Blackout Function

[RhythmDave]

Hello,
Let me start by saying thank you for the time and effort you put in developing the software. I know it's a daunting task and it's nice to know that someone is willing to put in all the time for us "budget minded" musicians that may otherwise have no alternative.

My issue is with blackout. I'm running 4.12.1 on Win7 x64 with a Lixada DMX adapter, controlling it with a Behringer FCB1010, and everything so far works great for my purposes. Blackout works fine for how you have it configured. Currently, the blackout function sets all faders "channels" to zero. My issue is that when this happens, all my moving heads go back to their initialized positions so, when I release the blackout, all the lights come on and then they all go back to the previous scene. Well, it creates a nice effect but not really how I need to use it. I have tried other software (think yours is by far the best for open source). I noticed that the blackout function for some software was tied to the lamp or intensity channels only. This was achieved in the fixture creator of said software where the lamp and intensity channels could be defined as part of the fixture configuration. So, when selecting blackout, the only thing effected was the lamp intensity itself. Other channels like PAN/TIlt Gobo, etc. were not effected. So when selecting blackout, the lights go out but they don't move. When deselecting blackout, the lights come back on where they were immediately instead of having to move back to that position.

What I have done in the interim is to create an all off scene where only the master intensity fader of each channel is active and set them all to zero. It works fine but it takes a little extra work. If I were to add more lights or change the light setup I would have to go back and edit the scene and each fixture to make sure it was included for blackout. Problem being I'm human...haha. If I were to overlook (or forget) the fixture, I wouldn't want to be in a live situation, select my blackout scene and uh oh, the drummer is still red...you get the picture. If the blackout was tied to the lamp intensity only it would be a global configuration and regardless of how many lights were added or changed, it would always work.

Anyway, I think you get the idea of what I am saying. If I am overlooking something, please advise.

I do have one other issue right now (I am new to QLC so pardon my inexperience). I can't seem to get an EFX function to include the actual lights....lol. They move just fine with any of the presets but no lights. I have tried the different fuctions (position, dimmer, rgb) but nothing. When I send the EFX to the output, all the lights in the scene start moving properly but all the lights go out. This happens whether I am in the design mode and test the EFX or if I try to run the EFX in live mode. I'm sure I am just overlooking something so any advise would be appreciated.

Again, thank you for your wonderful product.

[GGGss]

Please separate your demands in seperate posts.

I do have one other issue right now (I am new to QLC so pardon my inexperience). I can't seem to get an EFX function to include the actual lights....lol. They move just fine with any of the presets but no lights. I have tried the different fuctions (position, dimmer, rgb) but nothing. When I send the EFX to the output, all the lights in the scene start moving properly but all the lights go out. This happens whether I am in the design mode and test the EFX or if I try to run the EFX in live mode. I'm sure I am just overlooking something so any advise would be appreciated.

Again, thank you for your wonderful product.

Working with EFX on movers works best if you separate things: intensity, shutter, color wheel, gobos, prims, ... make them static (in cue's) or dynamic (in chasers) and only apply EFX to pan and tilt. (Programming would then ask a basic light setting before you can see something happening)
Check the fixture definition: EFX looks at pan / tilt properties and only apply to them.
Now in program mode you preview the EFX and the light go out = works as designed. It's only the EFX function which is in control. (overrule by going to simple mode and give the intensity (shutter) channels some preset.
In live mode - you can or use intensity + color + shutter + gobo and then apply (enable/start) EFX - this should do it.