DiyLightAnimation
Software => xlights => Topic started by: dowdybrown on December 17, 2012,
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Well, I have been working hard on xLights - as you will see if you download version 2012d. Once again, I have put it in my dropbox instead of SourceForge because I don't feel the Sequence tab is "fully baked". However, I know the 2012c version had some bugs and I wanted to get a new version out that addressed those. So here it is:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50766638/xlights-setup-2012d.exe (http://dl.dropbox.com/u/50766638/xlights-setup-2012d.exe)
I have tried to address all of scheduling bugs (I am using this version to schedule my show). I also tried to fix the lag issue with the Etherdongle.
The Sequence tab is new and I know it will need some explaining - which I will try to do by responding to posts in this forum. To get started, the effects are based on Nutcracker (with Sean's permission). The Life and Snowstorm effects are not implemented yet and there isn't a Twinkle effect yet, but everything else is there. The nice thing is that all of the effects are created real time -- you can change the parameters by dragging a slider and instantly see the results. Some effects are enhanced - notably the Text effect allows you to choose any font installed on your system along with the font size. This includes fonts like Wingdings, or "Xmas dings" or other fonts with icons/graphics.
Model creation also has some enhancements: 1) you can start your string numbering from the left or right, 2) it can control strings that are not in RGB order.
Where things really differ from Nutcracker is in the way you string together effects. What I have put into this version is very rudimentary. I hope to make many improvements to this area in the next year. But what you have to do for now is open an xLights sequence (.xseq file), choose which model(s) will be included in the sequence when prompted, then insert rows into the grid and for every row type in the start time in seconds when that effect should start. To add an effect to the sequence, click on the grid cell in the desired display model column and the desired start time row, then click the Update button. When you are done creating effects for the sequence, click the save icon and the xLights sequence will be updated with the effects you stored in the grid. There is no export feature - you can only update xLights sequences. However, once updated you can convert the xLights sequence to Vixen format for viewing/tweaking.
That's it for now. Merry Christmas!
Matt
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Why do you not allow a schedule to be restarted during its timeframe after it is manually stopped? If you start a show past it's start time it will run, just not if it has already been started and stopped.
Just did a quick test of the new release and it seems to operated as expected.
This is a great sequence player. <res. <res. <res.
Merry Christmas
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Thank you Matt. I will try it later today.
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Matt, thanks again for all the hard work, I'll run the show tonight with this new one and see what I find.
Look forward to the new sequence text stuff for the scrolling matrix I'm running this year! Merry Christmas!
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Matt, all I can say is awesome! Thanks for all your hard work. <res.
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Awesome Matt
When can we expect the Linux/Mac side to catch up?
Fantastic work!
Tory
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When I had xlights 2012c I had a lag problem.
IT'S GONE!!!!!
Xlights 2012d, the cure for my lagging problem.
Thanks Matt!!!!
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Matt, got text loaded and the Play Effect works with the font loaded. I have the xseq loaded but I haven't found where I say my pixel matrix I mapped out in xlights is the 5040 channel in my xseq. Also I'm guessing we're puttin the start time of when we want it to start in the RGB Sequence box?
Matt, this Sequence tab is AWESOME, just what I've been looking for !
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Matt, got text loaded and the Play Effect works with the font loaded. I have the xseq loaded but I haven't found where I say my pixel matrix I mapped out in xlights is the 5040 channel in my xseq. Also I'm guessing we're puttin the start time of when we want it to start in the RGB Sequence box?
Matt, this Sequence tab is AWESOME, just what I've been looking for !
When you create your model you enter the starting channel number on that window. You should also check "Part of my display" - which causes the channel names on the Test tab to reflect your model name and it also causes the channels to save into your xseq file when you save your sequence. If "Part of my display" is unchecked, xLights assumes you are just trying out the model to see how it looks.
Matt
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glad I used one single controller, makes perfect sense. Nice work Matt, love the real time dynamics.
