Hi

It would be nice to have an option in the Stage Setup to deactivate an output (e.g. Display Setting = NONE). Further it would be nice, that Isadora recognizes, which parts of a stage are deactivated and does not calculate these outputs to save resources.

Background:

We had a theatre production with 6 beamers and a Control Monitor running on a Windows 10 computer. 4 beamers were connected to a videowall processor, which were recognized as tow wide screen monitors by Windows, so we had in total 5 monitors showed in Windows.

Once during a rehearsal, we had an electrical damage on the computer and we had to replace it a week before starting the show and during a period, where it was really hard to get computer hardware. We were not able to find a computer with a graphics card, which can output to 5 monitors on a single graphics card (since Isadora only support that), the maximum was always 4. We tried a long time to find a way to work with only 4 monitors but we were not able.

So we decided to use a Laptop for one beamer and connect the remaining beamers to the computer and just let run Laptop and Computer the same Isadora show file except for a different configuration in Stage Setup. As fare as I know, there is no possibility to deactivate an output. So we had to remove all projector actors for the one beamer on the computer show file and we had remove all projector actors for all other beamers on the laptop show file, which also took a lot of time because of 80 complex scenes.

I think that such a deactivate output feature a situation, where each minute counts, would be really useful since one can just take some laptops, copy the show file, connect the beamer to it, deactivate every output, which is not connected and let the show run.

Thank you very much

Marco

@juriaan hello, sorry for the late reply :) 

so far, as long as I don't mess with the ports each display is connected to the pc

turning on every display before the pc,starting the computer,opening the izzy file 

helped with keeping the stage setup with right displays assigned for each stage. Turning on the computer first and then projectors messes up with the display order and hence the stage settings, however once I restart everything and follow the above 3 steps in the right order, things do go back to the way I want them to be.

@woland, yes, sure I will open a support ticket, thanks! but the ctrl+z trick works too. 

lastly, about the hap codec: right now we are working with mp4 files since Isadora seems to be working just fine. Hopefully things will continue running smoothly as the number of the videos increase, if not, I will look deeper into this, many thnx for the tips! 

❤💚💛 emre

@webmammuth

Yes. I played around in this example file with throwing the two images I want to blend into Virtual Stages first so that I can add the edge blend to each Virtual Stage with the Global Edge Blend Mask actor then use Get Stage Image actors to combine the feeds from the Virtual Stages and route the result to a normal Stage. The benefit of this is that when you pull the two images back in, you can then apply video effects to both of them together (I think). I'm sure there could be a way to improve on my method and I didn't bother to get my blend looking perfect, but this was just a quick sketch.

Splitting content in two, sending each portion to a separate Virtual Stage, and adding the appropriate edge blend to each Virtual Stage

Pulling in the feeds from both Virtual Stages and compositing them on a single Stage with physical displays assigned to it.

Stage Setup showing the size of the two Virtual Stages for this particular example and the regular Stage

Thank you very much for this.

Elena

@woland

thanx for the tip!

This is pretty much what this company do: https://www.immersiveclassroom... 

The main issue is getting a machine that can run the video for a set up this size. 

Thanks for sharing @Woland 

Dear All,

So I was invited to a little birthday party/dance jam that took place on Zoom. Wanting to impress the group, I whipped up a little reactive patch that does some trippy effects on the live image, modulates those effects with the using the computer's built-in microphone, and then sends the output into Zoom. It seemed to have the desired effect because people were writing in the chat, "Whoa! What Zoom effect is that???", and I was saying "Well, it's not done in Zoom at all; it's done with Isadora." ;-)

I thought I'd share the patch and some instructions so any of you could do the same and also learn this technique of sending Isadora's output to Zoom.

The Isadora Patch

To start, open the example patch attached to the bottom of this post.

To make sure the patch will work, choose Input > Live Capture Settings and make sure you have a web cam selected under Video Input, and that you have a microphone selected under Sound Input. Then click Start Live Capture and make sure you can see the video thumbnail, and that the VU meters underneath it are moving.

In terms of how the patch works, it's pretty simple.

Using the Video Delay actor, I combine the live feed and the delayed feed using a Effect Mixer set to 'addovr'. I then use a Video Fader actor to dim the image a bit, and send that to the Stage with a projector.Then there is a Stage Background actor to do the feedback. As you can see, the 'fb scale h', 'fb scale v', and 'fb rotation' being modulated by some Wave Generators so they are constantly changing.Finally, the Sound Level Watcher actor modulates the 'fb intensity' input of the Stage Background actor. (You may need to reduce the value of the 'limit max' input of the Limit Scale Value actor if your music is soft; I was playing the music pretty load for the party.)

So that's the patch. But the key thing here is that the "Syphon" output is checked for the Stage in the Stage Setup editor. With my example patch open, choose Output > Stage Setup to see this setting.

That's how we'll get our video output to Zoom.

Get the Video Ready for Zoom using Syphon Virtual Webcam

Now, to get the signal to Zoom, you need our free tool Syphon Virtual Webcam, which you can download from our plugins page. Follow the instructions there and within the program to install it on your computer. Once it's installed, start it up and you should automatically see the feed from Isadora in the Syphon Virtual Webcam window.

Bring the Image Into Zoom Using the Zoom Preferences

Finally, start up Zoom. Once it's open, go to the Zoom Preferences, click on the Video tab, and choose OBS Virtual Camera for the live input.

 

That's it! You now have Isadora's stage as a the "camera" in Zoom.

Hopefully that's a complete enough description for you all to follow. Let me know if anything here doesn't work out for you.

Best Wishes,
Mark

Example Patch: isadora-to-zoom-example.izz

@woland thanks, the blend maker did the trick

Fubbi

@bennnid said:

although that could be convenient to have the rotation parameter shown so as for the resolution when we move a point.

 Yes, I already added that as well. :)

This was a very interesting session, as usual !

I never made soft edge with 2 or more projectors, but I remember that the position and the distance between the 2 projectors has to be the more precise possible, even if Isadora let user to make changes through Izzymap and Stage Setup.
I found in my notes this drawing which explains how to calculate the best set up, if it's useful for someone.

Best wishes.
Clement

Soft edge_distance VP.pdf

@crystalhorizon and @Woland Thank you very much !!

Best,

@armando No of course !! 

That question came up when Dusx explained about the stage layout and that made me doubt.
Returning to the original theme therefore the masking tool is still the Edge Blend Mask, right?
Many thanks
Best,

@martin_kemner

Thank you for your kind words. After such an intense time getting Isadora 3 out there, they are much appreciated by myself and everyone on the team.

Enjoy. ;-)

Best Wishes,
Mark

@fubbi

Sorry to dont back here in this question. I will check correct settings and give a feedback - this computer are in other local.

best wishes