Initialize the show

This is the step to choose the show parameters

All-in-one platform mode

Prepare the scene

To go to the Lightshow menu:

• Type N or click on the arrow on the right of the scene axes

• Select the Lightshow tab

• Click on Prepare the scene

Click on the arrow

Select Lightshow tab

Prepare the scene

If Prepare the scene is not present, please create a new Blender file.

Add a map

See Map

Add a camera

See Camera

Select the drone repartition and placement

The drone repartition must be followed exactly when placing the drones in real life.

Show Parameters

• Nb drones is the total number of drones. Only Nb X and Nb Y change when Nb drones changes.

• Nb per family* is the number of drones per family (see the family definition) Only Nb X and Nb Y change when Nb per family changes.
• Nb X is the number of families on the X axis (West / East direction) Only Nb drones changes when Nb X changes.

• Nb Y is the number of families on the Y axis (South / North direction) Only Nb drones changes when Nb Y changes.

• Step* is the distance between each family (see the family definition) from center to center
• Angle is the takeoff angle

• Takeoff, Land, Go to target, Set color, Magic color, Fire are the keyframe types to use for these actions

*not available in platform mode

Drone repartition Equations

All drone repartition must respect these equations to be valid.

$$\begin{align} \text{Nb families} &= \text{Nb X} \times \text{Nb Y}\\ \text{Nb drones} &= \text{Nb per family} \times \text{Nb families} \qquad\\ \text{Nb X} &\le 50\\ \text{Nb Y} &\le 50 \end{align} \\ \text{Drone Repartition Equations}$$

1. The number of families Nb families must be equal to Nb X times Nb Y. This means that the families must form a grid of dimension Nb X by Nb Y without holes inside.

2. The number of drones Nb drones must be equal to Nb per family times Nb families. This means all families must have the same number of drones Nb per family.

3. The number of families from the West / East direction Nb X must be less or equal to 50. This avoids having impractical drone repartition being too large.

4. The number of families from the South / North direction Nb Y must be less or equal to 50. This avoids having impractical drone repartition being too large.

No repartitions found

If these equations are not respected, the message No repartitions found will be displayed with the drones colored in red.

To fix this, try changing the last show parameter to another value or changing any of Nb per family, Nb drones, Nb X, or Nb Y to find a valid drone repartition.

Buttons

• ✱ alternate between the possible drone repartitions. This button will change Nb X and Nb Y without changing the total number of families Nb families. This button does not work if no repartitions are found.

• Initialize the show launch the new show, the default Preview Mode is Material (see the Color section for more information)

First method: Choose the total number of drones first

With this method, you first select the total number of drones you want with Nb drones.

Then, you can use these two actions to select the best repartition.

• alternate between the repartitions with ✱

• change Nb per family This will change the number of families Nb families and find the Nb X and Nb Y that have the closest aspect ratio (Nb Y / Nb X) of the current drone repartition. The number of drones Nb drones never changes with this action.

Second method: Choose the number of drones per family first

With this method, you must start by setting Nb drones to 1.

Then, you choose Nb per family

Then, you change Nb X and Nb Y until you get the form and approximately the correct number of drones.

Third method: No method

Try to change all show parameters until you get the repartition you want.

Initialize the show

Once all show parameters are configured to your liking.

Click on Initialize the show to validate the parameters and go to the next step.

You cannot change the show parameters after having initialized the show.

You must create a new file if you want to change the show parameters.

You should never modify manually the drone repartition position.