Update! Visualizer 0.1 release and lookout on online configurator!
Today, I proudly present version 0.1 of the
Freilite Iris Visualizer, an online tool to try out potential configurations.
This version is by no means final, but it's a good framework for testing what's possible and what isn't with the data format I'm planning to use. (Big thanks to
@XeaLouS for his ideas on this!) As usual, feedback of any kind is very welcome!
In the future, this will be extended into an online configurator tool, so you won't have to install any software to modify the animations. More on that below.
Basic functionality:
TL;DR: Just try it out, it's fun!
On the left, you can see the live preview, on the right is the configuration UI, where you can modify
Cues. Cues consist of multiple parameters that define how the LEDs change colour and are the basic building blocks of animations. In the future, you'll be able to chain multiple Cues together into
Cue Lists.
Right now, only a single cue can be displayed at any given time. The parameters of each
Cue are as follows (more will follow in the future):
- Start Color: Colour each LED will start its transition at.
- End Color: Colour each LED will end its transition at.The hue of this colour is capped at 359° in the visualiser to make it easier to achieve the rainbow animation you can see above.
- Duration: Time one full cycle of the animation will take. When the Time Divisor is lowered, this value should be increased to keep the same velocity.
- Time Divisor: Describes the value the Duration is divided by to calculate the temporal offset between neighbouring LEDs. Basically, this means that each LED counterclockwise of its neighbour will reach the End Colour earlier by (Duration/Time Divisor). This means that if a single dot is displayed, you can just reduce the Time Divisor to 6 to see two dots, 4 to see three dots and so on.
- Ramp Type: Specifies how the transition between Start Color and End Color is calculated. Currently, there are only three options. They are explained below.
- Ramp Parameter: Changes the behaviour of the Ramp Type. The basic concept is that it changes which time the "peak" of the functions happens at, but the practical implications are different for each Ramp Type.
- Reverse: Self explanatory.
The three
Ramp Types are explained below. In the future, they will be illustrated in the Visualizer to make them easier to understand.
- Linear HSL: Moves on a linear path through the HSL colourspace, first from the Start Color to the End Color, and then back. I recommend this for most scenarios, especially when transitioning between two colours.
The Ramp Parameter in this case specifies the position of the "peak" of the transition function. When it is 1, an LED will jump down to the Start Color immediately after reaching the End Color. When it is 0.5, it will take equal time to transition forth and back. Try it out to see if you can tell the difference! If you're coming from a music background, you can also think of it as the ratio between attack and release if decay and sustain are both 0.
- Linear RGB: Included for comparisons sake. In some cases this will also look better when transitioning between a regular colour and black or white. The Ramp Parameter has no effect in version 0.1, I just couldn't get it to work properly.
- Jump: Just jumps from Start Color to End Color and then back down. Very simple effect, I'm personally not really a fan of it, but it can look quite cool with a Ramp Parameter of 0.5 and lower Time Divisors. The Ramp Parameter works similarly as before, but it effectively changes the width of the spinning dot.
Wow, that was quite a bit of information. So, where will this go in the future?
Future Online configurator:
TL;DR: Razer is stupid.
In the future, you will be able to
download an animation you've designed on the Visualizer as a .hex file. The Iris 16 will be acting as a Mass Storage device similar to an SD card or Flash drive. To load the animation onto it, you simply open it in your file manager and copy the .hex file directly onto it. This means that you will
not need to install any additional software and that the Iris 16 will be usable on every OS on the planet, no matter how obscure.
Additionally, none of this will be required after setting the button up once. All animations are
stored on the Iris 16 itself, so even when putting it in a different machine, all the animations will be just where they were.
It will also be possible to upload a previously stored animation to modify it again. This means that you need no online account and don't have to enable cookies to save animations. And, you can share them with others in any way imaginable. Via e-mail, Pastebin, Google drive, even morse code if you're so inclined.
Makes you wonder why not more companies do it this way.
Thanks for reading and have fun breaking my software!
I'll implement downloading animations as soon as possible so you can start sharing your ideas.
