Fixture Parameter tweak options - Capture - Forum

JproJames

New Member

Posts: 6

10/6/2024 10:48 PM

Hello, as a recent Purchaser of Symphony a feature that i would like to see would be able to adjust or tweak Parameter kinda like capture already has with fixture intensity.

Having the ability to adjust the default speed pan and tilt as in how long the fixture takes to go from 0 to 540 degrees, default speed of the time it takes for zoom to go to wide to narrow. The ability to adjust the dimmer curve or strobe flash rate via a graph like the MA consoles.

I work alot with off brand fixtures and no 2 companies makes the same fixture even tho they look the same and DMX profile is the same. That is why i Purchased this software because your 3D view looks really good, but if i use this software for show programming its important for the end user to be able to dial in the fixtures for accurate response. Other wise you waste alot of time on a jobsite updating presets and cues because 3D and real life is nothing close.

Thanks for reading.

Floriaan

Veteran Member

Posts: 378

10/7/2024 9:44 AM

I do like your suggestion. But is this not possible to do at the desk side? So you do your visualisation with the standard fixture and change the fixture profile or curves in the console as soon as you arrive on-site?

JproJames

New Member

Posts: 6

10/8/2024 4:57 AM

I use a 3D visualizer to pre-program an entire setlist in my studio, sometimes takes weeks to do. With not being able to calibrate the fixtures to perfectly match the speed time movement of Pan, tilt, iris, zoom, color wheel rotation, gobo rotation prism and other features of the real life fixtures ill haft to spend a full work day on the real rig to fine tune the show before the rig goes out on tour or start of rehearsals.

Especially with now, china fixture is flooding the market and a lot of venues more and more is using the cheaper fixtures, when i advance a show with a local venue i will haft to use capture to prepare my show file for that day, normally i do that on the in route to that venue. Most of the time day of the show not alot of time to update Presets of a Rig with 200 fixtures sometimes including a house rig. If all I or another LD had to do is just update Position and Focus presets thats a good day.

I am a many year MA lighting console user and have used their 3d Visualizer and on MA3D you can fine tune every feature of the fixture until it is really close to how the fixture reacts in real life, i have got the fixtures on the MA3D Visualizer dialed in so good all i haft to do on show day is update 12 Position presets and i am ready for show.

However, I have recently Purchased some strobe fixtures that is just too new for the MA software to build on the visualizer Multi Instance fixtures is a huge weak point for MA3D. So i purchased Capture 2024
Symphony Edition took a few days and built my rig on the 3D software. and i quickly notices the moving heads really quickly snaps to position unlike real life fixtures that takes some time to move around. that quickly becomes a programming prolbem when a timed cue looks good on 3D but in real life the lights barly even moves for example like a wave cue.

JproJames

New Member

Posts: 6

10/8/2024 5:06 AM

Another good example is you find a fixture thats close to your fixture in the library but the flash rate of the strobe is not correct to how the fixture is in real life. having somthing like a DMX value / hz graph could really be handy for fine tuning an existing Library fixture to match the real thing to make Studio programming more accurate.

Floriaan

Veteran Member

Posts: 378

10/8/2024 10:01 AM

You are making an excellent case not to work with Chinese knock-off fixtures that breach the intellectual property of other fixture manufacturers. Thank you for doing so ;-)

That being said, I think it is Captures' philosophy to make their visualizations as true to real life as possible.

In other words, you must urge the manufacturer to write a manual with a correct fixture description. Capture (or AtlaBase) uses this information to make the fixture profile. The better the information, the better the fixture behaves in Capture, compared to the real fixture.

On the other side, everybody who uses Capture must have the same fixture library. This makes exchanging files consistent.

I appreciate you want to do as much for your clients, with as little money and time as possible, but it is not realistic to change the way Capture works to do so. I would rather urge your client to provide you with a little more time or budget.