[QLab] Quartz plugin / brightness / contrast

[stbo]

I am experimenting qith Quartz plugins following some advice
previously on the forum in relation to being able to apply certain
effects 'on-the-fly' during shows.

I would like to be able to add the ability to adjust brightness/
contrast/colour hue etc on some videos during live performance. I am
also looking at some of the edge-blending plugins available for
projecting large images using multiple projectors. However there
appears to be a limitation in the number of inputs Qlab can supply.
From what I can see I can only use a fixed set of qlab-defined
published inputs.

This seems to be a significant limitation (unless I am missing
something). For example, vdmx can see all the inputs, (e.g. it
renders a numeric input as a slider) - which is exactly what I am
looking for. I am certainly not lookign to start a VDMS vs QLAB
conversation - VDMX certainly does not lend itself to theatre-type
shows as well a Qlab does, but in this respect the VDMX interface
seems more complete.

Is there any way around this? Are there any plans to provide such a
facility? if not, would anybody have any suggestions as to how this
could be done?

Many thanks,

STBO
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[Matthew Haber]

I don't really use Quartz so I could be babbling but can't you create the control interface in Quartz and have it display the sliders instead of trying to make QLab do it.

Matthew

[luckydave]

> However there
> appears to be a limitation in the number of inputs Qlab can supply.
> From what I can see I can only use a fixed set of qlab-defined
> published inputs.

QLab is only able to pass Image, Width, Height, xPosition, yPosition (translation), Rotation, and Opacity. Opacity is sent as an RGBA color value, with the adjustment only on the alpha channel.

> This seems to be a significant limitation (unless I am missing

> something)...in this respect the VDMX interface
> seems more complete.

It's a bit of a challenge to adjust arbitrary values in your Quartz composition from QLab, but it's not impossible. Probably the easiest way is to send MIDI values from QLab to Quartz, and use a MIDI Notes or MIDI Controllers Receiver patch to take those values and apply them to the appropriate inputs in your Quartz patch. Another more complex method involves Network Receiver and Broadcaster patches, and multiple "dummy" video cues, with their geometry values sending adjustments over a virtual network in your computer. That trick is more of a challenge, but it doesn't require a MIDI license, so I worked out a system for it. As I say, it's quite complex, so I'll only go into it if it's actually, you know, interesting.

> Is there any way around this? Are there any plans to provide such a
> facility? if not, would anybody have any suggestions as to how this
> could be done?

We're looking at much more Quartz integration for v3, which we're working on now. Much too early to make promises, but I'm committed to seeing a tighter Quartz experience in the new version.

luckydave
luck...@figure53.com