Hello colleagues! During the preparation of new projects process I discover that there a lot of loaded effects on internet data base witch are unreal and with no exact information for calliber,colour,DTF and BTime.I propose to create a new database with all the necessary features
and all incorrectly entered effects to be deleted. The creators of the databases should be given a deadline if they want to correct them and then continue to work normally.For example lets 3 inch shell gold peony to have real colors ,number of stars,real energy ,real DTF ,hight,BTime…
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Yes, there’s lots of unrealistic effects. I’m thinking about separating the effects library into two parts: realistic and fantasy!
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I think this approach has several problems.
First, how realistic is realistic?
Correct fuse delays and rise heights depends on the manufacturer. Calibre is often exaggerated by the manufacturer. Lots of shells are sold as 5-inch shells but are really 1.75-inch canister shells. So, what do you go with?
Secondly, how do you convey all that information?
As far as I know there is only the name of the file and the effect type. Personally, I use a kind item code to keep track of my own effects. For example, I prefer to divide cakes into 200 g, 350 g, and 500 g. But that is really not of use to anyone else.
I suppose you could save the information as metadata within the fwe-file, like you can do with media files. Some of that metadata could be extracted directly from the file. Shells, for example, already have calibre. Then you could put in other metadata like manufacturer, whether it is a ground or arial effect, and so on.
You could maybe have a measurement for how much metadata the file contains as a rough gauge of how realistic the effect is.
If you enforce punishments and deadlines, I think all that is going to happen is that people will stop uploading effects.
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Hello again ,Baalduru Please explain me what is the benefit of that to have endless data base full with useless effects created by someone idea and loaded with no useful information ?How much time digging through the information to find the exact effect will be saved ?Let’s join forces to create standard effects and have a database called fantasies. The alternative is for each of us to create our own database for personal use and discover hot water …
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big proponent of structure and organization. I exclusively use my own effects for this reason. I don’t even use any of the effects that comes with the creative edition. I only use recreations of existing effects with measurements of the timing. That way I know that the calibres, timings and measurements are accurate to the real counterpart.
But all my questions still stand.
Again, how are you going to organize it? What conventions do you go with? Take a chrysanthemum effect. Some define it is a peony-like effect with a tail. Others define it as more like a dragon egg effect. What do you go with?
And what is a standard effect? Can it only be recreations of real effects, meaning only consumer and display fireworks? Or can it only be single shot effects like peonies, comets and willows? Cakes often contains many different effects. How do you organize that?
You mention real colours. But what do you mean by that? Obviously, if a red peony is labelled as green, I agree, that is wrong. But are real colours only the FWsim standards? I can easily find over 20 different formulas for red stars, each creating a different shade of red. Are those the real colours? Should there be a distinction between a Lancaster red and a Veline red?
I guess what I’m asking is who decides what is realistic?
As far as I can tell most FWsim shows use effects that is custom designed for a particular show. That would strictly speaking not be realistic. Most real firework shows use mainly off-the-rack effects.
I am not saying that a more structured database wouldn’t be useful. But I think it is more complicated than you assume.
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There is one solution =Lucas needs to talk to as many of the world’s leading pyrotechnics manufacturers as possible to create their own FWsim database for their products. This will give them more advertising opportunities for all users of the program.
And Baalduru - YES The world of colors is huge as well as the world of weights and measures - for this the metric system and standards have been created. Everyone can interpret and change colors and there are even people with color blindness BUT take for example one of the competing programs / Finale fireworks / with their database and the convenience of working with it …
I must admit I don’t quite understand your replies.
I am trying to point out that the standards are pretty loose and undefined. Every time I make an effect, I have to measure the timing and dimensions because they are not standard. There isn’t even a strict agreement on the naming of effects.
This means that structuring a database with all the things you want to be “real” is very complicated.
I don’t understand what the metric system has to do with anything. Many people use imperial measurements. Even in your own example you use inches. And it doesn’t really matter because FWsim can use both.
I tried to get you to explain what you meant by real colours and what level of detail you would want a new database to have. But you just agreed that there are lots of colours and then something about colour blindness. I don’t understand what that means.
I also doubt you are going to get any manufacturers to recreate their inventory in FWsim. What would be their incentive? I think the Finale database is created out of necessity not altruistic reasons. If a fireworks company is already using Finale to plan shows why would they spend time creating effects for another piece of software?
One partial solution to your problem could be to have a preview of an effect in the database and the ability to download parts of a collection. Or just delete (or adjust) the ones you don’t want.