Poll : Would KVR benefit from a video tools forum?

[guitarzan]

Double post. Anyone else getting logged out of KVR during edits? Happens to me almost every time.

[guitarzan]

I just meant that mapping stuff was artistic in itself, you can draw shapes and animations and all sorts of stuff. Just one setup would be a waste probably. Anyway, don't go broke, poison yourself, piss off
the neighbors etc.

I think it’s a bargain really. You can get rugged 1080p projectors built for corporate use super cheap and they’ll just get cheaper as everyone dumps them for 4K. I’ll just need to seek out the most proven reliable and easily maintained workhorses I can find.

With an array you can go 6K or even 8K and the whole range of aspect ratios.

But yeah, projection mapping can do so much more… imagine the center of a wall being setup as a rear projector based video wall and the surrounding area with interesting protrusions and whatever being hit with front screen projection mapped mayhem. Endless possibilities.

EDIT: It’s all but official, I’ve done the math, crunched the numbers, searched the google… With this projector business I have gone all the way from: “Resolume would be total overkill for me” to: “not only do I need Resolume — I need Resolume Arena!”.

I have never been so stumped finding an open source or inexpensive software solution.

Luckily Resolume has unlimited free trials on their software, watermarked but it would be a start. And there still might be a budget option or two I missed.

I really don’t even need full projection mapping capabilities, I’d be totally happy with projector warp and edge blending if anybody has any suggestions.

[pekbro]

Hypno video input test (webcam)... it doesn't have to be colorized or animated, I was just farting
around. The Hypno is processing it's own image here.

https://vimeo.com/584375475

[whyterabbyt]

I really don’t even need full projection mapping capabilities, I’d be totally happy with projector warp and edge blending if anybody has any suggestions.

MapMap is the one free one I can think of.

I also seem to recall something free for the RasPi but I cant remember much more than that Im afraid.

Found what looks like a fairly exhaustive list of them here, not had time to look through it.

http://projection-mapping.org/software/

[guitarzan]

I really don’t even need full projection mapping capabilities, I’d be totally happy with projector warp and edge blending if anybody has any suggestions.

MapMap is the one free one I can think of.

I also seem to recall something free for the RasPi but I cant remember much more than that Im afraid.

Found what looks like a fairly exhaustive list of them here, not had time to look through it.

http://projection-mapping.org/software/

I can’t believe I missed MapMap! I don’t see any mention of edge blending or combining projectors yet, but a related open issue on their GitHub pointed to this Nvidia GPU solution:

https://www.nvidia.com/content/siggraph ... isplay.pdf

Works on Quadro 5000, 6000, and Quadro Plex 7000. The 5000 and 6000 are surprisingly inexpensive used on eBay, I’ll need a video card anyway (my old laptop isn’t going to cut it).

But, it’s unclear to me how many projectors can be combined this way and all what is required, but I definitely want to find out more. Please take a look and see what you think if you have a chance.

I saw that list last night and the recommendations don’t all have warp and blend — it’s kind of what led me to my Resolume Arena post, but I do need to go through it more thoroughly.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[whyterabbyt]

But, it’s unclear to me how many projectors can be combined this way and all what is required, but I definitely want to find out more. Please take a look and see what you think if you have a chance.

The NVidia tech? Looks interesting, but it seems to be pitched at the developer level rather than a product. The kind of thing you'd expect to see as an existing feature in a product.

Also, if its talking about Quadro 6000 era cards, this is 10-year-old tech or so. This might be one of the original implementations of the stuff you're looking into.

[guitarzan]

I did notice it seemed to be aimed at developers, but then they go on to tell you exactly how to do it in NVAPI, the download link even still works.

Is there enough info there to pull it off?

10 year old video cards seems perfect if they can warp and blend - I’ll take half a dozen! I do think more projectors will require more quadros. Doesn’t nVidia have some way to chain a bunch of GPUs together in one system?

[whyterabbyt]

Yeah, but I dont think NVAPI is a tool as such, its an API/SDK, a code library.

https://docs.nvidia.com/gameworks/conte ... index.html

[guitarzan]

Is it something that can be downloaded free and then do this:

How’s it Done: Warping
1. Initialize NVAPI
2. Get GPU Handle
3. Get Display ID
4. Define Warping Mesh
1. Use NvAPI_GPU_GetScanoutConfiguration() to get current desktop
2. Each vertex has:
1. x,y: 2D Vertex coordinates
2. u,v: 2D Texture coordinates
3. r,q: perspective correction
6 floats per vertex
5. Call NvAPI_GPU_SetScanoutWarping( NvU32 displayId,
NV_SCANOUT_WARPING_DATA* scanoutWarpingData, int* piMaxNumVertices,
int* pbSticky);

[excuse me please]

Wonder what a video forum would look like.

[whyterabbyt]

Is it something that can be downloaded free and then do this:

How’s it Done: Warping
1. Initialize NVAPI
2. Get GPU Handle
3. Get Display ID
4. Define Warping Mesh
1. Use NvAPI_GPU_GetScanoutConfiguration() to get current desktop
2. Each vertex has:
1. x,y: 2D Vertex coordinates
2. u,v: 2D Texture coordinates
3. r,q: perspective correction
6 floats per vertex
5. Call NvAPI_GPU_SetScanoutWarping( NvU32 displayId,
NV_SCANOUT_WARPING_DATA* scanoutWarpingData, int* piMaxNumVertices,
int* pbSticky);

are you expecting it to work as a 'system wide' thing that changes how the displays work for anything which goes out the display interface?
because i think its code that need to be part of the application you're using to generate or play video.

[pekbro]

Is it something that can be downloaded free and then do this:

How’s it Done: Warping
1. Initialize NVAPI
2. Get GPU Handle
3. Get Display ID
4. Define Warping Mesh
1. Use NvAPI_GPU_GetScanoutConfiguration() to get current desktop
2. Each vertex has:
1. x,y: 2D Vertex coordinates
2. u,v: 2D Texture coordinates
3. r,q: perspective correction
6 floats per vertex
5. Call NvAPI_GPU_SetScanoutWarping( NvU32 displayId,
NV_SCANOUT_WARPING_DATA* scanoutWarpingData, int* piMaxNumVertices,
int* pbSticky);

Alright! Bump it up a notch

[guitarzan]

Hmmm…. so at best maybe the right person could use that information to develop a plug-in for one of the video apps? If that app had spout in and out, maybe then it could work for what I want to do.

Resolume Arena is the only Windows app that I’m sure does warp and blend to combine projectors. It’s such a cool technology, why so rare?

[pekbro]

That's probably only about 10k lines of code.

[guitarzan]

https://developer.nvidia.com/warp-and-blend

Spells is right out:

The Warp and Blend SDK provides an easy way to bring this functionality to any application with minimal performance impact and no incremental latency.

And it is all right there:

NVAPI is NVIDIA's core software development kit that allows direct access to NVIDIA GPUs on windows platforms. Warp and blend is implemented as an interface in NVAPI that programmably exposes warping and intensity adjustment features before the final scanout.

Come on, somebody put this in MapMap or something else Spout enabled!