Content Producer
The show-building tool received the most attention in this release.
- Content Producer Module added. Content Producer is a production tool designed to quickly and visually create full-dome planetarium content. It essentially works on the principle of "creating shows without writing code."
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- Visual Programming (No Coding Required)
- Smooth Transitions & Camera Control
- Audio Synchronization
- Recording & Playback
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- Editing and playback are now separate. Temporary changes made while editing a show no longer affect playback.
- Drag and drop content. Items can be dropped onto the timeline straight from the file explorer or from the Player File Library / Shader Contents libraries. Dropped items landing in the view instead of the timeline, and a crash on certain files, were both fixed.
- Shows now open on the first frame. Whichever frame Play starts from, the first image appears without waiting for a transition; starting from a transition item used to open the show with the wrong content.
- Saving. The dialog opens with the current file's name, and a cancelled save no longer leaves a stray file behind.
- Opening a project is simpler. The separate "Load Exist Project" button was removed; saved shows are opened by double-clicking them in the list on the left panel. The list watches the folder, so shows copied in from outside appear immediately.
- Plugin scripts in a show. Scripts written for the dome console or the universe plugin can be dropped onto the timeline and run as part of the show.
- Remote control. The show list, the timeline, and Load / Play / Pause / Stop are now available from the web interface as well.
- Missing files, failed scripts and missing previews are reported over the timeline instead of passing silently.
New View Features
- Dome Source Mask — a dome source mask with a fade-in duration for effects. When Content Producer moves to a frame it matches the transition to the effect's fade-in, so the two finish together.
- Fulldome Content Rotation — rotates the played content about its own centre (0–360°). It can be set when opening a file and driven from within a show.
LCD Dome Support
Colour depth support for direct view domes built from LCD or LED panels. It was added early in the 2.6 cycle and appears in the release notes here for the first time.
- It is switched on with the LCD Dome Support group box in Settings → Settings All. Off by default: on an ordinary projection dome it brings no visible benefit, while it does cost performance and video memory.
- While it is on, both the preview and the projector output request a 10 bit per channel colour format, and the warp/blend buffer together with the sky, landscape and aurora buffers of the universe plugin are created with 16 bits per channel.
- The gain shows in the soft gradients seen directly on the panel: a twilight sky, nebula haze or a slow fade to black no longer band.
- If the graphics card or the driver cannot supply the deeper format, the code quietly returns to the 8 bit path and writes a note to the log; the show keeps running in every case.
- It has its own feature licence (
*.lcdlic, the "Load Key" button in the same group). It can also be tried without a licence, in which case a watermark is shown over the dome image. - The setting is read while the display contexts are created, so the application has to be closed and started again for a change to take effect.
Other improvements
- Single-frame images are shown as stills instead of being opened as video and ending instantly.
- When content is opened from a web address the original link is preserved, so nothing is lost to temporary addresses.
- Only one sky plugin can be enabled at a time — protection against two engines starting at once.
- Changing the application language switches the plugins to the same language.
Click for other features of Shira Presenter.