The State of Vixen

[zaker]

there is one thing that would help us a lot. it would be invaluable to us if Vixen would automatically restart timers if the computer was turned on during a scheduled sequence.

this change woudl eliminate a lot of time, worry and frustration for us.

thanks, we love vixen.

Vixen will do this already. Open Vixen > Tools > Preferences > Timer Check Frequency

When Vixen is started, it will check to see of there is something scheduled to run every X seconds according to that setting.

You just need to make your show computer when it's turned on, logon and start Vixen, Vixen will do the rest.

tom

 

[stenersonj]

that does not seem to work. i had the setting on 10 seconds. if computer turned on after the start of teh sceduled show i have to manually restart times.

am i doing something wrong?

 

[rokkett]

No, you are not doing anything wrong. If Vixen starts after a program's start time has past, the only way to get the program to start is to restart timers manually. IMHO, Vixen should do this at start up.

 

[kmc123]

Hi KC,
As many others have said... THANKS!!!
The one thing I'd love to see is a simple, one step conversion for older sequences - I'm still running 2.0.9.0 because I'd have to go through multiple conversions to get current...

 

[ron d]

KC thanks for the best software out there and my your holidays be as bright as my lawn was earlier tonight.

Id love to see a color blending tool for DMX stuff. Similar to the way light show pro allows you to change colors,click and fill shades between and its easy to set the channels in vixen by simply turning channels on/off or dimming. Creating colors using 3 channels or r/g/b/w fixtures is a pain.
Anyway I am also using an older version as i know it worked before with no issues so why change.

 

[KC]

Thanks for all of the input, guys. As usual, can't promise any of it, but a number of the requests are already addressed by the design, so I'm really happy to see that.

Looks like dimming curves are one of my more immediate tasks. I have an idea for them, so it's time to see if it will work.

 

[rush44oh1]

KC
I just want to say thanks for your hard work this is my second year with vixen and i must say it is very easy to use and very powerfull and all that for free you have made christmas so much better for so many and you should be very proud of your achivments and what every you come up with in 3.0 will just be over the top. so hats off to you and keep up the good work can not wait to see what 3.0 can do

 

[cgarwood]

To go along with making the interface more intuitive and user-friendly, could we maybe be looking at an Office-style Ribbon interface? Would make things easier to layout and find as opposed to many context menus buttons.

 

[cgarwood]

Also, a native video output plugin that can keep it synced and display it on a second display would be amazing. Launching a media player with the launcher plugin is hard to keep synchronized

 

[lineman]

KC this is my first year with vixen and I like it the only thing I have not figured out is when i make a program all starts well I have 13 sequences that I did remove the profile prior to making a program but I did not flatten sequence going to try this any hoo what I have is after 11 sequences I get access to comport denied or execution out of array. so I made 3 programs splittin up the 13 sequences and vixen will play 2 programs and then the error execution out of array appears .I have shut off the sleep mode of my computer and desk top saver I am runnin XP home edition. I am new to all computer stuff what am I missing. If there is a better plase for these ?s let me know where to go THANKS BTW i forgot to mention if I go back and reset the timer and pick the other 2 sequnces they will play so I dont think it is the Sequnces but not real sure all will play individuley

 

[lboucher]

Hey KC

So here is a small suggestion. Keep all files, sequences, profile, program etc... human readable. I have found that to help me several times.

 

[michaelc]

First, Thank you for all your hard work. It is very much appreciated.

Coming from the LOR world, I'd like to see the ability to take a sequence and have it CONVERT to the proper syntax for a background SCRIPT. Obviously it is not so easy to include start/stop times and such but at least take the timing and events so that they can be inserted into a shell script.

Or better yet, the ability to create a PROGRAM of no-audio sequences and allow an easy way to convert the entire program into a background script.

