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Midi_IO channel first preview!!
During the past few weeks I have been quite busy re-focusing on my first serious "love affair" with the SDK - the Midi_IO channelset - and I must admit that I have a lot of fun.
 Although t'is still early days for a public release, progress is going so well, that I wanted to share my excitement with you and created this handful of small video previews.
What is Midi?
Midi is the acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface.
It is a serial communication protocol (no sounds) which was originally developed to allow electronic music instruments (synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines and later computers) to communicate with one another.
Due to its high versatility,
the standard very quickly was improved with added messages to control other types of hardware and devices not specifically nor directly related to music (i.e. laser show control systems, firework triggering units, light projectors, light, movement, shock sensitive sensors etc...)
About the Midi_IO channelset
The Midi_IO is a custom channelset allowing direct interfacing of any Midi instruments, Control Surfaces, Sensors, Lighting Devices etc... to and from Quest3D™ .
For example the Midi_IO could be used (via physical sliders of an external control surface) by a lighting designer to simulate and manipulate a virtual stage within Quest3D™ to test/demonstrate some lighting FX - movements, colour change etc...
The Midi events could be recorded in a sequencer (or why not directly in Quest3D™) and could then be re-played to control the real lighting projectors (if Midi compatible) for the real life show.
 Today, the Midi_IO set is made of 10 channels allowing Quest3D™ to receive or send channel messages such as Note ON/OFF, Modulation, Channel Pressure, Breath Control, Pitch Bend,Volume, Program Change etc....
All 10 channels are fully working and...
...on the bright side:
Core is extremely precise and responsive with an open design to allow features to be added easily either as part of the product or on demand later. The granularity of the design hopefully makes the set extremely easy to use by everyone – no need to be a Midi expert.
...on the darker side:
As there are still some ambiguities about which Property should be Parameter (or vice versa), most of these are only accessible via Property dialogues but the final release will see all critical Property/Parameters exposed either via child links or via a specific command channel so they can be manipulated easily at run time.
Unsurprisingly, a few crashes still occur (especially when quitting a published project) but on the whole the entire set is pretty stable.
The video previews (.wmv) can be found in the Midi_IO screenshot page and should stream automatically after clicking on any of the thumbnails.
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Hope you'll enjoy these little previews as much as I did making them but before I forget...
please don't pay too much attention to my “musicabilities”  |
