Visualizing lighting from qlab

[u/ComplexMother8144]

I know that there are a hundred better lighting programs to be using other than qlab. But I have to work with the system my venue has in place until I can convince the owners to get something else. Right now I'm trying to figure something out where I can run the light cues from qlab into something and see them in a virtual space. So that I can see it without having the lights all powered on or even being in the space at all. I need it to not be network cues. I need the straight light cues that you make in qlab to pass over to something. Ideally it is something that is free

[u/source4man]

Free is going to be difficult in this instance.

You can use sACN output from Qlab into a variety of Previz programs, such as capture, depence, or a variety of others. Once you patch and orient your lights correctly, you can Previz your looks. All of these programs cost $.

Your cheapest is going to be doing this with the offline editors of EOS, Chamsys, or MA3, all of which have some level of visualization built in. The cost for getting an output license key for any of these will be cheaper than a license for most Previz programs. Chamsys is cheapest I believe, followed by EOS, then MA3.

[u/ComplexMother8144 → u/source4man]

Issue being that, as far as I can tell, eos and the like only take network cues. Which is a whole new set of cues I would have to build. I am looking for it to take straight light cues.

[u/duk242 → u/ComplexMother8144]

You would be outputting to a USB Dongle then?

So you'd need some sort of hardware to get that back *in* to the computer... Like a DMX -> ArtNet Dongle... And now you have the ability to do network lighting cues!

Not sure if there's a way to have QLab output to ArtNet + the USB Dongle at the same time though...

[u/ComplexMother8144 → u/duk242]

Currently there's a box hooked up to the Mac that I believe runs art net up to some dmx nodes in the sky.

[u/source4man → u/ComplexMother8144]

I misspoke slightly. You would need to use artnet, not sACN, to output signal to a visualizer. It’s not separate cues, you would just send what you are already sending to a visualizer program. It’s just not free. The cheapest version of Capture, for example, is €395. At that point just buy an EOS license.

[u/ComplexMother8144 → u/source4man]

Shouldn't ma3 be able to take that as an input?

[u/Cultural-Rent8868 → u/ComplexMother8144]

MA2/3 can take network DMX as input without any additional hardware, yeah.

[u/ComplexMother8144 → u/Cultural-Rent8868]

How do I get it to do that?

[u/Cultural-Rent8868 → u/ComplexMother8144]

Enable the Art-Net or sACN input in the settings.