A la carte buying of features?

[pangolinlaser]

Hi All,

A few months back, somebody on the Pangolin Forum at our web site suggested that we consider the ability for people to buy individual features. For example, if somebody currently owns LD Intro and they want some extra tracks, they want to be able to buy these without spending a full $1500 to upgrade to LD Basic. I have given this some thought and have come up with some initial pricing. The features and prices listed here are by no means final. I want to run it by you fine folks on LaserFreak to get your feedback.

TRACKS AND SCANNERS
LD Intro allows editing of 3 tracks and LD Basic allows editing of 16 tracks. If you want to purchase additional tracks for either package, the cost is $50 per track. When you reach 16 tracks you can assign tracks to 2 scanners, and when you reach 32 tracks you can assign tracks to up to 20 scanners.

ABSTRACT GENERATOR
LD Intro comes with one oscillator bank and LD Basic comes with two. Both of these only allow basic waveforms such as sine, triangle, square, etc. If you want to purchase additional oscillator banks, the cost is $100 per oscillator bank, and the cost to access all waveforms and frames is $400.

FRAME TYPES
LD Intro allows the creation of point-oriented frames only. If you want to purchase the ability to create vector-oriented frames and raster frames, the cost is $300.

COLORS
LD Intro allows for the use of up to 24 colors and LD Basic allows up to 60 colors. If you have LD Intro and you want to have up to 60 colors, the cost is $200 and we also give you the "Paint roller" tool. If you have LDBasic and want an unlimited number of colors including faded line endings, the cost is $600.

SURFACE MAPPING TOOLS
LD Intro basically has no surface mapping or image warping tools. LDBasic has 2D image warping tools, but no 3D surface mapping tools. If you want to purchase the 2D image warping tools (curves, fisheye lens, spiral, etc.) the cost is $200 and we would include the "Numeric resize-rotate-move" tool as well. If you want to purchase the 3D surface mapping tools (map onto a cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, etc.) the cost is $400.

EXTRA EFFECTS
LD Intro does not include certain perspective and depth cue effects. Nor does it include the MIDI output or AUX output effect. These can be purchased for $100.

OUTPUT SHOW AS A SEQUENCE OF ILDA FRAMES AND AVI FILE
LD Intro can not output a show as a series of ILDA frames or as an AVI multimedia file. If you want this capability, the cost is $300.

TRANSITION SHAPES AND MORPHING
LD Intro does not have the ability to accelerate, decelerate, ping pong, etc. Nor does it have the ability to do real-time morphing. These can be purchased for $200.

MICROSCRIBE 3D INPUT
Neither LD Basic nor LD Intro have the capability of supporting the Microscribe 3D input device. This capability can be purchased for $100.

3D FRAME CREATION WITH FOUR VIEWS AND Z AXIS DATA
Neither LD Basic nor LD Intro have the capability to create 3D frames. This capability can be purchased for $700.

QUICK 3D FRAME CREATION TOOLS
Neither LD Basic nor LD Intro include the Extrude, Spin or Lathe tools to quickly create 3D geometric objects. This capability can be purchased for $300.

YOUR OPINION COUNTS
Even though I used the terminology "the cost is" and "can be purchased for", these are only prices that I came up with just this evening. It could be that these prices need to be adjusted one way or another. I will say that when you add them up, you come up with roughly the price increment of going from one LD level to the next. Nevertheless, I would like to hear your opinion on these prices and this whole "a-la-carte" concept.

Best regards,

William Benner
Pangolin Laser Systems

[rodpike]

Great idea...!
For me as a poor student a "build your own" Pangolin Option would be fantastic..