A LedFx virtual is a device-independent effect surface that can be spanned or copied across multiple physical LED strips

LedFx separates the effect from the hardware via a ‘virtual’: a virtual device carries its own active effect and is then mapped onto one or more physical devices’ segments. This indirection enables three things impossible with per-device effects: run the same effect on several physical strips fully synchronised regardless of LED counts (copy mode); slice one effect across multiple devices so each shows a portion (span mode); or stitch several strips/matrix blocks into one larger logical matrix. Under the hood LedFx auto-creates one virtual per device, but user-defined virtuals are what let a performer treat a distributed lighting rig as a single controllable canvas.

Examples

Copy virtual: identical effect mirrored on a 60-LED strip and a 144-LED strip, synchronised; span virtual: one comet effect sliced proportionally across three strips of different lengths.

Assessment

Distinguish a ‘device’ from a ‘virtual’ in LedFx, and describe one lighting-rig scenario that requires a span virtual and one that requires a copy virtual.