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strosmkai-rum · 3 years

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writing resources masterlist.

i have to admit. my first reason for doing this was to spite my brain because it wouldn’t write. so, instead, i made this.

so here. 160+ links. gathered from a million questionable google searches, and some more crawling through mobile chrome tabs for 11 hours. anyways, enjoy!

where to write!

some popular platforms:

google docs is my choice for writing. it’s free, auto saves, you can access your stuff on mobile, pc, tablet, etc., and great for multi person collabs + link sharing. but, you need internet to use it, and for big documents (upwards of 55k words) it takes a while to load on pc, and editing on mobile is damn near impossible.

scrivener is great too, and has the binder, which is great for organizing stuff. however, the mac version is way, way ahead of the pc in terms of updated versions. i mean, the pc version is still useable. and, it’s pretty expensive at $45 usd.

microsoft word is really popular, and used pretty much everywhere. there’s templates and you can save documents in different formats, and compatible with other microsoft office programs too. it’s also a bit complicated at the start, but tbh most software is gonna be like that. sort of in the same boat as scrivener, as in, it costs money. usually a subscription, but if you decide to buy it flat out, it’s even more pricy, but def worth it imo.

other writing platforms:

zenwriter 3 for windows and mac - $17.50 usd

focuswriter - free

libreoffice - free

credit to @scribeofred for help with this. she has an amazing writing blog that’s super helpful, so definitely check it out! and she’s a professional editor, so it’s coming from someone who knows what they’re doing.

writing by hand is great too. some people can focus better that way, or, if you have a drawing tablet, you can write get the feeling of writing, and have it digitally too.

of course, you could just type into your notes app, or ao3, or a tumblr draft post, but let’s not-

focusing!

spotify, youtube premium, and tidal are all great for listening to music. all of them, except for the free version of spotify, have a subscription.

but maybe music isn’t your thing! here’s some more stuff:

rainforme is a rain/thunder player with adjustable volume

coffitivity for café ambience

ambient mixer has a ton of different ambience, and even lets you create your own.

noisli has playlists for different situations and has a built in timer and editor.

asoftmurmur lets you make your own mixes with their own, generally nature-focused sounds.

tabletopaudio with a focus on fantasy/noir ambience

mynoise has a lot of variety in sounds, including a...black hole

forest is an app/extension that grows a forest, for however long you manage to stay off of blacklisted sites, and dies when you revisit them. good for studying or a distraction-free writing experience (if you’ve got the restraint for it), but if you need resources on hand to write, this might not be good for you.

moodboards!

wanna make a moodboard? lit! here’s some ways to get your images.

unsplash (my journalism teacher, out of all the people recommended it to us. regardless, it’s a great way to source copyright free and not-stolen images.)

canva is much the same with no copyright issues, and actually lets you design the board on the site.

adobe spark is also good and free.

now. pinterest. don’t get me wrong, it’s great for finding images. but it’s full of stolen images and all. so, maybe don’t source your stuff from there.

character development!

behind the name name generator for different ethnicities, includes other character info like physical stats, language, age, blood type, cause of death, etc.

16personalities personality test

character flaws

how to create a character profile + worksheet below

big-ass character sheet (that’s the name) for making a wildly detailed overview of your character.

the most epic character chart ever (again, the name), a 12 page chart for your character.

character archetypes

character questionnaire

a super in-depth questionnaire for all stages of your character’s life

character development

creating a look for your character!

so maybe you’re not great at drawing. that’s okay!

first off, there’s a ton of amazing, talented artists here, that you can commission to get a picture of your character done. i’d definitely point you towards them first, because you help support them, and you also get some gorgeous art too!

but if you don’t have the funds for that right now, here’s some generators, to have one regardless.

