Why Vixen 2.5?

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plasmata

New member
I'm finally to the point where I'm ready to start my sequencing and I'm trying to decide which version of Vixen I should use. Why would I want to use the beta Vixen 2.5 release over the official 2.1 release? What extra feature(s) does it have that would make me want to take the risk of using a beta version?
 
The biggest feature that I like about 2.5 is the addition of dimming curves.

All of the different lights (brands,colors,LEDs,Incans) turn on and off and dim at different intensities. If your display has multiple types of lights and turn them all of them on at 50%, they will all be at different brightnesses. With dimming curves, you can equalize these differences so that 0-100% really is that for each strand.
 
I too chose 2.5 because of dimming curves -- it was a feature I really needed and I made the jump because of that. I had no problems with 2.5 (many people have) and my show had a little more stability in 2009 than it had with 2.1 in 2008.

Once I'd made the change, I found two other things that improved my life:

*The ability to cut-and-paste columns or rows between sequences.

*The fact that when Vixen quits, it resets all devices (well, all DMX devices) back to zero. In 2008 I ended up many evenings with a random light here and there left on unless I went back to the computer and restarted it and stopped it again; that didn't happen last year.

Best o' luck.

\dmc
 
2.5.0.7 finally got Drag-N-Drop channel reordering and copying.

This made color and group sequencing so much easier. It also made moving the beat channel around a piece of cake.
 
Vixen 2.1 has been around quite a while now and doesn’t have any issues that I know of. Vixen 2.5 was in progress last year, there are some minor bugs but all work has stopped and no further development is expected. KC has said that he wants to start over and create Vixen 3.0 though I don’t believe any work has started yet.

Vixen 2.5 has some great features that aren’t in 2.1 and never will be. Sequences for 2.1 can be converted to 2.5 but there is no conversion back to 2.1 so there is no easy way to go back if you change your mind.

I used Vixen 2.5 last year. It worked but I did have to fiddle with it each day to keep it going. I intend to use it again this year.
 
As a beginner I used 2.5, One of the issue that I experianced was the day scheduling. The manage/schedule would not work all the time. I would constantly had to rebuild it and/or manually started. I have decide to use 2.1 this year because of a reliable sequence program.

I suggest that if you are going to use 2.5, do some test around that program manage area, before dedicating yourself to version 2.5 and later regreting it. you can download some prebuild sequences for your test.


yvaliente
 
Unless you really need the features in 2.5, I would stick with 2.1. As was mentioned, you can always convert what you made in 2.1 to 2.5, but it is difficult to go back.
 
deplanche said:
Unless you really need the features in 2.5, I would stick with 2.1. As was mentioned, you can always convert what you made in 2.1 to 2.5, but it is difficult to go back.
Click to expand...

KC did make a converter to go back to 2.1 last year.
 
Thanks Chris and Ernie. With the ability to "downgrade" it sounds like it makes sense to use 2.5 to sequence since there are added usability features that I could make use of. Then if I run into scheduling issues I could install 2.1 and convert my 2.5 sequence.
 
One reason a person might want 2.5 is to play around with Input Plugins. Such as the Android Christmas Light Controller App.
 
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