Improving Visualizer Performance

[LOR Staff]

Improving Visualizer Performance

While newer computers with faster processors and high end graphics cards will help Visualizer performance, you can still easily exceed your system’s hardware while using the Visualizer. There are however some very simple steps you can take to improve performance.

The single best thing you can do to make things run better is to reduce the size of your simulation and background – both in dimensions and file size. Smaller always runs better. Even a small adjustment (say from 1920x1080 to 1200x675) will help. The Visualizer makes it easy to change the dimensions of your simulation. Simply go to the Simulation/Editor Properties press the ‘Change Size’ button and resize.

The next thing you should do is reduce the file size of your background picture, if you are using one. Today’s Multi-Mega-Pixel cameras can create pictures with very large file sizes, sometimes as much as 10-12 Megabytes per picture. To reduce the file size, save the picture as JPEG and increase the compression. You can do that with a photo editing program (one most likely came with your camera), or with the built-in Windows Paint program:

1. Start the Paint Program (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Paint)

2. Open your picture (File/Open)

3. Select File/Save As

4. Give your picture a new file name

5. Change the ‘Save as Type’ to ‘JPEG’

6. Save the new picture

Once you have the new picture, update your simulation to use it:

1. Open the Visualizer, and load your Visualization File

2. Go to the Simulation/Editor Properties

3. Press the button in the ‘Image Source’ section

4. Select the new picture

Going Further:

While simulating your stage, the computer has to share processing time with the Sequence Editor. The Sequence Editor is always given priority, and so it can dominate the Visualizer. There is no direct way to force the Sequence Editor to give more time to the Visualizer, however you can reduce the amount of processing the Sequence Editor is doing by turning off some ‘Play’ options. You should experiment with these settings to see which have the greatest effect on performance. For example, you may find that ‘Highlight Current Time’ has little effect on performance of your computer and you can therefore leave it on.

• If you do not have any controllers hooked up, turn OFF ‘Control Lights’. Don’t forget to turn it back on when you do have a controller hooked up.

• Turn off ‘Control Holiday Lights Designer’. Chances are if you are using the Visualizer, you are not using HLD.

• Ensure ‘Control Visualizer’ is turned ON. If it is off, the Visualizer will not work.

• Turn OFF Move Grid With Play

• Turn OFF Vary Color of Channel Buttons

• Turn OFF Vary Color of Channel Button Fonts

• Turn OFF Highlight Current Event

• Turn OFF Highlight Current Time

Additional Performance Enhancements

The Visualizer uses TCP/IP communications – the same protocol that your computer uses to browse the internet. While using the Visualizer, ensure your computer isn’t downloading large files from the internet/etc.

Ensure no other applications are running on the computer you are using for simulation. That includes things like web browsers, eMail programs and the like.

Your computer should not be used a server while using the Visualizer. For example, your computer may also be used as a media server for other devices on your network. If the media server is active (and serving media), it will slow the entire computer down.