picrew’s really popular, so here’s some generators i found, with social media linked for credit:

sky: children of light character maker (i didn’t see any social media, just a link to the game’s terms of service) aka the one i use in my tumblr prof pic

among us character creator (@NetherHeartz on twitter)

icon maker (@lullindo on twitter/instagram)

another icon maker (tumblr)

character maker (tumblr, twitter, instagram)

girl maker (tumblr)

fantasy girl maker (twitter)

aesthetic girl maker (@rileydixondesign on instagram)

boy maker (@hellomadjackass on twitter/instagram)

another boy maker (tumblr, @GigiliJiggly on twitter, @gigili_jiggly on instagram)

western boys (@mosssygator on twitter)

and toyhou.se is great for storing your character.

prompt generators!

a list of different generators depending on what you need

pretty much the same as above

pretty much the same as above again

same again-

127 prompts if you’re writing about yourself

science fiction plot generator

random generators

map making!

cartographer’s guild is a website dedicated to map making, so a TON of resources on geography and landscape and whatnot.

inkarnate is for making your own fantasy maps, they have a free and a pro version but the free one is def enough to get going!

worldanvil is awesome for worldbuilding in general.

nat geo has an awesome interactive world map, with options to see a ton more info like population density, animal populations, language diversity, and just a lot of stuff in general for irl maps.

mapchart is great for irl custom maps.

this one is also good, a bit laggy and auto-generates a map, but def useable. here’s a how-to for it.

geoguesser lets you pick somewhere on the world map, and it’ll show you that location on google maps.

and of course, there’s the classic ‘spill uncooked rice/macaroni on paper, trace the outline, and go from there’ technique.

medication/wounds!

drug index to find specific medication and side effects

medicine name generator to make your own!

how drugs are named!

writing realistic injuries

writing realistic injuries 2

wound term definitions

wound documentation

interactive 3d human body with viewable layers

broken bones

bruise colors

entrance + exit wounds

gunshot injuries

stab wounds

blood clotting and bleeding disorders

blood clotting and bleeding disorders 2 electric boogaloo

general info on bleeding to death

deathreference aka the encyclopedia of death and dying, alphabetized

how to write gore and examples

crime writing!

poisons

the human body after death

body changes after death

corpse decomposition

killing someone (not as easy as it seems)

three essays on political corruption

criminal law

usa state laws

an fairly simple overview of uk law

legal system in the uk

more guides to uk law

used + abused drugs

a-z list of illicit substances

paper on drug use, trade, and prices

64-page long paper on economic and social consequences of drug abuse + trafficking

70 page crime scene checklist

illustrated guide on kitchen knives

history of combat knives

firearms

more forensic science topics

crime scene investigation/forensics articles

serial murder

havocscope for black market/underground stuff, and more pages on corruption and organized crime

general overview of political corruption

homicide investigation procedures

psychology of famous criminals

faqs about human trafficking

fingerprints and black powder

pathology guides

understanding injuries

analyzing bodies

crime scene response and procedures

the fbi can actually help you write your story as well, here.

more resources!

if you’re esl or struggle with grammar, this might help.

fight scene advice (i see a lot of writers struggle with this, including me, but this helped a ton.)

more help on fight scenes

info on first drafts

editing vs. revising

10 things that might be stopping you from writing

language vs. dialect

a bunch of generators for cities and names

mithrilandmages name generators and lists (fantasy + modern generators)

over 100+ generators for a ton of fandoms

medieval bestiary

greek mythology bestiary

norse gods and creatures

more norse mythology

scandinavian folklore

more scandinavian folklore

mythical creatures masterlist (not as in-depth as the bestiaries, but if you need ideas/a general overview, this is really good)

different types of povs

more pov stuff

more povs with definitions and lots of examples

how to choose your pov

gestures + body language masterlist

facial expressions masterlist

voice library with sounds according to different emotions (warning: they automatically play when you hover your mouse over them so lower your damn volume when you do, because some of them are really. uh. moany.)

