Edge Blending On 360 degree surface

[kmifflin]

Hello all. I am a new user to Resolume and I recently purchased the Arena Version of the software.

One of the show setups I would like to implement the Arena Version of the software is on a 360 degree surface. The setup consist of 4 projectors that are edge blended and geometrically corrected to compensate for the curved surface.

Here is a pic of one the previous setups I'd using modified quartz compositions and VDMX

Ring Screen

photo.JPG (546.88 KiB) Viewed 23352 times

The new Advanced Output feature looks like it is going to get me 90% of the way there, But what I would like to accomplish is to have all of the edges blended. Currently in resolume I can blend projector 1 with 2, 2 with 3, 3 with 4, But I unable to get projector 1's far left image to blend with projectors 4 far right side.

In short what I would like to do is soft edge the outside edges of the composition

[Tecno`]

There is a wrap option in advanced output.
This allows edge blending either side of the composition and when the box is ticked you can drag the slice over the edge of the composition to create the overlap.

Tim

[kmifflin]

Thanks Tim

I tried this yesterday and found that it creates stretched horizontal lines on the side of the slice.

Projector 1

Screen shot 2011-10-05 at 12.15.21 PM.png (219.69 KiB) Viewed 23340 times

Input

Screen shot 2011-10-05 at 12.21.58 PM.png (132.26 KiB) Viewed 23340 times

[ajungels]

This may be a stupid question but can you set up an edgeblend for projectors as an overall effect for a whole show and then still do multiple mappings within that overall blended structure? In other words can the projector edgeblend remain in effect while you then use other layers or slices to map internally within the blended space? I'm thinking of Arena for a theatrical production but want to make sure it can do what I need.
Thanks.

[Tecno`]

I tried this yesterday and found that it creates stretched horizontal lines on the side of the slice.

Interesting. Maybe you have discovered a bug as wrap is meant for 360deg projections.
I have not tried wrap myself on a proper output.

This may be a stupid question but can you set up an edgeblend for projectors as an overall effect for a whole show and then still do multiple mappings within that overall blended structure? In other words can the projector edgeblend remain in effect while you then use other layers or slices to map internally within the blended space? I'm thinking of Arena for a theatrical production but want to make sure it can do what I need.
Thanks.

You can set up the edgeblend for the projectors, and the slices would then be left as they are part of the output setup. The layers and clips can then be positioned / sized and rotated within the blended space and even keystoned using the keystone plugins during the show.

Tim

[ajungels]

So does that mean I would used the new Advanced Output settings to set up the edgeblending for the overall show but I would need something like IR Mapio to do the mapping of my individual clips during the show?
Thanks.

[Tecno`]

If you wanted to do complex warping on the individual layers and clips then yes you would need IR Mapio. If you want to resize and move the clips and layers around the outputs then no this is all done in the Resolume controls which can also be mapped to a midi / DMX controller.
There is also a couple of keystone plugins that come with the software that can so some level of warping on the clips and layers but no where near as complex as Mapio or the advanced output.

I assume that you don't own Resolume by your posts?
If not then I suggest that you download the V3 demo and have a play. This will allow you to see what can be done with individual layers and clips over multiple outputs, but without the new advanced features of V4 and the versatility of slices.
If you do own Resolume then sorry, I am telling you what you already know.

Tim

[kmifflin]

Sorry guys it would be great if we could keep this thread to my original question of 360 degree edge blending.

So far the testing that I've been posting on have been done on OS X Lion.
I should note that I've been testing the setup with no actual monitors/projectors attached to me laptop. It is possible that the bug may only be in the preview screens of the Advanced Output.

Today I've been testing on a Windows 7 computer with a Quadro FX 4700x2 card with moitors attached to all 4 outputs. I'm only using 2 outputs at 1024x768@75 to test that the edge blending happens for 360 degree projection.

I do not see the same horizontal stretches on the far sides of the image like I did in OS X (intel gpu)
However her are my observations

As excepted not enabling wrap only blends the center slices where they are overlapped

Having Wrap enabled on both slices and extending them past the Composition area does wrap the video around both sides however it does blends the outside edges twice (ie on the far left of the screen and where the blend stops until I click on Advanced Output contol window. After I click on I lose the blending on the outside windows.

Double Blend

photo1.JPG (1.69 MiB) Viewed 23281 times

After OK

photo2.JPG (1.2 MiB) Viewed 23281 times

If I only have one slice that overlaps the edge with wrap enabled then both I do get the proper edge blending on the outside edges, until I click okay then I lose the outside blending.

I Can work with this

photo3.JPG (1.63 MiB) Viewed 23281 times

After OK

photo4.JPG (1.37 MiB) Viewed 23281 times

[edwin]

Hi kmifflin, We are going to have a look at the problems you are addressing. We'll have to do some tests first to see if we can replicate your issues and than see what we can do about it.

[kmifflin]

Thanks for taking a look into this.

The next question I have on accomplishing 360 degree projection.

In the past in other application I've always had to create my own line up grids to get accurate blends.

In the above example the screen I used had a ratio of 5.74:1 which I used 4 LX1500 projectors with a native resolution of 1024x768. Using a 25% overlap reduced my overall pixel count from 4096x768 to 3072x768. I know it seems like an excessive amount of overlap, but it allows me to create content that can be used in the 360 degree project or reuse the content on a gig that might require a triplehead2go.
I would then created a line grid similar to this one.

Single Screen

Ring Screen 25% Overlap.001.png (81.69 KiB) Viewed 23245 times

Which I sent to each screen to do the alignment, geometric correction, and edge blending.

I'm not sure I understand the method that resolume would employ to accomplish this, the test card that comes with resolume doesn't give me enough information. Using the resolume method of enabling wrap and extending past the composition size to enable the outside blending seems to conflict with the grids I've tested.

The current grid I've tested with is

Quad Grid

Ring Screen with 25% Overlap 3712x768.001.png (170.66 KiB) Viewed 23245 times

Which is 3712x768 that should allow for 640 lost pixels to overlapping. However I've not yet fond a method of implementing my own custom test patterns on a 360 degree projection. I think the easiest solution would be not to have to enable the wrap and extend past the compositions edges, but simply allow for a soft edge gradient on the out edges. The below image would then result in a composition size of 3712x768, but the blending would out 1024x768 across each output.

Advanced Output

Screen Shot 2011-10-07 at 8.13.55 PM.png (102.04 KiB) Viewed 23242 times