From what I can tell shimmer and twinkle in LSP or Vixen are far less interesting tham what LOR can do.
I'm thinking thats just because LOR does it in hardware vs. software.
It appears that LSP and Vixen produce similar effects for twinkle and shimmer. I don't find Vixen a any more powerful than the other, just a little
easier to use at first.
I believe what you are refering to in respect to shimmer or twinkle is the rate of twinkle and shimmer. As mentioned in this thread, LOR's shimmer and fade rates are /greatly/ limited as they are set in the hardware and short of flashing your firmware, if you are running the LOR protocol, you have only one choice. Running the DMX protocol (even on an LOR controller) allows you to have complete control over the rate and style of shimmer and twinkle IF the software allows for that level of customization. LSP? Yes, it allows you complete customization of shimmer and twinkle rates (including ramping/fading shimmers and twinkles) through the calibration function in each channel.
When you say easier to use, I'd say that is opinion. Two of LSP's greatest hurtles - it isn't "like" all the other sequencing application UI's and that LSP is very complex...because it just does a LOT of things. I'd expect S3 and Vixen 3 to also become more "complicated" over time.
In my limited experience using twinkle and shimmer under LSP 2.0 ... it appears that the twinkle and shimmer are basically as described and a bit quirky using rgb & pixelnet.
I'm unsure how twinkles and shimmers are "a bit quirky" - could you do a screencast-o-matic.com screen recording of any of these issues so I can evaluate this?
I haven't tried using my LOR stuff, but would assume its fine there. I really don't use either effect much and would use even less if this problem remains.
I'm not sure I understand this question/statement. Is this saying that when using LSP 2 with the LOR protocol that the twinkle/shimmers don't work as you would expect when use with S2?
I've also found that RGB SS Orange (esp.) and other colors do need some tweaking and probably vary a bit between type of smart string item a bit. I don't think thats a LSP issue, but just a color blend issue using RGB items in general. I think there is a way to tweak that color curve, or create custom colors to use (which show as expected) in LSP. For me, Orange looks a lot more like yellow. I think creating custom colors will likely be needed.
LSP, or any application for that matter, can only put out what the protocol allows. For DMX, that is 8 bits of data (256 levels of fading per color). So, if LSP, Vixen, LOR, Madrix or any other application puts out FF (8 bits of ON) for each of the colors (Red, Green, Blue) you SHOULD end up with a nice, perfect white. Is that what all RGB lights generate? Not even close - it depends completely on the hardware (LED binning, current levels, etc) and any adjustments (gama/curves). How do you fix this? Well if your application allows you to impliment lighting curves (like the hardware curves in the Lynx Express) you can "tweak" that not-so-perfect red to be (in most cases) till it's just right.
So, if your software application is setup to output orange and you are getting pink, in almost all cases (if you've setup your hardware right) - your LEDs (...or incandescents even) is/are at fault. This isn't a SS thing, it applies to ALL lighting. If you are not getting your orange, I would recommend the channel calibration features in LSP - one of the few high end applications that support such adjustments so that you don't have to result to "tricks" in your sequencing.
Hopefully that helps explain LSP a little better. I'll see if I can get some time to make a video showing this.
