Sean Meighan
Welcome => What new effects you would like to see => Topic started by: plaberge on January 19, 2014, 11:51:20 PM
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I've created a spreadsheet that provides a digest of feature requests made on the following groups and forums. As requests get implemented, I'll move them to the Done sheet. I'll try to update on a weekly basis.
- Facebook: Xlights/Nutcracker Support Group
- Facebook: Official Xlight/Nutcracker Support Group
- Xlights/Nutcracker Forum: http://nutcracker123.com/forum/index.php?board=23.0 (this forum)
- DLA DLA: http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=8523.0
- DIYC: http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?20387-Nutcracker
- ACL: http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,2168.0.html
- Github/nutcracker: https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues (all open Enhancements)
The link below is view only. If you want to make a comment about any specific item, please post a comment below and refer to the Item #.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArAreKWOoa2UdHRKM3JpNE1iWk9yTzN5a2gwcXNHdkE&usp=sharing
(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ArAreKWOoa2UdHRKM3JpNE1iWk9yTzN5a2gwcXNHdkE&usp=sharing)
Spreadsheet updated on Feb 10, 2014. Now captures a total of 101 requests (a few duplicates).
Paul.
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You should pull open requests from github as well...
https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues (https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues)
One feature request which is missing:
Enhancement: new effect implementing xLights test mode look
https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues/70 (https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues/70)
The xLights test mode has some simple effects that are very nice for their simplicity and their coolness.
This request is for the existing features, including speed selection.
It should also be extended to include a reverse option.
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I would guess that Sean, Matt and others would need to review and decide then prioritize these ... I think only LOR and vixen have a truly big user base
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You should pull open requests from github as well...
https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues (https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues)
One feature request which is missing:
Enhancement: new effect implementing xLights test mode look
https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues/70 (https://github.com/smeighan/nutcracker/issues/70)
The xLights test mode has some simple effects that are very nice for their simplicity and their coolness.
This request is for the existing features, including speed selection.
It should also be extended to include a reverse option.
I will add all open github requests & the above on this week's update.
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I would guess that Sean, Matt and others would need to review and decide then prioritize these ... I think only LOR and vixen have a truly big user base
My goal was to make it easier for them to do that.
I would like to add some way for members on this forum to vote for their favorite requests, so requests with broader support float to the top. Unfortunately the Poll mechanism is pretty limited, so I'm looking for an alternative. Open to suggestions.
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Spreadsheet updated tonight. Now includes all open Nutcracker enhancement requests on Github. A total of 87 requests captured (includes a few duplicates). Requests have slowed down quite a bit over the last week.
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It's been a long time since this has been updated.
Sean, would it be possible to see what is pending ?
I'm sure you get quite a bit of dupe requests, and this could squelch some of that.
Thanks,
Steve
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i reviewed the spreadsheet just now, a few items have been completed (;ile a off effect besides a none).
most are not implemented.
All of these are enhancements to effects, very few to the GUI.
The focus is going to be xlights 4.0 first. This is a large endeavor and is only happening because dave pitts is willing to put in the hundreds of coding hours to get it started. Dave was working code yesterday on XL 4. My concern is always resources for the xLights project. Come January most of the developers go back to their real jobs and families. Dave works every week of the entire year, but his first love is hardware. He is about half in CL 4 and half in to Pixlite-16 v2 and the Neo matrix driver boards.
Dave has not posted his XL 4 code where any of the developers can see it yet. I am hoping that will happen in the new few weeks. I know he has a functional UI front end, just nothing underneath it yet. Example, you can size, float windows, you can have timing tracks, you can drag effects. There is no play button connected. no effect generation. The target for a functional xl 4 is still 1st quarter.
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Will the effects engine be stable to the point where I/we could contribute in that area of the code?
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Yes. Make new effects, effect engine is not changing. The sequence xml is changing. The underlying effects are not
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Another one of my hobbies is home automation, and they just signed up for a page that lets people put their ideas and the the community vote on them and make comments enhancements of their own. This helps the company decide what is important to the active user community and what is just window dressing.
I for one would like a few get up to speed to help us code "lessons"/"tutorials". I would like to assist with the LSP export capability and to add artnet and ddb support to xlights. The next few months would have some time.
With Seans hints I've installed code blocks but don't know my next steps to compile a working copy of xlights and to start to make a few tweaks on my local copy to see what all I can break.
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maybe one of the first areas for the wiki can be the developer section...
- the architecture of the code,
- APIs,
- how to construct a dev/build environment,
- how to build and package,
- processes for submitting issues,
- regression tests -- how to add test cases, and how to execute them,
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I am not a developer, but I am concerned about feature creep. I have seen too many good products die under the weight of too many features that are only used by a few of the active users. Every feature added opens up the door to breaking a working function and making debugging a bigger and tougher job. I'm not saying leave everything alone, but I see things (controllers, lights, and protocols) brought up that I've never heard of in the lighting community and I have been doing this for years and am a member of many forums. Just my 2 cents. I've been thinking about writing this for a long time and now I've stuck my foot in it. LOL
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Another one of my hobbies is home automation, and they just signed up for a page that lets people put their ideas and the the community vote on them and make comments enhancements of their own. This helps the company decide what is important to the active user community and what is just window dressing.
