DiyLightAnimation
Software => Vixen+ => Topic started by: macebobo on August 31, 2013,
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Hello everyone. My name is John McAdams (AKA Macebobo, pronounced Mac E Bo Bo) and I am the author of Vixen+.
I have been involved in Animated, synchronized Christmas lights since 2008, starting with a embedded controller on my indoor tree. My display then grew from there after showing a co-worker what I had done. He introduced me to doityourselfchristmas.com and I was there from 2009 until February of this year (when I was banned - long story, PM me for more details.) I am usually on diychristmas.org, the official home of Vixen+
What is Vixen+?
Well, it's best to go to our site at http://vixenplus.com/ to find out - but in a nutshell, it is a Vixen 2.1 and Vixen 2.5 compatible sequence with a lot of new features. It is a work in progress, but is released in Beta now. You can find the latest version at http://www.diychristmas.org/vb1/showthread.php?558-VixenPlus-Latest-Release-Link
Please, feel free to ask me anything about vixen+ and I look forward to being part of your community.
-- John
PS - How would I go about getting a sub-forum for Vixen+?
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I enjoyed your presentation today.
I meant to ask if Vixen + supports the use of VIR/routine files? I wrote a program that generates RGB effects and saves the file in Vixen's routine directory.
Thank you for the info.
Steve
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I enjoyed your presentation today.
I meant to ask if Vixen + supports the use of VIR/routine files? I wrote a program that generates RGB effects and saves the file in Vixen's routine directory.
Thank you for the info.
Steve
You're welcome. Yes, there is a slight bug in the current version, but I am doing a release later today that fixes it. The bug is basically an error is thrown if there are not any routines in the routine directory.
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That is excellent news. I shouldn't have that problem. Thanks again. I'm looking forward to seeing how Vixen+ evolves.
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PS - How would I go about getting a sub-forum for Vixen+?
That would be up to RJ but I would think it better if this area were subdivided into thee subsections such as Vixen 2.X, Vixen+, and Vixen3.X because even though they all have the same basic name, they really are very different products in what they can do and how they do it.
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PS - How would I go about getting a sub-forum for Vixen+?
That would be up to RJ but I would think it better if this area were subdivided into thee subsections such as Vixen 2.X, Vixen+, and Vixen3.X because even though they all have the same basic name, they really are very different products in what they can do and how they do it.
Thanks tbone. I agree, they should each have their own little spot in DIYLA.
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Anyone going to use this for an actual show? I have to sequence my whole light show from scratch. I have around 3k pixels and about 100 channels of strings. If this is stable enough to use I will go for it this year based on recommendations. Not sure what I think about V3 but this looks very good. I know it is beta so there may be some hiccups. I am just desperate to find some software that does not take Milky Way-2 to run once the timing marks and channel counts get up there.
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Harleyhaynes,
It will be great for sequencing as I have tested the speed up to 16k channels with very little delay and good load times. However, it Vixen+ stands right now, there is not a scheduler, so for show playback, people are using either xLights, Falcon Pi player or Vixen 2.1 since the sequences are backwards compatible.
Hope this helps.
-- John
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Very cool. I will give it a go. Using xlights is fine. Thanks for the info.
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Hi. Installed your new Vixen+ and tried it. I like the UI, just like the UI of Vixen 2.1.
I'd like to ask if you can open vix 2.1 files and edit it in Vixen+. I have tried it but to no avail.Vixen+ always crashes.
Thanks for considering if this will be possible.
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Hi. Installed your new Vixen+ and tried it. I like the UI, just like the UI of Vixen 2.1.
I'd like to ask if you can open vix 2.1 files and edit it in Vixen+. I have tried it but to no avail.Vixen+ always crashes.
Thanks for considering if this will be possible.
Could you e-mail me the crash.log file, your profile and sequence. It should open, but it sounds like there may be an issue with something. My email is john at rosefish dot com.
Thanks.
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I also have tried opening some old sequences so I could start updating them, but I have been getting crashes due to plugin compatibility and so far have not even been able to get into profile management to clean everything out. Maybe I need to reopen the sequence in Vixen 2.1 and eliminate all plugin references. Anyway at this rate I about to give up and keep using 2.1.
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You are certainly welcome to do that, however, if I know which plug-ins you need, that will help guide the direction of where I spend my time working on the software.
Just a reminder, this is beta software and as such is, by definition, incomplete. I am sorry you're having issues with it, but I try to be available to help folks when I become aware of the problems folks are having.
