Parameters

Every value you can move in Vizz is a parameter. Each one has:

• a row in the control panel's parameter list
• an OSC address, which is the heading of its entry below
• a MIDI learn button
• a way to be modulated

Presets save them, scenes blend between them, and faders ride them.

The panel groups them under five captions: SHAPE, LOOK, PRINT, STAGE and OUTPUT. This page follows that order. The last section lists the transport controls. Those have no row in the list, but they do have OSC addresses.

Every parameter glides to a new value instead of jumping, so a stepped MIDI knob still looks smooth. Right-click any slider to put it back to its default.

Particles

Under SHAPE ▸ particles. The field of points everything else acts on.

/particles/count

How many particles are drawn. 0 to 500000, default 60000. Fewer is faster. At 0 the field goes away completely, which is how the vector looks (Interference, Poster, Signal) hide it.

/particles/size

How big each particle is drawn. 0.001 to 0.2, default 0.015.

/particles/speed

How fast the field moves. 0 to 4, default 0.6. On the Lorenz and Aizawa shapes, and on generated flows, this is how fast the particles travel along the attractor. Changing it never makes the field jump.

/particles/spread

The size of the whole field. 0.05 to 3, default 1.2. Every shape and every cloud is scaled to the same box, so this means the same thing whatever is on screen.

/particles/hue

The base hue, or how far into the palette the colour starts. 0 to 1, default 0.58.

/particles/saturation

Colour saturation. 0 to 1, default 0.8.

/particles/brightness

Brightness multiplier. 0 to 2, default 1.

/particles/surface

What a particle is. glow (0, the default) draws points of light that add up. surface (1) draws each one as a small solid disc. Near discs hide far ones, lamps light the side facing them, and the sun casts a shadow. Surface mode costs more to draw.

Shape

Under SHAPE ▸ shape. What shape the particles take.

/shape/mode

The geometry. 0 to 8, default 0 (sphere). The positions are:

Values in between blend two neighbouring shapes, and every particle keeps its place while they do. That's why sweeping this knob reads as the field flowing from one shape into the next. When you load a cloud, Vizz moves this to 7 for you.

/shape/morph

An extra blend into the next shape along. 0 to 1, default 0.

/shape/twist

Shears the field and twists it with height. 0 to 2, default 0. Try it with a slow LFO.

/shape/wind

A wind that blows through the field and bends every shape and every cloud. 0 to 1, default 0 (off).

/shape/wind_rate

How fast the wind changes. 0 to 2, default 0.3.

Gravity

Under SHAPE ▸ gravity. Four wells, numbered 0 to 3, that pull the particles in or push them away. Wells you haven't used stay folded in the panel. Gravity has its own row of 16 pads on the performance layout, so a gravity move can be fired separately from a scene change.

/gravity/amount

The master depth of the whole gravity layer. 0 to 1, default 0. At 0, no well does anything.

/gravity/N/x

Well N's position across, for N = 0 to 3. −3 to 3, default 0. /gravity/N/y and /gravity/N/z work the same way for up-down and depth.

/gravity/N/strength

Positive pulls particles in and negative pushes them away. −2 to 2, default 0.

/gravity/N/radius

How far the well reaches. 0.05 to 4, default 1.

Colour

Under LOOK ▸ colour.

/color/palette

Which palette colours the field. 0 to 15, default 0. The shipped rows are 0 hsv, 1 warm, 2 ember, 3 ice and 4 neon. Palettes you drop onto the window take 5 and up. Values in between crossfade two palettes.

/color/spread

How much of the palette the field covers. 0 to 1, default 0.12. Low values give one colour and high values give the whole range.

/color/drive

What decides each particle's colour. 0 index (every particle its own colour, like confetti), 1 radius, 2 depth, 3 height. Default 0. Radius, depth and height tie colour to the shape, so it reads as a solid object.

Background

Under LOOK ▸ background. OSC also accepts /background/…. The colour swatch and opacity slider in the panel's background section set these too.

/bg/red

The background's red. 0 to 1, default 0.004. /bg/green (default 0.004) and /bg/blue (default 0.008) work the same way.

