Strings on Bushes for Whole House Model

[Gary]

I have a row of bushes along the front of my house. In previous years, I've used 100 AC lights on top of my bushes in a random fashion to make the coverage look pleasing to the eye. This year, I'm converting the bushes to pixels. I now have 100 pixels per bush, but to make effects somewhat cohesively span all the bushes from left to right, I guess I'll need to start with pixel 1 on the left back, work my way forward to the front of the bush, jog 4 inches to the right, make my way back, jog 4 inches to the right, make my way forward, etc. until I get to pixel 100.

I don't want to go to the effort of making a net and I don't want a grid-like look on my bushes. Also, since I don't know exactly where each pixel will be (and I don't think that the feature to "automatically" build a custom model would be practical at this point), I was wondering how to set up the preview in Xlights. I was thinking of representing each bush as a straight line going from left to right, and butting them adjacent to each other, so when I do a left/right effect for my whole house model, there is some overall cohesiveness going on.

The thing is, I have about 10 sets of lights for my bushes, and due to computer screen limitations, I'd be drawing for 100 physical lights in the preview window in an area where my screen resolution would able to display only 50 or so (i.e. 100 pixels x 10 bushes is 1000 pixels across for just half my yard). When I try to apply effects over the whole house model, does this mean that half of my pixels on my bushes won't be getting any commands to light up, or is the building of effects not constrained by each pixel needing to be displayed on-screen?

I hope I explained this well enough for it to make sense.

[Phrog30]

Have you tried the video mapper under tools?

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[JonB256]

Have you tried the video mapper under tools?

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While you probably aren't ready to put those pixels in your bushes yet, you could use a temporary model for your programming, then create and substitute the actual video mapper custom model. Change the model info, resave the file to create a new set of FSEQ files. Done.

[Gary]

Since this is my first year going to pixels and learning everything new and am already feeling a little overwhelmed trying to fit this hobby in with being busy enough at work, plus with a wife and 2 small kids I'd like to avoid getting divorced or turning into a sleep-deprived zombie... well, I'd like to adhere to the KISS principle for the first year. 

The video mapping feature is something that I'd like to explore for future years, but I'd simply like to know what would happen in my hypothetical situation with 100 physical pixels being represented with 50 on-screen pixels.

I do have a question about the video mapping feature for future reference, though: what happens if I wrap a pixel string around in a leafless bush and some of the pixels are hidden behind a branch or something... does Xlights extrapolate the position of the missing pixels, or will they simply remain unused?

[Gilrock]

I would use the video mapper for a bush.  I wrapped my bushes with 85 pixel strings I had bought so I just model them as a 5x17 matrix.  Sure it's not going to position the pixels exactly but none of the effects you are going to run on the bushes are going to matter that much anyways.  It's just a small piece of a whole house model so precise positioning is not important.

[keithsw1111]

Because all pixels may not be super clear to the he video mapper I would use it but process it using the manual option. It will show you each bulb light but ask you to click on the bulb. 100 clicks later a perfect custom model.

[Gary]

Since my original question hasn't been answered yet, let my ask my question in a different way:   

Okay, now I'm ripping all the bushes out of my yard and am replacing them with a rod that I'd like to attach pixels to. I have 10 strings of 100 pixels each so I'm going to have to mount them very close to each other, but if I lay them out onto Xlights preview, there isn't room for all the physical pixels to be represented on my PC's screen. When I try to apply effects over the whole house model, does this mean that half of my pixels on my bushes won't be getting any commands to light up, or is the building of effects not constrained by each pixel needing to be displayed on-screen?

[Gilrock]

I have no idea.  So you are dragging them so half is off screen?  That probably won't work for WHM effects.  Won't know till you try it.

[Gilrock]

Just draw something that fits on the screen.  If you listened to what I said when I wasn't answering your question you hear that making it look perfect in layout is not that important.  Just draw things really small or overlapping.  Heck a 20x50 matrix can cover all those channels and that can be shrunk down really small.

[Gary]

I have no idea.  So you are dragging them so half is off screen?  That probably won't work for WHM effects.  Won't know till you try it.

No, I didn't mean that... let's say that you want to draw two strings representing 100 pixels on your 19" computer screen:

You can draw one string so that if you put a ruler on your screen, it measures 6 inches long and you can count all 100 pixels on your monitor.

and...

You can draw another string so that if you put a ruler on your screen, it measures 1/2 an inch long and you can't see all 100 pixels... they're represented in the software's "back end", but you can't see them due to the physical limitations of the monitor.


...so, you can't see them on the monitor, but does Xlights "see" the pixels when doing whole house effects?

[Gilrock]

You should be able to test it out in xLights.  Create a dummy model that is a matrix and overlay its mapping to the same channel set as the bushes.  Don't add the matrix to the WHM and make it big enough to see.  Then see if all the pixels light up when you drop an effect on the whole house model that contains the bushes models.

[Gary]

I guess I'll have to do that then... I've barely begun to scratch the surface of Xlights at this point and I was hoping that asking the question would be faster than trying it out just to find out that it doesn't work, considering that PixelNet communication from my F-16-B to my Falcon V1s isn't working/supported yet, and I'm hoping that they will be done with time to spare before December for me to do testing indoors beforehand out of the rain and cold of November. With all this typing I've done to explain the problem/situation, it would have been faster.

Sorry if I got off on the wrong foot on this forum as a newbie. 

[Phrog30]

With all this typing I've done to explain the problem/situation, it would have been faster...

... If you would have spent time learning the software, then come back with questions.

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[JonB256]

Gary - there is a "gerry" on the forum who has been around for awhile and I thought you were him. My answer wasn't really phrased for someone so new to xLights. Sorry.

[Gilrock]

So I did a quick test.  I created two matrix objects.  I dragged one of them down to a tiny size.  I created a model group that contained the tiny matrix.  Both matrix objects mapped to channel 1 so they would display the same data.  The big matrix will echo anything placed on the small matrix.

Result.  I dropped a single Butterfly effect on the model group that contained the tiny matrix.  The result depends on the "Buffer Style" you select for the effect.  You really need to learn what those mean to understand why it comes out different.  It's kinda complicated.  Look at the attached image to see the different results.

Bottom line is all pixels will light up with something.