-- John
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Sorry I was wrong in describing what happened when I opened the vix file. Actually it opened but there was no channels shown. When i tried to play the audio it crashes.
I've attached the files you're asking and hope this will help you in analyzing the problem.
Thanks, Fernando
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Sorry I was wrong in describing what happened when I opened the vix file. Actually it opened but there was no channels shown. When i tried to play the audio it crashes.
I've attached the files you're asking and hope this will help you in analyzing the problem.
Thanks, Fernando
Thanks for the files Fernando. It looks like your sequence is attached to your Xmas 2012 new.pro profile and not the test1.pro you've attached.
As for the audio causing an error, I have seen this in a Virtual Environment where you have Windows on a Linux host. Is this true in your case? What we found was the client extensions on the Virtual Machine were causing the audio library to return an incorrect value and causing the error. (I am suspicious of this in your case because it should not cause the crash as we put a patch in the .245 version you're using.) Therefore, could you tell me what type of system (XP, Windows 7/8, etc) you're running this?
BTW, I fixed the reference to the test1.pro profile and now you should see colors and such.
-- John
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Thanks, John for the quick fix.
I realized that I have to copy first my old profile to the V+ profile folder. Also copy the mp3s to the V+ audio folder and V2.1 sequences to V+ sequence folder. After doing this I could open my old Vixen 2.1 sequences with all the trimmings channels and audio already loaded up and can preview and modify my sequences.
Everything is going smooth and will report of any bug that i encounter.
Thanks, Fernando
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Thanks, John for the quick fix.
I realized that I have to copy first my old profile to the V+ profile folder. Also copy the mp3s to the V+ audio folder and V2.1 sequences to V+ sequence folder. After doing this I could open my old Vixen 2.1 sequences with all the trimmings channels and audio already loaded up and can preview and modify my sequences.
Everything is going smooth and will report of any bug that i encounter.
Thanks, Fernando
Excellent! I am glad it is working out for you! If you find a bug, you'll get credit for reporting it in the program credits (Go to about and then click on the Vixen+ {Beta} text.) :D
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John,
I am really liking this. Thank you very much.
How do I get the clock timer to appear? I don't see an option for it and I use it a lot.
John
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John,
I am really liking this. Thank you very much.
How do I get the clock timer to appear? I don't see an option for it and I use it a lot.
John
Glad you're enjoying it.
Can you show me what you are seeing in V+, I am seeing the tick marks (clock timer) in my instance. They are the same location, but maybe your audio background color and the tick mark color are the same, making them invisible? You can change the waveform background color to a dark color and you should see the white tick marks. I will note this as a bug, since the tick color should automatically adjust to a good contrast color.
To change the background color, Click the Tools menu, then preferences, then Screen and Colors, then double click the Waveform Background in the Customizable Colors screen and select a dark color. Finally, click Okay and you should see the new color. Let me know if this helps.
-- John
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John,
That was it! I changed the waveform background and everything is good.
Thank you for the super fast response.
I am your neighbor. I live about 15 miles east of you in Sandy.
John
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John,
That was it! I changed the waveform background and everything is good.
Thank you for the super fast response.
I am your neighbor. I live about 15 miles east of you in Sandy.
John
You will have to come the NW mini next year we put on at our home. PM me when you're show is up and we'll come by and take a look. Glad it all worked out for you. Thanks for finding the bug for me :D
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i copied my files from vixen 2.1 into the data folder for vixen+, I can see them in the folder but when I go to view profile they are not showing up when the program is running. when I open an existing 2.1 sequence, the timer shows the correct time but will not play any audio without going in and reassigning the audio to the sequence. but with no profiles showing up, there are no channels or colors in the sequence. I attached the current profile from last years show and one of my sequences as well. when I first try to open the sequence, I get and error message for plug ins on the pixelnet and etherdongle. I attached a pic of the error message
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When I open your wizards.vix sequence, I am seeing the same behavior. So I opened the raw file and noted that it was not attached to a profile. I have done that and attached it here in a zip file as it is quite a bit larger now that it has some event values.
The information message you're seeing is telling you that it does not have those output plugins installed (which is correct, I have not written those two yet and it is good to know what people need.) You can safely ignore that message and I will put the PixelNet and EatherDongle plugins on my list to implement for next year.
If you run into this with another other sequences, you can go to the View menu, then Profiles, then Attach sequence to profile. Select your profile from the list and click okay. All should then be good.
-- John