Release 4.01.01. Import of LSP now matches to xLights effects.

[scuba]

quite a thorough discussion.  A few self-centered comments:

I'm currently re-sequencing my entire show in Xlights.  I made that choice because the program is object oriented.  this gives me great flexibility to change any model as I wish; upgrade features, etc. .  Also the program effects and speed are wonderful.  I'm stuck on XL's!

A little background on my "import effects" feature use:

To make my 2014 show I  converted my 2013 LSP files to Xlights xseq files (Lighting_Elf), then added new effects to the existing models. Worked great!  It had some limitations: I couldn't edit the imported LSP effects.  The problem I was trying to solve this year (When XL4.0 starting to come out) was that I needed to re-assign channel numbers to my controllers(models) to add new features.  I had little choice but to start over because I couldn't "see" the convert effects in XL sequencer nor change the model channel assignments of the LSP models.

To re-sequnce is a slow process ; so when the good efforts of the XL developers made a conversion pathway for LSP files directly, I  thought I'd convert the LSP files and then add additional features.  And since the import feature mapped to XL models, I thought I could import, modify the model channel numbers for the new layout and therefore save a bunch of time.  But everything has trade-offs! 

From the discussion, it appears for large LSP files or sequences, the simple import feature may not be all that simple.

Anyway, I'd like to see the import effects feature work, even if it will not be practical for large LSP files.  (BTW: I've got ~23,000 channels of RGB)

Thanks to all.  Any advice is welcomed!

[Gilrock]

Slightly off the topic but is it possible to do animations for a matrix or megatree in xlights, like the ones you can do in LSP using the animations tool?
Is that what glediator does?

I was planning to do an animation editor at some point but not sure if it will be this year.  If you want to create animations to use with xLights you need to create them to match the size of the model.  You could use this program:
http://www.piskelapp.com/

If you have a 12x50 tree then change the size to 12x50 in that program and draw your animation.  Then create a GIF to use in xLights.  Now I haven't tried this but it should work.  Test with a simple one first to make sure the process works.

[jnealand]

Just a little historical techy note.  Although we refer to the combo of xlights and nutcracker using one or both of the words you should be aware that xlights is the player and scheduler and network portion of the the combo.  Nutcracker is the original sequencer that was imported into the xlights program and is the part that we sequence with.  Nutcracker is the sequencer not xlights.  To my knowledge the current team is only working on the nutcracker portion, maybe a little on the network setup.  I don't recall any new stuff being done on the original player and scheduler functions which still work great.  Matt Brown was the originator creator of xlights and was the person who integrated them together.  Sean Meaghan was the originator and creator of the first nutcracker.  Dave Pitts wrote all or most of the orginal Nutcracker v4 code which is now being enhanced by Dan Kulp and Gil Jones.  There was also work done on the old nutcracker v3 by Frank ?, sorry I don't remember his last name.  We are indebted to all those folks.  I am in awe of what they have accomplished from the very beginning to today.

[Gilrock]

It's really just a single program now there is no separation of functionality.  A good portion of the original xLights code has been removed or replaced.  I don't think people realize the magnitude of the amount of code that Dan and I have produced.  Just look here on GitHub and you'll see the amount of new and revised code we've done versus the work done by early contributors to the program. 

https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/graphs/contributors

[MrChristmas2000]

scuba,

Although the following video was done in NC 3.0 the same controls and use of gifs applies.

https://vimeo.com/66620693

If you use the preceding gif animator piskel, mentioned above, with the info from the video you should be able to recreate the same type of graphical action that you could with the LSP Matrix animator.

Hope that helps.

[logandc99]

Thanks for all that info. I will try out the piskel app and watch the video on animated gifs for NC3.

As far as the work being put into creating this program, I am in awe of the programmers and just can't imagine how you manage to do all this stuff. There are updates to the program on such a regular basis and it seems that if a problem is found, it gets addressed immediately. I am extremely grateful that this has been produced for the mac and I am finding the program such joy to use.

[flyinverted]

What is amazing about the programmers is that they're all family men, with outside activities going on, work, church, wives and still find time between all that to code for us.

Thanks!

[nzlongfellow]

What is amazing about the programmers is that they're all family men, with outside activities going on, work, church, wives and still find time between all that to code for us.

Thanks!

I totally agree. I would lay gold at their feet .... if I hadn't spent all my money on lights.

[logandc99]

Slightly off the topic but is it possible to do animations for a matrix or megatree in xlights, like the ones you can do in LSP using the animations tool?
Is that what glediator does?

I was planning to do an animation editor at some point but not sure if it will be this year.  If you want to create animations to use with xLights you need to create them to match the size of the model.  You could use this program:
http://www.piskelapp.com/



If you have a 12x50 tree then change the size to 12x50 in that program and draw your animation.  Then create a GIF to use in xLights.  Now I haven't tried this but it should work.  Test with a simple one first to make sure the process works.

Just tried doing a simple trumpet animated gif using piskel and it worked a treat 

[MrChristmas2000]

If you want to play around with some premade gifs sean posted a link to his folder with a whole bunch.

http://nutcracker123.com/nutcracker/shared_images/

This should give one a lot of practice with using the piskel editor.

Did you notice also that there are downloadable version of piskel as well for when the web is not available?

[logandc99]

No I didn't realise there was a downloadable version. Thanks.