Below are the 5 best free stage lighting simulation software. Using this software, you can design and simulate stage lighting for various shows, theater, dance, and live shows. This software lets you set up a stage floor plan and then add various lighting fixtures according to your needs.
You can add lighting equipment like moving lights, track spotlights, LED stage lights, Fresnel lantern, strip lights, scoop light, wash light, etc. This software also provides a catalog of lighting products from original manufacturers. In addition, many of these software provide the option to import local luminaire files.
Most of these software provide 3D rendering and Raytracing options. So, you can visualize how your designed stage lighting looks like in real world. You can analyze the entire stage lighting setup by calculating various parameters like light overhang, luminous intensity class, glare ratings, fitting, distance, inclination, etc.
Some of these software also produce complete documentation with precise information about the lighting equipment used. You can also save the stage lighting design as an image. Ok, let’s go straight to the 5 Best Free Stage Lighting Software:
1. Relux
Relux is the premier lighting design and simulation software for Windows. It provides a number of features to simulate lighting for various interior and exterior projects. You can design stage lighting also using it. You can download Relux [dari sini].
How to design stage lighting using Relux:
You can start by creating a new project by selecting a template like interior with CAD plan, exterior with CAD plan, interior with background image, exterior with background image, etc. After that, you can create a floor plan for the stage area using various objects like space objects, exterior objects, measurement objects, 3D objects, etc.
Now, from its Products menu, you can add various Luminaires, Lamps, and Sensors. You can use track spotlights, LED stage lights, Fresnel lanterns, strip lights, scoop lights, etc. It contains a library of lighting products from original brands, so that you can easily import luminaires into your projects.
But, if you don’t find the product you want in its library, you can always search, download and import it from its own product search engine i.e. ReluxNet. You can adjust the stage lighting and then see how it looks in 2D and 3D modes.
This free stage lighting software also provides a dedicated Calculation module. You can use this module to perform stage lighting calculations including total luminous flux of lamps, total power, maintenance factor, major surfaces, evaluation area, etc. Before performing calculations, you can set some calculation parameters using Calculation Manager, such as measuring area, enabling raytracing calculations, sun elevation graph, artificial light, etc.
The results of the stage lighting simulation are displayed in a special tab. From the Results tab, you can view the results including 3D luminance view, 3D pseudo color view, 3D mountain plot, Raytracing, Results Table, and Graphs (Isolines, Pseudo colors). You can save the resulting image in JPEG or BMP format.
Overall, it is one of the best stage lighting software that you can use for free.
2. DIALux
DIALux is a feature-rich lighting design software for Windows. Can be used for various indoor and outdoor projects such as buildings, rooms, street lighting, etc. Supports a variety of light sources to add to lighting simulations including various luminaires, lamps, and daylighting systems. You can also use this software for stage lighting. Bro, you can download DIALux [dari sini].
To start with, you can build a stage from scratch using the Construction tab. If you already have a stage floor plan, you can import it from files like JPG, DWG, TIFF, DXF, PNG, GIF, etc. After doing so, you can move to its Light tab where you design the stage lighting. It provides a catalog of lighting products with various lighting fixtures from original brands.
Based on your requirements, you can download the desired lighting fixtures from the brands and use them in your stage lighting project. You can even import luminaire files into your project. Moreover, it lets you edit lighting product properties such as positioning, mounting type, photometric data (luminous flux, connected load, light output ratio, luminous efficacy, etc.), energy consumption and cost, etc.
Apart from that, it lets you set filters, light scene, maintenance factor, energy consumption, etc. You can add help paths and labels to the project to make it easier to understand.
Apart from the 2D view, it also provides the option to create and view the designed stage lighting in 3D. To analyze your stage lighting setup, it provides a calculation feature to calculate various factors like horizontal luminance, perpendicular luminance, dangling light, light intensity class, glare rating, installation, distance, slope, etc. You can also view and save tracked drawings and floor plans. The final output and product documentation can be saved and printed as well.
3. SweetLight
SweetLight is an excellent stage lighting software for Windows and Mac OS. This is basically DMX lighting control software. It lets you create a light show with various lighting fixtures and fittings. However, this software is quite complicated to understand, especially for novice users. So, I suggest you to watch this video tutorial first, or you can use the demo project to get started with this software. You can download SweetLight [dari sini].
From its Editor section, in the Fixture tab, you can create scenes by adding fixtures and assigning them a DMX address. It provides various lighting fixtures in its inbuilt library like moving lights, spotlights, wash light, etc. You can also import or create new gear. It provides options to adjust lighting properties like Edit Channels, Flip Pane, Tilt Flip, etc.
You can also create a scene step by step in the Step tab, or you can create a scene with generator effects in the Generator tab. In Pixel section, you can create scenes with effects like rainbow, hunter, scrolltext, etc. You can even create a live show in its Live tab, by creating a page with buttons to trigger scenes. You can also create a horizontal timeline to sync light scenes and audio & video.
It also lets you generate a 3D view of the created light show. In 3D view, you can adjust stage settings (area, ground, front wall, back wall, roof, etc.), object settings (position, orientation, scale, color, etc.), fixture settings, etc. You can also print 3D views. Apart from that, you can generate DMX bar graphs, audio spectrum, etc.
4. LabLux
LabLux is another free stage lighting software on this list. Using it, you can manually design overall lighting settings for stage performances. It provides a variety of equipment and lighting fixtures for setting up the stage. You can use camera, follow spot, strip light, border light, par light, architectural lighting, moving light, data show, fog machine, set light, mini brut, loco light, etc., to design stage lighting. You can download LabLux [dari sini].
First, you have to enter the width and height of the stage area. After that, from the left panel, you can drag and drop objects and place them. You can rotate and duplicate added lighting objects. It lets you set the properties of each object including effect, model, type, mark, angle, strength, name, note, etc.
You can see a blueprint of the designed stage lighting in the Project tab. From here, you can even view a spreadsheet of all the equipment and lighting used along with their properties. You can save the project only in this software’s own project format.
It is a portable stage lighting software that requires no installation. You can use it on the go.
PS: During testing, some of the features did not work properly, such as the Print option.
5. Light Artist
Light Artist is another alternative to stage lighting software for Windows. Although it is mainly used to apply lighting effects to your images, you can also use it to simulate stage lighting. You can download Light Artist [dari sini].
How to simulate stage lighting using Light Artist:
First of all you need to load images and simulate different stage lighting sources in different conditions. From the Light Settings menu, you can use various presets for lighting, such as purple light, spring sun, glow of fire, flying colors, etc.
One of these presets is Stage Lighting. You can use these presets to simulate stage lighting. Now, you can add multiple light sources with variable height, intensity, divergence, ambient light, and light color. You can select the light source type as Spot, Omni, or Parallel. After configuring the lighting settings, you can hit the Process button to visualize the lighting effects. You can save images with lighting simulation in JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, or TIFF images.
This is a very basic stage lighting software alternative. If you want more features, I suggest you to use the other software mentioned above.
Conclusion: Relux is one of my favorite stage lighting software from this list. It provides all the essential and advanced tools needed to design and simulate stage lighting. You can calculate various lighting parameters and generate 3D luminance displays, raytraced images, result tables, graphs, etc.
My other favorite is DIALux as it lets you create proper documentation for your designed stage lighting project.
