We thank you for the question and we think you have a very good overall question. But the answer to your question does not lie within the ILDA file format, and in fact, if you think about it for a while, you will realize that your question itself has nothing to do with the ILDA file format. Here's why:
That format you are talking about was conceived more than 25 years ago, before any of the more advanced laser techniques were developed that we use today. The ILDA format is "lossy" in that is loses information about color, scan rate, timing, any kind of zones, projection areas or individual makeup of the file (for example information about "faces" of 3D elements), etc.
While I was chairman of the ILDA Technical Committee, I tried to work within ILDA to get the format updated. Myself and a few other people worked tirelessly, and we turned over a new format to ILDA when I left the chairmanship around the year 2001. And yet since that time, our improved ideas were not adopted, and in the mean time software and even laser projectors are getting better and better. By now there is a large divergence (pardon the pun) between what laser projectors and software can do today, and the ILDA file format.
Furthermore I will remind you that Pangolin is not only a software company. The relationship is not as simple as -- you buy a product and then we never hear from you again. We must support everything we sell, essentially forever, and with no further payment from the client (i.e. we do not charge a "per incidence" support fee). For several years we were finding that a lot of support telephone calls and emails that came in were related to the ILDA file format, why doesn't this work, why doesn't that work, the fact that it "loses" data, etc. etc. and so on. FOLKS -- THIS IS COSTING US MONEY TO EXPLAIN THAT THE ILDA FORMAT IS PROBLEMATIC!!
And finally, if you look at the biggest picture, you will also become aware that the ILDA format is responsible for a lot of artware piracy in the industry. People like Pieterjan Ryuch work endlessly on animations and shows, for the sole purpose of selling these to end-users. If an end user can simply put this into the public domain (on a public file sharing site), then it is highly discouraging to guys like Peter. There is a situation where some of the Chinese projectors are being sold with these graphics built in, and the problem is -- not even the Chinese companies really know where this artware comes from. They simply downloaded it off of a public file sharing site and use it. The ILDA format does not contain any information on "authorship" (who made the file or how to get in touch with them).
For all of these reasons and more, Pangolin has made a conscious choice NOT to support the ILDA format.
However, I hope that you can turn your question into a more productive one, which is how to create laser shows which can then be played back on your projector. When that is the question, we have answers!
QuickShow and LD2000 and BEYOND and even LivePRO (and LC-Max, and LC-Flash and LC4D and LC-ADAT -- basically all of our software) all allow you to export frames or complete shows in the Lasershow Designer Secure file format. This format is modern. It does not "lose" data as mentioned above, and contains authorship information, and gives the creator of art-ware control over what happens to frames and shows after it loses their hands. Even if these files were to wind up on public file sharing sites, they could not be shared without the permission of the original laser artist.
These files can be played back on our FB3-SE hardware and also the new FB4 hardware that can be integrated directly into a laser projector.
We believe your question is a good one and a valid one. That's why we have built these features into the Lasershow Designer file format many years ago, and have been constantly improving the file format since then.
Best regards,
William Benner
