smokeAndMirrors
Well-Known Member
If it's not too fawning, I would just like to thank Pangolin for Quickshow 2, which is a fantastic piece of software. I used it in anger for the first time last night with my 2 new RGB projectors and had an absolute blast. Here's a mini-review:
Hardware - 10/10. The new Flashback QS is small and works beautifully.
UI - 9/10. Pretty and functional. The simple stuff is intuitive, though some of the more complex things are kinda hard to find. If you have an idea in mind that you want to do it's often hard to work out what you need to do it. 99 times out of 100, the functionality is there but just a bit hidden. I haven't yet watched the videos so that may certainly help though. The setup dialog for targets is perhaps one of the weakest parts of the application. It seems essential to have multi-select of targets (when positioning, having to drag 33 dots around one at a time is tedious). I'd also like to see some helper tools in the cue frame editor, eg "line up the selected points". And you really need to change the default undo binding to CTRL-Z because ALT-BKSP is just weird!
Functionality - 9/10. I'm being picky here, because this is relatively cheap software so I should expect pro-level features. The thing I found most awkward was the link between zones and projectors. In Object-Oriented speak, it seems more natural to me that a projector has-a zone than the other way around (and in this way several projector can share a zone if you consider zones to be projector-relative rather than in absolute space). I would also like to see the ability to fade beams in and out in the target system.
Performance - 10/10. Worked brilliantly on my Win 7 / 64 touchscreen laptop. Was robust, and when the occasional error does happen, it is handled very well. I trust this software.
Output - 9/10. Seems kind to scanners, and looks beautiful. Occasionally a bit tricky to get really bright geometry out. And I'd like to see support for 445nm blue diodes as well as the 405nm violets (RGBV) in the projector settings.
Overall - 9.5/10. Fix a few of the issues mentioned above and it'll be 10
Hardware - 10/10. The new Flashback QS is small and works beautifully.
UI - 9/10. Pretty and functional. The simple stuff is intuitive, though some of the more complex things are kinda hard to find. If you have an idea in mind that you want to do it's often hard to work out what you need to do it. 99 times out of 100, the functionality is there but just a bit hidden. I haven't yet watched the videos so that may certainly help though. The setup dialog for targets is perhaps one of the weakest parts of the application. It seems essential to have multi-select of targets (when positioning, having to drag 33 dots around one at a time is tedious). I'd also like to see some helper tools in the cue frame editor, eg "line up the selected points". And you really need to change the default undo binding to CTRL-Z because ALT-BKSP is just weird!
Functionality - 9/10. I'm being picky here, because this is relatively cheap software so I should expect pro-level features. The thing I found most awkward was the link between zones and projectors. In Object-Oriented speak, it seems more natural to me that a projector has-a zone than the other way around (and in this way several projector can share a zone if you consider zones to be projector-relative rather than in absolute space). I would also like to see the ability to fade beams in and out in the target system.
Performance - 10/10. Worked brilliantly on my Win 7 / 64 touchscreen laptop. Was robust, and when the occasional error does happen, it is handled very well. I trust this software.
Output - 9/10. Seems kind to scanners, and looks beautiful. Occasionally a bit tricky to get really bright geometry out. And I'd like to see support for 445nm blue diodes as well as the 405nm violets (RGBV) in the projector settings.
Overall - 9.5/10. Fix a few of the issues mentioned above and it'll be 10
