Sean Meighan
Welcome => What new effects you would like to see => Topic started by: Gilrock on April 19, 2015, 06:14:59 PM
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Well I wasn't supposed to do much coding this weekend but I was working on a sequence yesterday and really wanted an effect like this so I spent a few hours yesterday and today creating it. You should see this in the next release. Below is a tutorial showing how to use it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saKYDRhb5LA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saKYDRhb5LA)
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That is cool. Thanks for the add of that effect.
More things to add to a show. :)
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If we have the fan do we still need the pinwheel. Seems like an enhanced pinwheel effect, and I don't mean that in a negative sense, just questioning if we need to have both.
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Thanks Gil We are going to have sooooo many effects to choose from!!!!
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I'm always hesitant to delete an effect because it may exist out there in user's sequences. So it would probably take conversion code to fix any old instances if we did make a change.
I really hadn't used the Pinwheel effect so I didn't realize it was that close until after I was done. I think I tried it right before I started and it seemed like parts of it weren't working like the 3D blending. After I tried again later I realized I was in one of those states where the effect doesn't update. That can happen if you are in a pause mode. So it messed up my evaluation of it. So it does seem like there's not a need for it because you could craft the same thing in my new version. I would have been happy using the Spiral name for mine.
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I like this effect, I will definitely use this effect. It is very close to Pinwheel. Can pinwheel be updated with these new controls or would that break existing sequences?
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While I could probably figure out how to create anything that was in the Pinwheel effect it would be a pain to do programmatically. Also the Pinwheel is randomly picking colors so if you have 3 blades and 2 colors you get 2 blades of the same color. I'm subdividing the blade by the color count so I can create that same look but you would need to select the same color twice and use a single blade with the 3 color divisions. The Pinwheel uses the state variable to determine speed and I'm using a precise number of rotations so I'm not even sure how I would programmatically match the speeds of rotation.
I'll let Sean decide if we should try to combine them.
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You are correct about causing import problems with older sequences. That would cause problems I had not thought about. The new effect is much better, maybe we should just change the screen for the pinwheel to add a line suggesting that folks use the fan instead so that there will be less new use of pinwheel.
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I like options, some people might like the pinwheel effect, some people might prefer the fan effect. If having both does not impact the performance of the program I say keep them both.
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I'm using the Fan effect across a group of 10 mini-trees.
Two things I've noticed. When I have it going in the default direction (not the Reverse Option), the color sequence from the palette plays backwards. I have Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Purple, White. But it is sweeping (quite nicely) in the opposite order. If I go to Option and check Reverse, it changes direction and then plays in the expected order.
Also, at the end of the 6th color, it goes and stays Black, rather than repeating my 6 colors immediately.
This is actually running now on all 10 trees in my back yard and I'll get video when it gets a little darker.
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The colors order is always clockwise so if you are arranging it across a group of models the color order will depend on the direction you spin the fan. I did just notice one thing I want to change. A negative blade angle is causing it to reverse the spin direction. I will change that so only reverse switches the direction.
If you have it across several models and are seeing black then that's probably the gap between the blades. Each color is not a blade like in pinwheel. In Fan each blade is subdivided into the number of colors selected. So if you have a blade width less than 100% you are going to get a black gap between blades. Try making the blade width 100% and that black should go away.
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Blade width to 100% and that pesky black area went away.
https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs (https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs)
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You are cooking
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Blade width to 100% and that pesky black area went away.
https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs (https://youtu.be/6H-f2dJqpvs)
Are those Boscoyo medium 180 degree minis?
James
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The colors order is always clockwise so if you are arranging it across a group of models the color order will depend on the direction you spin the fan. I did just notice one thing I want to change. A negative blade angle is causing it to reverse the spin direction. I will change that so only reverse switches the direction.
If you have it across several models and are seeing black then that's probably the gap between the blades. Each color is not a blade like in pinwheel. In Fan each blade is subdivided into the number of colors selected. So if you have a blade width less than 100% you are going to get a black gap between blades. Try making the blade width 100% and that black should go away.
Very cool Jon ... even in daylight!
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Yes. Boscoyo mediums. These are 360s but only wired as 180.
50 TM1804 on tree
10 on the star
and the night view
https://youtu.be/mebVPW-YF78]https://youtu.be/mebVPW-YF78]https://youtu.be/mebVPW-YF78 (https://youtu.be/mebVPW-YF78)
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There is no difference in price between buying the 180 and the 360 medium trees, but they are much more stable as 360 but only populated as a 180. That is how I am doing mine as well.
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If anyone wants to "play" and see how it looks for real, I've attached my xlights_rgbeffects.xml file (it has my model setup for my 10 trees) and the two Sequence files I've been using.
Just send me your sequence XML file and I'll run it in the back yard.
My two files don't have media (music) needed.
PS - BE SURE TO DO A BACKUP of your files before overwriting them with mine. Just sayin'
JonB
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Jon, I was watching your video and it dawned on me that I was watching 1800 channels in action. Seems like only yesterday that I finally went over 200 channels for my whole show (before RGB). What extraordinary changes we have had in the last couple of years and the future looks even more exciting.
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That looks really great Jon. I plan to go from AC mini trees to RGB mini trees next year. My "big change" this year is to add a 2nd megatree...