printable storyboards

online storyboard making

writing, roleplaying + worldbuilding (advice on pretty much anything you could name)

some cool french phrases

essaytyper

harvard’s essay writing resources

tips on writing grief

a ton of different essays on writing topics

638 character traits

color shades + names 1, 2, 3, 4

alphabetical list of colors

date calculator

every literary device

animal tracking

compound bows, draw length + weight

famous last words

bite force of different animals

tips on writing accents

unique fracture patterns in glass/glassy polymers

a-z of careers

types of swords

general advice!

jot down ideas when you get them!

don’t force yourself to write, or else you’ll burn out. and that’s never good.

have snacks and drinks handy if you’re going to be writing for an extended amount of time. even if you’re not, your brain needs fuel to run.

so, drinks like tea and water. snacks that aren’t oily/greasy or crumbly (i mean, do you really want that on your paper or keyboard?),

and on that note, for god’s sake use the bathroom frequently.

if you have difficulty concentrating, get something like a fidget cube or something to help. or take a nap.

if you don’t think your writing is good at first, just keep. writing. it’s a skill, and the more you write, the better you’ll get.

beta readers and outside opinions are very helpful. and please, never antagonize them first.

first drafts are messy! and done > perfect the first time around.

probably more stuff but it’s been 11+ hours and i want to play skyrim already so take it.

#writing #resources #my brain did this instead of write #what do i tag here #crime #forensic science #writeblr

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enchantedamusedslightlyconfused · 4 years

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73 questions.

I was tagged by @wescoasts @machine-gun-casie (BABES)

Almost all my friends have been tagged and I don't wanna be that asshole so ill try not to be. I tag @awkwardrocker @backoftheroomandnotbelonging @trixiehoe @she-who-is-timey-wimey

On a scale of 1-10, how excited are you about life right now?

Well it’s finals week so about -864. After that I have two weeks of legitimate nothing where I will bake my heart out so we’ll see

Describe yourself in a hashtag?

#yikes #ughshesinherfeelsagain

If you could do a love scene with anyone, who would it be?

Milo Ventimiglia, Kells, Rook.....being a music video love interest is only my life’s pipe dream

If your life was a musical, what would the marquee say?

And that’s on daddy issues and no supervision...

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?

I used to model like went to modeling school and got paid for it type shit

What’s your wakeup ritual?

get woken up by my dog tired of hearing my alarm, walk said opinionated quadruped, feed quadruped, get dressed, COFFEE, then take life as it comes

What’s your go to bed ritual?

melatonin gummies (gotta make anxiety fun), skincare when executive dysfunction will allow, brush teeth, fight dog for my spot in bed (moving a 90lb animal is no joke), turn on my sleep playlist or use my ambient noise app, stare at ceiling

What’s your favorite time of day?

witching hour followed by golden hour

Your go to for having a good laugh?

lately tiktok and Kellyvisions, previously vine compilations or Netflix specials

Dream country to visit?

Ireland. I NEED to go to the motherland. My families castle is still standing and I get in for free. its on my bucket list FOR SURE.

What’s the biggest surprise you’ve had?

getting into nursing school and chiropractic school. I’m a loser and I’ve never had a surprise party. I’d melt in puddle of love tbh

Heels or flats/sneakers?

Flats 98% of the time. Heels are reserved for business casual necessity, Halloween, or if I’m feeling myself

Vintage or new?

both, depends on the item

Who do you want to write your obituary?

Amy-Sherman Palladino

Style icon?

lmao a what? on the real though catch me fucking with those eco-friendly kitchen witch vibes. All the dainty jewelry, linens and converse/docks fam

What are three things you can’t live without?

my dog, my family (found and blood), healing people however I can (medicine ruined me for any other career and its sucks you guys)

What’s one ingredient you put in everything?

tbh salt, I question a recipes validity if salt isn't involved

What 3 people living or dead would you like to make dinner for?

Kells and the band (I'd be too nervous for a one on one), a dinner party with my MGK fam, Elvis

What’s your biggest fear in life?

Failure, not accomplishing anything

Window or aisle seat?

window all day everyday, on the wing preferably cause I like to feel the landing gear #pilotsgranddaughter

What’s your current TV obsession?

