First Sequence!

[flowblok]

Not WiW!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas, on the Christmas Fantastique Album,

My sequence (http://pw.rccb.org.au/xlite/releases/sequences/WeWishYouAMerryChristmasXLite.vix)

Now, I have read the disclaimer, so I'm posting this wording:
The music can be found at FeelsLikeChristmas.com under "Traditional Instrumental". This site claims that the music is public domain.

[Macrosill]

What kind of sequence is this? Is it scripted or a standard sequence? It looks as though it is html coded. Is that how Vixen makes a sequence? Turns our commands into html? The data for the channel outputs is the only thing I am not understanding in the above sequence. I see a stream of lowercase and uppercase letters. Are these converted to a bit stream? I realize this is only the Adjustable preview plug in but I am curious.

[flowblok]

What kind of sequence is this? Is it scripted or a standard sequence? It looks as though it is html coded. Is that how Vixen makes a sequence? Turns our commands into html? The data for the channel outputs is the only thing I am not understanding in the above sequence. I see a stream of lowercase and uppercase letters. Are these converted to a bit stream? I realize this is only the Adjustable preview plug in but I am curious.

Erm... that's the vixen file format. You want to right-click the link provided, and "Save Link As...", into your Vixen Sequences directory.
You've probably clicked the link, and your browser has displayed it in text (same as if you opened a .vix file in notepad).

Vixen 1.1.1.11 uses a XML file format - XHTML is the successor to HTML, and XHTML also uses an XML format.

And the letters you saw were the image I have, encoded as Base 64 - as mentioned elsewhere, the adjustable preview stores a copy of the image in the vixen file.

[ErnieHorning]

I just highlighted everything and dumped it into Notepad.

I got an error in Vixen 1.1.5.0 on lines 2 & 7. I just removed the minus signs and it plays just fine.

Are you really going to put all of those lights way up high in those trees? Unless you’re going to rent a cherry picker, climbing up there is not so easy. I drew my preview that way last year, but I didn’t put up nearly as many as I wanted to. You can get pretty high with just a multi extension aluminum pole though.

I really like that star; that’s going to look pretty cool! The third time that I watched it, I noticed the strobes; nice touch. One suggestion, from my own experience last year, you should leave some lights on in the background at a dimmed level. Otherwise it gets a bit too strobe like, especially on very dark nights. 8)

[lytnin]

I'm impressed by the amount of detail you've put into the preview.

I like that song choice too. I think I'll have to revisit the site. :D

What controllers will you be using for your 36 channels?

I like what you've done. Keep it up. Excellent job.

Cheers

[Macrosill]

Thanks for the reply. I followed your instructions and dl'ed it into 1.1.9 and it played perfectly.

Nice Job!

[flowblok]

The lights up in the trees are meant to represent spotlights aiming up into the tree. I don't know if I'm going to get the effect I would like - but we'll see!

The last 2 years, we've had the star as a single item, which had been controlled by a c++ program I wrote - which took sequences and ran through them sequentially. However, this year, I've simplified it down to patterns, and put Vixen in control. The star has 144 lights, linked to 136 channels (the end 'pips' are 3 lights in parallel on 1 channel), which can be individually controlled from the computer. When Vixen 2.0 comes out, I'll see if I can poke it around so that all the lights can be individually controlled.


One suggestion, from my own experience last year, you should leave some lights on in the background at a dimmed level. Otherwise it gets a bit too strobe like, especially on very dark nights.
Thanks - I'll keep that in mind.


What controllers will you be using for your 36 channels?
I don't mind what controller is used, because I'm part of a team who are doing this project. I'm just the programmer! So, I've got no idea what we're going to be using, but I have pointed the hardware guy in the direction of the forums to look at co-ops.