Help with getting started

[smeighan]

May be a dumb question here, but i'm a fresher then fresh newbie with the software.  I watched the awesome youtube video on Vixen 2.0..beta 5  and he said he had a computer completely dedicated to, well lights.  No internet nothing.  I have a good computer lying around with a broken wifi card so i figured i'd use that.  But after reading the above I'm not sure.  Do you, or should you have the computer hooked up to the net?

I am not sure if you are asking about Nutcracker software or Vixen software. I ran my show from a laptop that had Vixen 2.1 , xLights and Nutcracker on it. If your computer does not have internet you still need a way to get the software downloaded and then installed. If you have another computer you can download on it and put the code on a usb drive.

For all 3 pieces of software you do NOT need internet for them to run. My laptop is connected via Wifi and I run my E1.31 hardware from the the Ethernet port on the laptop. I actually ran the show using xLights. I had 12,100 channels in my show. The Wifi was convenient to make it so i could copy down new software, but like i said you can use a usd drive to bring it over.

[kgustafson]

May be a dumb question here, but i'm a fresher then fresh newbie with the software.  I watched the awesome youtube video on Vixen 2.0..beta 5  and he said he had a computer completely dedicated to, well lights.  No internet nothing.  I have a good computer lying around with a broken wifi card so i figured i'd use that.  But after reading the above I'm not sure.  Do you, or should you have the computer hooked up to the net?

My reco would be yes, have it connected to the net.  Why?  Because all the firmware, the programs (like the three Sean mentioned) and their updates are all on the net.  Also, all the mp3s (songs) are all downloadable from Amazon and iTunes. 

Kurt

[Steve Gase]

When developing your sequencing, you will want to have access to a nice system with a good monitor, and typically you will want internet access to refer to documentation, participate in discussions, obtain sample sequences, pull down music, etc.


Often, people use another computer -- we call that a "show computer" that plays the sequence.  You might use the software that comes with vixen, LSP, or LOR S3 to do perform the sequencing.  This show computer COULD be the same as the computer you use to author your sequences -- but it need not be.   Using a dedicated computer allows you to have a stable environment that runs hands-free without the impact of slowdowns, or reboots from other activity.


It is possible to use xLights to do playback of your show.  xLights does not use a lot of resources.  xLights does not have a visualizer, and so it does not need a nice monitor.  You would not normally need an internet connection for the show computer... but network connections might be used to connect the show computer to the EtherDongle (if you use that device in your display).  You might also use a network connection to access the show computer from another computer in your house... I do this to allow me to check that the show is still running, find out the song that is playing, or restart the action if I am trying to debug something.


Yet another option is to use the Conductor to play back your show.  With this option, you don't need a computer dedicated to playing your show.

[smeighan]

May be a dumb question here, but i'm a fresher then fresh newbie with the software.  I watched the awesome youtube video on Vixen 2.0..beta 5  and he said he had a computer completely dedicated to, well lights.  No internet nothing.  I have a good computer lying around with a broken wifi card so i figured i'd use that.  But after reading the above I'm not sure.  Do you, or should you have the computer hooked up to the net?

My reco would be yes, have it connected to the net.  Why?  Because all the firmware, the programs (like the three Sean mentioned) and their updates are all on the net.  Also, all the mp3s (songs) are all downloadable from Amazon and iTunes. 

Kurt

I think, Kurt, he has a broken computer, no Wifi. Could this computer still be used. My only suggestion is either get an ethernet port connected or use a usb flash to bring down the software. It would be more painful, but there is no requirement for internet connectivity, at this time.

Be aware that the new Nutcracker.exe we are working on will have to have internet connections to download data , probably when you log in. We want to design it so you could do work while on an airplane. We would need to have a copy of the current effect table, default values and others.

I envision the new nutcracker (due out in march/april probably) as connecting to a central database. we will design an offline mode. I did not plan on making it so that it would work from usb, just ethernet.

This is the tentative flow

1) Login screen of nutcracker.exe will communicate to nutcracker123.com. All your current models and targets will be brought down and stored in local xml files. Note, you will not be able to use nutcracker.exe unless you have an account on nutcracker123.com. This is very similar to you have to have an itunes account even though the software runs locally. The 1100 registered users of nutcracker123.com will all work in this new model.
2) You edit effects, create projects, edit songs .etc. No online connection needed. You can be on a plane working your show.
3) When you do saves, modified data will be sent back to nutcracker123,com . This will allow nutcracker123.com to have the global gallery. If you dont have connectivity, will just store the changed data in local xml files and wait until you next get an internet connection to sync up the changes.

