The Installer will automatically collect the latest available software version and install it on your system.

The Depence installer will automatically create a "Depence_Data" folder in your Windows Documents folder.

This folder is intended to store all your Depence Projects. This folder location can be changed from Application Settings > Globals > User Work Path.

Depence will create a new sub-folder for each project including all used resources. The Software will not link to files on your disk.

This makes it easy to share projects with other computers.

Depence can also be started with command-line arguments. Using these commands, you can enable or disable different options.

Depence.exe -No3D Prevents Depence from starting with the 3D engine. This might be necessary if Depence is used only as a control on a non-graphics-capable laptop.

Depence.exe "C:\DepenceProjects\MyProject\MyProject.depence" Starts Depence and automatically loads the project file specified in quotes.

Depence.exe -FullScreen 0 (Only in combination with loading a project directly) Opens the fullscreen view on the specified monitor (0, 1, 2, n), with 0 being the main monitor where Depence starts.

Example:

Depence.exe "C:\DepenceProjects\MyProject\MyProject.depence" -FullScreen 0 Opens the project and displays it in fullscreen on the main monitor.

The necessary system performance depends on the size of the project you are working on. While Depence is a graphically intense software, the graphics hardware is of course one of the most important components. Depence also takes advantage of multi-core CPUs.

Minimum System Requirements

• Microsoft® Windows® 10/11 64-Bit

• CPU's with high single thread performance

• 16 GB RAM

• Dedicated gaming graphic card with min 6GB VRAM

• One free USB port for USB-License Dongle

Recommended System

• Microsoft® Windows® 11 64-Bit

• Intel i9-13900K or AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

• 64 GB RAM

• NVIDIA RTX4080, RTX4090 or latest

• One free USB port for USB-License Dongle

• Fast SSD Drive

Depence on Mac (ARM CPUs)

Since Depence R4 and Windows 11 version 24H2, it is possible to install and run Depence on a machine with an ARM CPU. This also includes Apple computers with Apple Silicon using Parallels Desktop with latest Windows 11 ARM.

Since Depence is a graphically intense software, it requires a powerful graphic card. In case your computer has more than one graphic adapter installed (which is often the case on laptops), you need to make sure that Depence will run on the most powerful card installed.

On NVIDIA-based systems, you can select the "default" graphics hardware within the NVIDIA system configuration.

Monitor Refresh rate

The Depence render window always tries to render at the same framerate (fps) as your monitor refresh rate. This synchronization is called V-Sync. Usual monitors are working with a 60Hz refresh rate but modern gaming monitors and even gaming laptop screens are more and more shipped with high-frequency monitors with 120, 140, or even 200 Hz.

That means on a 140Hz Screen, the V-Sync tries to match Depence's frame rate to 140fps.

While this improves the subjective smoothness of animations, it drastically stresses your hardware. This results in GPU overheating/throttling and low battery life on laptops.

All Depence windows are placed in flexible and customizable workspaces.

Workspaces

Default workspaces are Construction, Show Control, Animation and Hardware. Each workspace will show up and align in the required windows in the most effective way.

Arrange windows

Each window can be dragged into other windows or be extracted as a floating window, to be used on multi-screen monitor setups:

To store your changes on the current workspace go to: Windows > Workspace > Save Workspace.

Reset to default To reset a workspace to the default setup, go to Windows > Workspace > Reset to default.

Intention and functionality of the most important windows:

Project View This window contains the rendering views as well as all 3D editor functionality.

CAD View The CAD View window is a second render-view in form of a wireframe view of your current scene.

Library The Library window provides access to the installed asset library. Here you can find all fixtures, materials, and models.

Settings The Settings window is one of the most important windows in Depence. It shows the settings of the currently selected object. This can be a fixture or a scene within the timeline.

Tool Once a tool is selected, most have specific settings, which can be adjusted here.

Repository The Repository window contains all show-programming related objects like Shows, Scenes, and more.

Programmer By using the programmer you can change the values of currently selected fixtures and finally create scenes for the repository or a timeline show.

Selection Groups This window will show up all fixture selections.

Patching The Patching window shows all patched fixtures on all universes.

Fixture Manager

DMX-View The DMX-View shows real-time information about the current DMX-buffer

Show Sequencer This tool contains the show timeline to create and edit your shows.

Transformation

Software and Asset library updates can only be detected and applied while your computer is connected to the Internet.

If an update is available, a notification will be displayed on the top right of the Depence homepage:

Simply click the update you would like to run, and follow the instructions.

Depence comes with two render modes, "Photo Realistic" and "CAD View". Within the Render Window Menu, you can change the current mode by using the "Display" menu item. Please note that only one "Photo Realistic" view can be activated at a time.

Live-Mode

Each Render View has a Live-Mode button, which enables a non-editable mode in the currently active editor. This is perfect for show programming. If the live-mode is active, only fixtures can be selected.

General

3D Editor

Show Sequencer

The CAD-View offers the possibility to add a background image in the correct scaling, which can help while working on a specific plan. To add a background image, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Settings menu item in the CAD-View Window.

2. Within the Settings Window you can see the Settings of this CAD-View.

3. Load your image via the Background Image property.

Auto-Fit Background Image

To scale your image to the right size, you can easily pick a distance and center on the image and it will stretch the background image accordingly.

1. Within the CAD-View Menu > Display > Fit Background Image.

2. Pick a known distance for your image (this might be any scaling info).

3. Now enter the correct distance.

4. Pick the center.

The Camera in Depence is optimized to be easily navigated through bigger scenes or even rotate around a specific object.

Focus & Zoom

Focus your camera at the point of interest and use your Scroll-Wheel on your mouse to zoom in or out.

Rotate

To rotate your camera around your focused point hold ALT and your left mouse button or the middle mouse button/scroll wheel. The Camera will try to rotate around the intersection point of your scene. If no intersection is found (e.g. when clicking on the sky) the camera will rotate around itself.

