Architectural questions...

[P. Short]

Some time back I took a look at some .vix files, and noticed that the display data in those particular files was simply an array of values. There didn't appear to be any more complicated commands in the file, such as 'ramp brightness from x down to y over z seconds', 'select dimmer profile' or 'add random data of average amplitude v over z seconds' in the file. Is this how the files are, or was it just chance that the particular files that I examined didn't have any additional information in them? Is there some other file that has that information in it, or are all of the data values pre-calculated when the sequence was last written to disk? The reason that I am asking is to find out if there is any reasonable way to create more intelligent controllers. There isn't much use in making smarter controllers if all they can get is this pre-digested brightness data.

More generally, is there any way for vixen to make use of the capabilities that were being discussed in the cc linux forum about a year and a half ago, for example the spec that Anthony Marchini wrote? Or would that take another big change to the vixen software design?

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Phil

[KC]

Yes, the basic sequence data is nothing more than pre-computed byte data. After all, it got its start with a 595 controllers.

However, I think two things will lend themselves to what you're asking:

1. Scripting. Dynamic in nature, there's nothing pre-computed there. And with the move to C#, it's much more programmatic now.

2. LedTriks has forced a great many things to change. One of those changes is the addition of user-createable editors. Obviously, byte arrays aren't going to work for LedTriks, so an editor has a node where it can store its own data (based on file extension). Everything still goes into the same basic XML file, but the editor can choose to use what it wants of it. Using LedTriks as an example, it stores all of the sequence data in its own data node. Then the plugin pulls from that node, ignoring the standard event data.

I hope this addresses your concerns.

[P. Short]

Thanks.

Not really a concern, more just trying to find out how things work, and to see if it makes any sense to talk about more intelligent controllers at this time.

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Phil