Free Mode Walkthrough

The Free Mode of VIOSO 6 offers the user guidance familiar from the previous versions of the built-in VIOSO Calibrator. It is suitable for quick calibrations of less complex scenarios, especially single-client setups. Furthermore, particularly specialised workflows and operations can be carried out in Free Mode, e.g. using your own scripts, conversions and the like.

Free mode is primarily intended for experienced users and for users who wish to retain the user guidance of the previous version.

Due to this simplicity, we generally recommend using VIOSO calibration in project mode. See a comprehensive walkthrough here: Project Mode Walkthrough

1. Preparation

In the following, we will look at a fairly simple scenario consisting of a single media server, two projectors and one camera, for which the free mode is quite suitable.

1.1. Prepare the camera

Make sure the camera is ready to be used for calibration. Read here how to get this done: Camera

1.2. Create Pixera show

1. In Pixera, start by creating the Screen. Important: Set Selective Target Rendering to "Texture per Screen", otherwise the quality of the calibrated result looks bad in Pixera.

1. Then continue to map all projectors in to the screen (Tab Mapping). Do only a very basic projector to screen mapping (for previz) as everything is replaced by the calibration.

2. Assign all outputs in the Mapping / Live section.

3. Create a testpattern matching the Screen aspect ratio (e.g. using https://testpatterngenerator.com), go to Tab Compositing, load it in the timeline and place the locator on it to have it displayed.

4. Hit F5 to display the testpattern on all projectors.

Now, if all projectors show part of the testpattern as expected you are good to launch the calibration.

If not - fix everything before continuing, as a sober Pixera show is the foundation for the calibration.

1.3. Launching the Calibrator

Go to Tab Mapping and select the Screen to calibrate. Note that the Screen selection mode must be active:

Parameters to set:

• Calibrator Mode: set to Free

• After that, click Launch New Calibration.

VIOSO Calibrator now is launched and presents itself in the Fee Mode:

Free mode means that the calibrator behaves as if it had started normally without Pixera. This means that there is no parameter transfer from Pixera. The operator now has to take care of these things himself:

• Selection of the projectors

• If necessary, integration of several clients (via abstract displays)

• If necessary, MRD handling and conversions

• Saving SPS

• Exporting VWF

• Loading and assigning VWF, SPS and recalibration script in Pixera (first run only)

• This freedom enables all kinds of user-defined procedures, but naturally a certain degree of convenience is lost compared to project mode.

2. Calibration Workflow

In this walkthrough we concentrate on the calibration on one local system. Operating on networked systems (director, multiple clients, etc.) is doable as well - it requires to configure so called "Abstract Displays" for the Pixera-integrated VIOSO 6 software.

2.1. Calibration

Click on the button Calibrate to initialize the calibration assistant:

In this dialog, the hardware devices for the calibration is determined:

1. Select projectors Click to mark all displays that are projectors and should be part of this calibration. Use the button display split... to split outputs into multiple outputs, e.g. if a displays are combined via NVIDIA Mosaic or display expanders like Datapath FX4 are used.

2. Select scanning method Choose the scanning/extrapolation method. Flat screen, curved sceen/dome and any surface will require a camera.

3. Select camera: All available and properly configured DirectShow devices as well as NDI streams will be listed here. Select the device to be used for scanning.

Click Next and all devices are activated.

Within Pixera, any number of projectors can be calibrated up to a maximum of 265. This is independent from the actual licensing, therefore demo and test calibrations are possible.

Make your way through the calibration until all projectors are scanned. Learn more about this process here: Scanning.

After completing the scan VIOSO Calibrator will prompt to save the calibration file (*.sps):

Choose a folder and filename on the local system that you will find later again, e.g. D:\Calib\MyFirstScan.sps.

2.2. Editing

This step is about to warp the result (in a 2D way), adjust the blending, add masks and work on blacklevel uplift.

Click Activate to get the projectors outputting a testfile with the result of the calibration applied. Your next steps are doing the appropriate warping, tweaking of colors, blending and occassionally working on masks.

• Learn more about this here: Blending & Global Adjustments

• Learn about warping here: 2D Warp

• Learn about projector masks here: Projector masking

After completing all calibration tweaks, don't forget to save the result again: Menu File - Save Calibration (CTRL+S)

2.3. Export

Once you are satisfied with the calibration results, it's time to create the warp&blend files for Pixera. This is a single file per PC with the file ending *.VWF.