Move

To move your camera in view-space hold your right mouse button while moving the mouse.

Limited Picking distance

The editor limits the distance to an intersection point, which is too far away, to prevent accidental movements by default. However, in some cases, like in terrain sculpting or Fireworks, it might be required to disable this limit. Therefore go to the View-Menu and disable "Limit Pick Distance" in the camera menu.

On a scene graph, it is important to be able to retrieve the object quickly and easily. For that purpose, filters are available in the 3D Hierarchy window:

Location

Several filters are available, from the simplest to the more advanced ones.

Classical

The simplest one is directly accessible when hovering over the "Name" through the filter icon:

This filter already provides several basic filters type:

Others

Right-clicking the "Name" label provides access to other filters of the 3D Hierarchy:

E.g. the "Auto Filter Row":

Advanced filter

More advanced filters are available within the "Filter Editor", allowing you to create a block of a filter with advanced conditions:

All 3D objects within the project are stored in a hierarchic tree structure called Scene Graph. That means that each object inherits the position, rotation, and scale values from its parent object. All child objects will be always relative to their parent. Therefore, Dynamic objects like Motors also can manipulate their child's relative positions.

Terminology

Object-Space

A position or rotation in object space means that it might be relative to their parents.

World-Space

3D Hierarchy

Object hierarchy position

The hierarchy position of an object can be changed by dragging an object within the 3D Hierarchy window.

By default, the object's World-Space position won’t be changed, because it will calculate a new relative position depending on the new parent Object.

This Extension controls the visibility of its object. This can be used to make multiple LOD (Level-Of-Detail) Models while making its visibility depending on the distance to the camera or to disable certain parts of a scene depending on a current Quality setting.

Depence is an unique software application, which combines the design and visualization process with tools to control the real show. The rendering engine of Depence uses latest technologies to simulate multimedia installations with realistic results. With show design becoming more and more complex, utilizing more and more varieties of different elements and media, Depence is the ideal system to control and pre-viz your entire show. All physical and controlling characteristics of the equipment are simulated with real-­time accuracy. Depence eliminates the guess work out of visualizing your designs.

With a clear focus on creating perfectly synchronized multimedia shows, Depence features a user-friendly workflow to program complex shows in a visual timeline environment, combined with a real-time 3D viewer. Powerful automation and logic features in combination with our stand-alone hardware playback servers provide all you need to bring your show to life.

The Quad View will split the view into four views, which can be configured independently.

The Fixture Manager window allows managing, viewing, and exporting information about the project's fixtures.

Access Fixture Manager

The Fixture Manager window can be accessed through Windows > Fixture Manager.

Window detail

The Fixture Manager window displays the information of the fixture's project inside a table, which can be filtered, sorted, customized, and exported.

Fixture selection

If needed, you can restrict the fixtures displayed in the table by using Selection > Show Selected Fixtures Only.

Table layout

Per default, only a few columns are displayed. Right-click on a column header > Column Chooser to show/hide the desired column.

From the Customization panel, double click or drag and drop the desired column to add it into the table.

You can save your layout and import it later on, if needed, through the File menu > Load/Save Layout:

Export Table

The table can be exported as CSV through the File menu > Export Table:

Please note that only shown columns will be exported. If a piece of information is missing, add the column to the table first.

Fixture management

Like its name, you can manage your fixture directly from this window to

• Assign Fixture IDs

• Change Patch information

• Assign Laser Sources

• Add a description

• Etc. ...

Several tools are available to update your fixtures:

Depence has a feature to frequently save your project as a backup automatically.

For this purpose, you will find the information "Backup Off" or "Backup On" in the lower status bar. You can click on this label to change the status from Backup Off to Backup On.

When a backup is executed, another subfolder "Backup" is automatically created in the project folder and the current project status is saved there.

You can set the options for the interval and the lead time at which a backup is to be created in the Application Settings.

Before the system creates a backup, a countdown dialogue appears in which you can cancel the process with "Cancel" or carry out the backup process again with "Save". You can change the settings with "Setup".

The Reflector extension empowers you to configure reflection settings on a mesh, enabling both planar reflections and bounce lighting effects:

Planar Reflection

This option enables a reflection plane, which renders the entire scene again from a mirrored perspective and mapped onto the surface. This creates a realistic reflection effect.

Fresnel

The Fresnel value restricts the visibility of the reflection based on the viewing angle relative to the surface.

Planar Bias

This value creates a small bias offset to avoid z-fighting and flickering in far distances

Planar Offset

The reflection axis is aligned with the origin of the 3D model object. When applying planar reflection, for example, on a cube, the reflection axis can be adjusted using the planar offset.

Planar Roughness Offset

The planar reflection is blurred based on the material's roughness. This behavior is not always desired and can be adjusted here without modifying the material itself.

Bounce Lights

With this option, it is possible for a light beam or laser to be reflected. This can be enabled separately for spotlights and lasers.

Multi-Bounces

Multiple Bounces are only possibe for Lasers (no projections). To enable this, select the Laser-Fixture and look for the child "Laser" object. Here you will find the properties "Max Reflection Bounces" and "Trace Reflections". These define when and how much bounces are supported. Max 4 are allowed.

Limitations

• Bounce lights do not trace shadows.

• Objects positioned between the light source and the mirror block the direct light cone but still emit a bounce light.

• Multi-bounces are only possible with lasers (beam only)

• This only works on flat surfaces

When grouping objects, child objects will be assigned to all objects of a single group-object. This will help to organize your scene. Once you have selected more than one object, you can use CTRL+G, right-click > Group Objects, or from the Edit menu:

Selecting within Groups

Once objects are grouped, their child objects can't be selected as usual with a single click. Therefore the editor can "jump" into each level of grouping to still be able to change children of groups. A simple double-click on a grouped object will open the group and disable all other items outside the group.

The orange highlighted editor will indicate that you are within a group. Use the ESC Key on your keyboard to leave the group.

