Vixen 3 to xLights import?

[knightrohulk]

Total nooby to xLights and my first post on this forum.  I'm currently running the latest version of Vixen 3.  I am also using a Falcon Pi Player, so I'm exporting my Vixen 3 sequence to fseq file format to play on the FPP.

I've tried using the latest version of xLights to open the fseq file that I'm exporting from Vixen, but nothing happens.  Do I need to setup xLights first somehow before reading this file?  Is this even possible to read this file exported from Vixen?

Thanks!

[Gilrock]

You've gotta create models of your lights on the Layout tab or xLights has no idea what to do with the data.  Also create channel outputs on the setup tab.

[vult2000]

I am trying to do something similar, however I'm trying to get it into xLights.  What I have done so far is to open the .tim file in Vixen 3, export it back to Vixen 2.1 and then use the normal Import method in xLights.  The problem I'm having is that the results are not at all what I expected.  In my case, I am bringing in sequences for Singing Trees and it is very clear that what I'm seeing on the timeline in xLights is not even close to what I see in Vixen 3.  Unfortunately I do not know my way around Vixen enough to know if it's the export from Vixen to Vixen 2.1 that's causing the problem, or the import into xLights from the exported Vixen 2.1 file.  Any suggestions?

[Phrog30]

Last I checked the import from Vixen is broken. There is no native Vixen 3 import, you have export v3 as 2.1. So, you obviously figured that out. But, at some point the import stopped working. Honestly, I wouldn't use it anyway. Import as a data layer. If you import as effects all you will have are a bunch of on/off effects.

James

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Gilrock]

Last time someone was having trouble with Vixen 2.x import I asked for files and never got any.  I can tell you there will probably never be a Vixen 3 importer.

[vult2000]

@Gilrock, I'm more than willing to provide data files if you'd like them.

@Phrog30, pardon my ignorance, but I'm not familiar with importing as a data layer.  I've tinkered with it a little bit could never get it to do what I expected.  How do you map to the correct model?

[Phrog30]

A data layer is really based on channels, so to map to the correct model you will need to setup Vixen to mirror xlights, or have xlights mirror Vixen.  So, if a mini tree is channel 1-100 in Vixen, it will need to be the same in xlights.  When I used Vixen, I created one controller in the tree and just created a series of channels.  All of my models in Vixen were setup with the same channels as in xlights.  So, when I exported Vixen and added as a data layer, it just works.  I hope I explained that correctly.  I don't have Vixen installed anymore, but I think you can export only partial channels.

James

[vult2000]

I was able to import as a data layer but then I can't even manipulate the color.  Unfortunately it's not my sequence so I do not have all of my models setup in Vixen to be able to line up the channels.

Going back to the effect import, I was able to delete out all other props from the Vixen file and re-export the file.  The result is close but there are definitely some weird things happening in the import (or export) process.  For instance, in Vixen, 3 out of the 3 trees light up and start the "oh" sound simultaneously on the timeline.  However, in xLights, they are staggered, one then the next then the next on the time line.  Overall you can see that it is close but everything is time shifted.  Also, some of the effects in Vixen happen at time 0:00 (right at the start) but in xLights you see that they start late.

[Phrog30]

Yes, you can't edit the effects in a data layer, but you can promote effects and edit.

It sounds like you are close. You may want to post your stuff. If it's too large then put in a cloud storage and post a link.

Besides not being able to edit, did things line up when you tried the data layer?

James

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[vult2000]

Things seem to line up properly using the data layer.  Unfortunately though, the offset in the data layer does not seem to work so I had to bring my trees down to a starting channel of 1 in order to test it, but visually it looked more correct, yes.

I have attached the supporting files.

[shraps]

I have had some success exporting singing tree data from Vixen 3 files (ie someone else's sequence)

first you have to open the files in vixen 3 as if it were their setup

delete all of their mapping and remap the singing faces to reflect your output channels on your setup

export the sequence to a vixen 2.1 file

then import it to xlights

hopefully the channels match

i found this removed all the excess data and allowed just the faces to be imported

[Gilrock]

Things seem to line up properly using the data layer.  Unfortunately though, the offset in the data layer does not seem to work so I had to bring my trees down to a starting channel of 1 in order to test it, but visually it looked more correct, yes.

I have attached the supporting files.

Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it?  The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows.  You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset.  Worked last time I tested it.

[vult2000]

Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it?  The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows.  You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset.  Worked last time I tested it.

I was able to change it with the slow-click (I'm using the Mac version if that matters), but it did not seem to affect which channels it was outputting to.  I have a megatree starting at channel 1 (and I temporarily moved my trees there for testing) and I could always see it on the first strand of the megatree or sometimes not visible at all.

[vult2000]

I have had some success exporting singing tree data from Vixen 3 files (ie someone else's sequence)

first you have to open the files in vixen 3 as if it were their setup

delete all of their mapping and remap the singing faces to reflect your output channels on your setup

export the sequence to a vixen 2.1 file

then import it to xlights

hopefully the channels match

i found this removed all the excess data and allowed just the faces to be imported

That method worked (as a data layer) although I couldn't figure out how to get it to export using any channels other than 1..X.  I really want to be able to manipulate it in xLights though using the effects import, not just the data layer import.  As a last resort I could try to learn Vixen and make my manipulations there and then bring it into xLights as a data layer....it's just not ideal.

[Gilrock]

Did you actually change the channel offset for the Data Layer and it didn't work or you couldn't figure out how to change it?  The field editing is not my code its low level wxWidgets code and it works like if you wanted to change a filename in Windows.  You do what I call a "slow-click" and that activates the field and then type in the offset.  Worked last time I tested it.

I was able to change it with the slow-click (I'm using the Mac version if that matters), but it did not seem to affect which channels it was outputting to.  I have a megatree starting at channel 1 (and I temporarily moved my trees there for testing) and I could always see it on the first strand of the megatree or sometimes not visible at all.

I'm 100% sure the channel offset works.  It's accomplished in FileConverter.cpp near line 1711.  You probably didn't re-render the sequence after you changed the offset.