#87

Can someone speak a bit to the video graphics part of the OP-Z? The visuals look cool, but it seems like the parameter range over them is quite limited, so any visual performance using an OP-Z would feel very canned.

Are those scenes just demos, and the intention is that the OP-Z user would program their own? Is there more variation than it appears over the parameters? Is the visual part just a bonus of the OP-Z and I’m reading too much into it?

Would love to better understand how it all fits together!

2 Likes
#88

I’ve been following the OP-Z for a while now. I pre-ordered one that should be shipping sometime this week, but I don’t have mine in yet. But, from what I understand there are 2 different types of graphic sequencing. The first is images. You can import any photos you want. Sequence changing which image is showing and what effect is applied. Effects are like rotating it, blur, black and white. (I’m guessing at some of these.) The second is 3D scene sequencing. TE did say the were going to release a kit for making your own, but I haven’t seen a download yet. The app will also ship with a few different ones. From what it looks like, the creator can make a 3D scene and set it up so that portions of if are affected by what’s going on in the OP-Z. Like moving something in the scene to the beat. You can also sequence things like camera angle changes. The things you can sequence are kind of dependent on what the creator of the 3D scene sets up for you.

Hope this helps some.

3 Likes
#89

Essentially the op-z will launch with a few already mapped 3D scenes that will animate in-sync with the op-z, like you’ve most likely seen online already. These Scenes are built in the game engine Unity 3D. You can build your own scenes and use the teenage engineering toolkit to map midi control of the elements inside your scene. What I mean by “Build your own Scene” is to load your own 3D assets into Unity, these are either modeled/textured/animated yourself or optionally you could buy pre-made assets in the Unity Marketplace. The toolkit Teenage engineering offers is a node based scripting framework that lets you connect the op-z output to various elements in your scene and control how they are affected. There are limitiations, but you will have the ability to customize the parameters in whatever way you see fit. Here is the toolkit’s github https://github.com/teenageengineering/videolab
If building your own custom animations is something that interests you, Blender is an open source 3D software you can build your assets in https://www.blender.org/
Get familiar with the game engine as well https://unity3d.com/ Its free, and there are a lot of great resources to learn online, it also helps to have a basic grasp of programming in C# if you want to get more involved.

3 Likes
#90

thank you both for the answers, makes sense.

Very cool that the scenes can be authored in Unity - that opens it up significantly. I imagine there must be specific limitations in place as Unity is a very feature rich engine at this point, but it is all good to hear.

1 Like
#91

Complete manual is out:
https://teenage.engineering/guides/op-z

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#92

From sounds of the videolab docs, it seems we may not have to do a standard ‘build for ios’ out of unity – instead you build the videolab pak and copy that onto the phone directly.

#93

Not pretty looking (yet I hope haha) but here it is actually working!

12 Likes
#94

How’s your battery life?

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#95

when making the gfx tests, both the opz and my phone are plugged into the computer and charging, so I’m not sure about battery life yet.

I can say though, the phone heats up like CRAZY playing the unity scenes. The TE scene and the Eran scene are really well done. Great times ahead!

1 Like
#96

Any advice on where to order from? I was surprised TE isn’t taking orders on their site. Sweetwater has “pre-orders” still up. I know it’s not immediately available anywhere, but curious if there’s predictions on who will get backorders filled fastest :wink:

#97

Actually TE has taken preorders for some hours, I’ve ordered one and it arrived yesterday.
It’s so tiny!

(Shoe for scale)

image
C04EBFA5-7641-4807-A40A-778E60B835CE.jpeg3024×4032 2.79 MB

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#98

Not on the site as of right now…I’ll check back.

#99

They’ve even taken the page down. :slight_smile:
Retailers are expecting stock at the beginning of November.

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#100

I know that you don’t need a screen to use this, but I’m still a little uneasy about buying a piece of hardware that connects to iOS for some portion of it’s functionality. Part of the appeal of hardware to me is that is can exist as a thing long term, vs. software that can go out of date with OS updates.

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#101

For what it’s worth, I’ve been reading it works with Macs, too, but I haven’t seen the app yet.

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#102

as far as i can tell - the only aspect that requires iOS or a mac is the unity / visuals stuff. presets and projects and midi settings can all be managed via computer file browser.

3 Likes
#103

Ah I see their manual does describe a Mac app as well, though I’m not sure its available yet.

#104

My concern was that the synthesis engines, though usable without a screen, would feel less complete without the screen info, though perhaps thats not the case. The OP-Z design reminds me of the Pocket Operators which were perhaps too feature packed for the interface in my opinion.

#105

Yeah, I’m not sure what’s up with that. There’s no link, and nothing is showing up (at least in the U.S.) in the Mac App store.

#106

I promise I checked the manual first, but…does the Z sync with the PO’s via click track like the OP-1?