MinimumLevel & MaximumLevel

[xmus]

Howdy KC,

I hope all is well for you in Spokane, I finally made it up but my plane was 6 hours late, and my time was short and i ended up running the whole weekend, sorry I didn't have an opportunity to hook up with you. Maybe next time! I still have a fully built proto Renard 16ch W/ SSR i'd like to donate to your inventory if you are interested.

My question relates to MinimumLevel & MaximumLevel.

Some observations:
When a vix file is opened in a text editor, i see
<MinimumLevel>15</MinimumLevel>
<MaximumLevel>255</MaximumLevel>

When i open the same .vix file in Vixen, under tools I see
MinimumLevel = 0
MaximumLevel = 255

If i change these values with the .vix file open, Vixen does not modify the .vix file, nor does it ask to save changes on close. Even if i manually "force" a save, I still see 15/255 not 0/255.

Questions)
Is Vixen suppose to read in the min/max values from the .vix file?
Should vixen write out the min/max values to the .vix file if they are changed while the file is open?

The whole reason i'm contacting you with this issue is the following:
I am having a problem with low level twinkling on very light loads (single bulb).
When ramping from 255 to 0 no twinkling is seen at 0.... but when going 100% on, 100% off (one second each) at 0, twinkling is noted. I believe this may be due to the fact that MinimumLevel = 15 and NOT ZERO. But I cant get vixen to set it to zero, no matter what I do!!!!

It seems to me, the solution is to get min/max set correctly in the GUI (For me this would be 0 and 255), and then create a new sequence, that is apparently the only way to set min/max, is by creating it correctly....

Bottom line: It appears to me that a sequence (literally the values encoded in the VIX file) retains the MinimumLevel and MaximumLevel settings at the TIME OF CREATION, and this can NOT be changed at a later time....

Help, and thanks!

Dave

[KC]

I was wondering what happened to you! Well, maybe next time.

Let's get something clarified first, it may clear this up for you. There are two places where the min and max can be changed. Tools/Preferences lets you set the min and max for new sequences, a default value that's set in the sequence upon creation. If you go to Sequence/Settings, that sets the min and max for the current sequence, which sounds like what you are wanting.

Better?

[BillAd]

Dave,

I recently discovered that altering the sequence min and max illumination settings can have a significant impact if you are not careful. My expectation was that the min / max illumination settings would be applied when the sequence is played. However what actually seems to happen is that Vixen updates every cell in the active sequence to conform to the values entered at the time the adjustment is made. For example changing the min illumination level from 0 to 20 will update the sequence so that all cells have a minimum illumination of 8%. Similarly if you start with a max illumination setting of 255 and reduce the value to 200 then Vixen will update the sequence so that no cells exceed illumination level 78%. My caution is to be aware that when you save the sequence these values become permanent. If you later decide to increase the max illumination to 255 (100%) the cells that were adjusted to 78% will remain 78% because they are below the threshold.

Bill