Balanced Color Mode / Full Color Mode

If you use the Light-O-Rama Hardware Utility to try various setting for the RGB values of CCR pixels, you will find three important characteristics:

First, the brightness is not linear.  For example, a setting of 100 is only a little brighter than a setting of 50, but 50 is significantly brighter than 25.

Second, the red, green, and blue elements are not balanced.  For example, on a computer screen, setting red to 100 and green to 100 will result in yellow, but on a CCR pixel, it will be more of a greenish yellow.  This is because the CCR's green element is stronger than the red element.  Setting red and blue to 100 will result in a bluish purple, because the blue element is stronger than the red element.

Third, the LEDs are so bright that the perceived colors will not be as deep as what you see on the computer screen.  This must be taken into account when comparing the colors on the computer screen with what you will get on the ribbons.  For example, red 100 and green 50 will give a bright orange; red 60 and green 30 will give a dim orange that will show as a muddy orange on the computer screen, but on the Cosmic Color Ribbons it will still be a fairly bright orange.

Making the brightness linear

The Light-O-Rama SuperStar Sequencer automatically adjusts the start and end settings to make them linear.  For example, a start setting of 50 in the SuperStar Sequencer will export to a setting of 25 in the Sequence Editor.  This gives the proper intensity for the start and end color of an effect.  But realize that a ramp that goes from 100 to 0 will not go from 100 to 0 smoothly: The hardware will bring the voltage down from 100% to 0% smoothly, but the brightness will go down slowly at first, then quickly at the end.  The SuperStar Sequencer simulates this fast drop off when it plays the sequence onto the ribbons.  Note that this fast drop off can be solved using the "Smooth Ramps" setting.

Balanced Color Mode

The SuperStar Sequencer defaults to "Balanced Color Mode".  In this mode, the red element is used in its full range, but the green and blue elements are limited to less than full brightness.  So, for example, if you set red to 100 and green to 100, you will get a true yellow on the ribbon.

Full Range Color Mode

To set this mode, go to the Tools menu and select Configuration.  When in Full Range Color Mode, the color controls will have the following ranges:

In this mode, setting red, green, and blue all to 100 will give the same results as in Balanced Color Mode.  Setting red to 100, green to 120, and blue to 130 will give a bluish white.  The SuperStar Sequencer simulates this color shift, but to do so it must "dim down" the settings that are 100 and below in order to support simulation of the colors that are at 100 and above.  Realize that even though the colors on the screen are dimmed down, the colors on the Cosmic Color Ribbon will not be.

Go Back to Balanced Color Mode

When going back to Balanced Color Mode, the SuperStar Sequencer advises that any settings greater than 100 will automatically be adjusted down to 100.  Note that after going into Balanced Color Mode, the next time you click on a color control, a warning box may appear that says "Enter an Integer between 0 and 100."  This is a bug which will be fixed in the future.  Click "OK" on the warning box; if another warning immediately appears, click "OK" on that also.  These warnings can be ignored.