Roadies forever, pry that series from my cold dead hands (also Gilmore Girls and Criminal Minds)

Favorite app?

tie between Tumblr and Pinterest (im an aesthetic slut)

Secret talent?

I am bomb at disney princess songs, the girls I babysit for treat me like a jukebox at bedtime, cutest thing ever

Most adventurous thing you’ve done in your life?

delivered a baby has hands down been the coolest thing I’ve ever done

How would you define yourself in three words?

I fucking hate this question. always have. empathetic, resilient, intuitive

Favourite piece of clothing you own?

overall: my senior prom dress. its emerald green, backless, with a slit to upper thigh chefs kiss

everyday wear: Colorado sweatshirt

Must have clothing item everyone should have?

I second Jude: over sized hoodies

Superpower you would want?

nonspecific healing powers so they aren't limited to physical ailments

What’s inspiring you in life right now?

Colson

Best piece of advice you’ve received?

HA. probably that the body remembers more about trauma than the mind and your seemingly irrational physical reactions to things are your brain’s attempt to protect you

Best advice you’d give your teenage self?

his mistake does not define your worth. I went for a variant of these boys aint shit don't judge me cause she needs to hear it

A book that everyone should read?

Harry Potter series (yes the whole thing), Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Giver by Lois Lowry

What would you like to be remembered for?

empathy, the way I made people feel

How do you define beauty?

FOR THE LAST TIME ITS SUBJECTIVE, things that give you peace, it could be a song, a person, a sunset, a scone, a leaf. If it makes you stop a second and exhale then its beautiful to you

What do you love most about your body?

holy trigger question Batman...my eyes, my hair color, texture, and its ability to grow

Best way to take a rest/decompress?

drive with the windows down and blast music while singing at the top of my lungs

Favorite place to view art?

unexpected places, like street corners, carnivals, just somewhere it takes you off guard and makes you stop and pay attention

If your life were a song, what would the title be?

it’d be one of those crazy long 2000s fall out boy titles for sure, subject matter yet to be determined

If you could master one instrument, what would it be?

violin hands down, it hits me different

If you had a tattoo, where would it be?

I have a bunch planned, plane on my right shoulder, Kells related between 3rd and 4th ribs (maybe lower in case I ever need a chest tube), watercolor portrait of my dog at some point location TBD

Dolphins or koalas?

dolphins are stoners and they're super smart, but koalas cause they’re grumpy af and honestly same

What’s your spirit animal?

again Jude and I are vibin: I've been identifying with a phoenix as of late. according to pottermore im a greyhound though (yes a patrons is a wizarding spirit animal. fight me)

Best gift you’ve ever received?

seven year old me was stoked to get a functional microscope and metal detector, I was in my egyptology/archeology phase, I still have them lmao

Best gift you’ve ever given?

oh hell idk...I made my cousin cry once cause I made cupcakes for her birthday party, they were cherry limeade flavored and had little straws and everything. that was pretty cool, granted she was seven. I also made my teacher cry cause I made sea salt caramel chocolate cupcakes for her going away party. I guess my baking brings people to tears

What’s your favourite board game?

candy land, battleship, cards against humanity even though there isn't a board

What’s your favourite colour?

forest green atm

Least favourite colour?

bright yellow/orange, its offensive to my general The Dirt Mick Mars disposition

Diamonds or pearls?

pearls (actually opals though)

Drugstore makeup or designer?

not picky provided they are evironmentally friendly. I really like Besame Cosmetics though

Blow-dry or air-dry?

air-dry, I don't have the patience for blow drying

Pilates or yoga?

yoga

Coffee or tea?

