Vixen 3.0 Introduction Series - Part 3

**Virtus** · 08-06-2011, 05:43 PM

Which DIYC members are members of the development team for Vixen 3.0?

**blantrip** · 08-06-2011, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by sallz0r

No, no, that's a very valid question.

There's been a few ideas floating around, but nothing in concrete yet. Since it's going to be a very modular system, it's the sort of thing that can be expanded on later if needed. But for now, to help with the development of it, and in the spirit of community feedback, let me turn the question back on you -- how would you like to use it? :-) Or, another way to look at it -- what is wrong with the current preview in 2.x that you would change if you had the chance?

(no guarantees on anything, but we're always keen on hearing how people want to use it. After all, it's the users that ultimately have the final say on if they like it and will use it!)

It would be nice if there was a more powerful graphics editor such that more detailed lines or symbols representing the display could be added to the jpeg. Or maybe be able to use an exernal graphics editor and import the picture with the lines and symbols added. Not sure if the import feature with lines would be possible.

The other thought is to have symbols for arches, mega trees, etc, be automatically generated based on the setup. (e.g., if it is a mega-tree with 2 colors, and x number of channels per color, the mega tree symbol could automatically be a picture and be able to be re-sized to be the appropriate scale.

Also with the increasing prevelance of RGB floods and other display elements, maybe allow drawing a rectangle or circle that could approximate the flood coverage area and show the appropriate colors to match the sequence.

This may get to detailed to be rendered on the fly, so maybe an option to export it as an mpeg, along with the music, so the final (or at close to the final sequence) can be viewed with more detail.

Just dreaming.

KC · 08-06-2011, 08:19 PM

Originally Posted by Virtus

Which DIYC members are members of the development team for Vixen 3.0?

I'm missing some DIYC member names, but so you can recognize them, sallz0r, dynamoben, and jonathanreinhart are among them. There are two more guys, but I don't know their member names and I don't want to out their real-life names (again) out of a respect for their privacy (sorry for doing that once, guys).

**Mactayl** · 08-06-2011, 08:57 PM

Originally Posted by KC

I'm missing some DIYC member names, but so you can recognize them, sallz0r, dynamoben, and jonathanreinhart are among them. There are two more guys, but I don't know their member names and I don't want to out their real-life names (again) out of a respect for their privacy (sorry for doing that once, guys).

I am thinking that folks should just lay back and see what KC and the team can produce, I am sure this is a hard enough task as it is. We all want something new but this task is very involved and I am sure it takes many man hours to produce Vixen 3, so lets wait and see what they come up with and I am sure it will blow all of our socks off.;)

KC · 08-06-2011, 09:02 PM

Originally Posted by Mactayl

...and see what they come up with and I am sure it will blow all of our socks off.;)

BREAK OUT THE HIGH-OCTANE COFFEE!

No, no mug, just right in the ol' aorta. Thanks.

**Virtus** · 08-06-2011, 09:54 PM

Originally Posted by KC

I'm missing some DIYC member names, but so you can recognize them, sallz0r, dynamoben, and jonathanreinhart are among them. There are two more guys, but I don't know their member names and I don't want to out their real-life names (again) out of a respect for their privacy (sorry for doing that once, guys).

Thank you, KC. I want to be able to thank them all when the time comes.

**Blackbeard** · 08-06-2011, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by sallz0r

But for now, to help with the development of it, and in the spirit of community feedback, let me turn the question back on you -- how would you like to use it? :-) Or, another way to look at it -- what is wrong with the current preview in 2.x that you would change if you had the chance?

There's nothing wrong, in my opinion, with the current preview and layout design. It's a little time consuming to put 100+ channels on an image, but maybe that's the price you pay for a lot of channels. As someone who has only put together a few previews - a new one for each year I've used Vixen - some of the functions and options are not intuitive. Things like pixel size, etc. I see a lot of the same questions concerning the preview being asked on the forum, so I'm guessing I am not alone.

There are some really good suggestions from past versions and I'm starting to see new suggestions for the upcoming version. The fact of the matter is that Vixen is a really good piece of software and could stand as is to get the job done. I don't have the vision the creators have for this, so I'm sure whatever they decide will be fine. I'm a programmer by trade, and realize that what I envision as an interface is not always intuitive for the end users, but once they use it, it usually works out.

I can't think of much to change, but my displays are simple, no RGB stuff yet, etc, so I'm not lacking in tools for what I try to do. My question was asked because I just hadn't see anything on what I feel is the starting point in current versions for any sequence.

**IdunBenhad** · 08-07-2011, 08:07 AM

Hi:
To me, the hardest part of sequencing is getting the symbols into the Visual Preview. I am a stickler for display and I have a hard time with it.

Blantrip had some good ideas and I agree with him and Mactayl.

I started a thread earlier about a display visualizer and Erik jumped on it.

Here is the preliminaries: http://code.google.com/p/vixendisplayvisualizer/

This might very well be incorporated into Vixen 3.0, if that is his desire.

Also, when KC and gang have time, they might want to take a look at the early Prancer ideas. Apparently Prancer is dead, but the ideas aren't. Also, Pro Light Show has a good visualizer.

This is not pressure anybody, just some ideas.

Thanks KC and helpers.

**erm213** · 08-07-2011, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by IdunBenhad

Hi:
To me, the hardest part of sequencing is getting the symbols into the Visual Preview. I am a stickler for display and I have a hard time with it.

Blantrip had some good ideas and I agree with him and Mactayl.

I started a thread earlier about a display visualizer and Erik jumped on it.

Here is the preliminaries: http://code.google.com/p/vixendisplayvisualizer/

This might very well be incorporated into Vixen 3.0, if that is his desire.

I plan on porting the plugin over to 3.0, unless of course, there is no need to do so because something better already exists.

For Vixen 3.0, are you guys still using WinForms, or, by chance, have you moved over to WPF?

Thanks,

Erik

**sallz0r** · 08-07-2011, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by erm213

I plan on porting the plugin over to 3.0, unless of course, there is no need to do so because something better already exists.

I've had a quick look just now at the display visualizer for 2.x (mainly just watching the linked video), and it looks good -- however I'm not 100% sure how well it would fit with the different approach we're taking in 3.x, and the way the display is structured and deisnged differently. Now that we have a lot of the information on the configuration of the display (the groups, how they are structured, if they are coloured and what channels make up each discrete colour, etc.), we can automate a lot of it, and we don't need to take as much time to setup those basic elements.

Having said that, I can see there's lots of other elements that can be useful as well. :-)

For Vixen 3.0, are you guys still using WinForms, or, by chance, have you moved over to WPF?

Still using Winforms. I know one reason was for its ability to be supported on other OSes via Mono, as Mono has no intentions of support WPF. I think there were some other reasons as well.