Messages

1

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Adjusting Hue With an Effect?

« on: May 26, 2025, 01:46:13 PM »

I have a video.  Want to change the hue to match music phrasing.  I know that I can do it with a value curve, but that's hard to sync up with the music.   Is there a way to change the hue as an effect?

2

Do You Need Help? Post it here / How to pulse to single midi note in a timing track

« on: November 01, 2023, 05:51:24 PM »

I imported MIDI data to a timing track.
What is the best way to make elements pulse to specific notes.
For example, I have a drum MIDI track that I imported.   A specific note is the bass.  A different note is the snare.

The only thing/effect that I could find that actually will use the note-timing tracks is the piano.   I set the effect to use only the specific note & render style "as pixel."

This works, but render times are excruciating.   For a 4-minute song, just one element with this effect adds about 40 seconds to the render time on an I9 cpu.  Adding to some elements just makes the render hang indefinitely.

The ON and VU effects were my first guesses, but they will not let you do anything with a note timing track.

3

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Grouping cubes produces unexpected results

« on: May 19, 2021, 08:36:50 PM »

I have a bunch of peace stakes, so many that I need 4 controllers, so I made 4 groups of cubes.   Single cubes work as expected.

When grouped:

* No Overlaid Z, Stacked Z, or Anything-Z render styles available
* Some Effects seem to all render in a per-model mode. 

Example: VU Meter / Timing Event Alternate Timed Sweep 2 / Horizontal Stack render style

On individual cubes, I am using "Stacked Y Horizontally" render style to get an up/down sweep.

With grouping of the cubes, the model preview shows the lights going up/down, but the house preview shows them going front/back.

Is there a way that I can use this effect to make a group of cubes sweep up/down to a timing track?

4

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Z-Axis rotation for viewpoint?

« on: May 02, 2021, 08:32:56 PM »

I have some mini-trees in a row.  I want to use the effect "VU-Meter/Timing Event Alternate Timed Sweep2" to make a bouncing up/down effect that is synchronized to a timing track.   

Works fine for a matrix object.   You just use the "Stacked Y Horizontally" render style, which doesn't seem to be available for trees for some reason.

My only remaining option seems to be to use "per preview" rendering with the appropriate camera angle.   It doesn't appear that you can do z-axis rotation with the viewpoints to achieve what is needed.

Before I duplicate my objects & z-rotate them in a separate preview group to achieve this simple effect, is there some easier way to do it?  I could use a different effect, but I don't think that there are any that will do the timing track synchronization.

5

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Re: Can't figure out how to make perspective work with custom model

« on: April 04, 2021, 06:31:25 PM »

Is it an issue with my model?   Other models seem to work fine, but this is the only custom model I am working with.

6

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Re: Can't figure out how to make perspective work with custom model

« on: April 03, 2021, 12:34:15 PM »

Tried that.  No luck.  See for yourself with the attached project.

7

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Can't figure out how to make perspective work with custom model

« on: April 03, 2021, 11:39:11 AM »

I must be doing something silly wrong.  Created a custom model of a present prop.  Present has lights that go up the size of each face in a line & then meet on the top in an X.  Model works find with the prop.

Want to use a fan effect to make the lights rotate when viewed from the top, with the center of the top as the center of rotation.    Have tried stacked-y and top perspective without luck.

There are lights in the base of the present.   Want them to work independently, which is why I created a submodel.

8

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: October 03, 2020, 11:18:39 AM »

Somehow I feel relieved that I wasn't just doing something wrong.   How do we get this to the developers? 

Peace Stakes are starting to become a thing...

9

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: October 02, 2020, 05:55:14 PM »

The bug is that # of strands = the depth parameter always, regardless of the "direction" parameter.
Strand length = Width * Height always.

If the direction is "vertical left/right," all works as expected.   A strand corresponds to a fill horizontal row of the cube, with the next row behind it being the next strand.

If the direction is changed to "vertical front/back," then things become broken.  The length of a strand remains the same and the strand count remains the same, so a single strand covers some multiple of a horizontal row.

To see an example:

1.  Create a cube with the following parameters: 
     Starting Location: Front Bottom Left
     Direction: Vertical Left/Right
     Strand Style: No Zig Zag
     Layers All Start in the same place: Unchecked
     Width: 12
     Height : 11
     Depth: 10
2.  Start a new sequence a light up any individual strand to see that a strand = a row of the cube and all works as expected
3. Leave all other parameters the same and change the "direction" to "Vertical Front/Back"
4. Start a new sequence and notice that the cube still has 10 strands, which doesn't make sense, since strands are running a different direction now.
5. Light up each strand, and see that each strand contains overlapping parts of 2 adjacent rows in the cube because the strands have a length that don't correspond to anything in the cube.

The strand length should be width * height for one "direction" setting, but depth * height for the other setting.

I'm guessing that nobody noticed this bug yet, as many people are creating cubes (equal width and depth), rather than a cuboid with differing side lengths.

10

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: September 29, 2020, 06:38:17 AM »

Ok.  I have put my finger on the core issue.     Resulting number of strands = depth, regardless of the "direction"

11

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: September 28, 2020, 04:20:27 PM »

I can almost create what I want with the following:

Starting: Front Bottom Left
Direction: Vertical Left/Right
Style: No Zig-Zag

The problem is that the rows continue to zig-zag.   The "no zig-zag" controls the zig-zag with respect to height, not rows or columns.

12

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: September 28, 2020, 12:54:24 PM »

So, is this a feature request, or a bug?  There doesn't seem to be a way to do peace lights as a cube.  The options are there, but they don't seem to work as expected. 

13

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: Bug? Cube Model

« on: September 28, 2020, 09:24:51 AM »

Ok. Here's a sample model.

Pixel 1 should be the back left bottom.
Pixel 10 should be the back left top.
Pixel 11 should be at the bottom of the stack in front of pixels 1-10
Pixels 91-100 should be the front, left stack.

Strand #1 is the left-most stacks
Strands #2-12 should go left to right.

The "strings" setting in the model seems to be ignored. 

14

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Bug? Cube Model

« on: September 27, 2020, 07:14:21 PM »

I have a cube as follows:
12 Wide, 10 High, 10 Depth.
Model appears correctly in 3-d view.
Arranged as follows:
1st Pixel is the Bottom left, back.
2nd pixel is above the 1st.
10th pixel is at the top
11th pixel is the bottom of the next stack, which is directly in front of the 1st pixel.
So, my matrix is constructed of 12 strands of 100 pixels, arranged in stacks that go from bottom to top & then repeat (peace stakes).

When I create the cube, it displays correctly, but only has 10 strands, regardless of the number I enter for "strings"

15

Do You Need Help? Post it here / Re: Cube, Wave Effect, and Rotation

« on: September 08, 2020, 02:00:49 PM »

Understood.  The question here is if there is a way to get the wave effect to run at an angle, rather than left-right or top-bottom.   The example project has one end higher than the other, but does not generate waves that go at an angle (for example, top left to bottom right).   Roto-zoom doesn't seem to work.