All objects, 3D-Models, Fixtures, Lights, etc... have several properties for their specific requirements. An Extension can add further functionality and settings to an object.

This also allows us to add more tools and features without touching and overloading existing objects.

Add an Extension

To add an extension to any object, right-click on the tab bar within the Settings window and choose Add Extension.

The Selection Tool can also be used via left mouse button while the Move-Tool is active.

Each object can be selected with a single click, by using the left mouse button. By holding the left mouse button you can draw a selection rectangle to select all objects within that area. Hold CTRL or SHIFT key to add further selections.

Depence comes with a hierarchical layer structure, which can have layers being children of other layers. Especially for bigger projects, layers are required to temporarily hide or lock parts of your scene.

Layer Management

Add new Layer

Click on Add new Layer button to create a new layer. The Edit Layer window opens:

To select the layer color you want, maintain a left-click and in the color rectangle and select your color:

Display current Object Layer

To find the layer associated to an object, select your object, right-click and choose Move to Layer, the current selected layer is where the object is linked:

Move Object to Layer

To move an object to a different layer, select the object(s), right-click and choose Move to Layer:

A second way is to right-click on the target layer and choose Move selected, which will put all selected objects into this layer.

Delete selected Layer

Select the layer to delete, and click on Delete selected Layer:

Layer Parameters

Each layer has 5 parameters:

• Color: Layer color (defined at creation)

• Name: Layer name (defined at creation)

• A - Active: Current active layer

• V - Visible: Visibility of the layer (children layer inherit from it)

• S - Solo: Only Solo layer is visible (children layer inherit from it)

• L - Lock: Allow or lock modification of the layer (children layer inherit from it)

Color & Name

The layer color can be helpful to organize e.g. fixture or object types.

The CAD view will also draw fixtures in layer color:

Active

Once you add a new object to your scene it will be automatically linked to the currently active layer:

To change the current active layer, click in the A column of the layer you want.

Visible

The visible parameter can be used to quickly hide layer(s) we don't need:

Solo

The Solo parameter can be used to "Solo" a layer.

It is useful to restrict the visibility of all layers except the solo one:

Lock

When a layer is locked it can not be selected or either modified.

Step by Step

With the free-form spline tool you can draw a spline with your mouse directly within the viewport. Activate the tool in the left toolbar.

Use your left mouse button to add a new point to the spline. Hovering over an existing point moves the point. A Right-click on the spline allows you to insert and delete points.

The spline color indicates the beginning and end of the spline. It starts from blue and changes to white.

To edit an existing spline, select it and run the free-form spline tool.

Spline Properties (Settings Window)

The Move Pivot tool translates/moves the positions of the objects. Furthermore, it can contain pick-points to change specific object properties depending on the object type.

To move an object on a specific axis, click on one of the arrows and move your mouse. Using the Plane movers you can move the object on two axes at the same time.

Raster Move

Holding the SHIFT key on your keyboard while moving, the object will snap in a 10cm grid.

Duplicate on Move

While holding the CTRL key and moving the object, it will automatically create a copy of your selection.

The Editor consists of multiple tools to manipulate objects. You can select the tool from the left Toolbar visible in the Construction Workspace or in the Main menu under "Tools". The ESC-Key on your keyboard will always exit the current tool and activate the Move-Tool as a default tool.

Depence offers several manual and procedural spline objects, which can be used to fast arrange objects in any shape.

This tool will draw a circle or ellipse spline. Select the Circle Spline tool on the left toolbar.

1. Click and hold your left mouse button for the first point.

2. Move your mouse to extend the circle.

3. Release the mouse button to create the spline.

Hold CTRL to keep the center on the first position you have clicked. Hold SHIFT to lock Radius X and Y to create a perfect circle.

Circle Spline Properties

This tool will draw a Star spline. Select the Star Spline tool on the left toolbar.

1. Click and hold your left mouse button for the first point.

2. Move your mouse to extend the star.

3. Release the mouse button to create the spline.

Hold CTRL to keep the center on the first position you have clicked.

Star Spline Properties

The Rotation tool can rotate your objects on a specific axis.

To rotate the selection, click on one of the rotation axes on the gimbal and move your mouse around the object.

Raster

Hold the SHIFT Key while rotating, to snap to a 5° raster.

This tool will draw a rectangular spline. Select the Rectangular Spline tool on the left toolbar.

1. Click and hold your left mouse button for the first point.

2. Move your mouse to extend the rectangle.

3. Release the mouse button to create the spline.

Hold CTRL to keep the center on the first position you have clicked. Hold SHIFT to lock width and height to create a square.

Rectangle Spline Properties

The transformation window displays the current transformation applied on your selection, relative to its parent (if any, else relative to the World Space). This is called Object-Space transformation.

It can be used to position with precision objects (or to correct a position).

Relative positioning

The transformation window displays the relative transformation of your selection within its parent. (also known as Object-Space)

This means the transformation window allows you to control the position of the selected object within its parent and not the global transformation from the World Space.

Usage

The transformation is made of translation and rotation along 3 axes (X, Y, Z), where each of the axes can be adjusted by entering a value and clicking the "Apply" button.

Position

To adjust the translation position from the transformation window, set the X, Y, or Z position value as needed:

Rotation

To adjust the rotation angle from the transformation window, you can either:

• Set the desired value and press the "Apply" button,

• Or click on the square button to apply 45° increment.

  • Left click to rotate clockwise (CW).

  • Right click to rotate counterclockwise (CCW).

Size

An additional Size parameter is available to adjust the scale of the selected object (where 2 means 2 times bigger and 0.5 means 2 times smaller).

Reset

To reset each type of transformation, double click on "Position", "Rotation" and/or "Size".

Apply the reset by clicking the "Apply" button.

Cancel

Until you click on the "Apply" button, new transformation values are not applied.

To cancel the update, select another object (from any view or 3D hierarchy).

Unit

If needed, you can change the current value unit. Right-click on the value to select another unit:

Note: the units displayed depend on your Depence preference.

