Robert Burton Posted October 5, 2010 Share Posted October 5, 2010 Ok,Looking over a few post on this topic... not sure which way to go. It looks like that he is supporting the new version of LOR II???? I am just starting to sequence or add on my new channels (yes...I am behind). Would LOVE to see some better visuals of what I am doing and it looks like that might make life easier. I am using Rainbow Spots and Floods though this year. Not sure if that has been upgraded. It would be worth the $50.00 for me to have that software and see my show better animated.Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 6, 2010 Share Posted October 6, 2010 Robert Burton wrote: Ok,Looking over a few post on this topic... not sure which way to go. It looks like that he is supporting the new version of LOR II???? I am just starting to sequence or add on my new channels (yes...I am behind). Would LOVE to see some better visuals of what I am doing and it looks like that might make life easier. I am using Rainbow Spots and Floods though this year. Not sure if that has been upgraded. It would be worth the $50.00 for me to have that software and see my show better animated.RobertI hesitate to say yes on this just because it has not been updated in a while. I really enjoyed it last year as it made a good representation of the show that I had in mind. You will need a fairly fast system (I was using an AMD Dual core 2.3GHz with 3GB of memory at the time). Also, as you draw objects consisting of many individual lights, convert them into a static object. This will speed up the show tremendously. There is a good guide available on making the show as fast as possible and other tricks. I think it is linked on their forums.I will attach an image of the layout I did last year in their program.You might do a try before you buy to see what you think. I thought it had a steep learning curve, but it did justice to my planning.There is a planned update for the visualizer in the LOR software, but there has been no release date given for it.I hope this helps. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burton Posted October 6, 2010 Author Share Posted October 6, 2010 I did download the "Try Before You Buy" today. Will give it a whirl and see how I like it.Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_moody Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 I was just curious if the product was even being supported any longer.I got the try be fore you buy version and went to the HLD forums and signed up. The forum is locked to new users until the admin approves your request.Its been two weeks now and other than an autoreply that said the admin would send back the authorization, I haven't heard anything.Either I have been denied access to the site, or there isnt anyone running the ship.Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 7, 2010 Share Posted October 7, 2010 bob_moody wrote: I was just curious if the product was even being supported any longer.I got the try be fore you buy version and went to the HLD forums and signed up. The forum is locked to new users until the admin approves your request.Its been two weeks now and other than an autoreply that said the admin would send back the authorization, I haven't heard anything.Either I have been denied access to the site, or there isnt anyone running the ship.BobBased on Michaels recent post in http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum77/23154.htmlWe can assume he plans to continue the product, but it may be more commercial oriented. I am not exactly sure what that means or when signs of development will show up.The forums took a nose dive last year after a crash or such. Posts were missing and seemingly signs of life had disappeared.I would suggest getting the product only if it meets your needs as is until more is known about future support plans. I will use it again this year since I am down to the wire on waiting on any updates from any products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burton Posted October 8, 2010 Author Share Posted October 8, 2010 Haven't had a chance to play with HLD much lately. (Work and family has been pretty time intensive past few days) Seems to be some pretty neat features in it, but some are not real user friendly. Guess though that is with any software. A tutorial like was created on lorsequences.com would be nice ;-)So LOR is getting a new visualizer??? Understand that release dates or hard to come by...but what about features? Anything? I just would like some more tools to use on it. Oh well...hope to get some time over the weekend to START SEQUENCING...so hopefully we will get to play with HLD more.Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 8, 2010 Share Posted October 8, 2010 Robert Burton wrote: A tutorial like was created on lorsequences.com would be nice ;-)So LOR is getting a new visualizer??? Understand that release dates or hard to come by...but what about features? Anything? I just would like some more tools to use on it. Oh well...hope to get some time over the weekend to START SEQUENCING...so hopefully we will get to play with HLD more.RobertI wish I had time to write a tutorial, but I am in the same boat as you right now with work and family consuming my time. Plus I still have 1 arch to build along with 1 more project. Where is this year going?!Here is a link to a guide that I used to help speed up the playback with LOR connected to the HLD software: http://holidaysoft.com/UserForums/index.php?PHPSESSID=r7ck0mve49m32ep5hqcq9d9id5&topic=122.0I am not sure if it requires signing up, so here is the link to the file written by Brad Boyinc on using HLD in a way to speed it up and require less memory.http://www.holidaymusicallights.com/guide.zipI hope this helps for those struggling to get up to speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Gardner Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 I bought a copy of HLD 4 this summer without knowing the shakey ground it was on or knowing LOR was updating their built in visualizer. I really like HLD and I hope it keeps getting improved. It does have a steep learning curve but is worth the effort to get a good realistic view of what your lights will look like. The biggest problem I have is that the visualization is just a little delayed from the music sync on the LOR side. I'm not sure if that can be overcome but I look forward to trying the performance improvement tips to see if it helps. They delay is just bad enough to make HLD not very useful to perfect the timings with the music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 9, 2010 Share Posted October 9, 2010 Steve Gardner wrote:The biggest problem I have is that the visualization is just a little delayed from the music sync on the LOR side. I'm not sure if that can be overcome but I look forward to trying