Sean Meighan
Software => xLights Convert => Topic started by: knightrohulk on December 11, 2015, 08:46:56 PM
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Total nooby to xLights and my first post on this forum. I'm currently running the latest version of Vixen 3. I am also using a Falcon Pi Player, so I'm exporting my Vixen 3 sequence to fseq file format to play on the FPP.
I've tried using the latest version of xLights to open the fseq file that I'm exporting from Vixen, but nothing happens. Do I need to setup xLights first somehow before reading this file? Is this even possible to read this file exported from Vixen?
Thanks!
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You've gotta create models of your lights on the Layout tab or xLights has no idea what to do with the data. Also create channel outputs on the setup tab.
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I am trying to do something similar, however I'm trying to get it into xLights. What I have done so far is to open the .tim file in Vixen 3, export it back to Vixen 2.1 and then use the normal Import method in xLights. The problem I'm having is that the results are not at all what I expected. In my case, I am bringing in sequences for Singing Trees and it is very clear that what I'm seeing on the timeline in xLights is not even close to what I see in Vixen 3. Unfortunately I do not know my way around Vixen enough to know if it's the export from Vixen to Vixen 2.1 that's causing the problem, or the import into xLights from the exported Vixen 2.1 file. Any suggestions?
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Last I checked the import from Vixen is broken. There is no native Vixen 3 import, you have export v3 as 2.1. So, you obviously figured that out. But, at some point the import stopped working. Honestly, I wouldn't use it anyway. Import as a data layer. If you import as effects all you will have are a bunch of on/off effects.
James
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
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Last time someone was having trouble with Vixen 2.x import I asked for files and never got any. I can tell you there will probably never be a Vixen 3 importer.
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@Gilrock, I'm more than willing to provide data files if you'd like them.
@Phrog30, pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with importing as a data layer. I've tinkered with it a little bit could never get it to do what I expected. How do you map to the correct model?
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A data layer is really based on channels, so to map to the correct model you will need to setup Vixen to mirror xlights, or have xlights mirror Vixen. So, if a mini tree is channel 1-100 in Vixen, it will need to be the same in xlights. When I used Vixen, I created one controller in the tree and just created a series of channels. All of my models in Vixen were setup with the same channels as in xlights. So, when I exported Vixen and added as a data layer, it just works. I hope I explained that correctly. I don't have Vixen installed anymore, but I think you can export only partial channels.
James
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I was able to import as a data layer but then I can't even manipulate the color. Unfortunately it's not my sequence so I do not have all of my models setup in Vixen to be able to line up the channels.
Going back to the effect import, I was able to delete out all other props from the Vixen file and re-export the file. The result is close but there are definitely some weird things happening in the import (or export) process. For instance, in Vixen, 3 out of the 3 trees light up and start the "oh" sound simultaneously on the timeline. However, in xLights, they are staggered, one then the next then the next on the time line. Overall you can see that it is close but everything is time shifted. Also, some of the effects in Vixen happen at time 0:00 (right at the start) but in xLights you see that they start late.
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Yes, you can't edit the effects in a data layer, but you can promote effects and edit.
It sounds like you are close. You may want to post your stuff. If it's too large then put in a cloud storage and post a link.
Besides not being able to edit, did things line up when you tried the data layer?
James
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
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Things seem to line up properly using the data layer. Unfortunately though, the offset in the data layer does not seem to work so I had to bring my trees down to a starting channel of 1 in order to test it, but visually it looked more correct, yes.
I have attached the supporting files.
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I have had some success exporting singing tree data from Vixen 3 files (ie someone else's sequence)
first you have to open the files in vixen 3 as if it were their setup
delete all of their mapping and remap the singing faces to reflect your output channels on your setup
export the sequence to a vixen 2.1 file
then import it to xlights
hopefully the channels match
i found this removed all the excess data and allowed just the faces to be imported
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Things seem to line up properly using the data layer. Unfortunately though, the offset in the data layer does not seem to work so I had to bring my trees down to a starting channel of 1 in order to test it, but visually it looked more correct, yes.
I have attached the supporting files.
Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it? The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows. You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset. Worked last time I tested it.
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Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it? The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows. You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset. Worked last time I tested it.
I was able to change it with the slow-click (I'm using the Mac version if that matters), but it did not seem to affect which channels it was outputting to. I have a megatree starting at channel 1 (and I temporarily moved my trees there for testing) and I could always see it on the first strand of the megatree or sometimes not visible at all.
