DreamLight Constellation 2.1 – Feature Update
Commemorating DreamLight’s 30’th Anniversary
We recently released our newly upgraded DreamLight® Constellation™ 2.0 network render controller for LightWave 3D to commemorate DreamLight’s 30th anniversary. We’ve now released a new requested feature update to render missing frames and more. This FREE feature update brings DreamLight Constellation to version 2.1.
DreamLight Constellation 2.1 New Features
In addition to our famous “drag and drop dead easy™ network rendering” that we implemented with DreamLight Constellation version 1, and the new features that we already included in DreamLight Constellation 2.0, this new version 2.1 update adds additional new features on top of the entirely new modern foundation which will enable more rapid advancements going forward.
The DreamLight Constellation version 2.1 update adds a few of the most often requested features.
Render Missing Frames Only
A common problem with network rendering is that sometimes an LWSN render node may lose connection to the network, crash, go offline, lose power or fail in some other way. If this happens in a long animation it can become tedious to identify and re-render such missing frames. We’ve added a new simple switch on the scene loading drawer named Render Missing Frames Only. Now whenever you add a new scene to the scene queue DreamLight Constellation checks for previously rendered frames and will prompt you when found. This allows you to turn on the switch to Render Missing Frames Only. This way you can tell DreamLight Constellation to re-render all frames as it would before or to Render Missing Frames Only. Now that DreamLight Constellation can detect rendered frames we’ll have the ability to add additional related features for more robust handling of missing frames on the fly and previewing thumbnails of rendered frames in a future update.
Arbitrary Frame Ranges
Another often requested feature is to support handling LightWave 3D’s arbitrary frame ranges. This way rather than being limited to a single frame range you may now render an arbitrary list of frames or ranges. You may also override and specify such ranges directly in DreamLight Constellation without having to go back into LightWave 3D Layout to make such changes. In order to implement these features DreamLight Constellation now builds a list of specific frames to render rather than simply following a single contiguous range. This will enable us to add additional features in future updates such as also supporting keyframe based ranges and more.
As this quick version 2.1 update demonstrates the new modern and flexible technology foundation allows more frequent and advanced updates with tighter native OS optimization going forward.
DreamLight Constellation 2.1 Download & Licensing
DreamLight Constellation 2.1 – Created by Michael Scaramozzino
Author of the book Creating a 3D Animated CGI Short & Mastering LightWave ScreamerNet LWSN
DreamLight Constellation is available in a FREE LITE version for download. The FREE LITE version is limited to one render node/computer at a time and does not save custom user preferences between launches. The FREE LITE version is primarily targeted to those who only wish to use a flexible scene render queue to batch render on a single render node (computer). It may also be used to individually test all three types of available render nodes including local nodes, remote nodes and cross-platform nodes on your specific network and setup to verify that it works as desired before ordering a registered license key to unlock additional nodes/computers and save custom settings between launches.
Download the FREE LITE version today to give it a spin on your network. Then when satisfied simply purchase a license key to unlock your desired number of render nodes. You would generally run one render node (instance of LWSN) per computer. So a 5-node license would support up to five render computers if you run one node per computer. The following license levels are available:
- FREE LITE Version: 1-Node (computer) and does not save custom user settings between launches.
- STD 5-Node Standard Version: Limited to 5 render nodes (computers) and saves custom settings.
- PRO 10-Node Professional Version: Limited to 10 render nodes (computers) and saves custom settings.
- ENT Unlimited Node Enterprise Version: Unlimited render nodes (computers) and saves custom settings.
DreamLight Constellation 2.1 Modern Technology Foundation
DreamLight Constellation 2.0 was completely rewritten from the ground up. While version 1 was originally developed in the proprietary LiveCode IDE this new version 2.0 has been completely rewritten in Node.js, JavaScript and developed using Facebook’s React and Electron to implement more mainstream modern technologies available for desktop, web and mobile application development. This new modern foundation will allow more rapid updates and more advanced future development including tighter integration into the host OS on Mac OS X and Windows. Embracing these new standard technologies also enables us to leverage them across our interactive web and application development for our main client services as well.
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