This tool will create a formular spline. Select the Formular Spline tool on the left toolbar.

1. Click with your left mouse button on the position where the spline should be centered.

2. Depence will create the Spline on this position.

Formular Spline Properties

Available operators and functions

Examples

Hyperbolic Spiral

X(t) = (100 * Cos(t * PI)) / t Y(t) = 0.0 Z(t) = (100 * Sin(t*PI)) / t t-Min = 1.0 t-Max = 5.0 Samples = 50

Epizycloide

X(t) = (90 +30) * Cos(t * PI) - 40 * Cos(((90 + 30) / 30) * t * PI) Y(t) = 0.0 Z(t) = (90 + 30) * Sin(t * PI) - 40 * Sin(((90 + 30) / 30) * t * PI) t-Min = 1.0 t-Max = 3.0 Samples = 65

Rect

X(t) = 100 * t Y(t) = 0.0 Z(t) = if(t % 1.0 > 0.5, 0.0, 100.0) t-Min = 0.0 t-Max = 5.0 Samples = 80

Usage

To add a nurbs feature from the 3D Hierarchy, click on "Add" and select your feature:

Sweep nurbs

Its radius can be adjusted through the dimension properties.

Extrude nurbs

Its depth can be adjusted through the dimension properties.

Depence offers several ways to place objects into your scene. The most common way is using Drag & Drop.

Once you have selected a fixture you can select the DMX mode and number of fixtures, then just pick the item and drag it into your 3D-World. If you have chosen an amount of more than 1 and drag over a spline object, the software will offer you to align the new objects on this spline after the drop.

Dependencies are logically connected between fixtures. These can share information on water (pressure, flow rate, etc), lighting or power. Dependencies are elemental, especially for fountain devices.

A classic example: Nozzles connected to valves, which are further connected to a water distributor, which gets finally powered by one or more pumps.

In general, there are two types of fixtures:

Active Fixtures: All fixtures, which are delivering information and are usually DMX controlled like pumps or valves.

Passive Fixtures: All fixtures, which do only have dependency connectors waiting for an input signal. Like nozzles.

Passive fixtures, which are added to the scene, will always simulate input of 100% until they get connected to an active fixture. For example, a nozzle fixture will emit water even if it's not connected to a pump. This behavior makes the scene-building process easier.

The Fixture Hang tool allows you to add multiple fixture types directly on truss pipes or splines within a single action.

1. Select pipes or splines with your left mouse button (hold CTRL for multi-selection).

1. Drop your fixtures from the library into the Hang Tool.

Hang Tool Settings:

To create and auto-patch the fixtures click on Create. If you hang fixtures on trusses, the fixtures will automatically be grouped with the truss group.

Most fixtures only have one connector by default, e.g. a nozzle only has a single input connector and a pump has one output connector. Furthermore, some fixtures like valves have one input and one output connector. Once you need to connect e.g. two nozzles to a single pump, you would need a Distributor Fixture in between. A distributor is a virtual fixture, which automatically increments its input and outputs once a connection is established. To add a distributor right-click on the viewport and click on Add Distributor.

Following are three examples of how to use the Distributor:

The Depence rendering engine offers real-time tessellated terrain sculpturing and atmosphere scattering to render realistic outdoor scenes. To create terrain and an atmosphere click on Main Menu > Objects > Create Environment.

This will automatically add a terrain and atmosphere object to your scene.

To manually connect fixtures with Dependencies please pay attention to the following rule: Connect Passive Fixture > to > Active Fixture.

1. Select the passive fixture (e.g. nozzle).

2. Click and hold your left mouse button on the Connect icon next to the passive fixture.

3. Drag your mouse over the active fixture until it gets highlighted.

4. Releasing your mouse button will connect the fixtures.

To disconnect all connectors on fixtures, select the fixtures right-click > Disconnect.

Once you need to connect multiple fixture pairs it can be time-consuming to do this manually one by one. You may use the auto connection function instead. It automatically searches for open connectors and tries to connect fixtures one by one. Please note that this feature cannot automatically connect a whole setup. It always requires the same amount of active and passive fixtures to work correctly.

To automatically connect your fixtures do as follows:

1. Select your Active and Passive Fixtures.

2. Right Click > Autoconnect.

The Terrain Mass Placement Tool allows you to "draw" 3D Models onto the terrain surface. This can be used to easily spread vegetation on the terrain. Activate the tool on the left toolbar.

The tool can hold multiple 3D models, which can be added by drag & drop from the library window.

Tool Properties

Each model placed with this tool will automatically snap on the terrain, even if this will be changed later on using the Sculpting Tool.

The terrain in Depence offers up to 8 layers to paint any material on. Each layer can be drawn individually. Activate the tool on the left toolbar.

Layer

The first layer is a procedural grass layer by default, containing several grass textures, which will be blended automatically depending on the distance to the camera. To add a new layer simply Drag & Drop a material from the library into the tool next to the grass layer.

The selected layer is always active for painting with your mouse, using the left mouse button.

This toolbar defines the current mode of your brush. It can paint, erase or use a brush pattern.

Layer Properties

While Depence is a real-time 3D application it is essential to create and import 3D models, which are optimized for real-time rendering. Otherwise, a lot of performance will be used to just render the models instead of focusing on the main parts like lighting and physics simulation. For a better workflow, follow these guidelines:

• Polygon count

  • Always keeps your 3D-Models as clean as possible to reduce the number of polygons as much as possible. A bigger scene should never exceed 3-4mio polygons.

  • Make sure you remove unnecessary and nearly invisible parts like small holes, screws, etc.

  • Merge and optimize your models as much as possible.

• Normals

  • Make sure that surface normals and the winding order of all polygons are correct.

• UV Coordinates

  • If you want to apply textures in Depence later on, all UV coordinates must be correct. Therefore, it can be helpful to always attach a test texture on your meshes, to see if your current mapping is correct.

