Flavius LEDPortal

This is a fork of the excellent LX Studio by Heronarts, Please read the copyright and licensing notices at the bottom of this readme.

LEDPortal is an interactive LED art project started by the Flavius theme camp for Burning Seed in 2020.

Some videos of development progress:

• https://www.instagram.com/p/CI5hzQbnzGE
• https://www.instagram.com/p/CC-x_NOnNkP
• https://www.instagram.com/p/CBuyp0GHbRQ

Running LedPortal

There are two ways to do this, you can bring your own Java JDK or use the JDK bundled with Processing. You should try with Processing Java first. You will also need to ensure you are using the correct Java JDK by setting the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

Prerequisites

• Maven (if not using IntelliJ / Eclipse)
• Java JDK 17 preferably from Adoptium

Adoptium Ubuntu Install

wget "https://github.com/adoptium/temurin17-binaries/releases/download/jdk-17.0.3%2B7/OpenJDK17U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_17.0.3_7.tar.gz"
sudo tar zxvf OpenJDK17U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_17.0.3_7.tar.gz -C /usr/lib/jvm

Set Java Home

If you have multiple versions of Java installed, you will need to explicitly set the JAVA_HOME environment variable for any shell you use to build / run this project.

on MacOS

You can list possible Java homes with

/usr/libexec/java_home -V

...
17.0.3, x86_64:     "OpenJDK 17.0.3"        /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home
...

and set your JAVA_HOME to use JDK 11 with

export JAVA_HOME="`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 17`"

Setting Java Home on Ubuntu

sudo update-alternatives --install "/usr/bin/java" "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-17.0.3+7/bin/java" 1
sudo update-alternatives --set "java" "/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-17.0.3+7/bin/java"

Validating

You can ensure your shell has the correct version set by running

java -version

you should see

openjdk version "17.0.3" 2022-04-19
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-17.0.3+7 (build 17.0.3+7)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Temurin-17.0.3+7 (build 17.0.3+7, mixed mode, sharing)

Using IntelliJ / Eclipse

The build config files have been provided for IntelliJ and Eclipse, so your IDE should will handle dependency resolution and building for you, however if you want to have the versatility of VSCode with maven, then you will need to see the next sections for how to install those dependencies

Using VSCode

LEDPortal is based on LXStudio, which in turn is based on Processing. Additionally, some animations require external dependencies like video or gif libraries. The configurations provided in .settings/ and LXStudioApp.launch should allow you to build and run LEDPortal using the libraries provided in this repository under lib/.

Debugging

Vanilla LXStudio

if you're having issues with LEDPortal-IDE, it may be an upstream issue. Try getting LXStudio-IDE working first.

Processing Libraries

If a library doesn't work or goes out of date, you can also try installing the library through the Processing library interface (Sketch → Import Library → Add Library), or downloading it manually, then test that it works by running one of the examples that the library provides.

Serial ports not working on Ubuntu

Try adding the user to the tty and dialout groups

sudo usermod -a -G tty $USER
sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
sudo reboot now

Create a new Processing 3 sketch and test your serial port is detected

import processing.serial.*;

void setup()  {
  // print a list of the serial ports:
  printArray(Serial.list());
}

Video not working on Ubuntu

Open the Processing IDE, and go file -> examples -> video -> movile -> loop. Run the sketch to test your gstreamer install

If that doesn't work, ensure you have gstreamer libaries installed

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-x libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-dev

do not install plugins-bad!!

you may also need some codecs to play certain videos

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras ffmpeg vlc

install processing from source

git clone
cd processing

Video not working on Windows

get the appropriate gstreamer installer from one of these locations:

• https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/pkg/windows/1.4.0/gstreamer-1.0-x86_64-1.4.0.msi
• https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/pkg/windows/1.8.0/gstreamer-1.0-x86_64-1.8.0.msi
• https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/pkg/windows/1.4.0/gstreamer-1.0-x86-1.4.0.msi

You may need to also add an entry "C:\gstreamer\1.0\x86_64\bin" to the PATH environment variable gstreamer-java/gst1-java-core#15

LX Studio Notices

BY DOWNLOADING OR USING THE LX STUDIO SOFTWARE OR ANY PART THEREOF, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE LX STUDIO SOFTWARE LICENSE AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT.

Please note that LX Studio is not open-source software. The license grants permission to use this software freely in non-commercial applications. Commercial use is subject to a total annual revenue limit of $25K on any and all projects associated with the software. If this licensing is obstructive to your needs or you are unclear as to whether your desired use case is compliant, contact me to discuss proprietary licensing: [email protected]

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LX Studio is a digital lighting workstation, bringing concepts from digital audio workstations and modular synthesis into the realm of LED lighting control. Generative patterns, interactive inputs, and flexible parameter-driven modulation — a rich environment for lighting composition and performance.

Getting Started

LX Studio runs using the Processing 4 framework. This version of the project directly embeds those dependencies and may be run from within a Java IDE, for larger projects in which the Processing IDE is insufficient. The example project here can be run either using the full Processing-based UI, or alternatively in a headless CLI-only mode.

To get started, clone this repository and import the project into an IDE like Eclipse or IntelliJ. Configuration files for both are readily available in the repository.

Documentation is available on the LX Studio Wiki →

Consult the LX Studio API reference →

Configure Your Runtime

Processing 4.0 beta 8 runs on Eclipse Temurin 17 (17.0.2+8). It is highly recommend to use this JDK for consistency.

Running the project requires passing -Djava.library.path=lib/processing-4.0b8/native explicitly to the java command. Note that native is a symlink within the processing-4.0b8 folder which should be pointed at the appropriate target platform folder.

This is pre-configured in the Eclipse launch configuration LXStudioApp.launch

If you change platforms, update the symlink using one of the following:

ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/linux-aarch64 lib/processing-4.0b8/native
ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/linux-amd64 lib/processing-4.0b8/native
ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/linux-arm lib/processing-4.0b8/native
ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/macos-aarch64 lib/processing-4.0b8/native
ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/macos-x86_64 lib/processing-4.0b8/native
ln -hsf lib/processing-4.0b8/windows-amd64 lib/processing-4.0b8/native

or on linux:

mkdir natives
cd natives
ln -s ../lib/processing-4.0b8/linux-amd64 linux-amd64

or the equivalent mklnk command in cmd.exe on Windows:

mkdir natives
cd natives
cmd
  mklink windows-amd64 ..\lib\processing-4.0b8\windows-amd64

or for some versions of macos:

mkdir natives
cd natives
ln -s ../lib/processing-4.0b8/macos-x86_64 macosx-universal

Contact and Collaboration

Building a big cool project? I'm probably interested in hearing about it! Want to solicit some help, request new framework features, or just ask a random question? Open an issue on the project or drop me a line: [email protected]

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HERON ARTS MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE.