DMX light simulations

[Pyro_9950000]

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Hi, 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 Svensson]

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The 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_9950000]

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is 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?

[Apollo Stage Productions]

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Is there any way to program a light fade in and out for the dmx lights?

[Simon Svensson]

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Pyro_9950000 wrote:

is 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 Svensson]

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Western PA Pyro Guy wrote:

Is 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.

[Will]

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Adding 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.

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