First impressions

Chat about Show Buddy Active lighting & video control software
SWR
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Apr 17, 2016 9:03 am

First impressions

Post by SWR »

Hi,

Here's my first impressions of the Platinum version. :)

I really like the layout and the ideas behind the Control, Effects and Perform tabs.
The visualizer is a great addition to get quick feedback without setting up the rig.

The following are nice touches compared to the old DMXIS IMHO:
- The Sort button is brilliant to avoid accidently rearranging your presets while fumbling with the touch screen during live performances.
- The Performance buttons are an excellent addition for dealing with unexpected surprises during the show.
- It's nice that you can change the screen size between the tabs/visualizer/performance buttons.

The following are ideas for improvements:
- The visualizer doesn't seem to react to beam direction if there is a pan/tilt channel in the fixture.
Could we get two beam direction sliders for pan & tilt offset from the default orientation?
- The visualizer only reacts to R/Red, G/Green and B/Blue sliders.
Could we get W/White & A/Amber added to this?
- The visualizer doesn't react to fixtures with color wheels.
Could we get the following colors: R/Red, G/Green, B/Blue, C/Cyan, M/Magenta, Y/Yellow, W/White, A/Amber, L/Lime?
- I don't need the visualizer during live performances.
Could we get the ability to turn it off and use all the area for the Control, Effects & Perform tabs?

It would also be nice to be able to zoom the text size of the Perform tab ... here's why:
I use the Perform tab as a reminder instead of OnSong or similar apps when playing while controlling the lights.
The show is set up with one song per bank (96 banks in total with 976 presets in total)
The Banks are named starting with the patch number on my Helix floor board followed by the name of the song.
The Presets are named with the type (Start, Intro, Verse 1, Chorus, ..., End etc.) followed by chords or other reminders.
The Start preset is usually followed by initial adjustments on my Helix floor board/Variax guitar or if I need a capo etc.
Therefore it would be nice with bigger fonts in this window and the preset window scrolling with the preset selection if the song has more presets that will fit on the preset window (especially a challenge with medelys where we put 2 or 3 songs together).
Another nice to have would be to allow (, ), # and ° in preset names (now I use Gb instead of F#).

Maybe some of these ideas are already in the 2.0.11 version with movers?
I'm looking forward to playing with that one. :)
NCN
Posts: 179
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:53 pm
Location: New Hampshire USA

Re: First impressions

Post by NCN »

While we're beating up on what Platinum lacks :lol: let me add a couple of things.

The general color for the big buttons should be a configuration option. Not that they're bad but, you know. Also when a button is "active" sometimes the intensity difference isn't so great. This is a bigger problem on the performance preset buttons where it's a bit hard to pick out which one is active. Maybe allowing a totally different color for active.

One thing I do is use several presets at one time selectively ... sort of merging different looks together in an ad hoc way. It would be interesting to see if there was a way to have something like "latched" buttons where they stay on until you press them again to go off. When pressed off, maybe they could have an associated "off" preset something like is in Show Buddy. I realize this could get out of hand! :o
RichG
Posts: 255
Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2014 8:19 am
Has thanked: 1 time

Re: First impressions

Post by RichG »

Good suggestions, guys. :)

Please add them to the DMXIS Platinum Wish List forum HERE.
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