Tips on hover
Linger on a button and Pete chimes in with what it does and the menu it lives in. Beginner tips first, pro tips once you have seen the basics. He never nags: one tip, then quiet for a while.
VIRTUAL SFX LAB · TUTORIAL GUIDE
Meet Pyro Pete.
Pete is the chill, slightly funny guide who lives in the corner of Spark Studio. Hover a control and he explains it. Click him and ask anything. Start a mission and he walks across the screen to point at what you should press next.
Learn with Pete in Spark Studio ↗Download his browser extension ↓
Pete is an original cartoon drawn for this project. He runs in your browser and no account is needed. On this site his spoken lines use the studio voice service and questions go to the studio assistant; the extension sends nothing unless you connect your own AI or ElevenLabs account.
WHAT PETE DOES
A guide who talks back.
Ask instead of searching
Click Pete to open his ask box. Faders, cues, DMX addresses, universes, safety, what a mission wants from you: he answers from his own knowledge, and points to the manual when there is more to read.
Tours and pointing
Say “show me around” and he spotlights each control in turn. In missions he walks over, stands beside the control and points at it, then walks home when you are done.
Alive, and a little silly
His eyes follow your mouse. Left alone he scratches his head, yawns, stretches, rolls his eyes, checks his phone, zones out and snaps back, jiggles a leg, and now and then has a discreet scratch. Grab him and drag: he gets a scared face and his arms and legs flop like a ragdoll. Drop him anywhere.
Reads aloud
On this site Pete speaks with the Virtual SFX Lab studio voice, the same voice that narrates the manual and tutorials. Elsewhere he uses your device’s voices, or your own ElevenLabs voice if you add a key and voice ID in his settings. Mute him with the speaker button, hide him with the dash.
Settings, including your own AI
Hover Pete and press the gear. Pick his size from tiny to huge, choose a corner, set the voice and speed, and tone down the humor for a classroom. Turn off Always on top and panels can cover him: drop him on one and he tucks in behind it with his head poking out, or drop him on empty space and he floats. The action bar under his feet holds voice, tip, settings and an X that sends him away. Under Tips he recites you will find Pete's Fifty, grouped by subject, with Select all, Deselect all and a tick box per tip, so he only brings up the ones you want. Connect your own Perplexity, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or OpenAI-compatible key and Pete answers anything, not just his notes. The key stays in your browser and goes only to the provider you choose.
Honest about fire
Everything Pete teaches is a simulation. He is clear that real pyrotechnics and flame effects are for trained, licensed crews. Learning the controls is the safe part, and that is his job.
WHERE TO FIND HIM
Spark Studio, the learning edition.
Six virtual flames, Height, Angle, Program and Master faders, eight cues with GO and fade time, DMX addresses and universes, timing a show to music, and seven Pete-guided missions that earn XP. Classroom mode adds student profiles, a teacher tab, reset and progress export. It runs free in the browser with nothing to install.
- Ages Early teens and up; classrooms welcome
- Missions Faders · Looks · Mini show · Workspace · Addresses · Universes · Music timing
- Cost Free developer preview 0.6.0
- Fire None. It is a simulator
PYRO PETE FOR YOUR BROWSER
Take Pete to any page.
The Pyro Pete extension puts him in your browser toolbar. Click the icon and he appears on the page you are reading, ready to answer questions about faders, cues, DMX and Virtual SFX Lab, summarize a text selection, or just keep you company. Click the icon again and he leaves.
Download the Pyro Pete extension ↓
Version 0.3.2 developer preview for Comet, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Brave. Not a browser-store listing. Firefox and Safari are not included. Pete runs in his own sealed space on each page, so websites cannot read his panel or press his buttons. His memory and settings stay in the extension’s storage, and API keys are entered only on the extension’s own settings page, never on a website. The extension has no server and sends nothing anywhere unless you connect your own AI provider or ElevenLabs voice; then your questions, or a selection you ask him to summarize, go to that provider only.
How to install (unpacked)
- Download and extract the ZIP.
- Open your browser’s Extensions page. In Chrome, type
chrome://extensionsin the address bar. - Turn on Developer mode, choose Load unpacked and select the extracted
Pyro-Pete-Extensionfolder (the one containingmanifest.json). - Pin Pyro Pete from the Extensions menu, open any page and click his icon.
FOR BUILDERS
Drop Pete into your own page.
Pete is a single dependency-free script, vls-avatar.js, with tip packs, offline knowledge, guided tours and a JSON command API over direct calls, postMessage or server-sent events, so a backend or an AI assistant can drive him. The developer demo has a director console and the full command reference.