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New Feature in SuperStar - Pixel Extender


BrianBruderer

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There is now a "Pixel Extender" feature in SuperStar. It is designed to convert sequences made for 50 pixel strings to any number of pixels from 50-170. Many people have DMX ribbons that are the same length as CCRs, but they have more than 50 pixels, typically 100 pixels or 150 pixels. So now they can use sequences that were written for 50 pixels.

 

The feature is in the latest beta release:  Released announcement here.

 

To use the feature:

1) launch superstar

2) open a 50 pixel "CCR mode" sequence

3) click on the Tools menu and select "Configuration"

4) In the Configuration dialog box set "DMX" and the first Univserse used for your DMX ribbons/strings

5) Select the channel scheme

    Tightly Packed - uses all channels in each Universe

    Semi-Packed - fits as many whole ribbons/strings into each Universe

    Not Packed - each ribbon/string is in its own Universe

6) Set "Number of DMX Pixels (50-170)

7) Click on the File menu and select "Export to Sequence Editor", you can export in Legacy format or in the new "Intensity Data" format

 

Those that can test this feature, please do so. I appreciate any feedback you can give me.

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Brian, love the new stuff in SS. The pixel extender is going to be very useful. Got a question about that feature. I see you can go from 50 up to 170. It does a very good job.


 


Is there a reason why we can't go down in size. Would love to go from 50 down to 32 or possibly even 16 for that matter. Just curious.


 


Doug


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Actually, I can do that, I just didn't think people would want to do that. But apparently they do! I can add that in the next release.

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So what yer saying, is that say i go from a 12 foot mega tree to say an 18 foot mega tree, The would make my pixels go from 50 to say 75. By using the pixel extender, i could make the sequence i already have work for 75 pixels versus 50 pixels?

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Yes, what it does is extend the pixels at the back end, that is at export time. So if you have a 50 pixel sequence and you have 100 pixel strings, it duplicates each pixel so you end up with 100 pixels.

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  • 3 months later...

I swore I tested this feature out when it first came out. Now I am trying to actually use it and it doesnt appear to work. I am trying to go up from a sequence that has 50 pixels per string up to 64 pixels. When I export and open in sequence editor, there are 64 pixels per string but the first 14 pixels per string has no data in them.

 

I am on version 4.3.2

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You are correct, it worked when it first came out, and then I inadvertently broke it in 4.3.2. It will be fixed in the next release. If you want the fix now, send an email to brian@superstarlights.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

It is only a bug in 4.3.2. You can go back to 4.2.12, or you can get my most recent SSEdit.exe by doing the following:

1) Shut down SuperStar

2) Look for SSEdit.exe. It will be in one of the following two places:

c:\Program Files\Light-O-Rama\SSEdit.exe
c:\Program Files (x86)\Light-O-Rama\SSEdit.exe


3) Rename it to something like SSEdit_original.exe

4) Use the link below to get the new SSEdit.exe and copy it to the same place where you renamed the original SSEdit.exe

http://superstar.synchronizedchristmas.com/SSEdit.exe


5) Launch SuperStar. If you have done everything correctly, it will say v0.1602.10 in the title bar in the upper left of the program.

6) Verify that the bug is fixed

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  • 2 months later...

Brian,

The extender has worked perfect and thanks for having it in SuperStar. Will you get to the point that it can stretch such as a 12 to a 16 string pixel tree?

Jeff 

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That is harder to do. I don't expect to be able to do it. To go from 12 to 16 strings and still have it look good requires different tweaks for different kinds of effects.

Extending the pixels from 50 pixel strings to some other number is easy, the code just duplicates the command to pixels as required. This ends up working well because of the higher resolution of 50 pixels. In other words, if you had 50 strings and wanted to make it work on 75 strings, then doubling up on half of the strings would work Ok because of the high resolution. But doubling up on 4 of the strings to make it go from 12 to 16 would not look good.

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  • 1 year later...

Brian,

I've had the same issue where I can only get 50 pixels to light after creating a test sequence. 

I built a 10' mega tree w/ 16 strings, 100 pixels in each string. They test fine in the HU, but only half of them light when actually playing the sequence. 

When I export the intensity data, I can only get 50 of the 100 pixels to work. 

I do have SS 24 CCR Pro level. 

How do I get all 100 to play in the sequence?

SE legacy data from SS.png

Edited by LightshowNoober
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Are the LOR strings that use unit IDs, or do they use DMX? If they are DMX, does the addressing start from the same end of each string, or is it a "snake" pattern?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Does this work only with DMX or will it work with LOR?  would this allow me to use the LOR cosmic bulbs as a 100 bulb string instead of 2 50strings?  I have not run into what others are referring to so I may be misunderstanding this.  thanks for any clarifications.

 

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If you are in CCR mode then you use the Configuration dialog box to configure the unit IDs. And if you have DMX strings you can still configure things in the Configuration dialog box and since the number of pixels in DMX strings can be something other than 50 then you can specify the number of pixels, and the 50 pixel sequence will get squished or stretched appropriately.

If you are using two 50 pixel LOR strings per strand then you will need to create a visualization of your tree in the visualizer and then import the visualization into superstar. And then click on the Tools menu and select "Layout" and in the lower right portion of the Layout dialog box you can squish or stretch the pixels. In your case, if you had 12 strands, with 100 pixels per strand, you would set it as follows:

Enable Pixel Extender

X Origin - 0      Y Origin - 0

Width - 12     Length - 50

Stretched/Shrunk Length - 100

 

If you need help making the visualization let me know.

 

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Does anyone have video of a 12 or 16 ccr tree stretched? I would like to see how it looks from having 50 pixels per string to 100. Last year I ran two 12 string pixel trees with 50 pixels each per string. I have considered changing that to 100 pixels per string and only having one tree. Thanks.

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I should mention I'm not looking to make my tree taller. I'm just looking to add more pixels and make the spacing of the pixels smaller. Right now my spacing is 3 inches.

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I do not have a video, but it should look pretty much the same as a tree that is "unstretched." Currently, when the pixels get stretched superstar duplicates pixels as necessary to get to the desired number of pixels. In your case it is exactly double, and so you will end up with pairs of pixels that will always be doing the same thing.

I am currently working on a new way of "stretching" that will do it at the effect level. For effects like morphs and smooth effects this means they will have the higher resolution of the stretched length. But for things like scenes and images, you still end up with duplicated pixels. And the new feature will stretch the sequence in the other direction, in other words, you can increase the number of strands and it will stretch it that way as well.

So another thing you could consider is doubling the number of strands instead of doubling the number of pixels per strand, meaning you would have a 24 strand x 50 pixel tree. Effects should look better because you are getting good resolution in both directions.

Even with a 12 x 50 pixel tree, the spacing of the pixels vertically is much closer than the spacing horizontally. You could compare it to having an HD tv screen that is HD in the vertical direction but not in the horizontal direction.

 

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