Hi everyone

My name is Paul and im a 3rd year Computer Science student at Bangor University, Wales, UK and my 3rd year project/dissertation is to create a fast and portable way to configure most pixels ever and run sketches.

Iv done this by creating a GUI Java program that runs from Knoppix on a USB pen drive. Seeing as Knoppix can run on most computers (as long as they can boot from USB) this makes it portable.

The Java program has two versions, a server and a client. The server side gathers information from the clients(one client for each screen/computer) and user, and allows the user to configure the screens using the GUI, which is much like the layout manager of most OS's for multiple screens. Once the layout is set the MPE configuration files are created on the client computers.

The program then uses Rsync to synchronise sketches from the server to the clients (so you only have to update one set of sketches), and the user selects which sketch to run. The server runs the MPE server jar and the clients run the sketches and thats it, job done.

The reason im posting this is to inform the community about my project and to get a to hopefully get a little help with a few things.

Iv noticed that MPE runs slower than normal sketches, i accept that this most likely due to syncing/ rendering reasons or it is due to the fact the computers running the sketches are a bit old but is there any way to speed the sketches up? Is it due to the fact im running it on knoppix from a USB drive?

For my project i also have to find other systems/software/projects that are similar to mine or would use my system. I have referenced the Big Screens class that Dan Shiffman teaches as that was what inspired the project (i didnt think the project up, my supervisor did) but im finding it hard to find other related work.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

If i have posted this in the wrong section i am sorry. If any further details are needed please just ask. I am fairly new to Processing and only found out about it when i started this project this year. I love it and would recommend it to anyone!