Vixen 2.1x Adjustable Preview "Apparent Misrepresentation"

[T.D.Sutton]

Hi All,

Silly question maybe :-(

I am using Vixen 2.1x for my show, I use a profile, and have the Adjustable Preview setup to display the programmed sequence over a photo of the house. For me this is essential to get the sequence basically knocked into shape. I have four strings of lights on most of the house outline and roof stripes, each one painstakingly painted onto the Adjustable preview screen, four colours overlaid one on top of another.

The "Problem" !! I have noticed occasionally on one or two strings, particularly on the roof stripes in my case, do not appear to light up at some points in a sequence, although they are happily doing their thing elsewhere within that sequence. The appropriate "Vixen" squares are all filled in to full brightness, and if the channel data is transferred to another blank area within the sequence, it appears fine, and lights up as it should at full intensity (255)!

This is most noticable when the A/P is displaying a rapid switch from one colour to another at about 500 milliseconds rate, ie. White then Red then White again, or White then Green the White again.



Attached should be a couple of screen grabs of the affected areas, my concern is :-

1./ ?? Is it a real representation, or is it just an aberration produced by the Adjustable Preview.

2./ ?? Would it show up as as no output on the actual channel outputs the Renards ??

Thoughts from the "Brains Trust" please,

Terry

 

[Skunberg]

Over the years several people have had similar issues and redid the preview as 4 lines next to each other rather than on top of each other.

 

[kychristmas]

I don't recall any issues like that with the adjustable preview. Its hard to see a 25ms timing, but 50, 100 or certainly anything going at a 1/2 sec change rate should not be an issue.

Is it possible that you are dealing with the overlay issue. If you have the two colors overlaid on top of each other and both of the colors are "ON", you are only going to see the Color that was laid last (I believe). Why I do where I have multiple colors strings is I just alternate the dots. it's not exact, but the preview is an approximation anyway.

If you send me your sequence and profile, I will take a look at it. I'm still old school myself and have used 2.1 for 6 years.


If you aren't using the "Editable" adjustable preview (Elf prewiew), you need to be. If you end up redoing things, it will save you a ton of time. If you areally aren't you will kick yourself when you see it

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/fo...Plug-In&highlight=editable+adjustable+preview.

 

[T.D.Sutton]

Gentlemen

Thank you for your thoughts.

Brian, I will endeavour to separate the painted lines as suggested, that is a good idea.

Kelly, I have only looked at the "Elf Previewer" of Rob's, I was a little nervous about it as it is still very much in "Beta" and didn't want to create any extra hassles for myself! It would be interesting, if you have the time, for you to have a look at the sequence and see if you see what I see Let me know how

The machine I am using to sequence on should be sufficient to do so, it is a 2.8 Gig Intel Quad core with 6 Gig's of ram and a Radeon video card, not the gaming spec but should be Ok for this task.

I ran the sequence in question on the show machine and it's standby machine, both very much lower spec than this one and I see exactly the same error, so to me it appears to be embedded in the sequence it'self. I have cast my mind back to the creation of this particular sequence and realised, that it is the only sequence I have ever shortened by deleting a large section from the center. The sequence is an old one of mine of "Bony M's Marys Boy Child - Oh My Lord", that I removed the instrumental/humming chorus in the middle to reduce the overall length from 4 mins and 2 secs down to 3 min 25 secs. The errors that are visible within the sequence now would have been within the area of the sequence section that I removed by literally "marking and deleting" to close the gap. So could there be any artifacts left over when I did that?? I am not up with the play as to how to interrogate the sequence file to investigate, or how to read it anyway if I could

The other interesting thing that sort of backs up my thoughts of the "Shortened Sequence" having a bearing on this, all the other dozen sequences that I have prepared for this year, no others show any signs of this sort of missing channels at any point, and naturally I have been looking for them

Thank you all for your thoughts, I really appreciate the help that is available on these forums

Cheers,

Terry

 

[T.D.Sutton]

Update on the "Problem"

I "Re-created" the sequence involved by generating a new sequence, with the music included, then copy/pasted the "Known Good" sections of the faulty one into the new one, a large chunk at a time using the timing information for reference. I then re-built the areas that were in question with new data, and hey presto, apart from one minor new area that was easily corrected all in the garden is now "Rosey".

The more I think about this problem the more I am convinced that it originated from my shortening the original sequence, something I have never attempted before. Wether something was left behind, "embedded" into the sequence, or whatever, I do not know, but I now have a usable sequence again with no visible problems, hopefully!!!

Many thanks once more to all those who took the time to ponder this hassle, I really appreciate your help and assistance.

Have a great Christmas Light Show,

Terry