COFFEE, im still learning to like tea

What’s the weirdest word in the English language?

holy shit how much time do we have, my favorite weird word to say is fistula or omphalocele (they're medical conditions, don't goole it unless you have a strong stomach)

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?

dark chocolate

Stairs or elevator?

stairs

Summer or winter?

neither FALL BITCHES winter if I had to pick cause I love Christmas

You are stuck on an island, you can pick one food to eat forever without getting tired of it, what would you eat?

burgers

A desert you don’t like?

red velvet cake....just why is it a thing that exists

A skill you’re working on mastering?

baking scones or shit that’s flaky in general

Best thing to happen to you today?

being tagged to do this twice, I felt special for a hot second (thanks babes)

Best compliment you’ve ever received?

that I would make a good doctor (I handled a scary pt situation like a champ, they didn't know I threw up after I made sure my pt didn't die. puking in a foreign country on the download is a skill in and of itself)

Favorite smell?

bergamot, baking bread, baking spice cakes at Christmas

Hugs or kisses?

HUGS CAN SAVE THE WORLD

If you made a documentary, what would it be about?

gifted kid fall off

Last piece of content you consumed that made you cry?

In These Walls - Machine Gun Kelly

Casual Sabotage - Yungblud

genius assholes...

Lipstick or lip gloss?

lipstick for special occasions but actually tinted chapstick or lip stains

Sweet or savoury?

savory to eat sweet to make for someone else

Girl crush?

Brittney Furlan Lee, Alexis Bledel, Lauren Graham

How you know you’re in love?

you look at them and just say yep. them. usually while they're doing something stupid

Song you can listen to on repeat?

imma out myself but Swing Life Away - Machine Gun Kelly

If you could switch lives with someone for a day who would it be?

the grass is not greener ya’ll. id rather go back and relive days

What are you most excited about at this time in your life?

hopefully passing my first trimester of chiropractic school. fingers crossed pls

#quarantine games #don't come for me people #if you identify with this stuff hit me up #I can always use more quarantine buddies #love and good vibes to you all

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patrickjane92us · 4 years

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The Future of Ray Tracing.

About Ray Tracing

Hey folks lets talk about Graphics and the big news around Ray tracing computer graphics have come in an incredible way since the days of the first video game. Games started off as grids of white squares on a gray background and they've advanced through 2d scenes with 8 and then 16 bit color to polygons complex textures and full 3d. Today games use tools like tessellation shaders occlusion and mapping to achieve nearly photorealistic results and we may be getting closer to that holy grail of lifelike graphics Ray tracing. Let's back up a bit since those early 3d days some of the biggest improvements in graphics have had to do with the way scenes render shadows and reflections, in 2004 doom 3 introduced some of the first high-quality dynamic shadows in gaming this meant the shadows moved with the lights and the characters in the game and the results were fantastic, eerie lighting cast long shadows on catwalks and when enemies ran through hallways lit by swinging lights they cast chaotic shadows that moved with them as they ran it all worked together to thoroughly freak out gamers of the day. Those great shadow and lighting techniques have come a long way since doom 3 but they are still today fundamentally based on the same idea called rasterization. In rasterization a scene is drawn pixel by pixel with the game engine checking things like distance texture proximity light sources and occlusion whether or not anything is in the way before they pick a color for that pixel you move pixel by pixel through a scene and calculate the color for each one based off this physics and geometry of the scene around you eventually you build an image in rasterization lighting is particularly challenging. Light sources kind of project a field where things inside that field get lighter on one side the side facing the light and cast a shadow on the other side but in the real world light doesn't just move in a straight line like that it bounces and diffuses and passes through objects all depending on what they're made of and that's a lot to account for. In rasterization for each light source the computer works out if something is blocking the path of that light and if it is the computer runs through a series of calculations to work out what to do next and the simplest it'll just cast a shadow more complex processes like ambient occlusion try to adjust for the objects in the scene tweaking the lighting to account for the way objects reflect light and cast some shadows on each other but still these methods are relatively crude the simplest forms of ambient occlusion called screen space ambient occlusion or SSAO only account for the depth of an object in the scene, it essentially tries to put more shadows on objects behind other objects but it doesn't actually account for where the lights in the scene are even advanced ambient occlusion at best creates diffuse shadows that still don't actually relate to where light is coming from and all of these methods struggle with direct light harsh shadows mixed lighting basically the wave reflections shadows and highlights all work in the real world. All of this is an attempt to get to what people call global illumination which is the idea that a graphic scene could be rendered just like the real world and here's where ray tracing comes in in the real world light sources emit photons that travel in a straight line until they hit a surface and there they can either pass through the surface be reflected or absorbed these photons bounce around and eventually some of them make it into your eyes and that's how you see. Ray tracing tries to work the exact same way but backwards it draws millions of rays outwards from the camera your perspective in a video game and then it calculates how they'll bounce around the scene whenever array bounces off an object another ray called a shadow ray is drawn towards the light sources in the scene if there's a clear path that first ray makes the object it bounced off writer and if it's blocked it casts a shadow instead the big upside to ray tracing is hyper realistic reflections shadows and highlights that don't need to be pre-rendered all of this lighting detail can be generated based off the geometry in the scene and as characters and lights move around the light changes in dynamic and realistic ways. Ray tracing is particularly good at reflections and refraction things like light moving through a glass of water and color spill or the way that a brightly colored object can change the color of other objects near it. Now ray tracing is potentially actually a simpler system than layering lighting models with shadows and shaders and occlusion but calculating the paths of millions of rays can take an incredible amount of processing power to fully rate raise a standard 1920 x 1080 HD scene you need to draw a minimum of 4 million rays to start getting good results and potentially 50 million or more the backwards system of drawing the Rays out from the camera instead of out from light sources is actually a way to try to cut down on processing by only rendering the Rays that will actually be seen by the player even with this backwards ray trick processing ray-traced images has traditionally been incredibly slow and no games currently used real-time ray tracing

