Converting 3.6 to current

[Charl Marais]

Hi all,

been a while since I could not have a show last year due to moving house in Nov/Dec 2015.  I seem to remember a thread on getting 3.6 sequences converted to the latest version but I cannot seem to find it anywhere.

Can anyone please point me in the right direction as I only get blank sequences when loading my old sequences into the current software.

thanks in advance

Charl

[gerry]

As far as I know , it should convert .

Not quite sure what you mean by blank sequences. Have you tried clicking on the Render all ?

[Charl Marais]

I have tried to render yes but although the sequence still played back on 3.6.12 just prior to the latest install, I get no playback on 2016.45 and I cannot see any of the effects on the sequencer tab.

Under Master View on the Sequencer tab I have all the elements listed but I see no effects and the model and house previews don't show any preview display.

I am missing something obvious but I cannot put my finger on it.

[Gilrock]

Do you have models on the Layout tab?

[Charl Marais]

Hi Gil,

Yes I do have all the models on the layout tab including a full house model.

I worked on both LOR as well as Nutcracker at that stage and I am trying to find the original LOR files to see if I maybe completed the full show on LOR and then imported it to Nutcracker as a data layer.  That might explain why I cant see the effects on the timeline but I am unsure as to why the sequences are not playing on the preview screens.

Will keep trying.

[Gilrock]

If you want to post your files we can take a look.  Tools -> Package Log Files and post the zip file it creates.

[Charl Marais]

Hi Again Gil,

OK so 12l of wine and a lot of cussing later I have a few observations and a workaround (and a headache).

First of all my 3.6.12 version files were in fact data layer imports and I imagine that is why importing them showed no effects on the timeline and since the models do not 100% correspond I did not get the playback I wanted.  This is however a mute issue as I think very few people actually want to import files a far back as this and your considerable abilities and talents would be wasted working on this.

Once I determined the previous I started importing the actual LOR files again.  This gave me all the effects but try however I would I could not render the pixels.

Mega Tree            -blank
   Strand1             -blank
       Pixel 1 to xx   -effects

Zero output unless I actually edit one of the pixel lines where after it would render.

Then a brainwave, I put a effect on the strand line (in this case a simple OFF for the whole duration of the song) and the whole strand of pixels would render without a problem.  This solved all my import issues and I now have my full 2014 show ported to the current version of Nutcracker running beautifully on my new planned layout.

Thanks for a wonderful tool.

Kind regards

Charl

[Gilrock]

Sorry if you move your models around yes it will invalidate data layers.  We are never going to try to reshuffle the data for you.  It's expected when you use data layers that your channels in xLights match the channels form the program you import from.

For the comment about placing an Off effect fixed rendering....that tells me you didn't know how to render the sequence.  Hit the Render All button or hit Save and make sure the Render On Save option is set.

[dkulp]

Actually, there is a bug in .45 that prevents the Pixels/Nodel level effects from Rendering unless there is some sort of effect on the strand as well.  That will be fixed in the next build.

[Gilrock]

Ok what Dan makes sense.  I knew there was a bug but I didn't know putting an effect on the strand layer fixed it.  I was thinking you were just getting the render logic to trigger by dropping the effect.

[Charl Marais]

No problem - the workaround does the job well and I am having a blast