Nutcracker: What effects would you like to see?

Robo said:
How about shapes to pick from that could be used with the sequence. Like basic stuff, music notes, stocking, presents, etc. I have used different fonts to create some shapes for my matrix. But some that we could select from a drop box would be nice.
Click to expand...

I really like this idea!
 
Robo said:
How about shapes to pick from that could be used with the sequence. Like basic stuff, music notes, stocking, presents, etc. I have used different fonts to create some shapes for my matrix. But some that we could select from a drop box would be nice.
Click to expand...

Already there actually, find a picture of what you want, change the size of it in pixels to the size you want it and call it using the picture effect. Rather than create a bazillion different models in the sequencer, find or create an image of what you want and you have it!
 
Has anyone asked for a laser effect. The could be top to bottom, bottom to top, right to left, left to right, middle out, number of shots, maybe strand or row order, based of every so many beats based on beats per minute from song, tail length. I have seen this effect on LOR CCR's and they look great highlight notes, percussion, etcetera.
 
Xenia said:
Has anyone asked for a laser effect. The could be top to bottom, bottom to top, right to left, left to right, middle out, number of shots, maybe strand or row order, based of every so many beats based on beats per minute from song, tail length. I have seen this effect on LOR CCR's and they look great highlight notes, percussion, etcetera.
Click to expand...

can u post a link to a video and tell me where to see this. Are u talking about a beam that starts and gets longer as the frames advance?
 
The video below has examples of what I am looking for in the way of laser effects. Much of the rest would require AE I assume.

 
Not an affect but if you could make the following adjustment to the section where you test lights it would be awesome. I would love to be able to test lights by being able to select individual universes at a time as opposed to having to highlight and then click the check box. It would even be better is we could have the props/fixtures named in the test section and be able to turn on individual elements.

John
 
Angus, no small kids or grandkids?:) At 1:00 mark is Elsa the Snow Queen shooting ice from her hands.
 
Sean; I love the new nutcracker whole house effects, but more than that I love your new preview screen. What would be involved to get that preview screen to work on all of the different sequencers? In other words make it available to everyone to use? It has the ability to display every pixel on your display and has some very strong drawing ability. Some of the preview screens in other sequencers have limits or are very crude in drawing props. I spend all of this time creating props and installing them only to have my props end up in the preview screen looking like boxes with very few pixels represented. I want to see every pixel and be able to draw realistic props to get both a true representation and to get my timing right on the money. The only thing as far as a missing tool that I see is the lack of being able to draw a circle, I use hoops for my leaping arches, but then I have the option of having the use of them for other elements. Just dreaming, this would make my life a whole bunch easier and would love to use your preview in LOR and HLS. You have to set up a preview in all programs anyway, so it seems like you could use that configuration/universe/channel data to migrate to your preview. Anyway just my thoughts. Thank you so much for your and your teams work!
John
 
I would like to make my strips look like bulbs. What that means is an effect to turn off say 1-5 pixels in between the first lit and the second lit pixel, so that when lights came on (bar or some other "solid", it would give the look of having multiple bulbs on the roof (guess it could be morse code, dot - - - dot - - - dot - - - dot - - - dot etc. vs a standard strip where it's dot dot dot dot dot dot, one solid long neon line of light. Being able to break it down to make them look more like pixels would be a neat effect I think.

does that make sense, since it only sort of does in my own head!

Tory
 
Last edited:
We are heading into the last few weeks before releasing it. Target for general release is mar 21. We are going through crash fixes, connecting play button, a few more items
 
Great to hear. Have all my controllers programed and universe's laid out. Just waiting for the new XL4 before building my models. Will the new release have any changes as to how we setup start channel for each model? This is were I really struggle. With over 23 universes things get confusing quickly for me. This will be my first year using XL as my only SE, since leaving LOR. Thanks Sean!
 
Sorry if it's been posted.
For effects could a spot light effect be added. This would be nice with a whole house model. Maybe options for one or two spotlighs that sweep from left to rightt.
Also with XL4 grid a slider for each model/group for brightness. This would effect all the effects in that model. Last year my matrix was way to bright, this would have made it much simpler they modifying each effect.
 
Sean: I don't know how hard this would be to do, but would save me a lot of time and cross referencing. Could you show the universe numbers instead of the net numbers in the test discription? Right now, it shows just net numbers or the models with no reference as to where the models are in the universe. Now it just names the channels by net number going in sequence from 1 to whatever in sequence, But I skip universes and have no idea where each channel is located. I guess what I'm asking is if you could replace the net numbers with the universe number and when you assign a prop to certain channels to retain what universe those channels are on. Hope I've made it clear. Here is a snipit of what it looks like now. What I would like is instead of net numbers, universe numbers and when channels are assigned to a model, show what universe the channels belong to.
Net and Model xlights.JPG
Many thanks to you and your team.
John

Just as an example, when you put a new model in, you need to know the first actual channel, I find the channels on the test panel. When there is no way to find the universe number associated with the channels, it makes it hard to find the start channel of a particular prop without a lot of looking back and forth from the setup page and test page. If you have used more than one universe in a prop, and the next prop starts in the middle of the universe, it's very hard to find where exactly one prop ends and another one starts. With universe numbers, it would much easier to find your way around. Like I said, I may use universe numbers 1 thru 5, then 13 thru 19, then 25 thru 29, etc. so numbering the nets in sequence from 1 thru say 48 in sequence just doesn't match up with my universe numbers in setup. Hope that makes it clearer what I am asking.
 
Last edited:
Yep when I started using xLights last year I had trouble because I had everything in my yard pretty much memorized in my head based on universe and channel number. I was always flipping over to the setup page as well. I understand why they avoided basing things on universe numbers because it makes it where you really don't need to know anything about your hardware to begin sequencing. I've used some sequencers where I got bogged down in controller definitions before I was allowed to do anything. What would be nice is if we could show the universe/channels number based on whatever your current setup entries are but we wouldn't want to store that info as part of the model. It's designed so you can share sequences with others without direct ties to your hardware. I might not fully understand the issue either since I've not been in those parts of the code much since I started helping.
 
True, you wouldn't need to store the universe numbers with the models, you would only need to know the start channel number for each model. that wouldn't change. What I would like changed is, the test panel numbers or net assignments to universe numbers. So it would be an easier process to find your starting address with the universe numbers you had in your setup. That way there is nothing locked to any particular setup. Just would like to be able to see what universe/channel number so it corasponds to your setup, after all they are just numbers at that point.
Thanks for your reply
John
 
One thing I've been meaning to propose to Sean and others is to change the "Start Channel" on the model dialog to two spin boxes: a "Start Channel Offset" and "Output". The start channel offset would be the offset from the start of that output in the setup tab. By default, the "Output" would be set to 1 so the Start Channel would be exactly like it is today. If you want to keep all your start channels based on the absolute channel number, keep it at 1.

Thus, I could have my megatree set to "Output #6, Channel 1" as the start channel. If you set individual start channels, you would either enter it like you do now ("4834") or use a something like "6,1" for output 6, channel 1. One thing this would allow is adding channels to outputs prior to those models and not have to go to every model and update the start channels. You would still need to recreate all the fseq files and such (to have the new channel counts), but it would make things a bit simpler.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top