It's a lighting question

[Efotech]

I didn't really know where to ask this question, sooo. I was messing around with making a spotlight for some future projects and wanted to make some colored filters for different effects. I was hoping that I could have just used another colored object, like a real camera filter, that was transparent enough to show the colors, but as you can see it only shades the area, with no color. That is odd, but it is what it is. I am trying to figure out a way that I can use multiple textures and/or colors without having to edit my lighting settings on my spotlight every time I want to do something different. 

[Sid Nagy]

This sounds like you need a script with a menu.
Don't ask me which one. I'm clueless, but there are some scripting wonders in SL.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

8 minutes ago, Efotech said:

I didn't really know where to ask this question, sooo. I was messing around with making a spotlight for some future projects and wanted to make some colored filters for different effects. I was hoping that I could have just used another colored object, like a real camera filter, that was transparent enough to show the colors, but as you can see it only shades the area, with no color. That is odd, but it is what it is. I am trying to figure out a way that I can use multiple textures and/or colors without having to edit my lighting settings on my spotlight every time I want to do something different. 

Yes, I haven't really tried this -- I find it much easier to simply change the color of the light -- but I don't think a filter, as a second object, would work. It should however capture differences in opacity.

Using a colored texture with, for instance, a set of colors on a gradient, as the texture for the projector should allow you to produce some fairly subtle effects in tone -- but that does mean switching out the texture.

[Coffee Pancake]

 

2 Light sources, one red one blue. Mixing works as you would expect.

[KT Kingsley]

As you fear, you'll have to edit your projector prim manually or use a script. Fortunately controls for projector settings have recently been added to the scripting language. Maybe there's script already out there somewhere.

There are free colour picker and texture picker scripts around, and you could ask for help combining these into what you need in the scripting forum, or find someone willing to do this for you in the employment forum.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

There are also of course commercial lighting products available that use HUDs to move and adjust lighting, but none that I know of allows you to switch out the projector texture.

I have one such product. I haven't used it in years: I find directly editing the point lights and projectors is much faster, easier, and allows for more versatility. 

[Efotech]

46 minutes ago, KT Kingsley said:

As you fear, you'll have to edit your projector prim manually or use a script. Fortunately controls for projector settings have recently been added to the scripting language. Maybe there's script already out there somewhere.

There are free colour picker and texture picker scripts around, and you could ask for help combining these into what you need in the scripting forum, or find someone willing to do this for you in the employment forum.

I don't know anything about scripting, although I wish I did. Thanks for pointing out the employment forums. That may be where i head next. 

 

[KT Kingsley]

The thing about a HUD or in-world object to control a projector is that while it takes only a single line of script to set the projector parameters, choosing the texture and colour will run to a few hundred lines and require a fairly complex object for the control panel. To make this worthwhile the end result would have to be easier to use than the built-in edit controls. Making this would not be a trivial exercise.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'm sure you already know this, but it's also worth remarking that if the projector(s) you want to deploy are not just for your own use (for instance, for a photograph), then they are only going to "work" properly for others who have their Advanced Lighting Model turned on. If they don't -- and because of viewer performance, probably a majority don't -- a projector is just going to act as a point light anyway.

This is why so many objects and structures have shadows baked into them. (Which can often be annoying, to be frank.)

[Orwar]

1 hour ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

There are also of course commercial lighting products available that use HUDs to move and adjust lighting, but none that I know of allows you to switch out the projector texture.

   There's absolutely no reason, generally, to put scripts into static light sources, unless you want it to toggle on/off on click (i.e. lamps). 

   As for projecting colours, it's easy as making a template for your projection.

   Plywood prim projecting an image as light? Easy peasy. Can even tint it!

35 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

If they don't -- and because of viewer performance, probably a majority don't -- a projector is just going to act as a point light anyway.

   ALM has a surprisingly low impact on performance for the most part. Unless you're running SL on an actual potato, it should rarely have to be turned off. Particles, draw distance, and LOD are the first things to reduce for increased performance. Then reducing/removing anti-aliasing, then ambient occlusion. If things are still laggy with all that off, it's probably because you're just in a much too complex environment or caused by too many and/or too complex avatars.

   I went from 66 to 68 FPS by turning ALM on in a crowded region, with 120 meters of draw distance. Reducing my draw distance to 80 meters sent me up to 82 FPS (with ALM back on). Reducing the LOD from 1.5 to 1 put me up to 86.