Y Axis Import Issue from Superstar Files

[markrvp]

EDIT:  Selecting the FLIP Y checkbox in the SuperStar Import window fixed the vertical offset issue of the morphs... DUH.   On some sequences the images are flipped, though

The last couple of days I've been importing several Superstar Megatree sequences from Holidaysequences.com.   Where xLights creates picture effects, everything seems to be in the correct location.  But here are some issues I'm seeing consistently:

1.)  Morph effects are located incorrectly on the Y axis.  If a morph is supposed to be at the top of the tree, it actually imports at the bottom of the tree.  It's almost as if the Y axis imports are flipped vertically.

2.)  Fan effects have the same vertical placement issue.  They are opposite the Y axis from where they are supposed to be.

3.)  Effects that are designated twinkle in Superstar are created as a solid white image in xLights. 

4.)  Very fast morphs from left-to-right or right-to-left will get treated as an ON effect in xLights with a quick fade.

I have looked at other people's videos online where they converted these same sequences and notice that everybody is having the same issue (whether they noticed or not). 

I can make a video tonight showing some examples if that would help.  I have several more of these sequences to import and it would be much faster if I could correct the Y axis issue at import as opposed to moving all the effects individually in xLights.


If it helps, I've tried this on two Windows computers.  One is Windows 7 and the other is Windows 10.  I've tried these imports on xLights versions 2016.32 through 2016.45 with the same results.

[ke4vmb]

Thank you Mark for your excellent description of the import problem, I have been trying to figure this out myself and I thought I may have been doing something wrong. I am using a Windows 10 machine with the same release of Xlights 2016.45 and the same Superstar sequence vendor. I am a newbie to xlights for three years now and I love the software and new features. Many thanks to the software developers.

[Gilrock]

Do you own SuperStar?  Last time someone made the statement about flipped items I asked them to try switching the controller location in SuperStar and save the file and try again.  I've always used a bottom controller location and everything seems fine without flipping.  I've made a bunch of changes to fix flipped images and sometimes you fix one thing and breaks something else.  I've made all the files I've been given work so there's no way for me to know what settings are in a file that cause problems until I see them because face it I'm reverse engineering how the data is stored.

Also a conversion is never going to be perfect its two completely different programs.  I don't think I put anything in there to try to match a twinkle.  Maybe someone else did I'd have to look.  A morph always is imported as a morph effect we don't convert them to On effects.  Maybe the math doesn't create a perfect match but like it said nothing is going to be perfect our effects don't work exactly the same way.

To be honest I don't use the feature anymore because I prefer just using it as a data layer where the render time is super fast.  I don't really find the need to edit anything I'm importing from a SuperStar sequence so data is much faster.

[Gilrock]

By the way the owner of HolidaySequences has offered me free sequences for all the work I do in helping these files import correctly so I don't think he minds if you privately send me a file for troubleshooting.

[markrvp]

Gil:

Thanks for the response.  I will PM you when I get back to the computer with my files.

[EButler]

Interested to see what is learned here.  I have experienced exact issues described and thought that I was either doing something wrong.  I have attempted to manually fix issues I have found which is tedious, especially given this is my first year with everything (pixels, software, etc, etc)

If you discover solutions please let us know.

Thanks!