Cylindrical mapping

The Cylindrical mapping type wraps content around a cylinder and fires it outwards (or inwards) onto the selected screens. Similar to the Parallel mapping and the Perspective mapping types, the content is being virtually projected from the surfaces of the cylinder, both inwards and outwards.

Cylindrical mapping wraps content around a cylinder and emits it inward or outward towards the screens assigned to it. It does not matter if the screen is moving or expanding, the Cylindrical mapping re-maps the content in real-time to accommodate for the movement, similar to parallel mapping.

  1. In your track, create a new visual layer. These layer types can include content layers, generative layers, and effect layers.

  2. Left click on the layer in the track to open the Layer Editor on the left side of the GUI.

  3. Under the Default tab, left click on the Mapping parameter to display a list of the mappings in the project.

  4. A manager titled mappings will appear – this is a list of all mappings within your project. By default, all screens will be populated with a direct mapping sharing the same name, and all cameras will be populated with a perspective mapping sharing the same name.

  5. Type directly into the New mapping: text field to create a new mapping. A list will appear prompting to you select the mapping type.

  6. An editor with the user assigned name of the mapping will appear once a mapping type is selected.

  7. Assign all screens that will be used for the mapping and enter the resolution of the content that will be displayed on the screens.

  8. Edit the specific properties of the chosen mapping type.

  9. Assign a piece of content to the layer in the track, and the content will be displayed on the assigned screens of the mapping in the stage and the feed output window.

This section explains the properties that are shared by the six different mapping types.

Filtering

Nearest - Nearest neighbor filtering. Use nearest-neigbour sampling, to disable blending between pixels when scaling. Can be used to create pixellated looks, or to ensure hard edges on certain types of content.

Bilinear - Bilinear filtering is a texture filtering method used to smooth textures when displayed larger or smaller than they actually are.

2x Multi-sample - Multi-Sample filtering can help fix issues with scaled content, but can introduce some blurriness.

Resolution

This controls the canvas size the layer renders into, in pixels. The Direct mapping type starts with a 256x256 pixel canvas and automatically sets the canvas size to that of the first screen you add.

Screens

This is a list of screens that the selected mapping type can copy content to.

  1. Left-click + to open the Screens manager.

  2. Left-click the Screens you want to map. This will copy the individual canvas content onto these three Screens simultaneously and will add the Screen names to the mapping object editor.

  3. Left-click and drag the Screens listed in the mapping object editor to -. This will remove the canvas content from the Screens and delete the Screen names from the mapping object editor.

Mask

This points to the Texture file that defines a Mask bitmap. You can use this property to apply a Mask bitmap to the mapping canvas. Selecting this property will open the Texture object library, which shows all of the still image files saved on your local hard-drive in the DxTexture folder.

To apply a mapping mask you will need to create and import a custom still image file.

  • The step-by-step instructions on how to create and import a custom Population mask can be used to create a custom mapping mask. The only difference is that the mapping masks resolution should be the same as the mapping canvas. For step-by-step instructions on how to create and import a Population mask into a d3 project visit to the section Population mask in the Editing screens sub-chapter.

  • Alternatively, set any layers blend mode to mask to channel the layer content into the mapping mask.

Output

By default, this is set to colour . This implies that red, green and blue content channels are sent to the red/green/blue colour output channels of the screen (or converted to cyan, magenta and yellow if the output fixtures are CMY ). However, content can also be channelled to other channels in the case of DMX-based fixtures. Currently, this is a beta functionality, so for the moment you are advised to leave this set to colour .

Anchor

As with the Parallel mapping type, you can anchor the cylinder around the centre, or the top or bottom points. Resize and rotation operations will keep the anchor point in the same place.

Centre

This controls the stage position of the centre of the cylinder (in other words, its anchor point).

Size

This controls the size of the cylinder in meters, on the x, y and z axes respectively. The y property (the second value) controls the height; the two other properties control the radii in the x and z axes. Setting x and z to the same value keeps the cylinders crosssection circular; setting them to different values makes it elliptical.

Rotation

This rotates the cylinder around the anchor point; specified in degrees of rotation around the x, y and z axes respectively.

In addition to the property explanations provided in the sub-chapter Common mapping type properties, it is important to:

  • Base the resolution of the Cylindrical mapping on the aspect between the circumference of the cylinder and the height of the screen. The circumference can be calculated by taking the diameter * pi, = size * 3.14 . Set the size x and z to the same value to establish as perfect circular shape.