Collections with the same scene in a cue list...

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JohnnyDMonic
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:21 pm
Real Name:

Hi,

I am using QLC+ 4.10.1 on a raspberry pi 2. I have noticed this issue on my standard linux (64bit lxde) machine too so it's not related just to the pi.

I use QLC+ in a pretty traditional theatre way, using scenes to define my basic "states" and then a chaser to make my cue-list which I step through during the show.

I discovered that I can use collections in order to layer multiple scenes together. This seems to me to be a very powerful feature for theatre. For example I plotted all the scenes for an entire show with the director about a week ago. We then managed to get hold of some RGB LED bars which we are using as footlights to enhance certain scenes. In order to make things easy for me, I made a few scenes just for the footlights, like "footlights blue", "footlights orange", "footlights white", etc.. Then, for those scenes where I wanted to add the footlights, I made a collection which comprises of my original scene plus the footlights scene. So for example I now have a collection called "inside aeroplane + blue footlights". This meant I didn't have to go through and edit multiple scenes. It also meant if I wanted to adjust the level/colour of the footlights, I could do it in one place, rather than having to edit loads of different scenes.

All good so far. The problem happens once I am running through these scenes and collections in a cue list.

So I have:

Scene A: inside aeroplane
Scene B: footlights blue
Collection C: A + B

In my cue list I have:
Cue 1: Fade in A 2sec, infinite hold, Snap out
Cue 2: Snap in C, infinite hold, Fade out 2sec

I would expect that the transition from 1 to 2 would be seamless (as C contains A), with the exception that the footlights would now be on. However, I experience a small "glitch" where scene A stops and then starts again with the result that all the lights flicker off and on again. It must be only a few milliseconds but enough to be noticeable.

This is only a very simple example. I have a few other collections which contain 3 or 4 scenes where the same thing happens. It's really handy to use collections for this kind of thing. Maybe I'm expecting too much, or not understanding some basic principle?

Anyway, thanks for listening.

John.
JohnnyDMonic
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:21 pm
Real Name:

I now believe there is a more general problem with Collections.

I have attached a very simple workspace to show the problem.
Collections test.qxw
(4.19 KiB) Downloaded 119 times
2 Generic dimmer fixtures

2 scenes:
Scene1 (dimmer 1 up)
Scene2 (dimmer 2 up)

2 Collections:
Collection1 (contains Scene1)
Collection2 (contains Scene2)

2 Chasers:
Chaser1 - if you step through this chaser you see that on the 3rd step, the scene in Collection1 isn't stopped. If you continue stepping through this chaser you see that both scenes end up permanently on all the time.

Chaser2 - if you step through this chaser you see the little glitch I was on about in my original post. Switching from Scene1 to a collection containing Scene1 results in a momentary glitch where the lights flicker off then on again. Something weird then happens when you go back to Scene1 where both lights go off instead of dimmer1 being up for Scene1.

Hopefully this example workspace is simple enough to follow. The unexpected behaviour happens in the Fixture Monitor and also with real lights using a USB DMX adapter.

Thanks for looking.

John.
Ham
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:43 am
Real Name: Ham Sadler

I am also experiencing a problem with collections. I use a collection of four functions called "Tree One". I have attached the collection to a slider to control all four channels. The slider moves all four channels, but if you slide up all the way it stops less than 255. up and down with the slider the max gets smaller and smaller.
Attachments
OJN Show.qxw
(24.57 KiB) Downloaded 114 times
Ham
Posts: 46
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:43 am
Real Name: Ham Sadler

A little furthur amplification on this. At least with the issue I am experiencing, it appears the problem is limited to the DMX monitor. When I tested the scenes with the lights actually on, there was no discernable difference in the intensity of the lights with the slider full on as measured with the lux meter on my phone. I don't have any tools to measure the actual DMX values transmitted that will work at the same time as QLC is working.

Thanks,

Ham
JohnnyDMonic
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:21 pm
Real Name:

Hi Ham, it sounds like your problem is entirely unrelated to mine so I would suggest starting a new thread.

Just wondering if any devs have had a chance to look at my problem yet?
mlohrey
Posts: 243
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:07 am
Real Name: Mark Lohrey

Hi Johnny

I had a quick look at your collections test.qxw workspace on my mac and couldn't fault it. Is it still behaving the same way in linux land?

Cheers

mark
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