LightAct 4.4.8

Changelog
1

What’s new from LightAct 4.4.4?

LightAct 4.4.8 has been enriched with a lot of new features and improvements including significant sequencing upgrades, a smoother live event workflow, an easier-to-use fixture editor, and a new markerless tracking system.

Please note that this changelog is more condensed due to our recent involvement in preparations and attendance at the ISE 2024 Tradeshow.

LightTrack (Beta)

A new markerless tracking system.

  1. Integration with OAK depth camera.
  2. A new LightTrack Sensor object, to which you can assign a depth camera device node.
  3. A new LightTrack System object, to which you can assign LightTrack Sensors.
  4. In the Properties of a LightTrack System object, you can pick LighTrack to track in real-time or choose Simulate to use a simulator.
  5. A new Get LightTrack data node, capable of outputting Transforms for all blobs tracked by the LightTrack System object.

You can learn more about LightTrack here.

Timeline & Sections

LightAct now uses Sections instead of Sequences. The Sequence Window has been replaced by the Timeline window, where you can add Sections to organize your content. With this upgrade, a single Layer can be part of multiple Sections.

Sections

  1. To create a new Section, right-click on a Timeline track in the Timeline window and select Section.
  2. To delete a Section, simply right-click on it and select Delete.
  3. You can adjust Section controls such as Master fade, Master volume, Fade in, and Fade out in the Properties window of a selected Section.
  4. To jump with the playhead on top of a Section press J + LMB.

Timeline

  1. You can now find the Properties of a selected Timeline in the Properties window, instead of the three-lined menu icon of the Timeline, as seen in the Timelines window.
  2. You can change the framerate of each Timeline separately by adjusting the Framerate parameter in its Properties.
  3. By default, a Timeline is set to automatically adjust its duration based on the placement of Layers, Sections, and Markers in the Timeline. You can also choose to manually adjust the duration of the Timeline by disabling the ‘Auto duration’ checkbox in the Properties window of a selected Timeline.
  4. To put the playhead into focus in the Timeline Window, you can press the F key.
  5. The Timeline window has been enriched with new Play control options. The Play control icons can be hidden or shown by enabling or disabling the corresponding checkboxes in the Preferences Window, in the UI tab, under the Timeline collapsible.

Fixtures

General

  1. A new ‘Fixture’ filter has been added in the Canvas Setup window, under the Objects collapsible.
  2. You can see the exact coordinates of each Fixture pixel in the Canvas Setup window, once you enable ‘Show Fixture pixel coordinates’ under the UI collapsible.

Fixture Editor

A more user-friendly experience when creating new fixtures in the Fixture Editor in Custom mode.

  1. You can select and deselect Fixture pixels.
  2. You can move selected Fixture pixels using arrow keys.
  3. To delete selected Fixture pixels you can press Del shortcut.
  4. To stop the Fixture pixel connecting process in Custom mode, simply press ESC.

Other Improvements

General

  1. The shortcut for closing a floating window is now Ctrl + F4. You can also use the Alt + F4 shortcut to close the program, as well as the original Ctrl + Q shortcut.
  2. By default, the FXAA antialiasing algorithm is applied to all Projectors. To disable it, you can uncheck the FXAA checkbox in the Properties Window of a selected Projector.
  3. You can flip mapped subareas horizontally or vertically in both Canvas Setup and Video Output windows.
  4. To use WebUI, you must first enable it in the Project Settings tab, under the General collapsible.
  5. A more organized Toolbar.

Cue List

  1. A better Cue List window, which includes both Marker Cues and Section Cues.
  2. If a Cue is placed outside of the Timeline duration, then its Position data in the Cue List window will be displayed with a warning color.

Nodes

  1. Warp and Softedge nodes now include the Alpha channel.
  2. New Explode node which takes Transform data as input and outputs Location, Rotation, and Size.
  3. New Merge node which takes Location, Rotation, and Size as inputs and outputs Transform data.
  4. New Get System Date node which displays the current Year, Month, Day, and Day of the week.