Ray Tracing in Movies

The technology has been entirely limited to pre-rendered video and Hollywood movies animated Studios like Pixar extensively used ray tracing in their films and part of what makes modern special-effects blend so well with real-world footage is the use of ray tracing to create accurate lighting for every part of the scene now these Studios have the luxury of using render farms with dozens of computers working together and even here each frame can take hours to draw instead of the fraction of a second we need for a playable game “a single frame can take more than 24 hours to render”.

Ray Tracing for gaming

The new technology might be changing this, Microsoft has unveiled a new set of tools in DirectX 12 which supports ray tracing. DirectX is the set of graphics tools that power most windows games at a fundamental level and their newly announced DXR API supports ray tracing in games Nvidia also announced their own set of tools called RTX that would leverage their own hardware to speed up real time ray tracing in games, DXR should work on older Nvidia cards as software but RTX actually depends on hardware acceleration that's currently only found on Nvidia's volta line of graphics cards specifically RTX is supposed to add hardware acceleration for ray tracing area shadows reflections and ambient occlusion now this should all work together to create a more lifelike scene not one to be left out AMD announced updates to their radeon ray tracing system including support for real-time ray tracing in games and promised low-level driver support for Microsoft's DXR in the near future unity the game engine of choice for many indie developers is also incorporating AMD's Ray tracing tech into their game design tools though only for what's called baked or non moving lights so are we at the verge of a ray tracing revolution well not quite yet and here's where things actually get a little fishy. NVIDIA is saying it's volta cards will support ray tracing at a hardware level the way current graphic cards have specialized circuits and hardware for shaders or decoding video however on current Volta cards it's unclear what those special Hardware features actually are now part of the problem is that there are almost no volta graphics cards out there most volta cards are actually specialized boards used for supercomputers and AI research and the only one even approaching a consumer product is the $3,000 Titan VIII the recently announced GV 100 Quadro is a professional card that built on Volta and it looks to be extraordinarily powerful but it still isn't really a gaming card, rumors have also suggested Nvidia may entirely skip consumer cards in the volta line and while NVIDIA has said future graphics cards for gamers will incorporate the same hardware acceleration for ray tracing we don't actually know what those future graphics cards will be and as amazing as these demos look there's still more reason to be skeptical Epic's ray tracing demo at GDC was running in real time but it was running on an NVIDIA GTX station a computer that starts at around $50,000 and packs a 20 core processor in with four tesla v 100 cards each of which runs around $9,000 now confusingly tesla was also in the name of a previous Nvidia architecture but the tesla v 100 actually uses a voltage chip as great as these demos look many of them still actually had to use traditional rasterization on parts of the scene to keep the frame rates up as well this also isn't the first time we've heard announcements about real time ray racing Nvidia actually announced real time ray tracing on their Kepler chips at GDC 2012 six years ago so where does all this leave us ? But ray tracing is legit tech that really could make graphics look amazing but the demos we've seen this last year aren't even entirely ray-traced and they were running on hardware that is a long ways from what the average gamer might own Plus this isn't the first time companies have claimed ray tracing was just around the corner Intel made these claims in 2010 and so did Nvidia in 2012 there's another part of this to that as a PC gamer I hate to even talk about it but it's the consoles if running these raytrace demos on a normal gaming PC seems like a fantasy you try getting them to run on a ps4 integrating ray-tracing into a game isn't like flipping a switch it'll take serious work on the part of developers to bring ray-traced graphics into a game I'm sure in the next few years some rave developer come out with an insane ray-traced project for the PC master-race but until the consoles can come close to handling this sort of graphics rendering great racing for all may still be a long ways off.