2012d is running the light show fine, been on for 1 hour now :)
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Matt, added a Matrix effect in at 0.00 and slapped it on the show computer, worked great!
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Thanks Matt! I look forward to trying this tomorrow!
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Matt this is awesome. Thanks for sharing! I have a question about my megatree in sequencer. My megatree is 32 strings of 60 nodes filling all 16 ports on 2 Active hubs. My Start channel on the first hub is 513 leaving the first 512 for 1 universe of DMX. Then my second hub has a start channel of 4097. How would I set that up in your model? I am asking because I am assuming (you know what that does) that in your model it does matter what the channel numbers are, unlike Nutcracker. My main sequencer is LSP.
Thanks again!
Roger
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Matt this is awesome. Thanks for sharing! I have a question about my megatree in sequencer. My megatree is 32 strings of 60 nodes filling all 16 ports on 2 Active hubs. My Start channel on the first hub is 513 leaving the first 512 for 1 universe of DMX. Then my second hub has a start channel of 4097. How would I set that up in your model? I am asking because I am assuming (you know what that does) that in your model it does matter what the channel numbers are, unlike Nutcracker. My main sequencer is LSP.
Thanks again!
Roger
I think i can answer this. If you have 32 strings and the first 16 are on hub #1. each string has 60 nodes or 180 channels per string
16*180 = 2880 channels for 16 strings
Subtract that from max channels in hub
4096-2880 = 1216
So start your megat tree model at 1216. first string at channel 1216 on hub #1,
the 17th string will start at 4097 on hub #2.
The last string, #32, will end on channel 6977
The key is to make sure you start a string on 4097, in this case right on pixel #1 on string 17.
thanks
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I think i can answer this. If you have 32 strings and the first 16 are on hub #1. each string has 60 nodes or 180 channels per string
16*180 = 2880 channels for 16 strings
Subtract that from max channels in hub
4096-2880 = 1216
So start your megat tree model at 1216. first string at channel 1216 on hub #1,
the 17th string will start at 4097 on hub #2.
The last string, #32, will end on channel 6977
The key is to make sure you start a string on 4097, in this case right on pixel #1 on string 17.
thanks
My start address is already 513 so I guess I will have to wait until next year to try this.
Thanks,
Roger
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The new version is working great! Thanks again!
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Working Great for me also, thanks again. :)
Glen
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It's good to learn that some people are happy with 2012d version. I've tried it and and was satisfied in the first show and second show, then on the third I've noticed that some lights are not lighting on some part of the sequence but the timing is still on the dot as per sequence. Went back to 2012b until i know where the problem is. Does it have to do with the conversion? I am not sure if it is the same music when i noticed the non-lighting of some strings.
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I went to 2012b to 2012c to 2012d with no problems. With that being said, I also added E1.31 this year and that caused some issues a long the way with mapping of lights.
So fslopex1950, you'd probably need to attach your xlights network config, or take a screenshot of it and attach it, then let us know if you which program you use for a sequencer, is xlights playing an LOR file, or did you convert it to xseq and how did you convert it (xlights, light elf, etc).
But to answer your basic question, the only real difference I've seen is the 2012c/2012d version gives you the ability to send your end channel on each universe--2012b didn't.
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I am not complaining just posting my results with the new release. I still get lag. I am only using the lynx dongle and 6 expresses. None of the 2012 versions have worked without lag for me. Vixen has not given me any com port errors this year so the show is working great. Last year vixen wouldn't work and xlights was my savior. The only difference between this years and last years show is a new faster computer with windows 7 instead of my old laptop with xp. Go figure. Thank you for all you do with xlights. I still use it as my primary tester.
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Matt - 2012d is working great for me. I like the sequence feature and tried it briefly. For the next release, would you consider a way to handle multiple SSC's that are in the hybrid mode? (I use it in some sequences to treat my nodes as a dumb string).
