DMX light simulations
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AuthorPosts
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Pyro_9950000Joined: Jun 2019 Posts: 3 Location: Arlington, Texas, United States 
NewcomerHi, I have followed along with the video between cobra and finale on setting up DMX. My effects do not move and looks like colored gerbs.. When following along with the first simple task of making the flame units sweep “move to” 60 degrees it does not move at all. Therefore, I cannot get any more creative if I cannot get past the first step.
Simon SvenssonJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 16 Location: Göteborg NewcomerThe simulations for “Move-To” function do not work yet. The export works but for simulation in F3D we have to wait for a future update.
You have to export the script to your firing system of choice and test it either with an actual machine (in this case I assume a waveflamer) or use a pre-viz tool such as Depence 2 (https://www.syncronorm.com/products/depence2/visualization/special-fx).
Pyro_9950000Joined: Jun 2019 Posts: 3 Location: Arlington, Texas, United States Newcomer
Apollo Stage ProductionsJoined: Feb 2022 Posts: 2 Location: 2540 Kosiorek Dr Erie, PA16509 NewcomerSimon SvenssonJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 16 Location: Göteborg Newcomeris there anyway to create the DMX show file made in a visualizer program and then export that file on top of the timeline in finale?
No. Visualizer work completely differently. It is a virtual rig, you send DMX data to the the visualizer and renders what you do in real time. It is a replacement for testing on hardware, not a replacement for programming tools such as F3D.
Simon SvenssonJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 16 Location: Göteborg NewcomerIs there any way to program a light fade in and out for the dmx lights?
Not in F3D.
Also keep in mind, that most firing systems, if they do not have implemented a fade, might have an issue with the number of “cues” it would generate to create a fade without the firing system having a specific feature for it.
WillJoined: Feb 2018 Posts: 59 Location: Palo Alto NewcomerAdding onto Simon’s answer about light fades, most pyro+DMX controllers do not implement a ramp function in hardware, so the only way to implement a fade is with a rapid sequence of events. That can be an issue with the controller’s script rows limit, as Simon points out, but it doesn’t totally rule out the idea.
Here are the steps we are taking to support fades:
1) In the last three or four RGB DMX light fixture implementations we’ve supported (Chauvet EZPar64 and Rockville Battery Par 50 and High End UNO), we’ve been implementing the DMX patch libraries differently in order to lay the groundwork for supporting fades. Specifically, for effects like “Red Flash (lg)” or “Red Flash (sm)”, instead of using the master dimmer DMX channel to control the intensity of “(lg)” versus “(sm)” we’ve been scaling the RGB channel values themselves and leaving the master dimmer at 100%. That leaves the master dimmer available for a modifier effect to further adjust the intensity by way of reducing the master dimmer to lower than 100%. For these recent fixture effect libraries we have added ten new effects to the effect libraries,
“With Master Dimmer at 0%”
“With Master Dimmer at 10%”
“With Master Dimmer at 20%”
etc.
You can add these modifier effects to a fixture in the show and stretch their duration to cover whatever duration you want them to apply over, and they will scale the overall intensity of all the fixture’s effects within that duration according to the chosen %. These effects provide a rudimentary ability to implement your own fades, by placing these effects back to back, and scaling down the intensity in 10% chunks.
2) We are working on new functions called “Create DMX effect” and “Edit DMX effects” which are similar to “Create effect” and “Edit effect” except they also provide a simple user interface for you to specify the DMX channel values that implement the effect. These functions enable you to create/edit your own effects for your own fixtures without needing to edit the DMX Patch field of the effects or go through the programmer-like steps that are currently required to implement your own effects. This feature will be available in two weeks.
3) We have an eye toward adding a “ramp” checkbox to the user interface DMX channel/value rows in the dialog of (2). When you check this checkbox, our exporter will automatically implement the ramp in the most efficient manner based on your firing system or DMX controller’s capabilities. If the controller has hardware ramps, then the exporter will use that capability. Otherwise, the exporter will automatically create a sequence of events to implement the ramp manually, in steps. This implementation obviously consumes are large number of event rows in the script, but used sparingly it may still be useful in some designs while keeping within the limits of the controller’s script size. We expect to implement this feature late this year.
Romuald KOCHERJoined: Nov 2022 Posts: 3 Location: metz, france NewcomerHi Will coming back on this topic : it’s “pretty” easy to fade in / fade out using multiple dimmer events with 10% increment, back to back.
But what about color transition from one to another ? No “ramp” feature so far ?
This is way more complicated, and require to create a sh*tload of DMX effects for every transition 🙁
WillJoined: Feb 2018 Posts: 59 Location: Palo Alto NewcomerThe original post on this topic was from 2022, and the answer is a little different now: the industry’s hardware support for DMX ramp features has changed, and we’ve begun a project to support exactly what you are asking for.
The majority of the DMX capable firing systems already have or soon will have support for ramping functions. Thus the majority of users scripting DMX lights in Finale will have the capability in their hardware to support fades and color changing fades as continuous transitions without requiring a large number of events to simulate a continuous transition with short stair step changes. This is great news.
In light of this change in hardware support, we began a project at the end of 2023 to rewrite our DMX exporter so it could support continuous transitions and fades, as well as other improvements like “latest takes precedence” semantics for overlapping effects.
The first phase of this project, which was tested in our implementation of the new DMX-capable Showven firing system, proved out our technical design and removed most of the technical risks behind our approach. This phase completed 2024 Q1 (middle of March).
At that time we had to pause our DMX work to switch our attention to a set of rack layout improvements, which we’ve been working on since then. The rack layout project is likely to continue into Q3 of 2024. At that point our plan is to resume work on the DMX project. Our goal is to support fades and color changing fades as continuous transitions by the end of the year, hopefully before, on all major hardware.
Will
Romuald KOCHERJoined: Nov 2022 Posts: 3 Location: metz, france NewcomerHi,
Coming back to this subject as DMX lights are more & more used in our shows.
I understand you’ll resume working on transition & fades after you are done with rack layout improvements. For the time being, I am still doing manual ramps (boring but working).
But what about visual rendering ?
Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but when I have a PAR LED, I start by selecting the colour. That’s ok and I can see a cone in the simulation even if dimmer is 0%.
But after that, if I do a manual rampup of the dimmer (10%, 20%, 30%, etc…) light cone disapears in the sim.
Strobe also seems not rendered.
Are there any project in the pipe to improve DMX light rendering ?
Thanks !
Romuald
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