Beyond - Frame protection? - export to LD2000 -> export to *.ild

[Simon]

Hi,
I got Beyond Ultimate Version 4.0, Build 1093(066479) and i got LD2000: Basic 5,63 with a QM2000 (05654).

For a customer, I am trying to Export some Frames (i drawed them myself in Beyond) to *.ild

So i Export from Beyond to *.lds
With the LD2000 i open the *.lds and Export it to *.ild
I tryed every "Security Option" in Beyond and also in LD2000.
In LD2000 the security Option is Always on "3" - no matter what Option i used by exporting from beyond.
No matter what i am doing, everytime i Export it to *.ild, i am no more authorized to use the file.

Example Video -> https://www.dropbox.com/s/hrpbtjmicqxrxr9/nothing works.mp4?dl=0

I need to amortize the costs of These products by selling my Shows/Frames/creativity.
I also need to serve customers who wants to get the files as *.ild

if i draw something in the LD2000, i can Export it to *.ild without any issue!
the Problem only occurs, if i Export the file from Beyond.

can you help me with this Issue?


Best Regards
Simon

 

[Pangolin]

Thank you for your post. It brings back memories ;-)

You see, although the ILDA file format was created by Steve Heminover and Fred Fenning around 1987, nobody actually implemented the file format until 1989. Do you know who was the very first person to actually implement the file format? It wasn't Steve Heminover or Fred Fenning, but rather ME! Shortly afterward I became ILDA Technical Committee Chairman and served for 7 years, then served on the ILDA board for 5 years after that (a total of 12 years consecutive service). During my tenancy, the ILDA format was updated to include additional data including true RGB color in the year 2000. The Technical Committee under my leadership also mapped out additional and future directions for the ILDA file format. Unfortunately, since I left the ILDA Technical Committee in 2002, there hasn't been any more work on the ILDA file format. No work done on that format in 18 years!

What's worst, in complete contravention of the terms of our license agreement, the Chinese started exporting Pangolin content (as well as content made on other platforms) to ILDA file format, and then including that unauthorized content on their laser projectors that they sold for a few hundred dollars... Take it from me, as President of the company who has been most successful at taking such companies to court AND WINNING DAMAGES, sure, we can be successful at combating this. But it takes years, and it's not fun... It would be a whole lot better for everyone (all artists involved as well as the companies producing legitimate laser shows and competitive laser projectors) if this didn't happen in the first place!

In the intervening 18 years, no work has been done on the ILDA format, and yet advanced software has been created, including all "Lasershow Converter" banded software, which requires 3D surface support and object linking, as well as BEYOND and QuickShow, which need and use additional advanced data types. Simple concepts like "points" used in the ILDA format aren't even used any more, and Digital Spread Spectrum is commonly employed as an output technique by FB3, FB4 and in limited ways in QM2000 as well.

For these reasons (artware piracy and the need for advanced data types and security), Pangolin no longer supports the ILDA format. You will not find it as an option in any software we have produced in more than five years. While there is a certain satisfaction that comes with taking companies who infringe our license agreement to court, and winning, we'd simply prefer to spend our time developing new software and supporting emerging artistry, rather than hunting down show pirates and interfacing with attorneys...

In any event, all of our modern software allows sharing data between the various software models (LD2000, QuickShow, BEYOND, etc.) and Pangolin offers a variety of hardware platforms including simple boards that can be installed into laser projectors (i.e. FB4). We also license our file formats and complete hardware platforms to third parties when and where our own board-level products are not sufficient.

The bottom line is that we believe our product offerings are complete for the needs of the vast majority of clients, and when they are not complete we have reasonable licensing deals to address those needs.

If you have a particular requirement that is not met by the software and hardware platforms that you know about, we strongly encourage you to contact Pangolin directly at contact@pangolin.com. We can discuss your requirements and how to best meet those requirements.

Best regards,

William Benner
President of Pangolin Laser Systems and former Technical Committee Chairman of ILDA

 

[Simon]

Hi William,
thank you for the time you spend on answering my post.
Also the "timetable" is very interesting.
I totally agree with you, that your showfiles needs to be protected and that the ILDA-Format is not the Format you want to go with, as it is old and not secure.
I have contacted the support, and hopefully someone can help me with my Problem.

Best regards,
Simon