#eduvogue nvidia vega gtx rtx redeon gpus raytracing AMD

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stephmolliex · 6 years

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Review: Nanoleaf's Rhythm Edition Light Panels top HomeKit-enabled wall lights

With or without the Rhythm module, Nanoleaf's Light Panels are probably the best HomeKit-enabled wall lights on the market, assuming you like their style and can spend enough to do them justice. Yes, you're correct: the Light Panels have been around for a while, and even the Rhythm Edition has been out for several months. But having reviewed the LIFX Beam and Tile, and even the Nanoleaf Remote, we realized we hadn't actually covered the Light Panels, despite being pretty popular. Basics & installation The Light Panels are thin triangles that link together to form bigger, color-shifting polygons. You can create some especially wild shapes, even wrapping them around walls and ceilings if you pick up Nanoleaf's special flex linkers and screw mounts. The basic Rhythm Edition kit includes nine panels and connectors, as well as a controller unit, sticky strips, and of course the Rhythm module. After a firmware update, the Rhythm enables animations in response to ambient audio. We'll dive deeper into that later. We should start by saying that it can take surprisingly long to install even Nanoleaf's basic kit, depending on your ambitions. The things can move if you happen to have untextured, perfectly smooth walls! Even then though Nanoleaf suggests applying three sticky strips per panel, and pressing them against the wall for at least 30 seconds. With nine panels, that adds up, especially since you need to prepare the wall for your pattern and make sure everything sits level. In our case installation ended up taking days. Before even beginning we realized that the stucco-like surfaces in our test house would be a problem, so we ended up making a trip to Home Depot to buy paneling, drywall screws, and a stud finder. This still wasn't enough, since we discovered that Nanoleaf's bundled mounting strips didn't cut it on the paneling anyway, prompting us to make yet another shopping run in which we picked up some Scotch "Extremely Strong" strips, ususally designed for much heavier objects. That seemed to do it for a while, but we eventually sprang for Nanoleaf's $24.99 Screw Mount Kit for peace of mind. We recommend cutting to the chase and getting this if you're confident enough about placement to drill holes. Software & Rhythm Module tech The Nanoleaf iPhone and iPad app is the starting point of software setup and where you'll probably be spending most of your usage time, at least initially. While the Light Panels support HomeKit/Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon Alexa, none of those platforms can directly exploit Nanoleaf's customizable animation or per-panel colors. The app is a little clunky, but easy enough. A Dashboard tab lets you browse through preloaded "Color" and "Rhythm" themes, as well as three "Basic" options -- "Warm White," "Reading Light," and "Daylight" -- that you'll probably never use, since you hardly need smart lights to achieve the same effects. There are tools to create your own designs, but frankly there are so many first- and third-party options listed in the Discover tab that anything you want has probably already been made. Searching around you can find themes for movies, countries, the weather, and much more. I personally settled on the warm, sunrise-colored "Nemo" for weekday mornings, "Snowfall" for midday, and "Vintage Modern" for evenings. All three of those are "Color" themes, meaning that even if panels cycle, they do so at preset intervals. This is the category you'll probably use most of the time, since it's interesting without being distracting. If distraction is your goal, "Rhythm" themes have you covered. These pulse in time to music and other audio, using