Future features

[BartKrap]

Please read through the requested features before making your own to reduce clutter and confusion

Hey support,

After following some posts on the forum and the topics people are talking about on the facebook pages I decided to make a post about this.

First, here's the video I promised a little while ago about a different type of generator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFAeO9j4-s

So let's start with the ideas:

Different ways to change colours;
- With the current way the editor works changing from colour to colour is very difficult if you want anyting but a snap or fade.
- For instance I want to change the lights from white to orange. I can snap or fade. But I want to change them from left to right. Right now I have to make a scene that does this. But when I also want to change from orange to blue, I have to make another scene. (Maybe not automatically assign channels when not used in a step, or give an option to disable channels on specific steps)

Priority system;
- A system in which you can give certain scenes priority over others. Now it's the latests scene pressed takes priority.
- I have a blackout scene, while this is enabled i want to be able to select my next scenes, but when I press anyting with the shutter and/or dimmer the lights turn back on. But I still want to be able to use my flash buttons so I'd give these a higher priority.

Multi beam fixtures in 3d;
- This has been asked a lot so not much explanation has to be done.

Full universe export over artnet;
- Being able to click one button to export a full universe over artnet to, for example, a DMX-AN or a device like that. https://www.chauvetdj.com/products/dmx-an/
- Maybe look at the way Sunlite/CompuShow does it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUtWJ3fyZfU

Support for sACN and Klingnet;
- Two upcoming network protocols for controlling lights which would be nice if they were supported.

I've sent a link in the facebook groups so people can add more features they want. Also maybe a feature request tab on the forum would be a good idea.

Greetz

Bart

[samwise309]

I think I've posted feature requests in four different threads (apologies, admins!). Probably best to have a thread like this focused towards requests in one, organized space.

I could put a list of things I want to see but I think my biggest feature request is this:

Change the 2D view in steps/generator to always have a permanent grid. You would, as usual, align your lights reflecting what you have built in real life. But now, the program can read where in space fixtures are located. From there, select a group (all fixtures, pars, movers, etc) and apply directional effects. In the video posted above by Bart, you can see that he selects fixtures, and then on the bottom right are directions, sine waves, etc. You can apply these effects quickly and save, like color wipes or dimmer effects. This would also make adding fixtures much easier because you can patch, add it to the 2D view and you don't have to go and edit every single color wipe or dimmer effect scene. The program can read where the new fixture(s) is in relation to the other lights and have it change color in the correct order without reprogramming things.


It would also be very cool/useful in LIVE to have a group page (buttons for All,DS,US,MOVERS,PARS) and then be able to use your normal programmed color scenes, positions, etc to only affect the selected group. Right now I have a page for par colors, mover colors, accent colors, and then a separate macro page if I want to activate all at the same time. You could reduce page clutter by having a group selector and then one page of colors.

[vinnyblanc]

Hi Support,

My only issue with SX is the inaccurate representation of fixtures in 3d view.

At a minimum, all the chauvet fixtures (Spot Duos, fxpar9s, slim beam quads, etc) need to be accurately mapped in 3D view. What is the point of programming chases for the slim beam quads if they just appear as single par can's in 3d view? I have to have my fixtures actually plugged in to test which defeats the purpose. I can understand if other fixtures might get support down the line, but since this is a chauvet product those should take priority. Also, basic functionality like the prism should be able to be rendered in 3d view.

[BartKrap]

+1 for samwise's idea

[BartKrap]

Grouping in generator;
- Making groups of fixtures that follow the same points but they can still have a pan/tilt inverse applied to them.
- For example: I have 8 scanners, 4 of them have a pan invert to them. 1&8, 2&7, 3&6 and 4&5 are grouped. This way the grouped fixtures follow the same line in the generator but the ones with the pan invert do the opposit horizontal movement.

This has been asked for a lot by the way.

[SeekLighting]

While everyone's having a big set of new ideas I'll Jim in here.
+1 for better fixture representation in 3d view. Multi beam fixture support is a must. Plus itd be nice to see all gobos visible in 3d view (some do not display) as well as prism and focus effects for moving head spot fixtures.

Gonna reiterate my request for higher universe count too. If each physical D512 unlocks 1 universe over the interface and one universe over artnet, realistically it'd be great to see support for 12 universes total (6 physical, 6 artnet), for those users who had previously purchased 6 interfaces.

I'd love for the colour selector pallette thing in generator and steps to be able to use amber and white values of RGBWA fixtures when creating colours. Right now it only uses RGB

Support for RGBWA fixtures in pixels

Ability to import and play video files in pixels

Ability to change the number of channels a pixel uses in pixels. For instance, right now I have a few fixtures that use 6 channels per pixel:
Dimmer
Red
Green
Blue
Strobe
Auto
So for every pixel, I have to basically declare a whole separate 1-pixel fixture for every pixel, just taking the RGB values. It'd be great if I didn't have to do this and could somehow just tell the pixel fixture declaration screen that each pixel takes more than just RGB.

[Bobnjul]

If some of these are already available, please set me straight, but this is a list of things that would help me out immensely. I have a long list of things that I would like to see.

