Sean Meighan
Welcome => Do You Need Help? Post it here => Topic started by: stampedeboss on March 13, 2016, 01:06:09 PM
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I am trying to migrate from vixen3 to xLights for my 2016 show. I am trying to migrate my existing sequences via vix, fseq without success. I end up with nothing showing in my preview.
I have setup my network to match my vixen configuration including creating all the models with the same names and ports. I have tried both windows and linux versions of xLights with the same results. (FYI, reason for converting is I want to get away from having to use windows, the only use is sequencing lights.)
I have:
- Open New Sequence and selected the appropriate mp3
- Selected 50ms timing which matches both my fseq and vix (which I exported from vixen)
- Selected the appropriate sequence file (I have tried both)
- Click Done
- Switch to sequence tab and select view (Have several setup, tried them all with same results)
- Toggle Strings and Nodes on Models, click green render button
- Nothing appears on the "nodes" just looks like solid black bars
I have also tried import with the same results.
Any suggestions, I've watched every youtube video I can find, they are seem to be for LOR users.
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I have never heard of anyone converting vixen 3 files. AFAIK all vixen 3 users have done is to generate a fseq file directly from vixen 3.
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I have never heard of anyone converting vixen 3 files. AFAIK all vixen 3 users have done is to generate a fseq file directly from vixen 3.
You are correct, I created vix and fseq files for input to xLights.
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I am trying to migrate from vixen3 to xLights for my 2016 show. I am trying to migrate my existing sequences via vix, fseq without success. I end up with nothing showing in my preview.
I have setup my network to match my vixen configuration including creating all the models with the same names and ports. I have tried both windows and linux versions of xLights with the same results. (FYI, reason for converting is I want to get away from having to use windows, the only use is sequencing lights.)
I have:
- Open New Sequence and selected the appropriate mp3
- Selected 50ms timing which matches both my fseq and vix (which I exported from vixen)
- Selected the appropriate sequence file (I have tried both)
- Click Done
- Switch to sequence tab and select view (Have several setup, tried them all with same results)
- Toggle Strings and Nodes on Models, click green render button
- Nothing appears on the "nodes" just looks like solid black bars
I have also tried import with the same results.
Any suggestions, I've watched every youtube video I can find, they are seem to be for LOR users.
Are you wanting to be able to edit the sequence after you import into xlights, or just import so it will play?
I used to use Vixen 3. When I was using I would export from Vixen 3 as Vixen 2.1. Then in xlights add this as a data layer.
I know this works. Let us know what your end goal is. We can go from there. If necessary, I can do a teamviewer session to assist.
James
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Yes I would like to be ale to enhance and rework in xLights. My goal is to move away from Vixen and use xLights exclusively.
I'm not sure what the issue is, I would be grateful for any assistance.
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Yes I would like to be ale to enhance and rework in xLights. My goal is to move away from Vixen and use xLights exclusively.
I'm not sure what the issue is, I would be grateful for any assistance.
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Then using a data layer is out. You can't edit this.
You can import effects using a Vixen 2.1 file, but it requires you to map Vixen to xlights and I'm not sure how long that would take. Also, I'm not sure how the effects are created. My guess is you will get a bunch of on effects at the node level, not at the model level.
I suggest you import as a data layer first, just to make sure you have things mapped 1 to 1. Then go from there.
I have one Vixen 3 file that I'm redoing in xlights, last year I imported as a data layer. It might be best for you to do the same.
Can you try the data layer and see what you get?
James
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My data layer ends up showing zero channels. I have posted all the various files to my dropbox at the following url: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/anypp35pk6e8uml/AADNiW0Xs-Ff2QAdgpaBgd_xa?dl=0
They were too large to attach. When I load the "saved" xml from the data import, it shows zero channels.
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My data layer ends up showing zero channels. I have posted all the various files to my dropbox at the following url: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/anypp35pk6e8uml/AADNiW0Xs-Ff2QAdgpaBgd_xa?dl=0
They were too large to attach. When I load the "saved" xml from the data import, it shows zero channels.
Can you take a screenshot of your Vixen setup?
James
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Certainly, I also included the export html file in the list of files.
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I took your files and created a data layer. I'm seeing data.
James
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Ok, I went back to zero and re-exported the files, it appears my originals were affected by a known problem in Vixen.
I'm now able to get a "data" layer imported. Now on to the next problem, since my display is all pixels, each node has three channels. On the import dialog, its a node, how do I import all three channels per node?
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Ok, I went back to zero and re-exported the files, it appears my originals were affected by a known problem in Vixen.
I'm now able to get a "data" layer imported. Now on to the next problem, since my display is all pixels, each node has three channels. On the import dialog, its a node, how do I import all three channels per node?
That one is over my head. It might be an issue with Vixen. If you looked at the video Dan did when he imported his hls stuff his dialog showed each channel and each node. For whatever reason Vixen only gives you the option for each channel.
Hopefully someone else may chime in on a solution.
James
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Can anyone provide guidance on importing RGB Pixels from vix sequences?
Model appears to only support a single channel in the import for a Node which has 3 channels. I have confirmed that it will import one of the RED, BLUE, or GREEN channels but no idea how to import all 3.
I have tried just the Node name portion without Red, Green or Blue and nothing imports. If I give it the full Node, eg: Megatree S1 Px 1 Green, the green items do import. An apparent concern is it appears to replace the color from the effect with a single color specified in the map. While this makes sense for ac strings, it doesn't for pixels since color value may be anywhere from 00 - ff at different points in time, I can tell the code is there since the data import properly displays the colors. But not the import of which I can only figure out a single channel.
