3.2.13 xlights/nutcracker released

[smeighan]

3.2.13 released.

one new song added to songs directory
new movement options for picture effect

3.2.13            -Bug fix (djulien): display some details about channel count error
               -Bug fix (djulien): split Effects Direction into separate lists for Text and Picture (some Picture are not applicable to Text)
               -Enhancement (djulien): More movement options in the pictures effect.
               -Enhancement (Sean): Added new song to songs directory.
               (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus, Harry Connick Jr.

[taybrynn]

request#1: the new icons need tooltips ... I can never remember what they mean from the pictures only

request#2: is there any way for the same effect (which say spans 10 small intervals of say 1 second each) to play the effect without starting over every 1 second?  I am trying to put a tune to effect on my grid but because it resets the effect on each new timing interval it is severely limiting because I am forced to make the intervals bigger to allow for text to say scroll and be read.  It seems that the function which allows you to "protect" ... well something similar could be done to allow an effect to "run across intervals" provided it was the same effect the entire time. 

#3: The LOR import is a big improvement, but the timings brought it are far too numerous to be useful.  I find myself deleting them all and just typing in my own mostly.  It would seem to be far more effective to base it off a single channel that you select instead ... that way if nothing else, you could create a timing file in your LOR sequence and just select that every time ... and it would give you some ability to to a controlled timings transfer from LOR into xlights.

[Steve Gase]

request#2: is there any way for the same effect (which say spans 10 small intervals of say 1 second each) to play the effect without starting over every 1 second?  I am trying to put a tune to effect on my grid but because it resets the effect on each new timing interval it is severely limiting because I am forced to make the intervals bigger to allow for text to say scroll and be read.  It seems that the function which allows you to "protect" ... well something similar could be done to allow an effect to "run across intervals" provided it was the same effect the entire time. 

if you remove the contents of a cell that you want to be a continuation of the previous cell(s), you'll get the result you are looking for.  by pasting it into each cell, you start it over.  by leaving it blank it continues.

[drlucas]

request#1: the new icons need tooltips ... I can never remember what they mean from the pictures only

I agree with you on this one. The way I figured it out, is similar to how I remember my anniversary!

My wife's birthday is either June 20 or 21st. My anniversary is either June 20th or 21st. Never remember which. Then a guy at work told me that is the easiest to remember...it's A and then B. Anniversary and Birthday. If I can remember the alphabet then I will never have to sleep on the couch again!

SO...why is this important. Here is why...the new icons, the scissors are self explanatory. They cut things. but the next two icons are where the confusion comes in....so go right back to my story of A & B...."C"opy is before "P"aste in the alphabet. Failing that, the backup plan to remember this is sequential because we've had it drilled in our heads for many years. It's always copy and paste functionality in the application. Never vice versa (paste and copy). The icons in xlights are laid out in that same sequential order. Copy and Paste (well right after the cut of course).

Hope that helps

[taybrynn]

Thanks! 

Steve , I never would have thought that removing the effect from subsequent cells would continue it .... How does it know when to end then?

I agree the copy And paste should be in that order ...but after almost 30 years in IT I still do t find those icons self explanatory and adding a tooltips (when you have done elsewhere) only makes sense.

[Steve Gase]

request#1: the new icons need tooltips ... I can never remember what they mean from the pictures only

I agree with you on this one. The way I figured it out, is similar to how I remember my anniversary!

My wife's birthday is either June 20 or 21st. My anniversary is either June 20th or 21st. Never remember which. Then a guy at work told me that is the easiest to remember...it's A and then B. Anniversary and Birthday. If I can remember the alphabet then I will never have to sleep on the couch again!

SO...why is this important. Here is why...the new icons, the scissors are self explanatory. They cut things. but the next two icons are where the confusion comes in....so go right back to my story of A & B...."C"opy is before "P"aste in the alphabet. Failing that, the backup plan to remember this is sequential because we've had it drilled in our heads for many years. It's always copy and paste functionality in the application. Never vice versa (paste and copy). The icons in xlights are laid out in that same sequential order. Copy and Paste (well right after the cut of course).

Hope that helps

Short-cuts  would help too...  my wishlist:


Ctrl-A  Select All cells
Ctrl-C  Copy selection into clipboard
Ctrl-V  Paste clipboard into cells
DEL Delete (clear contents)
Ctrl-X delete selected rows
Ctrl-Z Undo
Ctrl-Y Redo

[taybrynn]

+1 on Ctrl c, Ctrl v and Del

[Steve Gase]

Thanks! 

Steve , I never would have thought that removing the effect from subsequent cells would continue it .... How does it know when to end then?

I agree the copy And paste should be in that order ...but after almost 30 years in IT I still do t find those icons self explanatory and adding a tooltips (when you have done elsewhere) only makes sense.

It continues until a new effect is encountered in the column for that object.
If you want to stop altogether (no effect), then use one that creates black... commonly a colorwash to black is used.

[taybrynn]

Thanks again ... I didn't know there wasn't any built-in OFF for an effect, but I have noticed that my RGB items are often left on at the end of each sequence, so I figured I should add a short interval at the end to send an OFF or something.    I think I had set both effects to "None" and then put that into all models at the end.  Is that better or worse than doing a color wash to black ?

[jnealand]

I think that Ctrl C and ctrl V work but only after you get a cell selected which usually requires a double click..  On click on a cell will not do it.  Two clicks seem to put it into edit mode.

[smeighan]

Thanks again ... I didn't know there wasn't any built-in OFF for an effect, but I have noticed that my RGB items are often left on at the end of each sequence, so I figured I should add a short interval at the end to send an OFF or something.    I think I had set both effects to "None" and then put that into all models at the end.  Is that better or worse than doing a color wash to black ?

Let me explain.

Since we import sequences from lor,vixen,lsp , people waht those imported channels to show when they play a show from xlights.
For examplke you have channels 1-1000 sequenced in LOR.
You import them in to xlights. You now add a megatree from 2000-4000 channel.
We only have the model you made for the megatree, what about the first 1000 channels? They are there, you just dont see them.


"None,None" means no nutcracker effect will be generated. whatever was stored in memory is still there.
"None,None" does NOT mean to blank out the data.
If you want to actually turn off the lights set a colorwash with 1 color=BLACK.

Next year we will redo this as it has confused many people.

using either xlights or pi player there is an option to turn all lights off at the end of a sequence.

I created a 1 second sequence that has all channels (24,000 in my case), and set them to colorwash with BLACK. Now i schedule this "All lights off" sequence and everything turns off.

[taybrynn]

Thanks again Sean !!!