/bg/alpha

Background opacity. 0 to 1, default 1. At 0, Syphon and NDI receivers get the field on a transparent background, with an alpha channel. JPEG recordings have no alpha, so they record the background as black.

Effects

Under LOOK ▸ effects. These run on the finished picture.

/fx/trail

Feedback: how much of the last frame stays in this one. 0 to 0.98, default 0. This is the control that turns a particle field into VJ material. 0.7 to 0.85 is the useful range. It stops at 0.98 so the picture can always fade back.

/fx/zoom

Zoom applied to the feedback on every frame. 0.9 to 1.1, default 1. With trail up, this builds a tunnel. Above 1 flies in and below 1 flies out.

/fx/spin

Rotation applied to the feedback on every frame. −0.1 to 0.1, default 0.

/fx/mirror

Folds the picture. 0 off, 1 mirror, 2 quad, 3 kaleido. Default 0. Stepped, because half a mirror isn't a look.

/fx/glow

Bloom. 0 to 1, default 0.25. This is what makes the particles look like light.

/fx/shift

Splits red and blue outward from the centre, like a lens. 0 to 1, default 0. The middle stays sharp and the edges fringe.

/fx/grade

A filmic finish, mixed over the plain picture. 0 to 1, default 0. It has automatic exposure that only ever darkens, a softer and wider bloom, and a tone curve that rolls bright cores off to white instead of clipping them. At 0 none of it runs.

/fx/exposure

Nudges the graded exposure, in stops. −4 to 4, default 0. It only does anything when grade is above 0.

Vector layers

Under PRINT ▸ vector layers, one group per layer, layer 1 to layer 4. These are hard-edged, flat-ink patterns drawn over or behind the particles. Two layers at nearly the same frequency make moiré. A layer whose kind is off is removed, whatever its other settings are.

The address is /l1/… to /l4/…. OSC also accepts /print/N/….

/lN/kind

The pattern. 0 off, 1 rings, 2 stripes, 3 checker, 4 polygon, 5 star, 6 rays, 7 dots. Default 0.

/lN/freq

Pattern frequency: how many rings, stripes or cells. 0.5 to 64, default 8.

/lN/phase

Shifts the pattern within its period. 0 to 1, default 0. It doesn't glide, so steps snap, which is what you want for a beat-driven jump.

/lN/drift

How fast the pattern moves on its own, in turns per second. −2 to 2, default 0.1. 0 holds it still, and negative runs it backwards.

/lN/duty

How much of each period is ink and how much is paper. 0.05 to 0.95, default 0.5.

/lN/sides

Sides of a polygon or star. 2 to 16, default 4. In-between values morph.

/lN/inset

How deep a star's valleys go. 0 to 1, default 0.5.

/lN/fold

Kaleidoscope wedges. 0 to 12, default 0. Anything below 2 is off.

/lN/invert

fill (0, the default) or invert (1), which swaps ink and paper.

/lN/x

The layer's centre, across. −2 to 2, default 0. /lN/y works the same way for up-down.

/lN/rot

Rotation, in turns. −2 to 2, default 0.

/lN/scale

Layer scale. 0.05 to 8, default 1.

/lN/color

Which ink the layer prints with: ink 1 to ink 4 (values 0 to 3). Default 0. The inks are set under inks.

/lN/blend

How the layer combines with what's under it. 0 normal, 1 multiply, 2 screen, 3 add, 4 difference, 5 exclusion, 6 subtract. Default 0.

/lN/opacity

Layer opacity. 0 to 1, default 1.

Inks

Under PRINT ▸ inks. Four ink colours shared by the four layers, each as red, green and blue from 0 to 1. OSC also accepts /ink/N/….

/pal/N/r

Red of ink N, for N = 0 to 3. /pal/N/g and /pal/N/b are green and blue. The defaults are ink 0 near-black (0.05, 0.05, 0.05), ink 1 red (0.92, 0.1, 0.14), ink 2 blue (0.1, 0.3, 0.95) and ink 3 yellow (0.98, 0.8, 0.05).

Placement

Under PRINT ▸ placement.