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I agree there needs to be some way to skip the control or dummy nodes.
Some people use strips and need to occasionally skip a node in their config.
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FYI, I have the latest svn revision building in linux using Code::Blocks.
I haven't done any real extensive testing of the linux build but I did making a quick model so I could test the nutcracker-esque functionality and it seemed to work!
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Thanks garyh for your reply.
Using Vixen as my sequencer, so I have to convert the sequences to xseq files since version d doesn't use vix files for the scheduler. In version b, I don't convert to xseq files. I use the xlights for conversion. In my first post I stated that everything is going smooth in the 1st and 2nd show and on the third show this problem showed up. I'm doing 5 shows per night with 5 minutes interval.
I'll try again ver. d after the season before I put down the lights and see what will happen. For the meantime will use ver. b.
And thanks to Matt for the time in doing xlights.
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I just read this thread last night and upgrade to 2012d. Fixed my lag issue. Thank you Matt! xLights is the only scheduler I got working this year with both of my pixelnet and renard networks. Without it, I wouldn't have a show running.
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I'm confused (nothing new here) by the sequence stuff. I have created a model of my pixel tree. I have created 8 presets that I assume are the equivalent of a nutcracker effect. The presets look correct on the play window. I created a sequence in Vixen I did not put any programming into it so it is just a blank sequence although there are 8096 channels in it and it is 2:34 long. I'm just chopping it into 20 second segments to see how this process works. I converted to xseq and want to insert an effect (preset?) every 20 seconds into the song, but I have not figured out how to tie my effects (presets?) into the table for the sequence. I just can't seem to get my mind around the process. I know what I want to do, but don't know how to do it. This is creating a sequence from nothing just to test out my learning.
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Jim, I'm at the same place. I've made some layouts, created a few things, but haven't figured out how to actually put them in a sequence. But - if I were to try right now, it would seriously make the outside display go crazy. So I'll keep playing and hope it becomes clear.
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Made a video showing the sequence tab and how it functions, I've had it scroll the text across the matrix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUWDoR9tEs
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I just followed your tutorial. This is awesome!
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That was super Gary. Now to go see if I can make something that I can add to my show tonight.
The next question is what is a preset? and how do you use them.
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preset just allows you to choose it and it should populate the Effect 1/Effect 2 windows. That way say you want to throw in Merry Christmas in 5 songs, you create the Text Scrolling Merry Christmas once, then you can choose that preset and you won't have to recreate that text effect 5 different times.
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Thanks, Gary. It makes a LOT more sense now.
Is the actual outdoor display brighter than the preview? My preview window seem a little dim.
(I don't have an RGB grid built, yet.)
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Thanks, Gary. It makes a LOT more sense now.
Is the actual outdoor display brighter than the preview? My preview window seem a little dim.
(I don't have an RGB grid built, yet.)
The "outdoor display" is a lot brighter - there are no light curves in xLights (yet). The reason I put outdoor in quotes is that I did a lot of my testing with a matrix hanging on the wall beside me :)
Matt
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Gary,
Thanks for the GREAT video. One point of clarification: when creating your model, the Smoothing selection doesn't do anything yet. It will be a future enhancement.
Matt
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One thing I have experienced. I deleted a bunch of sequences I was testing along with the playlist that I was testing with, but everytime I start up xlights I get error messages stating that the xseq file is missing in the playlist and will be deleted. I say ok and after the program starts up the old playlist is still there so the delete is not sticking. I discovered that the problem appears to be that there is still an entry in the schedule xml even though nothing shows up in the scheduler when I go to that tab. Seems like we need a check that when a playlist is deleted the schedule file is checked and also cleaned up.
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another issue I had is after I created a whole sequence for my pixel tree and played within the program, I quit xlights. When I came back to work on it the sequence was gone. Seems like a save button on the line with the play and other icons would be a good addition. Also the program should check for unsaved changes before exiting and pop up a warning on screen. Good thing I did not have much to lose.
