Effect no longer work real time

[plasmadrive]

without me having to update.  This is my first go with 4.xx.  I am using 4.2 and for some reason now, when I move the sliders for effects they don't change until I have hit the "update" button.  This makes it very slow to find the "look" I want.

Any suggestions on how to make it work in real time again like it used to?

[Gilrock]

Funny cause that was a bug in the last version and I've had people tell me how glad they are we fixed it.  So if you're seeing it in 4.2 it's not normal so we need to see a video to know exactly what you are doing.

[dkulp]

I'm seeing this when shortening effects (not when lengthening them).  It's not clearing the area where the effect used to be.   I'll try and find some time to look into this. 

[nmiller0113]

Perhaps this is a dumb question from an xL newb, but what is the purpose of the "Update" button as it seems, from this conversation, that it shouldn't be needed to update an effect.  Maybe I'm just completely misunderstanding it.  Thanks!

[Gilrock]

It's a carry over from XL3 where you used to fine tune the effect you wanted and then hit Update to change the effect in the spreadsheet looking grid.  We've only kept it because we had refreshing issues and the button allows you to force a refresh.

[nmiller0113]

Got ya...thanks!  Is there a chance it will be removed completely to avoid confusion for other newbs in the future?

[plasmadrive]

I'm seeing this when shortening effects (not when lengthening them).  It's not clearing the area where the effect used to be.   I'll try and find some time to look into this.

Not sure how I would shoot such a video, but it is pretty straight forward.  I move sliders or change effects to a specific prop and nothing happens until I hit update. 

Playing with it some more, I find that some effects will follow the changes without updating, others not so much.

[gerry]

I have seen this too previously and now - Gil - it is not specific to the 4.1.13 issue
(and thanks to you / Dan for the change from 4.1.13 - normal lightning service has resumed)

The effect on the grid loses the focus (If that is the right terminology), so then it wont matter what you do , it just reverts back to what it was before the change.

I have found that if I click on a blank area of the grid and then click on the effect back again - sometimes more than once , you can "see" when the focus returns to it - cause it kind of changes colour ie brightens and then you can changes the settings or colours.

Occasionally , I will have to shut down xLights and start it up again ...

[Gilrock]

What Dan's talking about is a different issue.  We aren't clearing out the area that should be blanked out when you drag an effect shorter until you do a Save or Render All or place another effect over that area but that has nothing at all to do with what you would see on the preview of the effect you have selected.  I'm not seeing anything that doesn't work but maybe all my favorite effects work.  So when someone says some effects work and others not so much I guess I got to read their mind as to what effects those actually were.

[plasmadrive]

Reading my mind would be a very short paperback for sure.. 

I have just been playing around looking for effects that work well with my Star Flakes and not really paying attention to what does and doesn't need the update to work.. But I will work on that some today and see if I can't make a list. 

I don't write code so I am not sure what globally effects things.. so I will try to narrow it down and make it more granular. 

[Gilrock]

So I use Fan, Galaxy, Morph, and Shockwave a lot since I wrote them.  Do any of them give you issues?  I'm just looking for one effect or maybe one slider on an effect that might have issues or something you're doing that might be different.  Screencast-o-matic has a free version you can use to capture what you're doing.

[plasmadrive]

I just went thru all the effect except faces, picture and text.

It is reacting completely different than last night.  The only effect I could get to mess up just now was Color Wash only when I just dragged it over the previous effect.  Once I deleted it and just dropped it by itself, it worked fine.  So I started dragging and dropping over all the rest and they worked fine.

I went back to Color Wash and dragged it over another effect and it worked fine this time.

I am at a loss as to what is happening.  Last night just about every effect was requiring that I update.   something hnky somewhere.  I will keep my eyes open if it happens again. 

[gerry]

I am at a loss as to what is happening.  Last night just about every effect was requiring that I update.   something hnky somewhere.  I will keep my eyes open if it happens again.

hello Plasmadrive - as I said I have seen this off and on and , Gil, there is no specific effect . When it occurs , its the same for all , so could well be environment specific (eg lower end machines such as my laptop) or some sort of lock/freeze etc that is nothing to do with the effect.

As I said, if you restart xL , the next time round it is normally fine particularly if u have rebooted since (which I do most nights).
 

[Gilrock]

I am at a loss as to what is happening.  Last night just about every effect was requiring that I update.   something hnky somewhere.  I will keep my eyes open if it happens again.

hello Plasmadrive - as I said I have seen this off and on and , Gil, there is no specific effect . When it occurs , its the same for all , so could well be environment specific (eg lower end machines such as my laptop) or some sort of lock/freeze etc that is nothing to do with the effect.

As I said, if you restart xL , the next time round it is normally fine particularly if u have rebooted since (which I do most nights).
 

Some effects take time to render...I assume everyone is running a beastmode gaming pc.

[plasmadrive]

The issues I was seeing I doubt has anything to do with "time to render".  I say this because when normal, such as yesterday morning,it was almost instant.  When the issues occur it just stays put until I hit update.. then it is pretty much immediate. 

Mine is not a gaming PC but it is not too slow.... though it is about 3 years old.. kind of becoming an Old Man in the  PC world..