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Here's a pic of what is happening. Instead of being able to map a node (which includes all 3 colors), it only allows each individual color/channel to be mapped.
I will create a Github ticket for this. (Ticket #499)
James
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Here's a pic of what is happening. Instead of being able to map a node (which includes all 3 colors), it only allows each individual color/channel to be mapped.
I will create a Github ticket for this. (Ticket #499)
James
Thank you.
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This is kind of a side effect of only having Vixen 2 created .vix files to use as examples. Vixen2 didn't really have any concept of RGB things so there wasn't a way to determine if 3 channels should be combined into one or not.
Looks like we'll need to add some detection logic to look for RGB things (names that and in " Red" with matching b/g) as well as then taking it one step further to look for the strands.
That said, not really a priority for me right now. The new layout effort is huge.
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This is kind of a side effect of only having Vixen 2 created .vix files to use as examples. Vixen2 didn't really have any concept of RGB things so there wasn't a way to determine if 3 channels should be combined into one or not.
Looks like we'll need to add some detection logic to look for RGB things (names that and in " Red" with matching b/g) as well as then taking it one step further to look for the strands.
That said, not really a priority for me right now. The new layout effort is huge.
Is there a way to use fseq files on import, to be honest that would be my preferred method?
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You can import an fseq file as a data layer but your channels will need to be a match.
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You can import an fseq file as a data layer but your channels will need to be a match.
Thanks everyone, looks like I can't make the jump at this time, Between Halloween and Christmas I have over 40 sequences I don't want to have to completely redo, plus with moving I really can't simply use a data layer. With 12K+ channels, convert to effect won't work.
Nice program, impressed with where its headed.
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I still think in your case the best choice is a data layer. To my knowledge, the only direct import is a LOR SuperStar sequence. This is because one of the developers added SS effects. There aren't direct Vixen 3 effects. So, even if the import would work, you would end up with a bunch of node level, on/off effects. This would be painful to manage.
It sounds like you don't want to redo your sequences, which is understandable. My advice is keep what you have, import as a data layer, and add to them in xlights. Then any new sequences can be done solely in xlights.
Whatever avenue you choose, good luck.
James
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Data layer is definitely the way to go. Also, once you have it as a data layer, you can right click on a node in the row headers and have it convert that nodes data into xLights effects. I wouldn't do that for something like a mega-tree, but if you have a few simple things (faces, AC things, etc...), you could get the data into xLights to then manipulate.
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You can import an fseq file as a data layer but your channels will need to be a match.
Thanks everyone, looks like I can't make the jump at this time, Between Halloween and Christmas I have over 40 sequences I don't want to have to completely redo, plus with moving I really can't simply use a data layer. With 12K+ channels, convert to effect won't work.
Nice program, impressed with where its headed.
What's funny is your reason you say you can't use a data layer is actually the reason I believe you need to use a data layer. If you imported 12,000 channels as effects do you seriously think you will be manually editing all those effects? Also when you try to use xLights in that way I think it makes our program look bad. You will be complaining about the poor performance and slow render times because you have over 10,000 effects being rendered. Imagine dropping a single spiral effect in xLights. That generates a couple lines in the xml file to produce all that data. If you then had to import that same data we can't figure out that its all one effect so you end up with 3,000 effects to execute the same thing.
I started out the same way at first and then finally decided it wasn't worth it to try to baby that old data along. Plus having the old data locked into certain channels can actually be a big roadblock when you want to expand your show. You are always having to deal with not wanting to impact where channels reside. I'd say you have too many sequences. I only ran 5 for Christmas. Not because I didn't have more but because people will stay too long if you have too many songs. Just trim it down to the ones that are actually good quality and not outdated.
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I actually run a different show each night of the week. My plan was to rework the sequences, focusing on the big parts like matrix and megatrees at first. Should be easy since most are nutcracker effects in Vixen. Coming from Vixen3, same concept as higher level effects lower overhead. Outside of those, most of the the others are easily moved to the model level after import, on/of and chases.
Will probably do all new development in xLights and retire the others as time permit. That's why I started early. Working on how to do similar effects between the two platforms, like chase is morph etc.
To be honest, I am going to invest some time to see if I can come up with a conversion routine for Vixen3 xml to xLights. Where can I find a decent description of the xLight xml layout/requirements? It seems it really should be straight forward, Vixen3 elements are equal to xLights Models. Group are groups and so forth.
I think the biggest issue is going to be lack of "gradients" in xLights and what to do with those colors.
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...like chase is morph etc.
I think the biggest issue is going to be lack of "gradients" in xLights and what to do with those colors.
The morph is equivalent to a wipe. SingleStrand most closely resembles chase, however, there are some things that Vixen allows in those effects that xlights can't reproduce easily, extend pulse to the end is an example.
When I want to mimic gradients in xlights I produce a gradient png "x" x "x" pixels. I then use a picture effect with vector control. See attached. It's not as much work as you might think.
James
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It looks to me like you could do what I see in that recording using Morphs. You can turn the head duration to 0 on a morph and then the tail colors create your gradient.
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It looks to me like you could do what I see in that recording using Morphs. You can turn the head duration to 0 on a morph and then the tail colors create your gradient.
I tried. I couldn't get the duration the way I wanted, basically the tail was moving before I wanted. It was definitely close to what I was looking for. To my knowledge, I've only used this kind of effect a couple of times. 99% of the time the native effects/controls do exactly what I need.
James
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