Whole house model: A weird bug or not?

[scuba]

SO this is a little tough to explain...

First the setup: 48 channels of LOR, followed by 45 universes of E1.31: ~23,000 channels.  All  of the LOR features are single color strings, windows frames, matrix (Vert or Horizontal) or trees.

The bug shows up in the use of the whole house models.  If I apply a single "on" effect on the whole house model with a single color ( for example "Red" ) WITH SPARKLES, I get these random flashes of other colors showing up on these LOR models.  If I expand the model in node view, you can find these nodes that are the wrong color. AND some  are group as three nodes colored BRG and others as just random colors (cyan, Pink...)

This problem shows up in similar  ways when you apply other effects on the whole house models..

See attached files


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[scuba]

Additional files for above post

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[flyinverted]

Because you can have different RGB types (RGB,BRG,RBG,GRB),  it is suggested that you set the color type on you controller, instead of within NC if you are going to use WHM.

Look at your nutcracker_rgbeffects.xml file and note that the WHMs are nothing but a 400x300 matrix with your individual models superimposed on that 400x300 matrix.  This is why some effects look good and others don't with the WHM.

Since the WHM is a single virtual model, the RGB order is constant and it is RGB. Setting all your elements accordingly from within the controller and not NC will ensure Reds are Red, etc.

[jnealand]

I also found that the best way to do whole house was to use that with only RGB strings and no AC channels.  I created a new WHRGBonly model and used that then added the AC channels back as separate models.  Worked much better.

[scuba]

thanks Guys!  I understand Whole House better...

All of the RGB's are the correct color.  It's only the LOR AC channels that are screwed up.  Can we increase the resolution of the WH matrix to avoid the problem?  I looked at the xlights_rgbeffects.xml file;  the Wholehouse data field: #1,#2,#,3,RGB (or W,R,B,G): repeat  what's the decoder ring for these numbers? channel number and  Location?

BTW: I thought my XL universes were all set to RGB...I do modify the controllers as required....where did you find that I had the other configurations?

[flyinverted]

The LOR AC channels turn on when the color of the effect matches the color of the AC channel's string color.

Color wash RED on a RED single strand will turn the AC channel on. Color wash GREEN on a REDsingle strand will NOT tun the AC channel on.

[Gilrock]

When I was messing with another users setup last night I saw a weird thing with the colors.  He had a normal matrix set as BRG and when I put a morph on it the colors showed up wrong in the model preview.  That shouldn't happen because we fix the color orders when we display.  I changed it to RGB and then the colors were correct.  I opened the sequence again after thinking about it wanting to duplicate it and I put it back to BRG and the colors still displayed correctly.  So I have no idea what put it in that initial state of showing the wrong colors.  The other thing I noticed is my node order change was saved into the rgbeffects file even though I never hit save.  Not sure why we have the save button now.

[scuba]

I made a quick  video of the issues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viraAwvkqDQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The attached file is the sequence in the video.

The problem appears to be in the use of the color White … It doesn’t map correctly to the LOR channels (recall white is All on RGB ).  Additionally, it seems to corrupt the nodes of previous effects…BUT if you play the sequence, it doesn’t appear to display the coruption.  BTW: This issue first pops up when I was using Sparkles in the wholehouse model. 

Also you had stated that I had a combination of RGB, GBR, RBG etc. types of RGB.  I didn't think I setup the Xlights that way....how did you know it and how can I fix it?


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[Gilrock]

We can see all your model definitions in the xlights_rgbeffects.xml file you posted.  But I took a quick look and I don't see any of them that are not the normal RGB order.  They all say "RGB nodes" for string type so I think your model setup is fine.  I can try to look at this tonight.

[jnealand]

The LOR AC channels turn on when the color of the effect matches the color of the AC channel's string color.

Color wash RED on a RED single strand will turn the AC channel on. Color wash GREEN on a REDsingle strand will NOT tun the AC channel on.

I had heard that before, but it never worked for me.  My AC channel colors got all messed up when I kept them in the whole house model.  So I removed them and everything came out better.  I had a 64 AC strings on my mega tree and another 48 on my mini trees (7 Lynx 16 channel controllers) and trying what you said just gave me a really junky mismatched color display.

[scuba]

thanks Guys...is this a bug or something else

[scuba]

I checked...all are RGB accept for the Single Color..
Something of interest? I looked at the xlights_rgbeffects.xml file and found several format differences...most of the "<model"... statements define the "name=" of the model next.  But several begin with "DisplayAS=".  Is that of concern?

[Gilrock]

The attribute order doesn't matter for the XML files.  In fact sometimes it's hard to control the order they get written in even when you'd like to if you're using an XMLWriter object and not writing as pure text.

[scuba]

I'm using 4.1.0.  It's great!!!!  Thanks!

I've sequenced several features and took a look at the Wholehouse model.  The nodes where filled with rgb effects.  Not a real problem, but I was a bit surprise to see them populated.  Flyinverted (see above) said that the whole house model had some resolution limitations due to the mapping of the effects to a matrix (400x300?).  By sequencing the features or model directly, I thought that provided the best display of an effect.  I'm probably over thinking this, but which effects don't work well with Wholehouse and what drives the actual RGB lights: models or the wholehouse?

This is more of  a curiosity and not a compliant.  (The LOR channel issue is still present, but manageable thanks to jnealand's comments.)