1 Topic by sarah (edited by sarah 27-01-2013 15:28:23)

  • Thanks: 3

Topic: Lighting Feedback / Request

I have three requests (below) around the ambient light system. This is a great feature, but I think it could use some improvements. I'm always willing to bribe to get my way, so I'll be happy to make another donation if any of this stuff is fixed.  wink

These issues notwithstanding, this is a fabulous project. Thanks to all those who work on it: I have turned several other people on to its magic.

Sarah


1. A real Apply button for the custom lighting settings.

The first is a simple UI request. In the most recent version of the SVP Manager, the custom lighting settings have an Apply button that acts like an Okay button, closing the dialog box. This means that if you want to experiment to find the settings you like, you have to go back through the menus after every adjustment. I would suggest that you follow standard UI design and have the traditional Cancel, Apply and Okay trio. At the very least, please just make it so Apply doesn't close the window!  mad

Making things worse, the menu item is now buried in a sub-sub-menu. The way it overlaps makes it frustratingly difficult to even open it without accidentally closing the submenu. Having to navigate all this every time makes finding the settings you like a real chore.  sad

2. Save my custom lighting settings

Not all types of video really want the same types of settings. It would be great if we could give our settings a name and add them to the list next to the current Type 1–4. (Incidentally, it would be nice to give those more descriptive names.)  cool

3. Higher quality lighting effect

The first rule of ambient lighting is that it should not distract. The lighting area is broken into large rectangular regions. The human visual system is designed to notice high frequency boundaries like this. For horizontally letterboxed video, the effect is so bad as to make the feature more or less unusable.

This can be easily solved by using any reasonable interpolation algorithm rather than the current nearest neighbor approach (nearest neighbor arguably has no place in any kind of image processing  roll). Preferably the interpolated values should be subject to a true random dither: patterning can be quite apparent for large-area gradients like those used here.

I'm actually quite interested in this feature, so I would be potentially willing to take a shot at improving the algorithm if somebody can point me toward the code for this feature. (I assume this project is open source, but I didn't see any links to the sources. And I don't speak Russian….  smile)

Re: Lighting Feedback / Request

if you want to experiment to find the settings you like, you have to go back through the menus after every adjustment

Why?  hmm The idea is very simple: lighting is changing in real time while you're adjusting all those sliders and the effect of adjusting is visible immidiately. When you press "Apply" button it saves current values to "Custom" lighting type. May be we should rename "Apply" to "Save & close" but I really don't see any problem in this behavior.

Save my custom lighting settings

power users can do this right now with simple text editor wink
open SVPMgr.config in "Program FIles\SVP" and search for "BorderlightType" - it's 52th line in 3.1.3
following 4 lines are predefined "Type 1" - "Type 4" in the form

-A:B:C:D;Name

where A,B,C,D are the numbers from "Custom lighting" window

(D is "Light source size" and it's divided by 100)

example: adding following line to the file

-10:100:150:2;My custom lighting type

will add additional menu item named "My custom lighting type" with
"light sources count" = 10
"averaging depth" = 100
"flare length" = 150
"light source size" = 200

Higher quality lighting effect

I totally agree we should do something with color banding (you mean it by "large rectangular regions", right?)

but it'd better you make some screenshots with "large rectangular regions"

using any reasonable interpolation algorithm rather than the current nearest neighbor approach

it's cubic in horizontal direction and linear in vertical roll

I assume this project is open source

mmm, well, no, it's not  big_smile

  • Thanks: 3

Re: Lighting Feedback / Request

Thanks for the reply. This was very helpful  & informative. smile


The idea is very simple: lighting is changing in real time while you're adjusting all those sliders and the effect of adjusting is visible immidiately.

Me culpa: I didn't even think to try this. I usually adjust it with the video stopped. You're right: it's fine how it is if they take effect immediately. (Though I suspect I'm not the only user who won't figure that out with a button named Apply.)


power users can [save their own lighting settings] right now with simple text editor

Cool, thanks for the instruction on how to do this. smile This will be useful.


we should do something with color banding (you mean it by "large rectangular regions", right?)
it's cubic in horizontal direction and linear in vertical

Yes, I'm talking about the banding. It sometimes looks to my eye like the steps are bigger than those you'd get from bit-depth, so I assumed it was an artifact of the algorithm. I guess I was wrong about that. neutral (Someday I will learn about writing when I'm tired … but then again maybe I won't.)


mmm, well, no, it's not [open source]

Interesting. Do you mind if I ask why? Do you guys sell OEM solutions? (I am not a Stallmanite: closed source software is the right of the developer, and has an important role to play. It's just unusual to see free software with no ads that isn't open sourced these days.)


Thanks again! Sarah

Re: Lighting Feedback / Request

color bandind will be greatly reduced in 3.1.4

(very soon smile)