User manual

real-time, with information about individual rotating gobo patterns – with a decent

level of realistic approximation, yet without choking the 3D engine, which still has to

be able to run as a part (meaning with the limitations) of a web interface. The situation

is made more problematic by the fact that the exact range of PC machines intended to

run the web interface is unknown; however, it can be expected that most of the use

will take place in school classrooms, on computer equipment that may not be exactly

up to 3D rendering requirements – and this is yet another important point to

consider.

Finally, when talking about the 3D interface, one needs to consider the

question of what functionality is needed, so that a light program sequence (for a given

environment and light projector set-up) can be entered and stored by pupils aged 13-

16 in an efficient manner. As an easing circumstance, most of these teenagers can be

considered computer literate to a certain point, especially in the context of video

games. Hence, there was a natural determination from early on to make the user

interface as simple and close to video games as possible, to motivate the students to

understand the task of light programming as a game. In that sense, certain things can

be inherited from contemporary 3D video games, like camera navigation styles and

general design and usage of an accompanying 2D interface, however there is one

specific point as well. That is, as mentioned before, facilitation of entering and

playback of a light program.

The light program can be considered a sequence of cues - a light design

terminology for data structures, which carry a timestamp (when to execute) as well as

corresponding information for the state of a given projector or range of projectors,

such as projected colour, gobo, inclination etc. at the given time. For most

contemporary projectors, such properties are addressable by protocols such as DMX-

512, and cues can be programmed into light consoles or dedicated software; their real-

time playback through these hardware engines generates a stream of DMX data which

changes the corresponding properties of the projectors at the needed time. This

technique of operation naturally has to be reflected in the 3D interface as well. The

pupils, while using the 3D interface must have an awareness about a cue, what it does,

and what is more difficult, how it relates to the time frame of 15 minutes allocated to

the class. Obviously, this demands a graphical solution, such that it does allow realistic

creation of a light program, yet it is easy enough to visually understand and use by an

average pupil. Henceforth, one needs to resort for inspiration to solutions already

"DMX Director" - Architecture of a 3D light-programming application, in a multi-user Internet environment