Text effect - Count Down formats

[gerry]

Hello,

I am trying to add a text effect with the Count Down attribute set to one of the following options below.

How exactly do I specify the text string ?

I am aware that this will count down from the date/time that the sequence was created (not when the seq runs) ; notwithstanding  I have been unable to enter a valid format in the text field - the text displays 'invalid date'

to date ‘d h m s’
to date ‘h:m:s’
to date ‘m’ or ‘s’
to date  ‘s’
!to date !%tofmt
 

[RGBNoob]

I've been wondering about this as well.  If I could add another question, is there a way to have it just count down to a specific time of the day without regards to the date (or just x minutes)?  I was thinking of putting a countdown on my megatree an hour before the show starts which will count down from 60 mins to 0 and then start the show.  It looks like this is not possible as there is no reference to a specific (e.g. 7pm) or a countdown value in minutes and seconds instead of just seconds.

[Phrog30]

Couldn't you create a sequence that counted down, then play only this sequence one hour before the actual show?

[Gilrock]

This is uncharted territory for me since I've never seen that option.  But I'm pretty sure the FPP has some nice overlay options that do countdowns and since it actually knows what time it is that would be the best option.

[RGBNoob]

Couldn't you create a sequence that counted down, then play only this sequence one hour before the actual show?

That's what I want to do but I want it to show how many minutes to the show, not how many seconds (i.e. 3600 seconds instead of 60 minutes).

[RGBNoob]

This is uncharted territory for me since I've never seen that option.  But I'm pretty sure the FPP has some nice overlay options that do countdowns and since it actually knows what time it is that would be the best option.

Thanks Gil I'll look into that.

[flyinverted]

From the 3.0.24 release notes and video by Sean, the countdown on text option was created by Matt Brown.
Matt now works for LOR as a developer.  He is a cool guy and may reveal the syntax needed to document these options.

I'll keep testing and see what I can discover.

-Steve

[dkulp]

There's some comments in the code that might help:

https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/blob/v4/xLights/RenderText.cpp#L500

[gerry]

This is uncharted territory for me since I've never seen that option.  But I'm pretty sure the FPP has some nice overlay options that do countdowns and since it actually knows what time it is that would be the best option.

I have tried out the FP overlays and they are quite nice - there are code samples that you can just change and upload and also there is the advantage that it will calculate and count down from the day of execution

My questions on this post was for the xLights manual documentation.

[gerry]

There's some comments in the code that might help:

https://github.com/smeighan/xLights/blob/v4/xLights/RenderText.cpp#L500

thanks Dan,

I will have a look .

[flyinverted]

Gerry

That link also has reference to http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/ctime/strftime

and

http://docs.wxwidgets.org/trunk/classwx_time_span.html  and references RFC822.

I tried many combinations today without success.
I haven't given up yet.  Good luck!
Steve

[gerry]

I tried many combinations today without success.
I haven't given up yet.  Good luck!
Steve

Got it !!

All documented   

The last one was a bitch ! You need to get it just right !

[Gilrock]

Now you know even the developers don't know everything that's in the code.

[flyinverted]

Great work Gerry!!

[sean]

gerry can you post here a date that works for the countdown?

i will also add it to the prompt in the effect.
we really should modiy the code so it recognizes many date time formats. i know when don julien wrote this code he wanted it to be able to use a formatted string.