sequence much like they do with professional lighting desk software. But here in lies a problem in that if it where a separate program David would have to charge more for it which would make some users unhappy so as of now he is trying to do his best to balance features vs. price and above all quality of product.

What I do is turn off the shared Visualizer and right click in the small visaulizer and click float and then pull it to my other monitor

Originally Posted by lineman

What I do is turn off the shared Visualizer and right click in the small visaulizer and click float and then pull it to my other monitor

Sounds like a good idea, just click here and.... Well I guess I need to get that second monitor first. Seriously, great suggestion thanks for the input.