Laser Animation Asset
Applies to SuperStage 26H2.6 and later ｜ Read first: Laser Overview
The laser animation asset is the laser content authoring vehicle added in 26H2.6. Create it by right-clicking in the Content Browser and open it by double-click.
1. Two Design Premises
Vectors are stored, not point clouds
The asset holds Bezier outlines and modulation parameters; the point stream is computed at playback. That gives three things:
- Resolution independence — the same content is correct on a 20 kpps and a 40 kpps scanner;
- Editable at any time — the points are not baked in; move one control point and the whole piece follows;
- No rework when scanner parameters change.
There is no fixed duration
Motion comes from the frequency of the effects, and the periods of different effects are unrelated. Any point in time can be evaluated directly, so scrubbing, jumping and reverse playback need no warm-up, and "how long is this animation" is not a question that applies.
2. Asset Structure
Laser animation asset
├── Tempo BPM, default 120 (20~300). The basis when effects run on beats
├── Scan Profile Scanner specification (section 4)
├── Preview Device IDs Which devices the preview goes to (1-based, matching each device's ID)
├── Device Time Shift Time offset between devices, seconds (−5~5)
├── Export Frame Count Frames to bake, default 1 (1~9999)
├── Export Frame Rate Export frame rate, default 30 (1~120)
├── Export Device ID Which device's view to write, 0 = every layer ignoring routing
└── Layers[] Layer stack, **index 0 is the bottom layer**
├── Content source (one of six)
├── Transform / Color / ScanMode
└── Effects[] Effect stack, evaluated in order
All coordinates are in scanner normalized space [-1, 1], with Y positive downward (matching UE's screen convention).
Layers are a single level and cannot nest. Two levels would mean two sets of transform, colour and effect stack, and two sets of add/remove buttons in the UI, with no way to tell which one to press.
Why the export settings live on the asset: the asset has no total duration (every effect loops on its own), so "how long to export" cannot be derived from the content — anything derived would be wrong. It has to be stated by a person. The export dialog starts from these values and writes back what you confirm, so the setting carries over.
3. Layers
3.1 Content Source
Each layer's content comes from one of six sources:
| Source | Description |
|---|---|
| Path | Hand-drawn / edited Bezier path |
| Primitive | Built-in primitives, 16 of them: Circle, Ellipse, Rectangle, Polygon, Star, Line, Arc, Spiral, Lissajous, Wave, Grid, Cross, Heart, Rose, Beam Dot, Beam Fan |
| Text | Text. Bezier curves are taken directly from font outlines, with no bitmap in between |
| Imported | Imported vector art (SVG) |
| Mesh | Outline taken from a mesh |
| ILDA Sequence | An imported ILDA frame sequence |
3.2 Scan Mode
This is the most easily missed field on a layer, and it decides how the layer reads. It is a content choice — is this layer drawn as lines, or parked as a set of beams — not a scanner setting, which is why it lives on the layer rather than in the scan profile.
| Mode | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Line | Lines. The default |
| Beam | Beams. Takes a number of beams along the path at equal arc length, each dwelling for a number of samples |
| Hybrid | Both |
The two parameters below only apply in Beam and Hybrid:
| Parameter | Default | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beam Count | 12 | 1–64 | How many beams to take along the path |
| Beam Dwell | 8 | 1–60 | Samples each beam dwells for. The baker currently uses a fixed 8 samples per beam, so changing this value does not change the baked result |
This is not the same thing as the
Beam Dot/Beam Fanprimitives in the content source: those are shapes, this is a scanning method. Any shape can be switched to beam mode.
3.3 Other Layer Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Layer | — | Layer name |
| Visible | on | — | Whether it takes part in evaluation |
| Locked | off | — | The node tool stops editing its path and arrow-key nudging skips it. The Select tool can still pick it up and drag it — what is locked is the path, not the position |
| Curve Detail | 256 | 4–256 | How finely curves are broken into straight segments. Only affects sources that actually contain curves — text, rounded shapes, imported vector art. Lower spends fewer points; too low and curves visibly go faceted |
| Transform | — | — | See 3.4 |
| Color | — | — | The layer's solid base colour. Actual colour movement is the job of colour effects |
| Effects | empty | — | Effect stack, evaluated in order — see Effect System |
Layers can be copied and pasted across assets — the clipboard uses Base64 encoding, so multi-line text layers are not cut in half.