The other neat thing I miss is the ability to shift the entire sequence left or right with respect to the music track

 

[njamateur]

OMG KC!!
So glad to see your post. I'v been busy adding new effects and songs. I read through this thread. I must say that your lament on bugs in 2.5 is undeserved. I have been running 2.5.0.8 last year and this and it runs flawlessly. There are a couple of exceptions that occur while programming but they are insignificant. As far as operation goes - it is wonderful. I'm running XP on a 2.4 GHz Dell P4 through a single USB RS485 converter running 224 channels of Dave's Xmus boards at 115Kb perfectly. As far as improvements: Interchangeability between software to take advantage of the variety of plugins you offer coupled with RGB support would be awesome. Also translators to view/share/import sequences would really help newbies get in the game faster.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Regards,
Mike

KC,

It's good to hear that Vixen is going to continue on in the future. It's a great program!!

In my opinion, strong RGB support is a must have for the future and I wish it was an option that we could vote on. Next year we will see an explosion in RGB displays. On all three boards that a visit regularly (this one, the Lynx crowd and AUS DIY crowd) they are all developing RGB solutions.

Obviously, with more channels comes more complexity in sequence programming. Any tools that people have for pattern generation would greatly help everyone going down the RGB path. Who wants to sit there and program each individual node? Nobody - well almost nobody. Who wants to select a pattern from a library and set a few parameters and apply that to their whole matrix to get some great effects automatically? Everyone I would think.

Keep up the great work and looking forward to v3.0.

thanks,
scott

 

[Whatafreak]

I have been running 2.5.0.8 last year and this and it runs flawlessly. There are a couple of exceptions that occur while programming but they are insignificant. As far as operation goes - it is wonderful. I'm running XP on a 2.4 GHz Dell P4 through a single USB RS485 converter running 224 channels of Dave's Xmus boards at 115Kb perfectly.

Unfortunately, this has not been my experience with 2.5.0.8. This is my first year running an animated display. I tried to use the latest version for quite a while. I used it to sequence all of my songs and never had an issue. When it came time to run the show, all I had was trouble with the scheduler. Sometimes it would work fine. The next day, even though I hadn't touched that computer at all, it wouldn't start. Or it would only play one song in the program, then continue playing music but leave all the lights off.

After switching back to 2.1, it's been nearly a whole week and no problems yet.

All that being said, KC you are the freakin' man for providing this software to us! I hold nothing but gratitude in my heart for the work you provide to us for free. Much appreciated!

 

[smartalec]

I noticed when im working out my managed profile,
if i change the fields to the profile to the left, the figures dont save.
Only when i go into manage the profile an edit it in there will it save.

is it be or could there be a save profile when you edit it on the left.
thanks alec.
ps. KC your software rocks

 

[gte]

Hi KC,

Would you like some help writing the code? I am not as good of programmer as you, but I can do intermediate c sharp.

I would like a simplistic auto-mute function at a certain time, until the following day. My one neighbor is quite the jerk, and he'll call the police if I don't have it shut off at 10pm. Today I built an external program that will do this that I called "vixenHelper", but of course it would be better if it was native. You're welcome to the code if you'd like. I'd also like to see the escape key work to close windows, and some of the threads that are hanging, get cleaned up so UI windows will close when the closing handle is called.

 

[DynamoBen]

Today I built an external program that will do this that I called "vixenHelper", but of course it would be better if it was native. You're welcome to the code if you'd like.

I can't speak for the coding help but I can for the code you created. Feel free to submit your code as an enhancement and attach what you have in the ticket. The dev team can then look at implementing it in 3.0.

bugs.vixenlights.com

 

[gte]

Thanks, I will ... I forgot to bring it home from work with me (of course), so it'll be next week I guess.

I can't speak for the coding help but I can for the code you created. Feel free to submit your code as an enhancement and attach what you have in the ticket. The dev team can then look at implementing it in 3.0.

bugs.vixenlights.com

 

[corytcline]

Hi KC I think vixen is great and however it turns out I will be using it to run my show.
Thank You.
Cory

 

[computerchris]

Support for the classic parallel port 12 channel plugin in Vixen 3 would be nice for people like me just getting into this hobby. The vixen 2 parallel port plugins does not work on 64bit computers.