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A suggestion. Put a grid button next to the update button. As I select and populate a sequence using presets I always have to change the drop down list back to grid in order to put it in the grid. It works, but could be more easily and quickly done with an "update grid" button.
Matt if you just want errors/problems in this thread let us know where and how you would prefer to receive other feedback.
This is a great tool and I appreciate all the work you have done.
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A suggestion. Put a grid button next to the update button. As I select and populate a sequence using presets I always have to change the drop down list back to grid in order to put it in the grid. It works, but could be more easily and quickly done with an "update grid" button.
Matt if you just want errors/problems in this thread let us know where and how you would prefer to receive other feedback.
This is a great tool and I appreciate all the work you have done.
This is a great place to post suggestions and bugs.
I just made the update based on your feedback :)
Matt
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Not sure about this idea, but you might try making the preview window have a white background. Then the colors would show up much better. When doing a window effect or line effect I can barely see any color with the black background.
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Sequence tab, would it be possible to either put a # of rotations or an amount of time for each animation? I do text scrolling and the way xlights seems to work is if I have a 3 min song, and I start a Merry Christmas at 1 second it will scroll the entire length of song. The only way to stop one effect is to put another in.
In Nutcracker you specify the duration of the effect and unless I"m missing something I'll have to scroll at least 1 letter or something out to make Merry Christmas only scroll once.
Awesome work on xlights Matt! Merry Christmas!
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Or, a Timeline based on the length of the Sequence, where you drag/drop onto it and then adjust the endpoint. Any "blank" spots would just be blank (or you drag a Blank effect into those spaces).
I do like the idea of a lighter background in the preview. It is very dark.
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just a quick tip (and a little praise for the program)
I followed Gary's tutorial (a page ago) and I don't need to have a "tune to XX.XFM" sign.
I opened Vixen, created a new blank sequence.
Then converted it to xlights.
then in the sequence tab, I created tune to effect that shows up in the megatree.
then i added a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year ones as well.
Now I have short sequences to just pop in during the show.
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This is a great place to post suggestions and bugs.
I just made the update based on your feedback :)
Matt
By any chance are you posting those updates into the dropbox link?
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just a quick tip (and a little praise for the program)
I followed Gary's tutorial (a page ago) and I don't need to have a "tune to XX.XFM" sign.
I opened Vixen, created a new blank sequence.
Then converted it to xlights.
then in the sequence tab, I created tune to effect that shows up in the megatree.
then i added a Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year ones as well.
Now I have short sequences to just pop in during the show.
This will be even easier in the next version. The open button will give you the option to create a new xLights sequence.
Matt
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Sequence tab, would it be possible to either put a # of rotations or an amount of time for each animation? I do text scrolling and the way xlights seems to work is if I have a 3 min song, and I start a Merry Christmas at 1 second it will scroll the entire length of song. The only way to stop one effect is to put another in.
In Nutcracker you specify the duration of the effect and unless I"m missing something I'll have to scroll at least 1 letter or something out to make Merry Christmas only scroll once.
Awesome work on xlights Matt! Merry Christmas!
The reason I used start times instead of durations is that it makes it easier to match up the xLights effects in the grid to effects in your regular sequencer. If you want to stop an effect, you can always set both effects to None and save the None/None effect to the grid.
At Sean's request, I am also working on an export function -- so you could create a single effect and export it.
Matt
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I would also like the option to enter a new name when doing a conversion. I have learned the hard way that saving early and often and having back versions is a good practice. If I take a vixen sequence, convert it to xlights to run or to use the sequence function and then need to tweak the non-rgb channels, I need to convert it back to vixen and I don't have the ability to give it a new name. So far I have remembered to manually make another copy of my original from before I converted it to xlights, but I just know that one day I will be in a hurry and that is when Murphy will strike.