DMX fixtures are the devices actually responsible for receiving and executing commands based on the data received live or using pre-recorded DMX Tracks. This can mean turning a light on or off or rotating the device 90 degrees. There are many sorts of DMX fixtures you can use, from standard stage lights that simply turn on and off to intelligent lights that have multi-directional rotation and complex lighting functions and filters.
This page describes fixture features included in the DMX plugin.
Quality Level
A revised version of the adaptive quality level feature used in the DMX Previs sample is natively available in the DMX Plugin. You can pick from four predefined quality levels in the Details panel of light fixture Actors and specify their own quality settings. The following options are the available quality levels:
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Low: 4 distance units between samples
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Medium: 2 distance units between samples
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High: 1 distance units between samples
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Ultra: 0.33 distance units between samples
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Custom: A user-defined distance units between samples
The smaller the distance value, the closer the volumetric beam samples are, which will increase the visual accuracy of the beams. Larger values mean there will be larger steps, which will improve performance but may create a blocky visual effect.
Custom
With the custom option you can specify two step-distance values manually. The Min Quality parameter specifies the smaller zoom angles and the Max Quality parameter specifies the larger zoom angles. This means more samples for thinner beams to increase visual quality, and less samples for wider beams to increase speed since the light covers a larger volume quantity in 3D space.
Exposed Material Instances
Various Material Instances are also exposed in the Details panel, so you can change the material instances per fixture or per group of fixtures in the World Outliner.
Some predefined Material Instances are provided with the DMX plugin. You can find them in the Content Browser at DMXFixtures Content > LightFixtures > DMX_Materials. The sections below describe some unique features of these material instances.
MI_Beam
Refers to the M_Beam_Master material responsible for defining how the volumetric beam looks and performs in the 3D environment.
The following Beam Parameters are included in the volumetric beam material instance MI_Beam:
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Jitter Scale: Defines how much jitter is applied to the samples, helping with step artifacts when having lower sample count.
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Soft Clip Size: Controls the beam clipping when reaching its maximum length
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Atmospheric Density: Simulates particles within the air. With this parameter, you can customize how opaque or translucent the beam is in regards to air density.
MI_Lens
Refers to M_Lens_Master material responsible for defining the look of the actual lens. This is purely cosmetic and does not affect fixture lighting effects in the 3D world.
The following Lens Parameters are included in the lens material instance MI_Lens:
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Use Gobo: When enabled, the gobo texture appears in the lens.
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Use Lamp: When enabled, the lamp source appears to be behind the lens.
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Lens Mask: Shapes the lens.
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Lens Base Color: Color of the lens.
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Lens Normal: Normal map applied to the lens.
MI_Light
Refers to the M_Light_Master material responsible for defining the light function used when the beam intersects 3D geometry. This is where gobos are applied and visible on arbitrary meshes the light hits such as floor or walls.
The following Light Parameters are included in the light material instance MI_Light:
- Use Gobo: When enabled, the gobo texture appears in the light.