• Texture Dimensions

  • Always keep texture dimensions as low as necessary. Always note that a 4K texture resolution is not needed, as your viewport and camera projection will limit the final visible resolution. Always consider texture sizes of 1024x1024 or 2048x2048.

  • Use the power of two texture dimensions. Especially when enabling texture compression, these algorithms won't work correctly, if the texture dimensions are any different.

The Atmosphere object will automatically be added to your scene along with the terrain object after clicking on Objects > "Create Environment". The atmosphere simulates the sunlight & shadows along with atmospheric scattering depending on the sun's position.

To adjust the sun's position click on the Lighting Icon on the left side of the viewport.

The first control element changes the direction while the second defines the height of the sun.

The preset buttons on the right can be used to store a specific position. To store a position on a preset button hold your CTRL-Key while clicking on a button.

Custom Map

From the Atmosphere Settings > Custom Map, you can import your own map:

To render big crowds of people Depence has a so called MassCrowd Object, which procedurally places random instances of animated characters.

Add new Mass-Crowd

In the library window, navigate to Models > Peoples > Crowd then select and drag a Crowd-Object into the Scene.

You can select the crowd over this gizmo icon.

Empty - NoGo Areas

The Crowd instances are distributed depending on the current settings. The empty areas can be used to keep specific regions empty. This can be around stages or other scene elements.

Create Empty regions

The crowd-object can use the axis-aligned bounding box of any object to cull out the instances.

Step by step

1. In the 3D-Hierachy window > Add > 3D-Object > Cube

3. Select the Crowd Object and in its Settings click on "Empty Areas ..."

Focus Object

The focus object allows you to define another object in the scene as a focus point, where all crowd instances will look at. The focus object can be any object type, f.e. a Generic > Group Object

The Terrain Sculpting Tool allows you to manipulate the terrain surface with your mouse by simply drawing on it. Activate the Tool on the left toolbar.

The Tool offers 5 different modes:

Lowering Tool:

This tool will pull down the terrain depending on the options and limits.

Rising Tool:

This tool will rise the terrain depending on the options and limits.

Uneven Tool:

This tool will randomly uneven the terrain depending on the options and limits.

Smooth Tool:

This tool will smooth all uneven ground in a given radius depending on the options and limits.

Flatten Tool:

This tool will pick the height of the position you click and create a flat area on this height.

Tool Settings

Loading a Heightmap

Heightmaps are grayscale images defining a terrain structure by its white value where black is the lowest and white the highest point on the map. Various heightmaps are available on the web and can also be exported from programs like Google Earth. It is recommended to use power of two images sized like (1024x1024, 2048x2048..).

Depence is based on a PBR (Physical Based Rendering) Material concept. Instead of traditional rendering approaches, where artistic values and colors were taken to design a 3D scene, a PBR approach takes more physically correct parameters into account. Especially when it comes to lighting computation, several natural scientific mathematics and rules are used to simulate lighting and materials as realistically as possible.

One important aspect of a PBR pipeline is the definition of materials, which is now not only a color or texture, it is more a physical representation of a surface usually called "PBR Material" or "Substance".

Change a Material Type

Once an 3D Model is selected, go to the Material Tab in the Settings window, click on Material button.

An Arealight emits light from a rectangular plane object with variable sizes. They can be used to simulate any big light sources in a rectangular shape like video walls, screens or even windows in indoor scenes.

Additionally to a diffuse term, the Arealight also calculates a very realistic specular reflection. These reflections are f.e. very important for Video-Screens.

Create an Arealight

1. Place a Plane Object in your scene via Menu > Create > 3D-Objects > Plane

2. Create an Arealight Menu > Create > Lights > Arealight

Texturing

The Arealight uses the material applied to the Plane-Object for its lighting calculation. This opens many possibilities.

Masking

While the Arealight only works on rectangular plane objects, it is possible to use alpha masking to create other shapes.

Limitations

Import

Scale Factor:

Unfortunately, most 3D file formats do not include information about used measurements, which means that the scale of the 3D models is up to the exporting software and chosen scale factor. Depence uses centimeter as default which means that 1 unit within the 3D file is measured as 1 centimeter in world coordinates. Once your 3D models are scaled or exported differently, you can use this scale factor to change the size accordingly.

Sort by:

Materials - The Importer will sort and merge all meshes by their bound material. This is the most efficient way for real-time rendering and makes material replacement easier. Hierarchy - This will preserve the contained scene graph structure and imports it directly mesh by mesh. This is helpful if you want to keep groups and objects for later editing. However, regarding larger files, this can produce a lot of meshes, which can reduce the system performance drastically.

Import Animations (Beta):

Depence supports Bone-Animations embedded into FBX (max version 2014) files. Once a file contains animations you need to check this option to force the importer to generate a Bone Animator Object. Please don't use this option on regular models.

Compress Textures:

Please note that the compression process can take a while, depending on the size of the textures.

The diffuse color of the PBR Material can be directly controlled by values (RGB) from the internal DMX Buffer. This makes it possible to quickly realize LED surfaces/objects.

You can patch the DMX Matrix fixture with the RGB profile to control the color material emission.

Please note that the Universe value is zero-based.

By default, each 3D Model has a bound PBR Material. This Material contains all settings and texture channels. To apply an existing library material to a 3D Model, simply drag & drop material from the library over the 3D model in the viewport.

When selecting your 3D-Model, you can find the Material settings in the Settings window:

Material Channels

The PBR material consists of 6 different channels: Albedo, Height, Normals, Metalness, Roughness, and Emissive. Most of these channels offer a texture channel along with an offset value.

Diffuse / Albedo (RGB)

Metalness (Grayscale)

All differences in reflectance and absorption of natural surfaces can be split into two different types: Electric (Metals) and Dielectric (Plastics, Fabric, etc.). The Metalness value defines the transition between these types. 0=Dielectric 100%=Metallic

Roughness (Grayscale)

The Roughness channel describes how rough or smooth the surface is, which has a big influence on how it reflects the light and environment. 0%=smooth (like a mirror), 100% = full rough (like a paper)

Normals (RGB)

Normal Maps are used to add 3D details to the surface. These normal maps store a surface normal vector in tangent space. While Depence² uses a left-handed coordinate system it uses the following normal map orientation: Red=X+ Green=Y- Blue=Z+. Depence uses "DirectX-style" normal maps which are -Y:

Example of a normal map.

