Kalidescope effect question

N

nashlaser87

Member
X laser mobile beat mirage using beyond essentials FB3 / atolla 7 port usb hub / monster usb cable / xlaser brand ilda cable

I am having trouble getting my laser to display the kalidescope effect properly. I am able to use this effect within beyond to create fluid abstract cues, but when I enable laser, the output is very lagged (~6fps) both on the preview and the laser output itself. I am using the kalidescope effect on an already somewhat complex effect to produce a complex kalidescope. I tried making the image smaller in size, zooming down, slowing animation speed, raising and lowering scan rate, fb3 usb directly to laptop instead of usb hub - no improvement. I see a few possible bottlenecks here:

1. I have a very basic lenovo thinkpad 420s laptop. Maybe the graphics card or processor is lacking and I need a more powerful laptop to render/process these effects. I am leaning toward this as there is lag in the preview window when enable laser is used.

2. Is this possibly too complex of an effect for one laser? I need two or more lasers using distributed scanning

3. This is too complex of an effect for lasers to be doing and I should be trying to make kalidescopes via projection instead. But if beyond can render it in the preview window smoothly before enable laser shouldnt the laser be able to run it smoothly after?

4. Beyond essentials is capable of creating the effect, showing it in the preview window, but somehow not capable of getting it to the laser correctly.

5. FB3 limitation

Here is one example of an effect I am trying to use. This is with kalidesope applied.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ubatc0k6y14pldv/kalidescope.beff?dl=0

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
 
Last edited:
Hi, nashlaser87!
For some reason, I can't upload your file to Beyond.
I also have the original Image that you're applying the Kaleidoscope effect to.
I can assume that the result (Image+effect) has a very large number of points that your laser (30K) cannot reproduce without flickering.
In the lower right corner, you can switch to displaying the number of points (Show points) instead of fps and see how many points are output to the laser.
upload_2020-10-18_16-38-56.png
 
Igor Strakhov said:
Hi, nashlaser87!
For some reason, I can't upload your file to Beyond.
I also have the original Image that you're applying the Kaleidoscope effect to.
I can assume that the result (Image+effect) has a very large number of points that your laser (30K) cannot reproduce without flickering.
In the lower right corner, you can switch to displaying the number of points (Show points) instead of fps and see how many points are output to the laser.
View attachment 1535
Click to expand...


~8000 points

I noticed my laptop graphics card is one step below the beyond recommended specs for beyond - I have intel HD 3000 , minimum specs are for HD4000. There is also a note below that stating "Big projects with multiple laser controllers will require a computer with higher specifications."

Will I be able to output ~8000 points with a new laptop that has better graphics card? I am already looking at new laptops to run resolume. Either a asus zephrus g14 or I will wait for the new generation of rtx 30xx series graphics card laptops to come out.

But you are saying even with a new laptop - my 30k laser might not be able to show that many points?

Would I be able to do it with multiple lasers using distributed scanning? How many lasers to show ~10k points?
 
A graphics card won't help.
This is a limitation of the laser.
30K / 25 fps=1200 points is the maximum that your laser can output without flickering and then only at 8 degrees scan angle.
With a larger scan angle, the number of points will be even smaller.
To output 10,000 points you will need about 6 pieces 50K-lasers and Beyond Ultimate.
 
Igor Strakhov said:
A graphics card won't help.
This is a limitation of the laser.
30K / 25 fps=1200 points is the maximum that your laser can output without flickering and then only at 8 degrees scan angle.
With a larger scan angle, the number of points will be even smaller.
To output 10,000 points you will need about 6 pieces 50K-lasers and Beyond Ultimate.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this reply. You have saved me a lot of time and money.

I wondered if/when I would hit the ceiling of hobby level cue creation and it seems I have hit the ceiling indeed.. The kvant clubmax with upgraded 60k saturn1 scanner is ~$5,200... $35,000+ to produce that effect.. I will have to focus on other areas of laser control :/

Still this does make me rethink if my next laser purchase should be on a lasercube or if I should try to pursue something with higher than 30k scanner.

Anyways, thanks again for your help on this.
 
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