garageCube

[pixi]

Hi There!

I'm new here, bought M8 liscence recently and enjoyed the first tests in an artistic lab. It was fun, M8 sounds very flexible, adaptive, great stuff! I have an hardware related question. Between a Mac pro tower and the last stuff in Mac book pro (with an external slot of graphic card, quite expensive I could see), what do you recommend? Regarding the condition you have in clubs (smoke, moisiness, dust), the logistic, etc.

Let me know how you manage this and which kind of equipment you take over to the clubs when you are VJing.

Cheers all!
Arnaud

[deepvisual]

I use a MBP with 256mb of Vram and 4 gig of ram.

you dont want to take a tower to gigs, especially if you have to fly

[pixi]

In this case how do you manage a multiprojection?
Do you own an external device to multiply the slots?
I wish to settle my equipment for at least 4 projections on the same time.

[ilan]

While it is only 3 outputs you can use a Matrox TrippleHead2go. Tried and true. Unfortunately at the moment you cannot use Advanced output with it.

[mowgli_uk]

While it is only 3 outputs you can use a Matrox TrippleHead2go. Tried and true. Unfortunately at the moment you cannot use Advanced output with it.

Does at the moment mean that we will be able to in the future??

[pixi]

Does it mean I will not be able to make a composition using the 3 screens on Module 8? In this case what is the advantage to buy this product?

Arnaud

[mowgli_uk]

You can use the three outputs but not the advanced output set up tool

[pixi]

Ok. I just plan to make some multiprojection from Module 8. To set up this, I have to go to this advanced mode for the setup. Through this Maxtor product, it sounds I will not be able to setup the scene the way I want to. So, I'm wondering how to make a multiprojection possible from a laptop, some kind of basic setup for evaluating the stuff I need.

[mowgli_uk]

If you're more specific about what you're trying to do we might be able to offer some help. Even without the advanced output set up you've got complete control over what goes where.

[pixi]

Yeah! I'm trying to figure out what is concretly the features I cannot access through the Maxtor product. I'm a newbie in this world, sorry for stupid asking. But I can't really point the restrictions you can get. Maybe give me an example.

[ilan]

Heya,

- The Advanced output option is built around using a Mac Pro with multiple video cards.

- The space that the modul8 layers occupy is infinite. Each layer can be around anywhere in infinite space.

- Advanced output allows you to create 'clipping' for this infinite space. You can imagine this as a house where you could move the windows around it to reveal different parts of the inside of it. The layers of modul8 are like the furniture inside the house that can be arranged in different ways.

- With the Matrox you cannot use Advanced output because there is only 1 video output from the laptop. What the matrox does is take your one output from the laptop and expand it to three outputs. When you enable full screen modul8 just expands it's output to whatever resolution the matrox is providing. So if you initially had 1024x768 with just the one output you now have three times that size. But you cannot re-arrange the positioning of the outputs like with Advanced output.

- The above disadvantage does really, really matter in most cases because you can position the layer anywhere within that triple sized output.

Hope this helps explain it better. I had trouble with this concept at first as well. Before I worked for GarageCube I had purchased a Triple Head 2 go and was trying to use Advanced output with it. Then Boris showed up in New York for a visit and explained to me that this was not possible. I felt very duh. Live and learn.

[pixi]

Thanks a lot! Great and smooth explanation! I really understand the big issue of this Matrox stuff (it's an expantion and not what I'm looking fro). Just my last question! In this case, how the most VJ's manage to have such nice panoramic views of 4 or 5 or even more screens (using advanced output for sure). All of them are using their Mac pro on stage? Or combining several computers by linking them through the module 8 network? Or do they have external video card connected to their laptop?
There is a way to do multiprojection properly with a laptop I guess...

Cheers!
Arnaud

[mowgli_uk]

most VJ's manage to have such nice panoramic views of 4 or 5 or even more screens d

Mmmm I'm not sure about who these "most" that youre talking about are. There are definitely big set ups being used but it is not the norm as big set up=big budget. In any case I can guarantee you that these big setups that you mention are not being run from a single machine. In most cases multiple video mixers and switchers are configured with multiple video sources and often the computers used are not laptops but towers with multiple video cards or in some instances media servers.
Have a look at this;
http://static.flickr.com/34/123393985_8ca676e8e7.jpg
and this:
http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/3046/twisted3zd5.jpg

I still don't understand what's not proper about doing multiprojection with a triple head to go. A 3072 pixel wide projection is extremely versatile and impressive, specially if you utilise modul8's capabilities. Even without the advanced output features you can treat the triple output as a single wide screen, three independent ones, 2 clones and one different one..use your creativity.

No offense but it sounds like you're trying to run before you can walk.

[pixi]

Thanx for quick answers! It's true! I have to go step by step. But it's just some fresh knowledge I need. Good to know about all these technic specs.

Wish you a nice week-end,
Cheers,

Arnaud

[gregy1]

Will the MacPro perform fine (say 30fps and 4-5 layers) with three XGA projectors? I've got 2GB RAM, 2x nVidia 8800GT cards hopefully on the way from Apple soon, two dual core 3GHz Xeon's, and a 3 drive 1.2TB striped array. Do I need more RAM? Does Modul8 multi-thread well and use all the processors? Upgrade to quad core?

I'm new here... Have been playing with the demo, but haven't set up the whole system yet.

I've been using three discreet Windows notebooks, Arkaos and three Edirol V-4 mixers up to this point - a lot of hardware to tote, connect and manage. A friend of mine turned me on to Modul8 at a recent show. So, while even though the MacPro will also be big to carry, it's less than what I have now. And I will be running at much higher resolution with a contiguous screen space, which I very much want to do. But am concerned about performance. Any experience you can pass on appreciated. Heading to Burning Man in two weeks with it all and will give it a "test of fire" if you don't mind the play on words.

Thanks!

Greg Young / Smoke Blower
Escondido, CA, USA