Height (Grayscale)

In addition to Normal Mapping the Heights are used to create the 3D illusion of bigger high detailed structures. Therefore a grayscale image is used where Black = lowest height and White = Max Height

UV Mapping

The UV-Mapping of a 3D Model defines how a texture will be applied on models polygons. These UV's are usually stored within the 3D-Model. In some cases, these won't be scaled correctly. Therefore each material has additional properties:

Transparency

This option allows to make an object transparent or masked out by an alpha mask.

Weathering

These properties create a procedural wetness effect on the surface.

The DMX-Matrix feature creates a UV-mappable Matrix texture based on DMX values. This feature can be used to simulate thousands of LED fixtures without the performance overhead of individual fixtures because it directly reads DMX values from the internal buffer.

Material Settings

To add the DMX-Matrix feature on a model, access its Material settings, and click on the "..." button:

DMX Matrix Texture Properties

Close the window to validate your settings.

Emissive

The DMX-Matrix is material based. To make it emissive (visible in the dark), don't forget to raie the Emissive factor (maximum value is 500%):

DMX Matrix control

Now your material is ready to be used. You can patch the DMX Matrix fixture from the fixture library:

The DMX Matrix fixture has the same mode as the DMX Matrix Texture, select the one you have set.

You need to patch as many DMX Matrix fixtures as your DMX Matrix Texture has (Columns x Rows)

Note: - DMX Matrix fixture only controls 1 pixel at a time. - Their position in world space is not important, they are not represented in 3D.

Group DMX Matrix

Examples

Depence primitives

Custom 3D model

Especially for virtual events we have added a proper chroma-key feature to mask out defined colors from the diffuse channel.

In the PBR Material Settings at the Transparency category, you can find all Chromakey settings.

This material simulates LED video panels with different pixel pitch settings.

The pixels size and pitch can be adjusted to match your screen configuration from Pixels settings:

The AlphaMask option allows you to create transparent video wall:

Drag and drop a video into the Video Files directory of your workspace, or right-click > new to browse your computer:

Depence offers several ways to display Video Content within your 3D environment. A Video Source defines the source of a Video Signal, which can be further assigned to Video Projector fixtures or Materials (f.e. to map on displays and screens).

To open the Video Source list go to the Main menu > Settings > "Video-Sources..".

Depence offers two different Video Source types, the Media-Player Source or NDI Video Source.

A Camera Video Source renders the scene from the perspective of a current camera, which is selected by a defined camera selector. This allows for real camera movements to be displayed on video screens.

Proceed as follows:

1. Create one or multiple Camera Objects and place them into your scene

2. Create a Camera-Selector Object (Create > Scene > Camera Selector)

3. Go to Settings > Video Sources...

4. Click on the "Add" Button and choose "Camera Video Source"

5. Once selected, pick the Camera-Selector object from the drop down

6. check Active

Now you can use this Video-Source on any Texture or Projector.

The NDI Video Source provides live video streaming via Ethernet, using the NewTeks NDI Streaming Protocol. Several other products in media technology also support NDI, e.g. Resolume, VLC Player, and many more. Using the free available NDI Tools, it is also possible to easily grab any screen on a computer in your local network, to use as a live video source.

Depence comes with several ready-to-use water materials, which can be found in the library at > Materials > Nature > Water.

As with all other materials use Drag & Drop to apply a water material on a 3D Model.

Water Material Settings

There are hundreds of different component combinations possible, especially in fountain technology. You can connect different types of nozzles with different types of moving fixtures and lights. With Depence it is now possible to simply "snap" fixtures onto other fixtures. This makes it easy to test different permutations of water effects.

Example with Oase - Multi Direction Drive 2D

1. First add an Oase Multi Direction Drive to the scene via Drag & Drop.

2. Make sure the fixture is still selected.

3. Now, navigate to the nozzles and select the "Comet Prec 20-20" nozzle (which is intended to be used with this type of MDD).

4. Drag this nozzle over the existing MDD and over the appearing green anchor point.

5. Once you have dropped the nozzle on the fixture, it will be mechanically connected to the MDD.
6. Now you can repeat to "mount" the optional LED-Module to the nozzle. This option can be found at Illumination > LED Techn. > LED Module II.

In the 3D-Hierarchy you can see how the fixtures are now children of each other:

Lighting Fixtures have several adjustable settings available once selected:

Position & Motors

Brackets

Pan and Tilt angle of the fixture can be set through these options (only available on assets with a bracket, not available on moving heads).

It is independent of the Transformation window.

Motor Settings

Moving head lighting fixture has Motor Settings to Invert Pan and/or Invert Tilt.

Customize a Motor Angle

When accessing the motor setting (Pan/Tilt) of a moving head lighting fixture (from the 3D Hierarchy or from Advanced Settings), their angle can be customized to match your fixture configuration.

Examples:

• Pan is set to 180° range on the fixture menu (MaxAngle +90°/ MinAngle -90°)

• Pan is set to 630° range on the fixture menu (MaxAngle +315°/ MinAngle -315°)

Performance

To improve Depence performance (complex project, low computer specifications, …) it could be interesting to hide the Volumetric Beams generated by the fixture.

Three different options are available:

• Always - the volumetric beams are rendered in the live view and when rendering image or video

• Render - the volumetric beams are only rendered when rendering image or video.

• Never - the volumetric beams are never rendered

Photometry

If needed, you can artificially increase or decrease the lighting fixture intensity through the Intensity Factor.

If the lighting fixture has several photometrics available, you can change it easily from the Photometric drop-down menu.

