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pixelToy

Page Details

First published by:
Chris Mizerak
on 12-09-2011
Last revision by:
Chris Mizerak
on 11-17-2012
2 people found this article useful.

100% of people found this useful
pixelToy This page is locked to prevent further edits

 

FEATURES

  • Streaming ACN output
  • Video output
  • Put pixelToy in media server mode and control up to 4 layers from your lighting console
  • Simple, intuitive interface
  • Touch screen friendly
  • Anyone can write plugins
  • Low lighting budget?  All you need is a PC and a projector.
  • It's FREE!

 

OVERVIEW

pixelToy takes an experimental approach to controlling pixel mapped lights in a creative new way.  The concept, born during ETC's Innovation Quest contest, was to develop a fun tool for creating dynamic content effects in a way that is both innovative and familiar.  The user interface was designed from the ground up to be operated entirely via touch and multi-touch input devices.  In an effort to keep the interface as simple and intuitive as possible, we set a goal to keep the entire application free of text.  pixelToy can be used as a lighting instrument for live effects and can also playback pre-recorded sequences of effects.  All effects are dynamically loaded as plug-ins when the application starts.  Software developers are encouraged to write their own effects and share them with the community.

 

FEEDBACK

We want your feedback from this experiment!  Is pixelToy something you think you would find useful?  Please visit the pixelToy forum to share your thoughts...

 

GET STARTED!

(Note: this is only available as a Beta version at this time)

  Version 0.2.0.9 for Windows
  Version 0.2.0.9 for Mac
 

 

FIXTURE PROFILES

    

Recent Comments

By: jeremie.gastonraoul Posted on 09-25-2012 7:42 AM

Hi Chris !

Any chances to see an update with ArtNet output soon ?

Best Regards !

Jérémie

By: Kaden Posted on 10-19-2012 12:25 AM

Hi,

I am loving this software, I am hoping to use it with my Christmas lights display this year.

It runs perfectly on my Dell XT3 (i5 Tablet), but on my Dell ST (Atom Tablet) I don't see the effects or grid in the main window.

Here are the screen shots to explain

XT3: dl.dropbox.com/.../pixeltoy-xt3.PNG

ST: dl.dropbox.com/.../pixeltoy-st.PNG

Anyone know what I am missing or where to look for help?

- Kaden

By: Chris Mizerak Posted on 10-25-2012 4:23 PM

Hi Kaden,

Hmmm, well those displays require OpenGL.  I would recommend checking to see if there are any available updates related to your graphics drivers...

~Chris

By: jchuchla Posted on 11-12-2012 10:48 AM

This is a very cool piece of software.  It's a lot of power for free!

Just to help you keep polishing it, here's a few comments/feature requests:

It'd be great to see a enable/disable button for the e1.31 output on the main screen.  I couldn't seem to even figure out if it could be disabled.  It would be nice to be able to work in a blind mode, and then toggle it on to see playback.

I am using this for christmas lights at the moment, but i think this idea could extend out to stage layouts as well.  It would be nice to be able to use a background photo of the "stage" (or in my case, my house) and then be able to draw your pixels over that photo.  click on one spot, then drag to another, and say draw a line of 100 pixels starting at address 1-151 or something like that.  This almost requires that you allow a variable pixel density for setup rather than the fixed grid so that it can adjust for percieved perspective.  For example, i might draw a line of 100 pixels (vertically) down the edge of my driveway, but then draw a (horizontal) line of 50 pixels along my roofline.  Both lines would be the same length on the screen, but would represent different lengths in real world.  

By: crispy2 Posted on 11-22-2012 10:51 PM

Will there be support for unicast in the future. Unfortunately my router doesn't support multicast

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