the performance improvement tips to see if it helps. They delay is just bad enough to make HLD not very useful to perfect the timings with the music.I had the same issue originally. I think the 4.0.1.8 update was supposed to help some with resources. Converting the light into a decoration instead of several lights helped a great deal. The synchronization seems fine on my system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Gardner Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 I have a row of 9 shrubs out front and each has 6 net light strings on it - each a different color/channel. For starters I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and turn these into decorations to improve performance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 Steve Gardner wrote: I have a row of 9 shrubs out front and each has 6 net light strings on it - each a different color/channel. For starters I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and turn these into decorations to improve performance.Pretty much... In the picture that I attached to a previous post above, only the mega tree did not get converted to a decoration.I would drag the lights that I wanted to convert to a blank area above my docrations in the upper left. I then zoomed in to get them to fill the area and then ran the decoration wizard. Then, I could just use that decoration back in the original spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burton Posted October 11, 2010 Author Share Posted October 11, 2010 Wait, wait, wait. I have a AMD Turion X2 Dual Core 2.10Ghz HP laptop with 4 gig ram. I have not ran anything yet....because I have not converted or added sequences in yet.Will this run slow????How did you convert it to a decoration? Can you just use MS Paint? What did you use to recreate the light lines??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 11, 2010 Share Posted October 11, 2010 Robert Burton wrote: Wait, wait, wait. I have a AMD Turion X2 Dual Core 2.10Ghz HP laptop with 4 gig ram. I have not ran anything yet....because I have not converted or added sequences in yet.Will this run slow????How did you convert it to a decoration? Can you just use MS Paint? What did you use to recreate the light lines???I used an AMD Athlon 3800 X2 with 3GB of memory last year. I think it was running at 2.2GHz. It worked fine after I converted the lights to decorations. Another thing, if you are able to convert all of your lights to decorations, the zooming and moving around the screen will be a lot faster.Below is the text from the document, but the document has a couple of references images in case you want to download the attachment.From attachment minus images:Draw the decoration where you want it using the existing light tools. Once you have the decoration finished, move it to an empty area of the screen. You can do select channel or one of the other selection methods to help with this. In the image above, I have a line of lights that might be used to line the roof line. I have moved them to a blank area of the screen and zoom in to fit just the lights within the area. Then goto to Tools->Decoration Wizard and click yes to save the lights as a static decoration. You can delete your lights used to make the decoration and place the decoration in place of them. The decoration will be in the Decorating pane as seen below. Attached files HLD - Decoration Wizard.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Foster Posted October 11, 2010 Share Posted October 11, 2010 This really has the potential to be a great program, however, no support or replies from company.He basically just takes your money, and lets you fend for yourself with no support or answers to issues. Updates are non-existant.Mega trees can be a challange to design and no simple way to use common features like arches.As other posters have stated, it is slightly better than nothing, but buyer beware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Burton Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 I don't know. The more I use it, the more some controls seem a little clunky. Not thrilled I have to do a "outside step" (from the program) for better performance. Also concerns me if the author has already dropped once, he could drop it again...soon. With the promise of a new visualizer...I may wait for that. If Holidaysoft is still supporting it through next season...might give it a go.Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 It was the one newbie purchase I made just as I was jumping into LOR and now regret. I understand learning curve on a complex piece of software, but I quickly made the decision that it was a tool to learn for next year, and understanding the LOR software, along with all the first-year planning, was where my energy needed to go. The more I looked at it, it seemed the complexities were more shortcomings, than they were incredible features that just take time to learn.After the announcement of it being abandoned, then picked up again, I simply uninstalled and marked it down as a 49.95 lesson. I definitely hit "buy" way to soon after just a little bit of "try"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyberfix Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Each person will find what works best for them. Personally, I used to dabble a lot in 3D Studio and Lightwave 3D (Amiga), so I found the program acceptable to use and just learned to work with the irritations.I like to be able to get a better representation of the lights, so it is a requirement for me. Although, I hope better things are on the horizon within the LOR software itself.Just give me a visualizer on the Amiga with a MOD tracker. Good luck everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Gardner Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Turning all my net lights into decorations fixed my timing issues between LOR and HLD. HLD keeps in sync with the LOR playback now. This Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnett Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Hi Steve and others that use HLD. Michael has just released an update.Version 4.0.1.9. Don't know what is fixed and or new. No info regarding the update.It looks like the loading is faster. More colors added to the net lights and icicles.I did a playback, seemed to run smoothly. Will play around with it later, see if I can tell what is fixed or new besides those items.Or perhaps, Mr. Collins will make a post and let us know as well.Best,David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise Brunner Posted November 24, 2010 Share Posted November 24, 2010 Wow, Just tried to do an update and it says it updated to 4.0.1.8. I don't see a 4.0.1.9It plays just like it use to !!Denise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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