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Superstar and DMX?


mark obermiller

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Visualization mode in superstar works with your visualizer file and pops it in superstar. So instead of a grid or 4 ccr's or 12 ccr's verticle or horizontal you see your visualizer lights. No house picture but your lights are there in the same location as was on your visualizer screen.

Now you can morph from one light in that visualizer picture in superstar to another. Just left click one light and then right click the end of the morph. Want to morph your whole yard? Go to vis effects which is enabled by a check box on the bottom of the morph tool and now you can morph parts of the visualizer file you imported.

I save special files in visualizer to group my elements. Then I can time whole yard morphs side to side or up to down keeping my elements in sequence.

The uses of this are hard to explain in a few words. But after using it I have found many different ways to do effects by having different visualizer files with different elements in it.

Superstar in grid form was confusing to me. But seeing my lights in a picture and having the ability to control the elements inside that picture....there is nothing more useful in superstar than those visualization files to me.

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I have used Superstar for my pixel tree and it works very well.  This was done in CCR mode (although I'm not using CCRs, but rather WS2811 pixels controlled via E1.31). 

I have tried to use visualization mode for my pixel star.  The image of the star is fine, but the grid that you drag over to select pixels has no relationship to anything I can figure out.  Never have come up with a way to make anything useful out of it.  The order of the pixels is not quite random, but essentially useless.  I have no doubt that it's mostly my lack of understanding rather than a flaw in the software.

 

I have however in Sequence Editor created 10 separate tracks for the star that make it very easy to do all kinds of sweeps and patterns, so at least this year, I'm only using SSE for the tree.

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Has anyone noticed the previous posting I made? If so, please reply. I would really like someone to try the new dmx keyword.

 

Brian,

 

I unfortunately manually created a visualization for all 150 DMX pixels before reading your post. I decided to try out your dmx keyword anyways...

 

Basically it works, but I noted two minor issues. I have 3 GE color effect strings run by a SanDevice E682 controller, 2 Cosmic Colour Pixel controllers, and 6 Cosmic Colour Ribbons. I mapped out the GE color effect strings as CCRs using the CCR draw wizard. I have each string on it's own universe and used the dmx keyword accordingly.

 

Two of my GE color effect strings need to be numbered from right to left. When I loaded the visualization into SuperStar, the visualizer was correct but the SuperStar 'green boxes' were numbered left to right for those strings. I tried the 'reverse' keyword but that did not correct the problem. You can see in the screen shot how the example morph goes from left to right in the green boxes but right to left in the visualization. When I ran this sequence on the actual lights, the output was as you see in the visualizer.

 

The second thing I noted was during the export to the sequence editor. My DMX props are at the top in SuperStar but were moved to the end of the channel list in the sequence editor. Not a big deal, but unexpected.

 

I have also attached my visualization file... perhaps there is something that I missed.

 

Steve

post-8673-0-97298600-1384833425_thumb.pn

3GEs+StarBurst+6CCRs-v2.lee

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Very cool Brian!

Had a good once over with it tonight. Its almost perfect with the exception of the export to the sequence editor creating a traditional channel setup vs an RGB channel setup in groups like it does when you export a CCR sequence. Its a toss up deciding if its easier to build the visualation as true CCR's then deleting those extra macro channels in the sequence editor to copy/paste groups into your completed channel config or to export as DMX and create another channel config with everything in its groups labeled correctly and ordered the same way as the DMX export then copy/paste the export into that channel config. Either way spitting out the superstar sequence in the sequencer editor as RGB channels in groups named the same as the prop name would make it much easier to work the morphs into sequences. Thanks!

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I used this method to sequence my WS2811 C-9 bulbs and two ws2811 strips for arches, it works great.

 

I now also use Superstar to sequence my 4 regular LOR controllers. Sequencing has never been easier.

 

I found out by mistake tonight. I finished sequencing my roof line and arches, I saved the file. I then wanted to start sequencing my 4 LOR controllers, so I imported my visualizer file. Well wouldn't you know it, all my effects from the roof line and arches were still there. Sequence done in 30 mins as I had to do a few tweeks in LOR sequencer. Other than that my normal lights flash with the exact same rythem as my WS2811 strips. That was an extreemly time saving feature I just found!

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Thank you for your comment vvolf27. I have no direct experience with DMX lights, so folks like yourself know more about it than I do.

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  • 4 months later...

This posting is in response to Brian's request for feedback from anyone using Keywords in Visualizer setup to enable DMX sequencing in SuperStar.  Thanks Brian. It works. I am successfully using SuperStar to sequence for a matrix consisting of 200 DMX smart pixels. In addition to the keyword format you describe in your post, I added column and row numbers resulting in a visualization in SuperStar that looked like the matrix. I've gotten as far as exporting the SS sequence to LOR Sequence editor, converting all channels to RGB and then testing the LOR sequence. Looks good. Next step is to combine this sequence with standard LOR sequence that controls other fixtures in the display. Subsequence would be simpler than the copy and paste method described in the LOR tutorial, provided it doesn't cause unsolvable timing issues. Thanks for expanding the functionality of SuperStar. I'm enjoying the creative processes your efforts have stimulated.

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  • 1 month later...

The normal way to do DIY DMX RGB lights in the visualizer is to create each pixel as an single bulb. It is very tedious to do manually. As someone else mentioned there are some tools people have created that will aid you in creating DMX pixels in the visualizer. But I do not know how you get them, should be able to find out somewhere in the forums, I'm just not sure where. Hopefully someone else can point you in the right direction.

I may be using those user created tools wrong, BUT I have used RGB studio to create my RGB elements (doors and windows).  However, when I load the props into the viz, they are not editable.  Meaning you cannot run the channel wizard.  

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RGB Studio works great in some cases but as you found, sometimes it creates files that have problems. I have not run into the problem you mention, but found that RGB Studio will create files that have more than 1000 fixtures and you can open the file in the Visualizer but if you try to edit the file in any way the Visualizer crashes. The Visualizer prevents you from creating files that are more than 1000 fixtures and it doesn't expect files to ever have more than 1000 fixtures and crashes when they do.

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RGB Studio works great in some cases but as you found, sometimes it creates files that have problems. I have not run into the problem you mention, but found that RGB Studio will create files that have more than 1000 fixtures and you can open the file in the Visualizer but if you try to edit the file in any way the Visualizer crashes. The Visualizer prevents you from creating files that are more than 1000 fixtures and it doesn't expect files to ever have more than 1000 fixtures and crashes when they do.

It has worked great for creating my props, but here is a screen cap of the problem I run into.  If I cannot assign channels, they it will not work in SS.

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Brian, I got it working and I started a new thread with a new issue in SS.   :huh:

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