3.4 Transform
Applied in the same order as Illustrator: scale → shear → rotate → translate.
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Location | (0, 0) | Translation |
| Rotation | 0 | Degrees. Positive is clockwise (screen-space Y is down, so it reads the same as Illustrator) |
| Scale | (1, 1) | Scale |
| Shear | (0, 0) | Degrees. X shear / Y shear |
| Pivot | (0, 0) | Anchor for rotation and scale, in the shape's local space |
With a zero scale, or a degenerate shear, the transform is not invertible and dragging nodes on the canvas stops working — that is the mathematics, not a bug.
3.5 Primitive Parameters
What Param A / Param B mean depends on the primitive type, and the UI relabels them accordingly:
| Primitive | Param A | Param B |
|---|---|---|
| Polygon | Sides (3~64) | — |
| Star | Points (3~32) | Inner radius ratio (0~1) |
| Rectangle | Corner radius (0~1; at 1 it becomes a capsule) | — |
| Arc | Start angle (deg) | Sweep (deg) |
| Spiral | Turns | Inner radius ratio |
| Lissajous | X frequency | Y frequency |
| Wave | Cycles | Amplitude |
| Grid | Columns | Rows |
| Rose | k | unused |
| Beam Fan | Beam count (1~64) | Spread (deg) |
Two more: Size (default 0.5 × 0.5) and Resolution (sampling density for the generated outline, 0 = derived from point spacing, max 2048).
Changing the primitive type re-applies sensible defaults to Param A / B. The same number means completely different things per type — 5 on a star is "five-pointed", on a rectangle it is a corner-radius ratio clamped to 1.0, which gives you a capsule. Values you adjusted yourself are left alone as long as the type does not change.
3.6 Text Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | LASER | — | The string |
| Font | empty | — | Font asset. Empty uses the project default font |
| Size | 0.4 | 0.01–2.0 | Height in normalized space |
| Tracking | 0 | −0.5–2.0 | Letter spacing, as a fraction of size |
| Line Height | 1.2 | 0.1–4.0 | Line spacing, as a fraction of size |
| Align | Center | — | Left / Center / Right |
4. Scan Profile
The point budget is the core: a frame gets this many samples, and all content divides them by arc length.
| Parameter | Default | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Point Count | 600 | 24–6000 | Samples per frame. This is the budget; point repeats and mirrors in the effect chain spend it too |
| Point Rate | 30 kpps | 5–80 | Sample clock, thousand points per second |
| Corner Dwell | 4 | 0–16 | Samples repeated at corners, scaled by angle/90. Without them corners are drawn round — galvos have mass and cannot turn instantly |
| Blank Lead In | 3 | 0–24 | Samples blanked before a jump |
| Blank Lead Out | 4 | 0–24 | Samples waited after a jump before lighting again, letting the galvo settle |
| Color Shift | 0 | −12–12 | RGB sample offset relative to XY, compensating the colour smear caused by modulation lag |
| Optimize Path Order | on | — | Reorders strokes to shorten blanked travel. Blanked travel costs samples too, and a bad order collapses the frame rate |
The frame rate is not a setting, it is derived:
frame rate = point rate ÷ point count. Below roughly 22 Hz fast movement shows flicker; below 15 Hz it is obviously flickering. The interface states the verdict directly — no need to work it out.
5. Multiple Devices
One animation can be sent to several devices.
- Preview Device IDs: which devices the preview goes to;
- Device Time Shift: time offset between devices, for staggered movement;
- Sequencer bakes per device: one track per device.
6. Transport
The strip under the canvas is a transport bar, not a timeline: play / pause, stop-and-rewind, a free-running clock readout, plus the tools, the device dropdown, the frame rate and the Grid / Snap / Blanking / Points display toggles.
There is no scrubber and no timeline. Content of this kind has no "total length" to begin with: every effect runs on its own period and the periods are unrelated, so a bar dragged from 0 to "the end" would mean nothing. To place content to the second, use Sequencer — see the next section.
7. Using It in a Scene
- Place a laser device object in the scene;
- Reference this animation asset on the device;
- Or add a laser track in Sequencer and bake per device.