I once walked into Bill Little’s office at Little Stage Lighting in Dallas in the late 1980s and he showed me a software program he was working on. This was in the very early days of desktop computers, before Windows, and he was working on a DOS-based lighting design system.
It allowed you to put in a throw distance and it would give you a numerical display showing the beam width and the illuminance — for one fixture. Believe it or not, it was ahead of its time. Computers and lighting design software have come a long, long way since then, and they seem to get more powerful by the day. One such lighting design software package recently made its debut in North America and it is garnering some attention.
Light Converse is a real-time photo-realistic 3D lighting simulation software package. It is built on a 3D gaming engine that renders in real time up to 56 megapixels. The graphics engine uses Phong shading, a 3D computer rendering technique, to create smooth-looking graphics that are very realistic. It can simulate conventional and automated lighting, LEDs, lasers, pyro (this is something to see), and animated smoke. You can import set pieces from the library, modify them to size and apply materials from the customizable materials library. The library also has fixtures, staging, truss, speakers, furniture, people and more. You can work in imperial or metric units of measure.
There are also three live video inputs via USB or Firewire that you can use to connect to a media server to display video within the rendering. You can create projection surfaces including video screens and video walls and up to 16 independent video streams can be played at once in high definition.
After you have built your 3D model you can program scenes, chases and crossfades using an external console or the built-in controls. When you’re ready to show it to a client or potential client, you can record an AVI file with a DMX-controllable camera. It can render from 25 frames per second to the maximum refresh rate of your video card and the renderings are spectacular. They look much like a high-end game, except it’s customized for lighting applications.
If you’re a Windows and/or AutoCAD user, the graphical user interface is not like anything you’re used to; there is no toolbar, no command line, not even the familiar shortcut commands you’re used to using. But once you spend a little time with the program it becomes quite easy to use. It responds very well with no stuttering or delay.
Where this program shines is in the quality of the renderings. The plots and paperwork features in this program are relatively rudimentary (though the manufacturers says they’re working on improvements) and it’s a bit cumbersome to import non-native files. But as Light Converse user Robert Dicken of Digital4u2 Lighting Design said, “I was so impressed with the real-time output. It used to take hours or days to get a high res rendering for a client; now it’s as simple as pressing a button.”
The software can run on a laptop and it can connect to any ArtNet or ACN-capable console (up to 16 universes) to visualize the show for programming purposes. There is also a DMX interface that can be used for DMX-only consoles with up to four universes. Or, in the absence of a console, the built-in control software allows you to program a show and output ArtNet or DMX512 to actually run the show. It also connects to Pangolin Laser software through the Ethernet port on your computer. Pangolin is the most widely used laser control software in the industry. The next scheduled release of the software will feature direct connectivity to Flying Pig Systems Hog PC and Avolites Pearl off-line editors. There will be no need to use external connection boxes.
Light Converse is produced in the Ukraine and Gord McVicar of AtFull Lighting is the North American representative. McVicar helps handle product support in the English-speaking parts of the world and he also wrote the user manual, which is well written and well organized. Dicken commented that McVicar “has been so helpful with me getting started in Light Converse.” There is also a new product forum at http://lightconverse.net/lc/lc_forum.htm .
The retail price starts at $400 and the price includes free software updates for the life of the product. Dicken summed it up by saying, “I love this program for doing demos for clients. It’s a job-getter and a great tool to have in your designer’s toolkit.”
What it is: Lighting design and visualization software with optional DMX, ArtNet and ACN output
Who it’s for: Beginning to advanced lighting designers
Pros: Wonderful real-time renderings, easy to use, versatile programming and output options
Cons: Paperwork and plotting is rudimentary (improvements are in the works), importing non-native files is cumbersome
Retail Price: $400 to $1,900, depending on the need for DMX connectivity, laser, pyro or video playback or vector plotting. Price includes free updates for the life of the product.