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I have had some success exporting singing tree data from Vixen 3 files (ie someone else's sequence)
first you have to open the files in vixen 3 as if it were their setup
delete all of their mapping and remap the singing faces to reflect your output channels on your setup
export the sequence to a vixen 2.1 file
then import it to xlights
hopefully the channels match
i found this removed all the excess data and allowed just the faces to be imported
That method worked (as a data layer) although I couldn't figure out how to get it to export using any channels other than 1..X. I really want to be able to manipulate it in xLights though using the effects import, not just the data layer import. As a last resort I could try to learn Vixen and make my manipulations there and then bring it into xLights as a data layer....it's just not ideal.
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Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it? The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows. You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset. Worked last time I tested it.
I was able to change it with the slow-click (I'm using the Mac version if that matters), but it did not seem to affect which channels it was outputting to. I have a megatree starting at channel 1 (and I temporarily moved my trees there for testing) and I could always see it on the first strand of the megatree or sometimes not visible at all.
I'm 100% sure the channel offset works. It's accomplished in FileConverter.cpp near line 1711. You probably didn't re-render the sequence after you changed the offset.
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I'm 100% sure the channel offset works. It's accomplished in FileConverter.cpp near line 1711. You probably didn't re-render the sequence after you changed the offset.
Actually re-rendering it is what causes nothing to display after changing the offset. I will try and take a short video and post.
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A video won't help much cause I won't be able to see what channel the data comes in on. The question is what is the base channel of the data and what channel are you trying to move it to? It's more likely a mismatch of how you have everything configured so it's really not importing into the correct channels to start with. If you want to move it backwards you gotta use a negative number. I can show you a video of it working but I don't think that helps.
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Last I checked the import from Vixen is broken. There is no native Vixen 3 import, you have export v3 as 2.1. So, you obviously figured that out. But, at some point the import stopped working. Honestly, I wouldn't use it anyway. Import as a data layer. If you import as effects all you will have are a bunch of on/off effects.
What do you mean by "broken"? Since I was getting nowhere with getting my old Vixen sequences to work in xLights, I was searching for some help for this process and was disheartened by reading this, but I was eventally able to get it to work by flattening by profile into the sequence.
I was able to load some sequencing from my arches to appear in the grid editor in xLights as a series of "ON" effects, but it doesn't do anything in my preview. I tried clicking the Render All button, but it doesn't make a difference. Wierd thing is that if I drag a Butterfly effect to one of the channels for my arch to see what happens, but the floodslights in my preview are changing colour.
If I drag a Butterfly effect onto one of my floodlights, it does show up in the preview the floodlight.
What would be causing this strange behaviour?
I'm on xLights version 2016.45. Vixen is 2.1.
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Broken means it no worky, at least last time I checked. I have since uninstalled Vixen and have zero plans on installing it again.
https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/issues/499 (https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/issues/499)
It sounds like you have channel assignment issues. Check that Vixen is assigned the same channels as xlights, or vice versa.
James
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If you put an effect on model A and model B lights up then your channel setup for your models is wrong.
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What would be causing this strange behaviour?
I'm on xLights version 2016.45. Vixen is 2.1.
Try updating to .46. If you imported the "On" effects onto the Nodes, that would be the reason they aren't rendering. That is fixed in .46.
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Thanks. Updating to .46 worked.
Yesterday, under Import | Import Effects, I chose a Vixen sequence, which then leads me to the "Map Channels - filename.vix" window. I struggled for a long time on how to get any items into the drop down box, but I "accidentally" did it somehow. I've since added a few more models to my layout, but the new items aren't appearing in the drop-down box.
How do I add items to it?
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Well, it looks like I answered my own question... the issue was that I was doing an import into a sequence that was created before I created the models in question.
Makes sense to me.
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Right-click a row-header and select Edit Display Elements. Then add your new models to the sequence.
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Yeah, they were just test sequences at the time to get a feel for the software, so I don't have any particular attachment to they anyway.
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I am working on understanding the layout of the Vixen3 files. It seems that it would be easy to "convert" to xLights since while the terminology is different, the concepts are similar. HIgh level effects on a "Model"/"Element". Not everything can cross over since approaches to color handling are different, as well of a few other difference but the majority of the effects can be mapped or "substituted" To me the big issue is figuring out the multitude of vixen files since a sequence its is spread across several.
I am using python in attempting to complete a conversion process which has functions for parsing XML. If someone would like to assist or has knowledge of the Vixen File Structure I can finish pretty quickly. Versed in a number of languages but not a M$ and .net fan and really want to minimize C# exposure but currently slogging through the code.
Side benefit could be a "portable" format for vixen3 so they do have to share the entire directory structure is share a sequence.