The export is intitiated by Menu - File - Export Mapping (CTRL+E)

Settings to take care of:

1. Have the the calibration selected, that is exported (should be preselected already).

2. Make sure, that VWF format is selected (should be preselected as well)

3. Choose path and filename to write on the loca disk, e.g. D:/Calib/PixeraExport.vwf

4. To enable a 1-click recalibration, an appropriate script is required. Such script is generated in the Export dialog:

• Click the button Recalib Script (4).

• Select the path and filename of the recalibration script. We recommend to keep the preselected path and filename, as it will be referenced by Pixera in this way.

• Select the matching SPS file (the file that is currently used by VIOSO Calibrator) - should be preselected already

• Check Close application and With Export

• Click Create to write the Recalib script to the local disk. The Recalibration Script helper closes automatically.

5. Finally, you can initiate the Export by clicking export:

   

2.4. Return to Pixera

After exporting, VIOSO Calibrator has done the job and you can return to Pixera. Close VIOSO Calibrator by clicking on the top left Close button:

Pixera will now:

• Add the *.sps calibration file, the *.vwf warp&blend file and the recalibration script to Pixera.

• Apply warp&blend (replacing any manually made warps&blends)

• Return to fullscreen rendering, if the calibration was initiated during fullscreen rendering

The result of the calibration is applied to the Inspector:

To apply the calibration to the render engine, click Distribute Loaded Calibrations.

2.5. Calibration settings in Pixera

Pixera applies the calibration files listed in Loaded Calibrations. Deleting these files from the list unsets the calibration (the file are not deleted from disk) . You can then load the files again and apply by clicking Distribute Loaded Calibration .

Feathering softens the edges around the outline of the total calibrated image, which might look a bit crooked if there is heavy pixelmapping applied. Use the values to configure the size of the softening (inside and outside) as well as the checkboxes to apply on either or both borders.

3. Editing an existing calibration

Once a calibration has been completed, it is easy to get into an Editing mode it from within Pixera. Go to the Screen whose calibration you want to edit and click Edit Current Calibration.

1. Pixera will now stop the render output and launch VIOSO Calibrator with the referenced Calibration file (*.sps) loaded.

2. You can now perform all editing actions, including a new calibration scan. Do not forget to save the calibration: Menu - File - Save Calibration (CTRL+S).

3. Click Export, make sure the prevously made settings are still there and click export to update the VWF files.

4. Close the Calibrator, return to Pixera

Do not forget to Save the calibration before leaving to Pixera!

Pixera will now automatically apply the updated VWF files and launch the render engine at the state before editing.

4. Auto-Recalibration

A fully automated recalibration performs a new scan of all projectors using parameters and configurations from the previous calibraion. It will re-arrange projector pixels and recalculate the blending to create the same result of the initial calibration.

Important: The camera must be up and running and must not be moved, touched or tampered in any way since the initial calibration! Auto-Recalibration relies on the camera being a fixed entity whereas projectors and surface might undergo changes. The ambient lighting situation must be the same as when the initial calibration took place. It cannot be done if there is e.g. sunlight or cleaning light, whereas the initial calibration tool place at utter darkness. Try to automate the lighting together with recalibration automation.

Make sure that a Recalibration script has been created at the previous Export step.

If everything is up and running, an auto-recalibration can be triggered within Pixera by clicking Auto Re-Calibration.

Pixera will now:

1. Stop the render engine output and launch VIOSO Calibrator.

2. Calibrator runs a complete scan of all projectors without any interaction.

3. Calibrator performs all warpings, masks and other calibration tweaks.

4. Calibrator saves everything and performs the Export

5. Calibrator closes and returns to Pixera where the new calibrations are now in use.

Typically, there nothing else to do. If in doubt, initiate Distribute Loaded Calibrations to update everything on the render engine.

5. Adapting to multiple clients

It's possible to adapt this workflow to run calibrations on multiple clients:

1. Access all PCs running Presence and launch VIOSO 6 in client mode => Learn more here: First Init & Autostart => Make sure to configure the network for all clients in the same way: Network settings in VIOSO 6

2. Configure Abstract displays for each PC and projector: Multiclient Configuration (Abstract Displays)

3. Run the calibration as described above: 2.1. Calibration and 2.2. Editing

4. Export the calibration as described here: 2.3. Export

To have Pixera successfully processing the calibration files, you have to stick to this naming conventions: Calib_[IP].vwf => Calibration file to be processed by Presence on a render node Calib.vwf => Calibration file to be processed by Pixera on the master The calibration file running on the Master must not contain the IP, otherwise it's ignored by Pixera!