new features for v5?

[pixelpuppy]

Xlights already has effect presets which, to me, is more powerful than color gradients.  To mimic color gradients, create an on effect with the colors you want, leave everything else at default.  Then when you want these colors call the effect preset and change the effect to the one you want.  Yes, it's an extra mouse click, but that shouldn't matter.

Thank you for the reminder about effect presets.  I do need to utilize that feature more.  It mimics some of the "user library" functions, but it does not replace Color Gradients.  Not even close.  Gradients are dynamic colors.  Presets only store static colors.

Each effect has a brightness setting.  Why is this not acceptable?

Because each effect's brightness setting is a static value, not a curve.  Its a fixed level for the duration of the effect.  One exception is the ON effect which has start and end intensity. In Vixen3, a dimming curve gives you unlimited control of intensity across the duration of the effect.  Its not limited to a start and end intensity and it can be applied to any effect.  For example, you can create a "heartbeat" dimming curve to make any effect pulsate like a beating heart.

Perhaps an easier request in this direction would be to take the Start/End/Cycle Intensity sliders from the ON effect and move them to the Colors window and maybe call it the "Colors and Intensity" window.

[Gilrock]

Why don't you make a video showing how you use them in Vixen3 and what makes it so great?  I just can't visualize what you are talking about.  I know what a gradient is but not sure how you are using it with an effect.  I can only guess its what I'd call an effect modifier where is applies a gradient to the colors that exist on the effect.

[Phrog30]

Why don't you make a video showing how you use them in Vixen3 and what makes it so great?  I just can't visualize what you are talking about.  I know what a gradient is but not sure how you are using it with an effect.  I can only guess its what I'd call an effect modifier where is applies a gradient to the colors that exist on the effect.

I guess he's not going to make a video.  Here's a short video, sorry I don't have sound.  This shows the color gradient.  It's not much different than xlights, but you can adjust the points along the duration, you will see this via the sliders.  You can add or remove the sliders. 

I'm in no way advocating this as an enhancement, just showing you what the op referred to.  If I have a chance later I will post on the brightness/dim curve.

James

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[Gilrock]

Thanks James.  So is it only certain effects where you can specify a color gradient?  It doesn't seem like it would fit all effect types. 

You can do a multi-color wipe in xLights using a Morph with no head.  Now that we support 8 colors you can have a 6 color tail.  The advantage I see to how they dial in the gradients is the variable length.  I've accomplished that in xLights by using the same color multiple times but granted that doesn't give you as fine of a control.

I like the looks of some of their interface stuff but they only had to make it work in Windows.  Let them get that pretty stuff working in 3 OS's and then I'll applaud.

[Phrog30]

Correct, not all effects allow color gradients.  You said it, xlights can do this by selecting the same color multiple times.  Unless the effect is longer than a few seconds, you don't need this kind of control. 

Attached is a short, no sound, video on curves.  I'll be honest, I never used it much when I was using Vixen.  I've never had a need for it, but maybe others do.  I think you will see how it works.  The brightness basically follows the line, you can have multiple points.

James

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[pixelpuppy]

James, MOST effects support gradients.  There are a couple that do not.

Gil, your guess is correct, these things are Effect Modifiers that can be used on any effect. 

I'm away from home on a business trip, so thank you James for posting the videos.  Keep in mind I was not the original requester but I agreed they are features I miss while migrating from Vixen3.

I'm learning xLights this year and you guys are saying xLights does gradients with multiple colors checked. I see that for only a few specific effects, NOT most effects.  For example, the simple ON effect.  If you check multiple colors you still get only one solid color, right?  For BARS, if you check multiple colors you get multiple solid colors, not gradients.  For CIRCLES if you check multiple colors you get multiple solid colored circles, not circles with color gradients.  I'm just not seeing where you guys say this is in xLights today except for a couple very specific effects as opposed to modifiers that could apply to many different effects.

Attached are a couple pictures of a very simple gradient on a tree model.  How would I do this in xLights today?

[Phrog30]

James, MOST effects support gradients.  There are a couple that do not.

Gil, your guess is correct, these things are Effect Modifiers that can be used on any effect. 

I'm away from home on a business trip, so thank you James for posting the videos.  Keep in mind I was not the original requester but I agreed they are features I miss while migrating from Vixen3.

