Author Topic: Vixen+  (Read 10621 times)

Offline macebobo

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Vixen+
« on: August 31, 2013, »
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 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login 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 You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

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+?
« Last Edit: September 02, 2013, by macebobo »
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline mms

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2013, »
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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Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2013, »
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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.
« Last Edit: August 31, 2013, by macebobo »
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline mms

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2013, »
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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Offline tbone321

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2013, »
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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.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2013, »
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You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

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.
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline harleyhaynes

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2013, »
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.

Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #7 on: September 16, 2013, »
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
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline harleyhaynes

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2013, »
Very cool.  I will give it a go.  Using xlights is fine.  Thanks for the info.

Offline fslopez1950

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2013, »
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.

Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2013, »
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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.
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline jnealand

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2013, »
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.
Jim Nealand
Kennesaw, GA

Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2013, »
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
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com

Offline fslopez1950

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #13 on: September 18, 2013, »
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

Offline macebobo

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Re: Vixen+
« Reply #14 on: September 18, 2013, »
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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
« Last Edit: September 18, 2013, by macebobo »
E-mail for Vixen+ support to: support at vixenplus dot com