/vec/place

Where the vector layers are drawn. scene (0, the default) puts them behind the particles, inside the feedback, so trails, punch and glow apply. print (1) draws them last, after every effect, as exact flat ink. A preset saves its placement. If you send /vec/place in the same burst as a preset recall, the preset wins, so send it after the recall has landed.

Camera

Under STAGE ▸ camera. The group has two buttons of its own. centre brings the subject back to the middle and keeps the distance and lens. reset puts every camera control back to its default.

/camera/distance

How far the camera is from the field. 0.4 to 12, default 3.5. Moving closer changes the perspective. Narrowing the field of view doesn't.

/camera/orbit

The angle around the field. −3.15 to 3.15 (one full turn), default 0.

/camera/elevation

The height angle. −1.4 to 1.4, default 0.34.

/camera/fov

Field of view, in radians. 0.2 to 2, default 0.9.

/camera/focus

The distance that's in focus. 0 to 12, default 3.5.

/camera/defocus

Depth of field. 0 to 1, default 0. Particles away from the focus distance grow into larger, dimmer discs.

/camera/pan_x

Slides the view sideways. −4 to 4, default 0. /camera/pan_y slides it up and down.

/camera/at_x

The point in the world the camera aims at, across. −8 to 8, default 0. /camera/at_y and /camera/at_z are up and depth. Unlike pan, this moves the camera through space, so a path through a scan stays a path at any orbit.

/camera/move

A ready-made camera move, locked to the beat. Default 0 (off).

A move is added to your framing, not written over it. Turn it off and the camera is exactly where you left it. Moves fade in and out over half a second, so switching doesn't jump.

/camera/move_bars

Bars per cycle of the move. 1 to 64, default 8.

/camera/move_size

How far the move travels. 0 to 1, default 0.5.

Light

Under STAGE ▸ light. Lighting is off by default, and off means the picture is unchanged. Two lamps, numbered 1 and 2. Lamp 2 stays folded until you use it.

/light/ambient

How much light there is everywhere. 0 to 1, default 1, which is the unlit picture. Bring it down to let the lamps show.

/light/shape

How much a surface's own direction counts. 0 to 1, default 1. It only matters for clouds that know which way their surfaces face, such as PLY scans with normals or scans Vizz estimated normals for when it loaded them.

/light/torch

Puts lamp 1 on the camera. 0 to 1, default 0. Pair it with a camera move for a walk through a scan.

/light/N/level

Lamp N's brightness. 0 to 2, default 0 (off).

/light/N/x

Lamp N's position across. −6 to 6, default 0. /light/N/y and /light/N/z are up and depth.

/light/N/radius

How far lamp N reaches. 0.05 to 8, default 1.5. It's full at the centre and half-strength at the radius.

/light/N/hue

Lamp N's colour. 0 to 1, default 0.

/light/N/tint

How much of that colour to use. 0 to 1, default 0, which is white. Lamps stay white until you raise tint.

Sun

Under STAGE ▸ sun. A light from one direction, for clouds with surfaces. In surface mode it casts a shadow.

/sun/level

Sun brightness. 0 to 2, default 0 (off). It needs a cloud that knows which way it faces.

/sun/azimuth

Where the sun is, around. −3.15 to 3.15, default 0.8.

/sun/elevation

Where the sun is, up. −1.57 to 1.57, default 0.6.

/sun/hue

Sun colour. 0 to 1, default 0.12.

/sun/tint

How much of that colour to use. 0 to 1, default 0 (white).

Room

Under STAGE ▸ room. A wireframe box drawn with the same camera, so it moves against the cloud as the camera moves. It's off by default.

The group has one button: screen is the front face. It squares the camera up, turns the room on at 0.7, and opens the room to exactly the frame, so the screen reads as a window into a space. It follows the output size on its own.

/room/brightness

How visible the room is. 0 to 1, default 0 (off).

/room/depth

How deep the room goes. 1 to 20, default 7.

/room/fade

How much the room's lines fade with distance. 0 to 1, default 0.75.

/room/converge

How much the far end closes in, like forced perspective on a stage set. 0 to 1, default 0.35. At 1 the walls are parallel, and at 0 the back wall is a point.