This will allow us to remove the need for wamp/xampp saving about 1 oigabytes on the local install.

this is the plan , without actually having tried any of this *smile*

it will be fun ...

[kgustafson]

Sean,

I love your definition of fun.  Code::blocks is giving me fits (I can't seem to get the variables right for the compile) but am able to run everything from a MSYS command line.  I will get there soon.

Kurt

[smeighan]

Sean,

I love your definition of fun.  Code::blocks is giving me fits (I can't seem to get the variables right for the compile) but am able to run everything from a MSYS command line.  I will get there soon.

Kurt

getting code blocks to compile and link was "fun".

finbally got it working.

[UncleBuck]

I just watched the 12/31 tutorial and had a question about the local install. It sounds like with the new update we will only be able to access Nutcracker through the local install. Is that correct? If so is there any advantage to changing over now to the local install or just wait for the update?

Also I tried the single strand model and used an effect from the gallery but the animation does not show up. It looks like everything gets generated with black screen but it is just black no animation. What have I done wrong?

[smeighan]

I just watched the 12/31 tutorial and had a question about the local install. It sounds like with the new update we will only be able to access Nutcracker through the local install. Is that correct? If so is there any advantage to changing over now to the local install or just wait for the update?

Also I tried the single strand model and used an effect from the gallery but the animation does not show up. It looks like everything gets generated with black screen but it is just black no animation. What have I done wrong?

It will be 2-3 months before the new version of nutcracker is released. it is a complete rewrite.

If you are only doing single effects, keep using nutcracker123.com

If you are using projects and songs and use the feature where nutcracker creates all effects for a single song with one push of the button, use a local install.
I dont have enough disk space for all users to create 7-8,000 effects.

The new code will

a) Have the same effect classes
b) All effects and projects you have now will work exactly the same, and they will still be there with the new code
c) Gallery will look the same and work the same

What will be different?
a) No more xampp or wamp needed (This save about 1 gigbyte of disk storage on your local machine
b) No more local database. Now data is only on nutcracker123.com
c) Complete rewrite of user interface. Mostly sliding bars for giving input. Now nutcracker will behave like Madrix or xLights
d) faster. Instead of 20-30 minutes to generate all effects for a song, it should take 1-2 minutes.

[kgustafson]

I just watched the 12/31 tutorial and had a question about the local install. It sounds like with the new update we will only be able to access Nutcracker through the local install. Is that correct? If so is there any advantage to changing over now to the local install or just wait for the update?

Also I tried the single strand model and used an effect from the gallery but the animation does not show up. It looks like everything gets generated with black screen but it is just black no animation. What have I done wrong?

On the last part about not seeing a generated animation, this is probably because you do not have your window PATH variable to see the binary file for gnuplot.  Find where your gnuplot.exe file is located and make sure to add it to your environment variable called PATH.  You can get to the environment variables in windows through your control panel (help is available as well, so if you type 'environment variables' in the search string in help, it will  also point you to the correct place to set the variable.)  The environment variable PATH will have a listing of all the sub directories that windows searches when a command is called (like gnuplot.exe for example).  Each entry in the listing is separated by a semicolon (  Make sure to add your directory for the gnuplot.exe file to the end of the variable and end it with a semi-colon.  For example :  Mine is as 'C:\wamp\www\gnuplot\bin'  so I make sure that this directory is the PATH variable with a ; at the end.

If you are seeing effects generated with an animated gif for other effects (like spiral) then the problem is not with gnuplot and the environment variable PATH.

Kurt

[UncleBuck]

Yes it works fine with the spiral effects. It mush be something in my single string set up. Being new at this I just don't know what to look for. 

[kgustafson]

Yes it works fine with the spiral effects. It mush be something in my single string set up. Being new at this I just don't know what to look for. 

Since you ruled out gnuplot (the most common issue), the next thing that typically is done incorrectly for single strands is the 'double' save that has to happen when creating the effect.  This function requires a 'double' save for it to work properly.  The first save tells NC the basic configuration of your physical strings, the second save defines the stands (logical layout) of your strings along with colors and effects to apply to the single strand.  Perhaps this is where the issue lies?

Kurt

[UncleBuck]

Thanks Kurt, the double save was the problem. 

[kgustafson]

Thanks Kurt, the double save was the problem. 

This is a 'problem' due to the difference in behavior of single strand versus all other effects.  Common issue that folks are having with single strands.  BTW, I didn't use single strands this year, so I am not very well versed in their function.  Next year I plan on having a few around the eaves of the townhouse, so I will be more experienced with this.  Of course, by then, we will have a new program out that will be windows based, so the functionality is going to change a bit anyways.

Kurt