either a built-in microphone or aux-in as sources. Mic input is the default and simplest option, though the best results require either a booming audio system or placing speakers close to the Rhythm module. In our case, a second-gen Amazon Echo about 10 feet away proved decent as long as it was at half volume or higher. The mic was sensitive enough that conversation-level sounds would sometimes trigger small blips on the Light Panels. Thankfully, only music, video, and especially loud sneezes seemed to trigger a light show. A tricky thing about the Rhythm module is that you sometimes need to hunt for the right theme to match the audio you're playing. As you can see in our demo videos, the "Streaking Notes" theme wasn't the best match for Nachtmahr's industrial song "Can You Feel the Beat," but "Ripple" worked well with Wynonie Harris' old-school R&B track "Lovin' Machine." For house, techno, and other electronic dance music, "Sound Bar" was usually the best pick. Be sure to put the controller on the left side of your lights though, or you'll see the bar spiking from the right instead. Incidentally you might be tempted to pair one of the Rhythm modes with movies, but in our experience the motion and sheer brightness diverted too much attention. It's better to choose a subdued Color theme. Brightness is one of Nanoleaf's unsung strengths -- for once we have a set of wall lights that can serve as a primary light source, instead of just an accent. You're literally building a wall of light, and at night the Light Panels can even be blinding, assuming they're at full power with the right colors. HomeKit & Alexa In terms of manually controlling the Light Panels, HomeKit looks like a bust at first. You can of course turn them on or off and adjust their brightness, using either Siri or the iOS Home app, but you can only set uniform colors, and there isn't the slightest hook for animation support. Interestingly, themes created in the Nanoleaf app are silently exported as HomeKit scenes, and work just the same so long as you don't make any modifications. That means that you can queue them up in automations, and while Nanoleaf does have its own scheduling tool, the iOS Home app opens a wider range of possibilities, including pairing Light Panel themes with existing HomeKit scenes. Once we discovered this, there was rarely any need to launch the Nanoleaf app unless we wanted new fodder. A similar situation evolved with Amazon Alexa. Nanoleaf content would slowly migrate to the Alexa app's Smart Home section, and when it did, we were able to incorporate them into voice-triggered routines after adding the Nanoleaf skill. It was fun having the room turn red and white to the strains of "O Canada," for example, and we made similar routines for the U.S. and Germany. We weren't able to test Google Assistant support. Conclusions If we were spending our own hard-earned money on decorative wall lights, this would probably be the first choice, even knowing that they're a little more complicated to install. They're visually striking, fun to experiment with, and powerful enough to be practical. Practical is a relative term, naturally. The standard Rhythm Edition kit is $229.99, and you'll probably end up spending over $250 with secure mounting. You could spend less on a four-bulb Philips Hue Starter Kit, assuming you have places to screw in the bulbs. The Light Panels do represent a pretty good value when compared against decorative lights from LIFX and Philips though, so if you're so inclined, check out Nanoleaf first without hesitation. Score: 4.5 out of 5 Where to buy The Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm Smarter Kit is available at Best Buy for $229.99 with free shipping or in-store pickup. Nanoleaf also sells the 9-panel kit for $229.99, along with a 3-panel expansion for an additional $59.99. https://goo.gl/HCWW5Y

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