I for one would like a few get up to speed to help us code "lessons"/"tutorials". I would like to assist with the LSP export capability and to add artnet and ddb support to xlights. The next few months would have some time.
With Seans hints I've installed code blocks but don't know my next steps to compile a working copy of xlights and to start to make a few tweaks on my local copy to see what all I can break.
All the instructions you need to compile the code is in the README files. Like if you are compiling for Windows follow the instructions in the file README.windows. I just started a few weeks ago and was able to use that go get everything you need installed and compiled. A good test for a new developer is to see if you can figure out how to compile the code.
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ah I see RTFM.
Sean had said they were migrating to a different compiler and that the read me was a bit dated. My coding skills are dated as well and it takes me as long to figure out what a piece of code does anymore as it does to redo it to my bidding, so spending a great deal of time figuring it out the hard way greatly reduces the productivity to enhance the software.
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in feb of 2014 Matt Brown was looking to use msvc as the compiler. we have alwyas (for many years) been mingw.
Matt Left for LOR, we never switched. The reason Matt was looking at msvc was that audacity is compiled using codeblocks, wxwidgets and msvc. We thought we would need routines from audacity to draw mp3 waveforms and such.
Dave Pitts has figured out how to draw mp3 waveforms using our current stack.
we use codeblocks, wxwidgets and mingw.
In the last 100 releases, none have ever been compiled using msvc. Mingw is the compiler we will keep using as we go to xlights 4.0
xl 4 is progressing very nicely. i think we have daves participation for 2-3 more weeks . he then is going to become a hardware guy and work on his neo and falcon controller boards.
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Thanks Sean I got code blocks installed on the windows 8 machine, have to see if I made it through the wxwidgets installation or not.
Which piece of code does the protocols and which is the lsp export? I think i would look at the LSP part first and then stick my nose into the protocols, would you expect we have to specify the protocol by element or does xlights already do that if you have a lor dongle and are using e1.31 for the pixels. I've always been either a USB to pixelnet or e1.31 so never paid that much attention to how xlights knows which is which.
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Had some time to work at getting the environment up. having some trouble at this step of the read me:
1) Open a command prompt
2) cd to the build\msw directory under your wxWidgets base directory
3) Some users have reported that their path variable was too long, which confused the wx buld.
If so, try: SET Path=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeBlocks\MinGW\bin
4) run: mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc MONOLITHIC=1 SHARED=1 UNICODE=1 CXXFLAGS="-std=gnu++0x" BUILD=debug
5) run: mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc MONOLITHIC=1 SHARED=1 UNICODE=1 CXXFLAGS="-std=gnu++0x" BUILD=release
6) If you downloaded the zip or 7z version of wxWidgets instead of the Windows installer version,
then you need to update your path environment variable to include C:\wxWidgets-3.0.0\lib\gcc_dll
(assuming C:\wxWidgets-3.0.0 is your wxWidgets base directory).
C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2>mingw32-make -f makefile.gcc MONOLITHIC=1 SHARED=1 UNICODE=1
CXXFLAGS="-std=gnu++0x" BUILD=debug
'mingw32-make' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2>set path
Path=C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDO
WS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x
86)\xLights;C:\Program Files x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Qui
ckTime\QTSystem\;C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2\lib\gcc_dll
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC
C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2>dir Mingw32* /S
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is AECB-B01B
File Not Found
C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2>
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did you download the codeblcoks that has mingw?
here is where my mingw is located. the make command is in the bin directory below that
C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeBlocks\MinGW
HERE IS MY PATH
C:\Users\Sean_Dell\Documents\xLights>path
PATH=C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeBlocks\MinGW
\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Program Files (x8
6)\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client\;C:\Windows\system32;C:
\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:
\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files
(x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Int
el(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Man
agement Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\xLights;C:\Program Files\To
rtoiseGit\bin;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program F
iles\TortoiseSVN\bin;
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You missed the step about changing to the "build\msw" directory.
Try running the make commands from:
"C:\wxWidgets-3.0.2\build\msw"
Oh and yeah modify your path like Sean suggested. If MinGW is not installed under CodeBlocks then you need to get the install that has it.
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Sorry my copy and pasted piece did not go down into that directly, but my first attempt and subsequent fumbling was.
So you are thinking I have the wrong code-blocks installed?
Alan
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it was a further path issue, I went and specifically added my codeblocks directory onto the tail of the path and off the compile went.
Thanks for the bit of a hint, made me curious enough to go looking at which codeblocks I had installed and I found the mingw directories so I knew they existed, which meant it had to be a path issue.
Alan
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Hi Paul,
After much thought about creating the perfect tree topper, I wonder if anyone as thought about a 3d sphere or cube. This solves the problem I have for my boat: Somebody always sees it from the wrong angle whenever the boat is in motion.
A rotating or 3d effect in a cube would be awesome! A rotating star, the face of Santa, fill in the blank. I realize that this has it's own set of issues since it can't be omni-directional, but I'm still thinking this effect would have a huge impact.
Rick