Customize the Photometry

When accessing the Light setting of the fixture (from the 3D Hierarchy or from Advanced Settings), you can Edit the Photometrics and adjust them as needed.

Examples:

• Fixture color temperature adjustment.

• Custom photometric profile for custom diffuser.

DMX Mode

Once patched, change the DMX mode of your selected lighting fixture by right-clicking in the project view and selecting the mode through Change Mode menu.

In the Channel Patch, individual settings of each DMX parameter can be made.

To do this, select the desired fixtures and then select the button labeled "Channel Settings" in the Settings window.

You will now be taken to the Channel Patch dialogue.

In the left list, all DMX parameters of the selected units are displayed in groups. For example, select Intensity here to make settings on the dimmer channel of all selected fixtures.

Now you can make the settings shown in the picture for the selected parameter.

Advanced mode edition

If needed, you can quickly reorganize/adjust the DMX chart of your selected fixture(s).

1. Select your fixture(s) (same fixture, with same DMX mode)

2. From the fixture settings: DMX Patching > Channel Settings > Settings...

From this DMX Settings window, you can:

Setting up Beyond

1. Start Depence and Pangolin Beyond

2. Within Beyond's Main Menu go to View > "Enable Visualization via external software..."

The small network icon in the status bar indicates an active connection:

Setup Projection Zones

In Beyond you can assign a Projection-Zone to a specific laser output that is equal to the laser-source number in Depence. Go to "Settings > Projection-Zones". Here you can change all zone-relating properties. In the "Advanced" tab you can set the Laser Source Output Index for the visualization. In Beyond it's called "Fixture Number".

To replace a fixture:

1. Search the new fixture in the library.

2. Select the new fixture from the result list.

3. Set the DMX mode to be used.

4. Select the current fixture(s) to be replaced (from a group, 3D Hierarchy, or Project View).

5. Drag the new fixture on top of one of the currently selected fixtures.

7. If you are sure, you can validate the replace action:
8. Following your current patch and changes performed by the replacement action, Depence will indicate patch conflicts:

   • Patch on the next free addresses will patch your new fixture(s) on the next free addresses of your patch

   • Unpatch existing fixtures will unpatch existing fixture in conflict with your new fixture

   • Patch with overlapping addresses will patch at the current address with overlapping other fixtures (used to patch several fixtures at the same address)

9. It's done! Your new fixture(s) has now replaced the previous one.

My Library is a tab of the Library window dedicated to you, where you can store fixtures or models.

This library is shared with all your projects.

Organization

To organize your personal library, you can create/delete/rename folders (right-click on the left panel to display the dropdown menu):

Store an object in My Library

To store a fixture or a model within My Library, this object should be already present in the Scene Graph.

Select the folder where to store it, then select the object to store and drag and drop it into the right panel of My Library:

1. Select the folder where to store your object.

3. Drag and drop your selection in the right panel of My Library.

Congratulations! You have added your first model to My library!

Fixture

For modular fixtures (fountains, or motorized fixtures), it can be useful to store these inside My Library to allow easy placement later on.

The way to store them is the same as for an object.

Example of a motorized fixture:

The communication between the laser control system and Depence will be established via your local network. This protocol works, when both systems run on the same machine or different machines in your network.

Add and configure a Laser Projector

Select one of the available laser fixtures from the library and drag it into the scene. Within the Settings window, you can define a Laser-Source Number for each laser.

This number needs to match the outgoing device number, adjustable in your laser control software.

Further Laser Projector Settings

Max Laser Devices

For the communication between the laser control system and Depence a multicast connection is used. This connection works for multiple receivers without setting up any client IP addresses. Unfortunately, some network routers do not correctly implement multicast. Instead, they use broadcast and send the data to all members of the network, which can interfere with your entire network. Therefore it is recommended to limit the number of active laser sources in the application settings: See Settings > Application Settings > Laser. By default, Depence is listening to 4 sources.

Within the Machinery library, under _Generic folder, you can find several DMX motor types. There are typically used for stage automation (moving truss, moving platforms, etc ...)

Motor types

Following your automation needs (only translation or rotation, or combined), we have designed several motor types:

Each motor type contains a small 3D cube (10cm) to easily localize the motor origin (this last does not cast shadows for rendering, but can still be deleted if needed):

Move motor

This motor type is designed to control a translation movement (Y axis per default (vertical))

DMX charts

Rotate Motor

This motor type is designed to control a rotation movement (Y axis per default (vertical))

DMX charts

Move and Rotate

This motor type is designed to control translation and rotation movement on all axis (X, Y, Z)

DMX Charts

General informations

Embed motors

If needed, you can add motor into another motor.

If you do not see them independently in the programmer, it can comes because the programmer view mode is set to Combine Modules.

Switch the programmer view mode to Single View Mode to see all of them:

Transformation

In other words, when you use motors, you have to take a special care to the transformation applied on the tree where your object(s) is(are).

In a general manner, the origin of your object should be the same than your motor:

Then, you can safely move the motor, containing your truss (and its fixture), at the right location.

If you moved your object inside the motor, it can result to an unwanted result as following:

DMX Workflow

Firework effects in Depence are following the same concept as other devices as they are fixtures. This makes it possible to fire individual effects directly via DMX trigger.

If you directly drag a firework effect into the world it will create a fixture and patch a single DMX channel. You can fire the effect once or multiple times by triggering the DMX value (>128).

Modern Lighting Control Trends

In contemporary lighting setups, lighting consoles are increasingly controlling fewer pixel LEDs, while media servers are becoming the norm. To accommodate this shift, lighting fixture manufacturers have begun splitting DMX control, allowing for physical separation of control across different DMX universes. This trend is becoming more prevalent as fixtures often require control spread across multiple DMX universes.

Lighting Fixture DMX Modes

A lighting fixture with multiple DMX addresses (pixel engine) typically has independent DMX modes for each part.

