Beatline Beam 0.1.0-alpha.1

First public alpha. Beam is a real-time 3D sandbox for lighting rigs, driven by
Art-Net — patch fixtures, arrange them in space, and watch them move to whatever
your console or software is sending.

Windows 10/11, 64-bit. beam-0.1.0-alpha.1-setup.exe (93 MB)

SHA-256: 7be3463f3c6f5df6fc5cc58197a8f44090ffab48c9b2f7151eb1a2a9517f41fe

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Before you install

Windows will warn you. The installer isn't code-signed, so SmartScreen says
"Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway. Verify the
SHA-256 above if you'd rather not take that on trust:

certutil -hashfile beam-0.1.0-alpha.1-setup.exe SHA256

The installer offers Program Files by default, which asks for an
administrator. Choose only for me on the same page if you'd rather it didn't.

Don't build a season's work in this yet. The show file format is still
moving. Files you save now will open in later builds — there's a migration path
— but a show saved here won't open in anything older, and features are still
being added and removed.

What works

• Patching — around 480 fixture profiles from the
  Open Fixture Library, across 120-odd
  manufacturers. Addresses run across universes, with an option to keep pixels
  off universe boundaries.
• Art-Net in — the rig moves to whatever is on the wire. Beam listens
  only; it never sends, so it cannot drive real fixtures and cannot clash
  with a console already on the network.
• Moving heads and LED bars. Bars are generated from parameters you give
  them — length, pixel count, layout — because OFL has no way to describe where
  emitters physically sit.
• Structures — combine fixtures into one thing you can place, rotate and
  move as a unit, save to a library, and place again. Un-structure puts everything
  back where it stands.
• Arrange — lay a selection out on a line, a circle or a grid, or align axes,
  with a live preview before you commit.
• MadMapper export — layout and fixture definitions, with a choice of
  projections per structure.
• Shadows, per fixture. Off by default: each shadow-casting light costs a
  texture unit and a GPU has few, so you spend them on the few that read.

What doesn't, yet

• Windows only. macOS and Linux aren't built.
• No auto-update. New versions mean downloading the installer again.
• Number entry is clunky. Known, and being worked on.
• Fixtures with no 3D model still patch and hold addresses; they just don't
  draw.

Feedback

Anything odd, anything missing, anything that crashes — I'd like to hear it:

• Discord — questions, ideas, showing off
  what you have built
• beatline.xyz/contact — if you would
  rather not join anything
• GitHub issues — if you have an
  account and can write up steps to reproduce

Telling me your GPU and what you were doing at the time helps more than anything
else.

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Beatline Beam is free software under the
GPLv3, built on
ASLS Studio © ASLS-org 2021.