THE STEP EDITOR:

• UNDO function... It's 2017... every piece of software should have multilevel UNDO.

• ACTIVE/DISABLED CHANNELS DEFINABLE PER STEP... I'd like to see the ability for to have disabled and active channels configurable per each step of a step scene. For instance, I'd like to create a cue that will slowly dim out a moving fixture (over 3 or 4 sec), in any XY position, move it to a desired location, then fade in the dimmer again. I know many moving fixture have a black out moves feature, but I want to do this manually. Essentially, I want to be able to set up a panel in Live mode that has a bunch of radio buttons... that I can click on in any order... and when I do, it will dim the fixture first in it's current location... move the XY location to a new position... then fade back up. If I could create a steps scene, where the first step ONLY accessed the dimmer channel to 0 and ignored everything else, then on the second step accessed the other channels for XYpos, then on step 3 dimmer intensity back to 100%, I could do this.

• VIRTUAL PROGRAMABLE MASTER DIMMER CHANNELS... for RGB fixtures with no master dimmer CHANNELS. (Like LED Strip Tape DMX decoders). This way, any and all master dimmer FX can be achieved quickly and easily with these fixtures.

• VIRTUAL ADJUSTABLE DIMMING CURVES to help in matching dimming when using conventional and LED fixtures.

• IMPROVED COLOR SELECTION... A better color selecting wheel palette, and the ability to quickly save and access frequently used colors.

• Timing directly selectable up to .001 seconds a step... and In General, make it easier to directly type in small time values.

• The ability to apply curves to XY location paths between steps... currently the only path between steps is a straight line... I'd like to see selectable curved paths, like in the Generator.


The GENERATOR:

• The ability to add and remove fixtures after starting a new Generator cue... also create a fixture order randomizer in the Generator.

• Manual BPM in Generator scenes


LIVE MODE:

• The ability to designate a button as "DO NOT INCLUDE IN MACROS". For instance, if I want to have my house lights button active while programming Macros, but don't want that button actually included in the Macros I'm creating.

• The ability to include Macros inside of other Macros... essential sub-Macros.

• Manual BPM assigned to a button (or step scene)

• IMPROVED BUTTON LAYOUT: The ability to Drag buttons to reposition or and/or an improved and quicker way to customize Buttons and Button layout. Also allow the ability to select multiple buttons at once to change colors/edit parameters.

• More MIDI options, and more definable Faders

• Progressive multi-STEP Buttons... Activate the Button... it plays the first Step... hit it again... it plays the second step... hit it again it cycles to the next step... and so on. It could have a editable parameter that would allow you to define whether it Repeats to the first step when it completes all the final step or deactivates after the final step. With this kind of button, one could tap out a sequence of light changes live in the moment... and would be great with MIDI pads controllers.

• Autosave Live mode


TIME LINE:

• MORE ACCURATE TIMING!!!! I have found timing to not be precise, especially when syncing to media files.

• The ability to CLEARLY see audio waveforms of all supported types of Media files...

• Definable BPM in Timeline

• HIGHER TIMING RESOLUTION... Including a beats and bars option like audio recording software


I'm sure I could think of more... I'm hopeful you'll include many of these ideas in Version 9.


Bob Vandervliet
Columbus Ohio

[SeekLighting]

Just remembered another one. The ability to be able to define a tempo and time signature in timeline, and have the timeline ruler display bars and beats accordingly, instead of minutes and seconds (or in addition to minutes and seconds as a second ruler). Basically like any DAW. This would make synchronising to music much easier.

+1,000,000 to undo feature. This should be in every mode.

[Bobnjul]

Yes! Make Timeline like a DAW! Make audio files easy to see waveforms!! Also include the ability to delay start the media file... meaning NOT on O second. (I may want it to start 5 seconds in, or manually shift it to align to a BMP grid.)

[samwise309]

Grouping in generator;
- Making groups of fixtures that follow the same points but they can still have a pan/tilt inverse applied to them.
- For example: I have 8 scanners, 4 of them have a pan invert to them. 1&8, 2&7, 3&6 and 4&5 are grouped. This way the grouped fixtures follow the same line in the generator but the ones with the pan invert do the opposit horizontal movement.

This has been asked for a lot by the way.

Just found this on my phone from showing somebody the other day, I'm assuming this is what you're going for. I whipped it together in a few seconds for a demo so, usually it looks a bit better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyH_C-q4UY

If this is similar to what you want, do this: Make a circle curve with 4 points. Then, add four more points that overlap exactly on top of each other. So, points 1&5 will be in the same spot, 2&6 in the same spot, 3&7, 4&8. Then in the fixture order menu, rearrange your 8 movers so that each pair are in the same relative position. Basically, order your 8 movers like so: 1,2,3,4,8,7,6,5. Then, under the fixture order option is a reverse pan/tilt menu. Reverse pan whichever movers are going the wrong direction and you'll have a symmetrical movement with 4 groups doing the same thing, but with opposite pan. Lastly, move your shift all the way over to one side or the other.