In this tutorial we are going to show you how easy it is to create and present a multidisplay show via one PC. You can control up to four displays provided the PC has two graphics cards. This tutorial is based on the assumption that you know how to handle Wings Vioso RX in general. If not, we recommend working through the tutorials of workshop Digital AV Show first.
In this tutorial you will be provided with detail knowledge about the special features of a multidisplay show illustrated at the example of a panorama show for two projectors:
Creating a project and setting up the multidisplay screens
Getting rid of distortions via Display Warp
Adjusting soft edge masks
For our example we are going to use panorama format at 3600 x 1200 pixels, projected with two projectors and a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels each. On the other hand, we are using a computer with a Multidisplay License for two displays or a Wings Engine. Your computer must have three graphics card outputs in order to allow proper adjustment and show programming on a separate monitor.
As usual, you should use the Wizard for Mixed Media Projects to create your show. On the first page you can make entries that refer to media and project type.
Specify the types of media you want to use for your project. For this exercise you should only choose Audio, Pictures and Video.
At the bottom you should specify that you want to create a multidisplay project.
Click Next.
Here you can make various settings for screen and display configuration.
Under Output settings and Display size enter the resolution of an individual video projector, i.e. 1920 x 1200 pixels for our tutorial.
At Displays enter the number and arrangement of displays, i.e. in our case, 2 x 1 for two projectors arranged next to each other.
The next step is to enter a Total size of 3600 pixels in width. The resulting overlap is 240 pixels which are displayed immediately above. As an alternative, you could also have specified the overlap and the width of the whole picture would have been the result of this entry.
Next to Multidisplay
configuration click and select
All displays on the master starting
with monitor 2 so that output 1 is kept for the control monitor.
Click Next.
This dialog allows you to select a project template, Media Pool components of which can be transferred to the new project. Thus you can use previously created ramps and effects in a new show.
Place a checkmark next to Add Media Pool components from following project template.
The preselected template Default Pools contains a few ramps and control tracks for effects.
Click Next.
Select the components you want to import. Without previous selection of a separate template, you should leave the settings for effects, control tracks and ramps.
Click Next.
Here you specify the number of the corresponding track types to be created in the timeline. Do not worry about the entries; tracks can be added or removed any time.
Checking Group tracks automatically installs additional group tracks which allow hiding and displaying of tracks.
Click Finish and the timeline with the corresponding tracks appears. If there is a message saying that Synchronization Mode Multihead (manual sync adjustment) is recommended, click OK to select it.
Before you actually start editing
you should create a project folder and save the show. Click Save
in the toolbar below the main menu and a dialog box will appear. Select
the appropriate drive, create a new folder for your project and enter
a name for your show. Finish by clicking on Save.
If you want to save all projects to the
same location, you can specify a Default
folder under Options.
Align the video projectors by
means of test charts. Do so by modifying test chart Pattern
black, white background.tif which was copied to folder Media Samples\ Test Charts when
installing the program from DVD-ROM or USB stick. The corresponding folder
can be found by clicking Extras
- Open Folder Sample
Media. If it is not available you may have chosen to install the
program without test charts. In any case, the picture can always be copied
from the Wings installation medium at ...\Wings 6\Media Samples\Test Charts.
Open picture Pattern black, white background.tif with an image editing program and crop the picture to the total size of 3600 x 1200 pixels.
The cropped grid should look as illustrated above (in the Help files this is reduced in size) . Important: It must not be scaled as it will be reduced in sharpness due to interpolation.
Save the picture as Pattern 3600x1200.tif (if you want also with LZW compression) for the size to be immediately recognizable.
Drag the test picture Pattern 3600x1200 or any additional ones from folder Test charts into the Media Pool and arrange the pictures in the timeline.
To ensure that Wings Vioso RX uses an unscaled version of Pattern 3600x1200 go to the main menu and click Media Pool - Optimize display data followed by Start.
Check
by right-clicking the object Pattern
3600x1200 and selecting Properties.
At Resulting Picture size,
Picture size must be exactly 3600
pixels. After checking, close the dialog by clicking OK.
In order to start
fullscreen presentation at high quality on the client computers, press
the F5 key. You can now align
the video projector by using the picture Pattern
3600x1200. The lines should be exactly one pixel wide and very
well visible to allow proper control of the overlap. The circles clearly
show whether the picture is distorted or not. For better alignment
in the overlap area two triggers have been set up in the
Control Panel (tab below the
level display) for hiding/displaying the softedge masks. Alignment
can be judged more easily without softedge mask. In the Control Panel
click on trigger
Hide
softedge.
Once
the overlap area is in perfect alignment, click
Show softedge, followed by
clicking category
Screens
in the Media Pool.
In the right Media Pool section click Screen 1, following which the corresponding grayscale and ramp band are displayed in the area of the Properties Table.
Set a "Spline" node by double-clicking the ramp band while holding the O key. By moving the node, adjust the ramp until a homogenous overlap is displayed on the screen. During the adjustment full screen playback is to be started at full quality (F5). The best thing would be to pause playback.
Position the test patterns with control tracks and keyframes in the overlaps. See also Motion: Position - Zoom - Rotation. For softedge mask adjustment test pictures Grey_steps_1 and Grey_steps_2 are very suitable. All the other test pictures can be used to check homogeneity with different tonal values and colors.
In principle, shows containing pictures, videos and sound are created in the same way as you were shown in the previous tutorials. Since multidisplay shows may comprise high-resolution media, the various playback modes for Preview and Presentation are gaining importance.
Preview Mode works at reduced display quality to ensure swift editing. This is particularly important for multidisplay shows. In this case, editing at full quality would only put unnecessary strain on the system. As usual, Preview Mode is started by hitting the space bar or via the mouse.
Presentation Mode uses high-resolution pictures and video files for display, although this can be varied depending on the application. Presentation Mode is started by pressing the F5 key. This mode ensures optimized performance.
Make the following test to see the difference:
Open the client screens by pressing Ctrl + F6 and move the locator across the test images showing the grid pattern. It is displayed at reduced quality and is not very focused as it is based on lower resolution display data.
Now press the F5 key and notice the quality on the screen. There should be a marked difference in quality. Press the space bar to start playback and Esc to stop it.
More detailed information about the two playback modes can be found in topic Playback modes for screen display.
Now create a short sequence as you were shown in the previous tutorials; use some videos, too. As long as your computer is able to display all videos in real time in Presentation Mode at original quality it is possible to run the presentation directly from the timeline. To ensure high performance create optimized display data for pictures at the end of the production. See Optimizing display data for pictures.
You should now be familiar with
the most important steps for creating and presenting a multidisplay show
via one PC.
The following topics
are also interesting:
Multidisplay show using Master and Client PCs
Warping screen or display contents