Sunlite Suite 2
Palette Types (advanced)
The previous topic describes how to create a palette and assign it to a scene. This topic will explain the various palette types.
Standard and Generic Palettes
There are two types of palette, a STANDARD palette and a GENERIC palette. The standard palette saves a DMX value, for example DMX 251 on the gobo channel. A generic palette saves a value relative to a particular preset, for example dimmer 50%.
Standard palettes are useful if you want to save a particular preset on one type of fixture such as “Gobo Holes”. Generic presets are useful if you need to save a variable length preset such as dimmer, iris , focus or zoom amongst different types of fixtures.
Generic Palette Example
If we were using some Martin Mac700's and Mac 2000's, the range of their iris sizes are different.
If we have created a generic iris palette then this is not a problem. We simply create a generic palette with 50% value and Sunlite Suite 2 will output whatever DMX value is 50% of the iris size. The DMX value 100 will be sent to the Mac700 and the value 107 will be sent to the Mac2000.
Generic Palette Example 2
Imagine that you want to create some dimmer palettes. Dimmer palettes can be useful as the light output can look different depending on the size of the venu and the other lights you are using.
However, some fixtures have inverted dimmers, no problem! Just create a generic palette for the dimmer and it won't matter which brand of fixture you insert, what channel or range the dimmer is, whether it is inverted or not, the brightness of the light will always be 50%.
Palettes Per Fixture and Per Fixture Type
Standard palettes can be created per fixture or per fixture type. Palettes per fixture type can be included inside EasyTime effects, however palettes per fixture cannot. This is because, when an EasyTime effect is built it does not ask for information about each individual fixture, it simply asks for the amount of fixtures and the individual properties of the fixture type. From this, the effect is generated.
For example, let's say we want to use a color palette inside a rainbow effect. If we were to take a palette per fixture, the color of each fixture could be different, so the effect would not know which color to take to generate the rainbow.
Palettes per fixture type can also be useful in circumstances where the amount of fixtures changes. Let's say we have 2 different fixture types with the same gobos but in a different order. We could create a set of gobo palettes so we only have to click one button to access the same gobo from both fixtures. If we had a palette per fixture, we would have to create the palette for each individual fixture. If we added more fixtures at a later date, these would then have to be updated. If we create the palette per fixture type, then we can add as many fixtures as and when we want without the need to think about the palette!
Generic Palettes
Generic palettes are primarily used for colors. They can be applied to any fixture and also any fixture type. For example, if you create a generic palette with the color "fire red" (picked from the color wheel), this palette can be used on any CMY or RGB fixture to turn the color "fire red".
If you are creating a matrix effect on a RECT, you must use a generic palette. This is because of the same reason that you cannot use a palette per fixture type on an standard easy time effect. Rects can cross several fixture types, they only know how to create colors, they know nothing about the fixture types. If you have a palette per fixture type with 2 colors stored on 2 different types of fixture, the RECT would not know which color to take to generate the effect.
Pre-Recorded Palettes
Pre-Recorded palettes are put together by the software depending on which fixtures you are using.
