Using Light ID

Owned by Caeden Statia
28 October 2021
3 min read

Another big feature introduced in Chroma 2.0 is the concept of light ids. Each individual light in the environment is assigned an ID, which can then be individually colored and controlled via Chroma events.

This gives lighters much more control over their lightshows. Gone are the days of being restricted to 5 groups of lights. With ChroMapper, you now have the power to control every single light.

Individual control over the state and color of each light? Yes please.

There are two ways in ChroMapper to utilize Light ID: Grouped Light IDs, and Ungrouped Light IDs. By default, these are bound to P and Alt - P respectively.

In any Light ID mode, the Events lane focuses on one specific light group. By default, this is group 1 (In most environments, this would be the “Big Rings” group). You can cycle between the groups of lights with the PageUp and PageDown keys.

The first lane will always be an All Lights lane, in case you need to control the entire light group with one event.

Grouped Light IDs

In Grouped mode, we group Light IDs by their Z-axis (forward/backward) position in the environment. This mimics the behavior of Light ID’s predecessor, called “Light Propagation” or simply “Prop ID”. This is also where the P keybind comes from.

Even if Light ID allows control of every individual light, this can be especially helpful with Ring lights, where it would be cumbersome to try and individually every single light attached to one ring.

Ring lighting made easier by grouping individual ring lights together.

Ungrouped Light IDs

To unleash Light ID’s true potential, we have the Ungrouped mode. This mode gives each individual light its own lane on the Events grid. You are given the finest control that Chroma has ever offered, but at the cost of a very large grid to navigate.

Restrictions

Unfortunately, there are a few restrictions that are imposed while using Light ID.

The biggest restriction is with flash/fade events and Chroma 2.0 gradients. These do not work properly in Beat Saber, so ChroMapper prevents you from placing these in Light ID lanes. It is recommended to use the Chroma Step Gradient feature in Strobe Generator to mimic fades and flashes using purely Color events. If you wanted to brute force these events, you can use Node Editor to do so, but your lightshow will not look the same in Beat Saber.