Mark-the-gib Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Hi, I am considering purchasing Sunlite Suite 2 being one of the cheapest visualizers on the market. Seen some tutorial videos on youtube, the software seems good. Would this be a good buy? Any feedback would be great Cheershttp://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/smile.gif Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 The user interface of Sunlite is very unconventional, both as a normal Windows app and as lighting software. This makes the learning curve rather steep. It does work though once you get your head round it. (For some reason this is true of all visualisers, they all seem to go for weird trendy looking user interfaces. C'mon, just stick with the normal Windows conventions!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 That looks interesting. I have no experience of it, but if its just the visualiser part you need then really consider Capture Polar Solo. Its around £300 and is superb. It only does one universe but really I find this is enough for putting most of my movers on. Its certainly invaluable for constructing sets and lighting them, and working out placement of elements, beam angles required etc. I wish I had bought it years ago.The UI is a bit odd, but as Tim says, they all seem to be. No big deal once you get used to it. And I have found support to be really good. There is an active forum with lots of help and you'll usually get a reply direct from Lars, one of the designers of the software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I agree with Judge, if you only want visualiser then Capture is a better product (and is an industry standard, a useful skill to know). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark-the-gib Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 Thanks for that input, And yes I've found that to be true of the demos I have played around with. Sometimes I think they over complicate features. Looking around at the moment, Martin lightjocky and wysiwyg also potential candidates... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Looking around at the moment, Martin lightjocky and wysiwyg also potential candidates... Again Lightjockey is a controller which just does visualisation as a sideline. Capture is better at vis. The version of Wysiwyg which enables live visualisation is extremely expensive - I think it's "Perform" which is $5749 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 As far as I'm aware the visualisation in LJ is just a time-limited version of Martin Show Designer. It might also be worth noting that Wyg requires a yearly subscription after 12 months which itself is over £1k for perform. Without this you won't be able to get new or updated fixtures and if you miss a year or more out you will have to pay all the backdated ones before you get access. I don't know how this works for the student version if you are eligible. ESP Vision is very good and you pay per universe which can help reduce costs if you don't need many but it also has yearly subs and needs an external design package - either Vectorworks or 3DS Max.Light Converse is probably the best value if you need multiple universes but has a particularly difficult interface (IMO). Personally I think Capture is a lot easier to use and less demanding on hardware but still pricey if you need lots of channels. What is it you are actually trying to achieve? Do you need live real-time rendering for pre-programming using a console, or just static renders independent of console to help design and present concepts to clients? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaareolai Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 ...but if its just the visualiser part you need then really consider Capture Polar Solo. Its around £300 and is superb. It only does one universe ... And I have found support to be really good. I also second/third this! And if you use LightFactory, as I do, you can even get a console version for USD399, around GBP250 if I convert correctly, and that without universe limit. I also find the GUI a bit unfamilar, but works ok when I got used to it. Probably it is not easy to make an application setting up and showing 3D info in an easy way. You also get nice paperwork schematics of your shows. And with console version, LightFactory seems to be alone with integration here, you have a quite seemless integration of patching instruments/heads/logical-channels, whatever they are called, and even more functionality, using CITP/CAEX protocoll. But, of course, there are lighting applications integrated with their own versions of visualizers. MA-Lighting and Chamsys pop up in my mind. Regards Kåre Olai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 MA, Avo and ChamSys all have their own visualisers but they are very basic. I mean, not complaining or anything - but all they do is wave wire-frame beams about which is very useful for putting your lights in position and getting to see your cues running but thats about it. The proper ones will allow you to experiment with beam angles and density - even allow you to choose the amount of haze onstage, And most useful for me, actually light performers and bits of set so you know if your design is actually going to work. Once you get further up the scale you can have DMX control fly through cameras and do a complete presentation and save it as a video file to show clients. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark-the-gib Posted January 12, 2014 Author Share Posted January 12, 2014 Basically and ideally what I need is a visualiser in which I could genrate decent quality 3D lighting projects. I think presenting ideas to clients so that I could SHOW them what I can do with the kit I have is going to a BIG bonus where I'm from. And also to better plan my projects for my own benefit. Honestly I'm not really used to this visualiser jazz, I'm more of a drawing plans on paper and using my desk to create a cue list man. :) But I really want to get into this and want to get it right if I'm going to spend the money. If there is something out there that is also going to be a practical way of programming and operating the kit also it would be a bonus... This capture looks good also... Hmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niclights Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 If it's just design/static renders for clients then you could look at the Wysiwyg Design (rather than Perform), Vectorworks Spotlight or LD Assistant. They will all produce much higher quality renders than you get with the real-time visualisation. Vectorworks has a more standard CAD interface. I don't know much about LD Assistant but as far as I know it is essentially AutoCAD with a plugin, so also very much a standard interface (By 'standard' I mean punishingly complicated). I believe they're all roughly in the same price range. Note that in terms of hardware as a rule for the static render stuff you want the fastest processor available and for real-time it's usually all about the fastest 'gaming' video card. Resources correlate to number of light sources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.