/room/vanish_x

Slides the vanishing point sideways. −1 to 1, default 0. ±1 puts it on the edge of the frame. /room/vanish_y slides it up and down. The opening never moves.

/room/anchor

Where the cloud sits along the room. 0 is at the opening and 1 is against the back wall. Default 0.35.

/room/embed

How much the room's perspective bends the cloud. 0 to 1, default 0. At 1 the cloud shrinks into the distance the way the walls do, so it looks like it's in the room rather than pasted on top.

Live video

Under STAGE ▸ live video. These shape how video in turns a picture into a cloud.

/video/depth

How far the picture's relief pushes out. −2 to 2, default 0.6. 0 is flat. Negative sinks the picture into the plane.

/video/relief

What does the pushing: 0 luminance, 1 hue, 2 saturation, 3 chroma. Default 0. Use a colour one for a flat, evenly lit source.

Master

Under OUTPUT ▸ master.

/master/dim

The master fader. 0 to 1, default 1. It dims everything, and no preset or scene ever saves or changes it, so nothing you fire can undo a blackout you reached for. It's the red MASTER fader on the performance layout. Bind it to something you can find in the dark.

Punch

Under OUTPUT ▸ punch. Moves for the drop. All five act only while held, and rest at 0. Nothing can leave the output stuck, and no preset or scene saves them. They're the PUNCH row on the performance layout, and keys Space, S, B, F and I.

/punch/flash

White-out while held. 0 to 1. Key: Space.

/punch/strobe

A strobe locked to the beat while held. Key: S.

/punch/strobe_div

Beats per strobe cycle. 0.25 to 4, default 0.5.

/punch/black

Blackout while held. It takes out the colour, but the alpha channel stays. Key: B.

/punch/freeze

Holds the picture. The set keeps moving underneath, so letting go jumps to where the music has got to. Key: F.

/punch/invert

Inverts the finished picture while held. Key: I.

Transport

These have no row in the parameter list. They are the pads, chips and buttons of the other screens, but they're ordinary parameters underneath, so OSC and MIDI learn can reach them. No preset saves any of them.

/preset/recall

Fires preset N when the value changes. 0 to 512, and 0 means none. The built-in looks come first, in order: 1 Slow bloom, 2 Butterfly, 3 Tunnel, 4 Stage, 5 Confetti, 6 Ribbon, 7 Interference, 8 Poster, 9 Signal. The number keys 1 to 9 and 0 write slots 1 to 10. OSC also accepts /look/recall.

/scene/fire

Fires scene pad N, 1 to 16, when the value changes. 0 is none.

/scene/time

Scene blend time in seconds. Default 2. OSC takes 0 to 60. The slider on the pads goes to 30. 0 is a cut.

/scene/curve

The shape of the blend: 0 linear, 1 smooth (default), 2 ease in, 3 ease out, 4 cut.

/scene/auto

Autopilot on (1) or off (0). With it on, Vizz walks the filled scene pads in time with the beat.

/scene/bars

Bars between autopilot steps. 0.25 to 16, default 4.

/gravity/fire

Fires gravity pad N, 1 to 16. /gravity/time, /gravity/curve, /gravity/auto and /gravity/bars work like the scene ones, for the gravity pads.

/deck/select

Turns to page N of the set list, 1 to 24. 0 is none. Turning a page never changes the picture. Only firing a pad does. OSC also accepts /song/select.

/deck/next

Turns to the next page each time the value rises. It stops at the last page. /deck/prev goes back one.

/column/fire

Fires column N, 1 to 16: the scene pad and the gravity pad with that number, together. This is what a Resolume column launch becomes. See Send it to Resolume.

/record/active

1 starts a recording and 0 stops it. See Record a take.

/tempo/tap

Each rise is one tap, and three taps set the tempo.

/cloud/a

Which cloud slot this look shows, 0 to 8. You normally set it by clicking a name in clouds. Presets save it. Its partners /cloud/b and /cloud/morph belong to scene transitions, and OSC, MIDI and modulation can't set them.