Lots of Problems in 2.5

Working on a Colorsource 40, I updated to 2.5 recently.  I rebuilt my show file from scratch, which was no small project.  I'm having the following issues:

* trying to apply intensity effects is screwy, and doesn't always work.  It seems that if I have custom colors selected from the emitter color selector page, the effects don't work.  If I select one of the stock color chips, they do.  Though not always.  If I have an intensity effect running and I change colors, the intensity effect freezes. Etcetera.

* Trouble applying effects in sequences.  I have been able to apply an intensity effect to the first step of a sequence, but am unable to apply it to any subsequent steps.  (In fact I was able to apply an effect to a later step in a sequence once.. But have been unable to do it again, despite trying several different ways of duplicating my process.   Very frustrating.)  I shouldn't have to spend hours of my time trying to make the console do what the manual says it does.

* "Copy Step" in the sequence editor makes the console crash and reboot, consistently.

* I cannot create color chips.  I dial up a custom color, select "Record Chip", select a chip, and nothing happens.  Nothing.  The "cancel" button is the only option.

I'd appreciate a prompt response from ETC on this, these aren't small issues with the current firmware. It all seems very "beta" release to me.  I'm currently wishing I hadn't updated, as is the manager at the theater where the console is installed.

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  • Seth already mentioned the solution to item 1 that is in the upcoming v2.6.

    Item 2: We are still trying to reproduce this. Do you think this is related to the problem in item 1 (direct emitters)?

    Regarding the crash in item 3: Could you send us your show file and a brief description on how you make it crash? If you could export the log files and send us as well, this would be even better.

    Regarding item 4, it isn't possible to record a direct emitter color into a color chip in v2.5. (Color chips need to be generic and cannot contain emitter values for a specific color mix recipe.) We agree that the current way where it is silently refusing to record is confusing.

    We are improving this in v2.6 so that recording a color chip will always work, regardless if you are using RGB or direct emitter values.

  • Some further feedback on the Copy Step crash: I have found a special case if you edit a master sequence and use Copy Step but there are no steps recorded in the main Cue List. Then I get a crash. Does this match the situation you were having?

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  • I finally got some time to test out these issues a bit more.  

    First: applying intensity effects in sequences is still really hit and miss.  I can create a look with an effect and save it as the first step in a sequence, but cannot apply effects to any subsequent steps.  Additionally, applying effects in general is spotty.  It does seem to be related to color selection: if I change the colors of selected instruments I can often then get effects to apply.  Note that these are not direct emitter color selections, I am selecting them from color chips. 

    It might go like this: select some lights, turn up intensity, select Amber from color chips.  Try to apply an intensity effect, nothing happens.  Go and select Red from color chips, apply effect, it works.  Then I can go back and select Amber again and the effect will continue working.  

    Second: I am no longer getting the crash when I try to "copy step" in the sequence editor.  I was definitely getting it before, consistently.  I wonder if it was the state of memory in the board at that time, and several restarts since then have "fixed" the problem.  These kind of non-consistent errors seem to point toward a coding error or memory leak type of situation.

    Third, regarding color chips:  what is the point of direct emitter selection if I cannot save the color as a chip?

    Fourth, a new problem I discovered - this is the first time I have utilized Cue stacks on the console, as I am now programming a 50 cue theatrical performance: when I transition between cues using the Cue Fader, I sometimes (about 10% of the time, seemingly randomly) get a full intensity flash from whatever lights I'm fading out, just before they go to 0%, at the end of the fader.  I'm fairly certain this is coming from the console (and not anywhere else in the system), because if I program in/out times and transition cues with the Go button it does not happen.  Any thoughts on this?

    I need to say that I feel like overall this software release feels very Beta to me.  As in "not ready."  As a production user in an active theater I would appreciate if more of these kinks were worked out before you release it as a production ready update.  I definitely would not gave gone to the tie and effort to apply the update had I known how buggy it would be, as the problems far outweigh the new features.  Further, it seems like your point releases with bug fixes are few and far between. I would appreciate more timely bug fixes.  

    Thanks

  • Hi, Are you running with v2.5 or the v2.6 beta? 

    Some quick comments:

    - Copy step crash: There was a very specific case where this happened that is fixed in v2.6.

    - Color chips: In v3.0, the color chips will be replaced with color palettes that allow you to record direct emitter values. This is part of a larger package that wasn't possible to do in the smaller maintenance release v2.6.

    Regards,

    Anders

  • I'm running v2.5.  When can I expect a general release of 2.6?  And a general release of 3.0?

  • 2.6 is in open Beta right now. we're hoping to fully release that mid next month and then fully start working on 3.0. No final date yet but expecting end of summer

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