Some pixel map bugs and thoughts

richardWilliamson said:

Sometimes I’m unable to enter a number in the pixel map setup - command line shows errors if I hit a button that’s not allowed (such as through), but nothing happens when I press  number. Restarting eos fixes this but it's rather annoyin

Where are you entering a number (which field specifically)?  At this time I am unable to reproduce this, but more info might help.

richardWilliamson said:

Layer throws an error if you add a channel without patching, server doesn’t

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here- can you please give an example?

richardWilliamson said:

- When adding channels to a server/layer there should be an option for these channels to automatically be created in the patch - at the moment there's a boring extra step

I don't always want my pixels to be patched- sometimes I want to ensure that only my pixel map can touch these devices.

As for the rest, certainly some interesting ideas and I'm curious to see if others will agree.

Thanks Sara - apologies, some of my notes weren't totally clear. Clarification below..

saranow said:

richardWilliamson said:

Sometimes I’m unable to enter a number in the pixel map setup - command line shows errors if I hit a button that’s not allowed (such as through), but nothing happens when I press  number. Restarting eos fixes this but it's rather annoyin

Where are you entering a number (which field specifically)?  At this time I am unable to reproduce this, but more info might help.

This didn't happen every time, but when it did I would go [displays] {pixel maps} (screen updates to show pixel map index), at this point the command line became unresponsive to anything other than inapplicable buttons. I could return to live and everything was happy, but returning to pixel map displays still had the above behaviour until a restart. This is on an ion class (windows 7)

richardWilliamson said:

Layer throws an error if you add a channel without patching, server doesn’t

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here- can you please give an example?

In pixel map setup, I create a new server ([1] [enter]), then click "server channel" - I can then enter a channel that doesn't exist/hasn't been created in patch. However if I click "layer channels" and enter a number that doesn't exist I get an error. This isn't a major bug it's just a bit inconsistent.

richardWilliamson said:

I don't always want my pixels to be patched- sometimes I want to ensure that only my pixel map can touch these devices.

By this I mean adding the "layer channels" to the sever (not the channels in the cells), currently to create a pixel map server I have to go into patch, create all the channels, then return to pixel map settings and add them to the server. It would seem quite simple for the pixel map server section to create those channels magically.

"magically" always means the console has to make decisions. it has to choose channel numbers for me and it has to choose which layer personality i want to use, there are currently three...

richardWilliamson said:

Not just for pixel maps, it would be nice to be able to have a "by fixture" option when recording palettes for multi-cell fixtures (if layers could be such), so I can then create presets that work on all layers of a specific map

isn't that what a byType palette is? or what would the difference be?

I would assume that you would still enter a number - so for example at the moment you hit the "server channel" box and enter a number - that number is accepted whether or not the channel exists, ideally if it didn't exist you would be prompted to "create new server channel" as with a new cue in blind, so it creates if you wish.

For layers I would assume the same thing would happen, although this time the soft keys would give you the three options when you confirm, I'm not sure if this behavior exists anywhere else in the console but it wouldn't be too far removed to be logical.

richardWilliamson said:

- Is it possible for a Server and its layers to be a single multi-cell channel? If so this should be in the patch as it would be much nicer to work with

can't test right now if there is real output, but on the GUI side this works. i have 21(.0) as server, 21.1 as layer and 21.2 as effect layer. both handling as well as pixel map preview seems to work.

ueliriegg for some reason the forum won't let me reply to your comments below - so replying here..

I believe if I create a "by type" palette for any layer, it will be applied to all layers irrespective of server that layer is attached to. I would like to be able to create, for example, a by type palette called "video scaled" which would be the same for every layer across a server, but different between servers (obviously this would involve all my content being the same size, but that isn't problematic). If a media server was a virtual fixture this would tie into the other "by type" request I think I saw elsewhere

Good to know re. multi-cell fixture. Will try that next time

I wondered if you could copy the virtual layer and rename it to become a new type and thus work with by type but that seems to break the virtual aspect of the "fixture"....

Interesting that you are having these issues- I am also unable to reproduce.  I can enter unpatched channels to server and layer, and number input works immediately.  I will continue to look into this, but at this point I'm not sure why you are seeing different behavior.  Are the channels simply not patched when you attempt to assign as layers, or have they been deleted?

Assume blank show so that channels have never been created in patch, create a pixel server, click on "Server channel" and enter a number - number is accepted even though channel doesn't exist in patch. Click on "Layer Channels" and enter a number - error is thrown ("channel list is empty") - I would say the layer behavior is expected while the server behavior is less logical

Ah - interestingly when I have "start channel" selected in Pixel Map > Edit I get the same command line behavior which I mentioned above, I'm pretty sure I didn't have that field selected at that time though.. - this raises a couple of other thoughts..

1/ It seems to be a bug that while having pixel map edit selected I can type '+' (which goes to the command line, even though it's an invalid input and numbers do not go to the command line), while typing "thru" throws an error

2/ It feels like this "start channel" box should logically bring up the number box (with a decimal place) like the custom direct selects do - this would make it clearer that you shouldn't expect to see anything populating the command line

3/ It would be great if I could assign more than one channel to a single pixel.

Thanks!

Hmm,. I am still not seeing this.  What version of Eos software are you running?

2.8 (release version) - does the same on both mac and ion (classic with win 7 mother board) - I've attached a video showing what I mean...

Ah- those channels have definitely been deleted, which is not what would typically happen when you starta a new show.  Usually they would exist but be unpatched- in your case they are deleted, so I would expect that the pixel map would throw and error in both cases.

Isn't groupping helpfull?

And maybe youcan have a look at querry, there you can select by type or give them a new text.