Visualizer ​

The visualizer is your rig in 3D, on the right of the window. It is driven by the same values that go to your lights: every fader, scene, effect and chase shows there as it plays. Use it to:

• program without the lights: on a laptop, on the train, before load-in;
• check what you patched: each fixture where it hangs, pointing the right way;
• see what a cue does before you play it on stage, and show it to others (record a clip).

In this manual, the visualizer is the floating card at the bottom right of the page: Studio's real visualizer, on the demo rig (four moving heads 6 m up). While a preview that drives the rig runs, it comes next to it, so you see what each fader, cue and chase does.

Moving Around ​

Try it on the card: drag, scroll, then look at the beams from the side to see how far they fan out.

In Studio's visualizer header:

Note: The visualizer lives in Studio's window: a separate visualizer window for a second screen isn't available yet (Known limitations).

Placing Fixtures ​

Fixtures you select in the patch bay or a fixture pool are outlined in the visualizer, with the transform controls on them. Drag the controls to move or turn the fixtures on stage; the change is written to their Position and Rotation when you release the mouse. Keys switch the controls:

Watch them on the demo rig: MAC Aura 2 is selected in the patch bay, then each mode in turn. In Studio, or the live demo, drag an arrow to move it along the truss.

Select several fixtures (Ctrl+click) to move them together, as one block: handy to shift a whole truss. For exact values, type them in the universe view's Position Tool instead.

What It Draws ​

Fixtures ​

Every patched fixture shows in the view. GDTF fixtures are drawn from their own description: their body, pan and tilt axes and every beam or cell sit where the fixture places them. Bodies follow the fixture's parts: a base, yoke and head for moving heads, a can for PARs and profiles, a scanner body, a bar or a panel, each sized like the real fixture. Fixtures from the Open Fixture Library get the same parts, built from their type and size.

GDTF fixtures you import with their own 3D models show the manufacturer's parts instead: the real base, yoke and head, each sized and placed as the file describes. A part whose model is missing or doesn't match the fixture's size keeps the generated part. The models come only from the GDTF files you imported on this computer: they aren't saved in the showfile, so a show opened on another computer shows them once the same fixtures are imported there. The generic GDTF fixtures bundled with Studio have no models of their own.

Multi-cell fixtures (LED washes, pixel bars, multi-beam bars) light each cell in its own colour. The light they cast on the floor and in the haze combines neighbouring cells into a few beams, so large rigs stay smooth. Cells a fixture describes as glowing rather than projecting (LED pixels, panels) light up without casting beams in the haze; they spill a soft glow on the floor and walls around them, in the colours of the nearest cells.

Note: The visualizer doesn't show blades, animation wheels or built-in fixture effects. If a fixture has several gobo wheels, only its first one is shown.

Light on Stage ​

Each beam lights the floor where it lands, in its colour and intensity, and with the shape of its field angle: watch the pools change size as the demo heads zoom between Warm wash and Sunset. Gobos show in the light: GDTF fixtures project their real gobo images; other fixtures use a built-in set of patterns, picked by the gobo wheel slot. Gobo rotation and the gobo index turn the pattern, frost and focus blur it, and the iris narrows the beam. A prism splits the beam into its facets (three when the fixture doesn't describe them) and turns with the prism rotation. Colour temperature (CTO, CTB) warms or cools the light.

Each fixture's brightness follows its light output: a 20,000 lm spot lights the floor and the haze more than a 2,000 lm PAR at the same dimmer. The cells of a multi-cell fixture share its light. Fixtures whose file gives no light output are estimated from their power.

Beams in the Air ​

Beams show in the air through haze: brightest near the lens, fading with distance, and stopping at the floor. A beam starts as wide as its lens; narrow beams keep a bright shaft longer than washes, and a strong beam pales toward white at its neck, as on camera. At high quality the gobo shows in the haze as shafts of light that match the pattern on the floor. Lit fixtures glow at the lens, and at medium and high quality bright beams and lenses get a soft bloom.

Settings ​

Open Preferences → Visualizer in the toolbar (Ctrl+Shift+V). The Visualizer settings popup has three sections: Quality, Haze and Lighting. Changes show at once, so set them with a look playing; OK keeps them, Cancel puts back what you had.

Try them below: Sunset plays on the demo rig. Drop the haze Density to 0 and the beams vanish from the air while the floor stays lit; raise Exposure and the light gets brighter.

Quality ​

Quality settings belong to the computer you're on, not to the show: they are kept across reloads and aren't saved in the showfile, so the same show can run at high on a desktop and at low on a laptop. Changing them doesn't mark the show as unsaved.

With auto, the visualizer first lowers the detail of the beams in the air at high, then the resolution, then the level.

Fixture models follow the level too. guides and low use the file's low detail models, medium its standard ones and high its high detail ones, each falling back to the nearest detail the file has. A fixture whose models are too detailed for the level shows its generated parts at that level, so a large rig stays smooth on a slow computer. A fixture you've just patched shows its generated parts for a moment while its models load.

Beam guides are thin lines in each beam's colour: the beam's centre line from the lens to the floor, its edges, and the outline of its footprint on the floor. They stay sharp at any resolution. A fixture with its dimmer at 0 keeps a faint guide, so you can set its position without opening the dimmer.

Note: Nothing is redrawn while nothing changes, so an idle visualizer costs almost nothing. Strobes and rotating gobos keep it drawing.

Haze ​

Haze is what makes beams visible in the air: one even haze across the stage, saved with the show.

Note: Shows saved before haze existed open with a density of 50.

Lighting ​

Note: High global brightness makes the beams' light harder to see against the stage.

Performance Tips ​

• On a laptop, start at auto; if the view stutters while you program, pick low.
• Lower Render resolution before Quality: the picture stays rich, only softer.
• Hide the visualizer while you edit long timelines on a small screen; playback doesn't need it.