Messages

1

The Water Cooler / Re: Display was mostly a failure for me in 2014

« on: December 22, 2014, 01:22:36 PM »

Don't be too bummed out. My (as well as many others) first couple of years were very frustrating and error prone. This is my fifth year, and by far was the easiest, thanks in part to Sean who continues to improve Nutcracker making pixel effect easy and David for designing the F16.

2

xLights Convert / Re: Merging/Layering Multiple Files

« on: December 22, 2014, 01:12:10 PM »

Thanks twooly, that's along the lines that I'd like to go. The only thing that doesn't work about that approach is now you can't make changes anymore in LSP. I'd like to come up with an approach that supports editing, because we all know it's never perfect the first time around.

3

xLights Convert / Re: Merging/Layering Multiple Files

« on: December 22, 2014, 12:18:25 PM »

As do I. I just really hate doing chases in LSP. When dealing with arches that have 10+ segments, the additional timing marks makes the sequence unusable by the time you're done with it.

I got a chance to play with Vixen 3 this season and really like some of the features in it, especially chases. So, what I'd like to do is start with LSP, then layer on a Vixen 3 sequence where I'd only have the arches, and then finally Nutcracker. I'm assuming something like this doesn't already exist. I know light elf can append sequences together, but I want to layer them on top of each other. My only thought is somehow exporting the file into a format I could open with excel or notepad, and copy and past specific channels, but I'm not familiar enough with the different formats to know what would be the simplest. Or, if I'm going about it all wrong, please chime in.

4

Latest xLights/Nutcracker software / Re: New Release 3.4.22; New Effect Shimmer

« on: December 22, 2014, 12:09:56 PM »

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but I can't seem to make the shimmer effect flash fast enough. It's more of a slow pulse, even when I turn the speed up to 30. I'm trying to accomplish a fast strobe effect, where the lights are on for a frame (50ms), off for a frame, and repeat, but the fastest I can see is a frequency of about 2 or 3 Hz. Is there any way  accomplish this?

5

xLights Convert / Merging/Layering Multiple Files

« on: December 21, 2014, 03:20:15 PM »

What would be the easiest way to layer multiple sequence files generated in different programs, sorta like how you can add nutcracker effects to an existing sewuence. I'd like to be able use LSP for general sequencing, Vixen 3 for arches and other chases, and nutcracker for most pixel effects. If there's no utility to merge the files, how would I go about doing it manually?

6

Nutcracker Effects / Re: Glediator

« on: December 09, 2014, 07:38:38 AM »

I second Sean. Duplicating effects in NC should be a low priority. It would be nice to have, and maybe if there were some really commond effects that everyone used and loved from glediator.

7

What new effects you would like to see / Re: Snow Globe Effect

« on: December 03, 2014, 12:35:25 PM »

Unfortunately no, so I may have to draw something. Give me a little while.

8

Xlights Setup / Re: Preview Image Appears Blank

« on: December 03, 2014, 10:57:46 AM »

Nevermind, once I restarted xLights, the image was visible.

9

Xlights Setup / Preview Image Appears Blank

« on: December 03, 2014, 07:45:53 AM »

ll admit, I've never used the preview screen before. I've actually skipped over it until I just read about the whole house model thing, and now I'm interested. However, I'm having problems loading an image and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've tried many different sizes original (3384x2082), 1280x788, and 800x493. I've tried jpg, gif, bmp, and png. I've tried 8-bit, 16-bit, and 24-bit color, but always the same result, all I see is a blank image displayed. When I play with the brightness, I can change it from white to gray, but I still don't see the image. What am I doing wrong?

10

The Water Cooler / Re: Happy Birthday Sean

« on: December 03, 2014, 07:08:59 AM »

Thank you Sean for all that you do for us and happy belated birthday!

11

What new effects you would like to see / Snow Globe Effect

« on: December 02, 2014, 07:58:50 PM »

The easiest way to describe this effect is turning on (or off) an electronic snow globe. Snow starts settled at the ground, then rises up as it starts to build up speed sideways, but the top layer spins slower than the layers below it so it creates a backwards arcing effect with the wisps of snow. Ultimately, all the snow ends spinning at the same velocity in a big snow storm.