For example, the Clay Paky HY B-EYE K25 consists of two main parts:

1. Main Fixture: Controls aspects like position, master intensity, and beam.

   • DMX Modes: Standard, Shapes

2. Pixel Engine: Provides independent control over LED pixels.

   • DMX Modes: RGB, RGBW

Patching Fixtures with Multiple DMX Addresses

When patching a fixture with multiple DMX addresses, all parts of the fixture will be automatically patched, with the first DMX mode used by default for each sub-part.

Managing Fixture Sub-parts (Pixel Engines)

The fixture sub-part, or pixel engine, functions like a separate fixture.

DMX Mode Change

To change the DMX mode, select the fixture sub-part (pixel engine) and change the DMX mode from the "Change Mode" option:

Patch Change

Once selected, patch the fixture sub-part (pixel engine) as needed by drag and dropping the hand icon from the project view:

Unpatch

From the Patching window, you can unpatch the sub-part (pixel engine) if necessary.

Specific Fixtures

For certain fixtures where the Pixel Engine is deeply integrated with the Main Fixture for technical reasons, additional DMX modes are created without the Pixel Engine.

These modes are labeled with the suffix "Without Pixel Engines" and should be used when the Pixel Engines are unpatched to ensure the fixture operates correctly.

Managing Fixture Patch by Batch

Managing multiple fixtures with one or more pixel engines can be complex, but using the filter selection function and the Fixture Manager window simplifies the process.

Filter Selection

Use this function to select all pixel engines under your fixture simultaneously:

Change DMX Mode

Change the DMX mode for all selected pixel engines through the Change Mode function:

Reorder patch using the Fixture Manager

After setting the DMX modes, reorder the patch to ensure there are no gaps and that it meets your requirements, you can do it manually, or using the Fixture Manager

2. Filter and Sort: Use the filter option on any column to help sort and organize your selection.

3. Repatch Fixtures: Drag the hand icon from the project view and drop it into your patch. The order of selection will determine the patch order, so ensure it is in the desired sequence.

Timeline Workflow

Firework-Positions

In reality, firework effects will be loaded into "pipes" in several racks placed all over the field. We call these "Firework Position". Each Position Object can hold one or more firework effects ready to shoot.

2. Place one or multiple "Firework-Positions" into your scene:

Add Firework Effects

The selection of a specific firework effect usually depends on a current show. For an efficient show programming workflow, every new firework effect will automatically create an event on the current show.

1. Open or create a new show in your repository and load it into your timeline.

2. Select one or multiple Firework-Positions in the scene.

4. Now drag a firework effect from the library on the position objects in the viewport (these will appear yellow).

The Events have been created automatically on the selected show position. They will also get an automatic offset to their explosion moment.

To keep the shows clean and relatively small in data size, each effect can be fired multiple times. You can add more events by clicking the record button on the specific track or just by duplicating an event by holding the CTRL key and moving.

Replace Firework Effect

To replace an existing firework effect behind an already existing track, simply drag the new effect from the Library over the track. All shots will remain on their positions.

First make sure you are using a Lasergraph DSP, which has the newest system software (min 2014) from Laseranimation Sollinger.

1. Start Depence and boot the DSP.

2. Start the LGRemote Software and connect to your DSP.

3. Type "setup" into the command line to show the setup window.

4. Click on "Visualization".
5. Select "Depence V3D" like software.

6. The checkbox below will activate the laser output.

7. You can set the Laser Source Output Index within the edit box to which the DSP will send data. This is comparable to the Realizzer Laser Source Number.

Arrange event timing

For a simple alignment move one of the events forward or backwards in time:

Select all tracks again, do a right click and choose one of the arrange methods:

The Depence effects particle engine supports multiple particle emitters in a hierarchical order. This makes it possible for particles to be an emitter themselves. Depence comes with a vast library with many - ready to use - default firework shells and effects.

Alignment

Once you select a firework event on the timeline, the 3D viewport will show you these alignment indicators:

By clicking and moving the white dot, you can change the angle of how the effect will be shot. This will affect all selected events at once.

Holding the CTRL key will create a FAN while SHIFT will make an Even/Odd inverse.

Custom firework effects can be built using the Depence asset builder, which gets installed alongside with Depence.

Create a new Firework Fixture

1. Go to New > New Firework Effect...

2. A fixture and DMX-Ignition object along with the default DMX mode has been created automatically.

3. Save your fixture into your MyLibrary folder: Documents\Depence\MyLibrary\Firework\

If you want to fire many shells along a line, you can create many firework-positions and arrange them on a line. However, this will create many timeline tracks and events, which also has a higher performance impact. In this case it is better to use a Spline instead of a single Firework-Position.

Create the Position

2. Add a Firework-Position object next to the Spline.

Every stepper event, which is now applied to this position will be arranged along the spline.

By default one event will only fire a single shell. Each firework event has property called Firemode.

Once you select "Stepper" more options will appear.

All child objects will be carried by the shell and will be ignited.

To make the creation of firework effects easier, Depence comes with so-called "Generic" objects, which automatically create and set up the necessary particle emitters behind, based on simple and known properties.

These Generic Objects represent basic firework bombs that are scaling in size defined by the caliber.

Usually, all permutations of these Generic Effects are already existing in the factory library, but you can easily use this object to let Depence create some basic particle emitters and settings for you as a good starting point.

To break down a Generic object into the final objects, do a right-click in the 3D-Hierarchy and choose "Breakdown".

Decals are basically PBR Materials which can be projected directly onto the scene geometry. This can be used to quickly place signs, logos, dirt or other effects without complex UV mapping of 3D models.

A decal object works like an orthographic projector, which affects all objects within its selected area and along the Y+ axis.

Add a decal from the library

Drag the decal from the library and drop it over the object you want:

Scale

Using the orange handles, you can scale the decal. Hold SHIFT to scale proportional.

Move and Rotate

As for any object, you can move/rotate the decal on the surface object:

Create a custom decal

To create a new decal, add a new decal from menu Create > 3D Objects > Decal

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