I'm learning xLights this year and you guys are saying xLights does gradients with multiple colors checked. I see that for only a few specific effects, NOT most effects.  For example, the simple ON effect.  If you check multiple colors you still get only one solid color, right?  For BARS, if you check multiple colors you get multiple solid colors, not gradients.  For CIRCLES if you check multiple colors you get multiple solid colored circles, not circles with color gradients.  I'm just not seeing where you guys say this is in xLights today except for a couple very specific effects as opposed to modifiers that could apply to many different effects.

Attached are a couple pictures of a very simple gradient on a tree model.  How would I do this in xLights today?

You are correct, the simple on effect can only have one color, at least that's what I'm seeing.  Hopefully others will correct me if I'm wrong.  On the effects like bars, there is a 3D option that will add a gradient like result.  If you want something static, then turn speed/cycles to zero.

The most powerful option is to use a photo.  I went online and created a gradient, then exported and added as an effect. See attached photo.  I know this is more steps than Vixen, I'm simply stating if all else fails, use a photo.

James

[Phrog30]

Here is an example using bars with 4 colors, white, blue, white, blue.  I turned cycles to 0, and blur to 11.  There are a lot of options and possibilities with xlights.  If transitioning from Vixen, LOR, LSP, etc, some things will be a lot simpler and will function better.  However, there may be things that are still possible but do require a few extra steps.  As a whole, xlights can do anything the others can.  My two pennies.

James

Edit, added another example with bars, only two colors, white and blue and changed direction to right.

[Gilrock]

If you want  create interesting gradients on effects in xLights that don't appear to support gradients then you need to learn what masking is.  Create two layers on the model and put the effect that defines the shape you want on top and place an effect that defines the color you want on the bottom.  Change the blend mode of the top effect to "1 is unmask".  I like to make the top effect purely white just to show what it's doing.  Here's a gif showing a Circles effect on top of a Bars effect.  The bars effect provides the coloring to the circles.  The circles were defined as white.

[pixelpuppy]

James the Blur with Bars does result in nice gradients.  Thanks for the tip.  To be fair though, Blur was just added a couple weeks ago.  I'll definitely be using that.

Gil thanks for your example too. 

I can't say exactly what AussiePhil, GadgetSmith, Jeffl, etc. prefer about Gradients and Dimming Curves.  There may be other aspects they are looking for.

[Phrog30]

James the Blur with Bars does result in nice gradients.  Thanks for the tip.  To be fair though, Blur was just added a couple weeks ago.  I'll definitely be using that.

Gil thanks for your example too. 

I can't say exactly what AussiePhil, GadgetSmith, Jeffl, etc. prefer about Gradients and Dimming Curves.  There may be other aspects they are looking for.

Maybe it's because it's all they know. I won't knock Vixen, it's beautiful software. But, there are a lot of misinformed users out there. Some still think xlights is only an effects generator.

James

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[gadgetsmith]

I didn't say anything about these functions, I'm pretty happy with how they are. I was just looking for an easy(er) way to reorder the pallet for different effects. drag and drop would be great if possible. I could shift a red-white-black to a red-black-white by simply grabbing the black and dragging it over a spot, without having to refine the two color positions. just a thought.

[Gilrock]

After trying to create gradients like we were discussing I didn't like the current options so I added a small feature to the Bars effect that will help.  This gives a nice new option I believe and can be used as the background mask to colorize other effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0wyC1gUYlw&feature=youtu.be

[jeffl]

I can't say exactly what AussiePhil, GadgetSmith, Jeffl, etc. prefer about Gradients and Dimming Curves.  There may be other aspects they are looking for.

I'm just watching and still trying to get my display down so I can start sequencing.  If I comment I will get "No xLights for you!" Two years!

[AussiePhil]

James the Blur with Bars does result in nice gradients.  Thanks for the tip.  To be fair though, Blur was just added a couple weeks ago.  I'll definitely be using that.

Gil thanks for your example too. 

I can't say exactly what AussiePhil, GadgetSmith, Jeffl, etc. prefer about Gradients and Dimming Curves.  There may be other aspects they are looking for.

Maybe it's because it's all they know. I won't knock Vixen, it's beautiful software. But, there are a lot of misinformed users out there. Some still think xlights is only an effects generator.

James

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

James,
I'll gracefully admit i don't know xlights4 back the front, but i did use it fairly heavily last year including layers etc AND i still completely miss colour gradients.....
I'll come back with some more detail tomorrow.