2015 Show issues

[godman]

I wanted to post a couple issues I had during our Christmas show to see if there are any options to correct:

 

1. During my show on every song I was running a 16 strip pixel tree (NON CCR ) I was experiencing lag to the tree on several sequences, lag meaning it would freeze up in certain parts and then continue. I was running E1.31 from my 8 port switch directly to my PixLite 16 card.
    
2. I had around 20 songs in rotation ranging from 75mb to 360mb, while trying to load songs I would see the "Cannot Allocate Memory table" or something like that on the larger files (but not always just on the large files) and in some cases it would take 90 sec or so to load the next song. The sequences were all created as compressed sequences and I even tried choosing "load all sequences before starting option" but that seem to have made it worse.

I think the lag I had was unacceptable, I was using a win7 desktop with 5 core processor and 4 GIG of Ram which should have been more than enough, this is strictly a show computer and nothing else was running. I was also running 12 LOR controllers, a LOR Pixcon controller, a falcon controller and a P12s.

 

Any thoughts?

[k6ccc]

Are the songs running as intensity files, or "normal" LOR files?  I ran into the same problem my Wizards in Winter before I even had all the channels programmed.  Found in my case that the old slow show computer was running out of horsepower.  Switched to an intensity file for everything coming from SuperStar, and the problem went away.  Kinda cool seeing the .lms file at something like 1K in size!  Loads REALLY fast and takes practically zero memory.  For 2016, EVERYTHING will be in an intensity file and only one dummy channel (since you can't have zero channels in an LMS file).

[ebrown1972]

Are the songs running as intensity files, or "normal" LOR files?  I ran into the same problem my Wizards in Winter before I even had all the channels programmed.  Found in my case that the old slow show computer was running out of horsepower.  Switched to an intensity file for everything coming from SuperStar, and the problem went away.  Kinda cool seeing the .lms file at something like 1K in size!  Loads REALLY fast and takes practically zero memory.  For 2016, EVERYTHING will be in an intensity file and only one dummy channel (since you can't have zero channels in an LMS file).

I purchased several 12ccr sequences last year and would like to continue to use those this year. If I export those from superstar to the sequence editor as an intensity file then lag should not be an issue is what you are saying correct? I had no lag last year but I am adding about 2500 more pixels this year and those will be sequenced using Pixel editor which will all be intensity files. I have been a little hesitant not knowing which sequence program I should use due to worrying about lag since last year I only had 800 pixels and this year I will have around 3000. Over 2000 of those will be ran in E131 with the Falcon f16v2.

[godman]

I did not use the intensity files, I really don't like the PE as it stands, much prefer Xlights and will go that direction unless LOR comes out with a better Pixel program

[ebrown1972]

Also I have not exported any intensity files from Superstar to the sequence editor before. Lets say I am exporting a 12 ccr sequence from Superstar to the sequence editor as an intensity file. Do I just export it to whichever sequence I want without having the channels for the 12 ccr sequence defined in the actual sequence editor? I assume it works in the same way as the pixel editor? Thanks in advance. I hope my question is clear!

[1983ss454]

Your other option with the purchase ccr sequences like I have, is I just migrate them into pixel editor for the sequence editor and then export everything as an intensity file

[1983ss454]

I did not use the intensity files, I really don't like the PE as it stands, much prefer Xlights and will go that direction unless LOR comes out with a better Pixel program

I've used both and I have to say I much prefer pixel editor then xlights. I'm not bad with computers but I'm not great either and I feel like I need to take some computer classes to better understand xlights

[godman]

I've used both and I have to say I much prefer pixel editor then xlights. I'm not bad with computers but I'm not great either and I feel like I need to take some computer classes to better understand xlights

 

As much as I like LOR, in my opinion PE cannot compete with Xlights when it comes to sequencing and setting up pixels. I wish PE was as advanced as Xlights 4  

[ebrown1972]

Your other option with the purchase ccr sequences like I have, is I just migrate them into pixel editor for the sequence editor and then export everything as an intensity file

I had not thought of that. I just started really using the Pixel editor just yesterday. Thanks

[dgrant]

I didn't use the PE this past season as it was just too late in the year to make serious changes like that. Now considering I ran a total of 17 controllers, 3 of which were E1.31, two pixel trees and more pixels...I had no "lag" at all. I'm thinking you don't have enough memory to run the show. What load option were you using in the show editor? Load as needed or load all before? 4Gb of ram isn't a lot these days considering it has to hold the whole OS as well as all running optional programs. I'm thinking your "lag" was due to it loading into a page file on the hard drive as a temporary memory location, therefore seriously slowing it down. My long time view is always give the computer the resources it needs to run good. If its only capable of 4Gb, get a newer machine. This past season, I ran a Xeon CPU with 32Gb of ram under Windows 7. Its capable of 72Gb of ram but so far, no need to go that far. I also selected the load as needed which processed very fast. Zero delay in waiting for a load and some files were huge.

[dougd]

I ran close to 30,000 channels this past season. I have 1 16x50 pixel tree and 2 30x50 pixel trees and I had no lag using LOR. It must have been something else in your setup.

 

I did not use intensity files at all.

 

This past season what version of LOR were you running?

Edited January 27, 2016 by dougd

[ebrown1972]

I ran close to 30,000 channels this past season. I have 1 16x50 pixel tree and 2 30x50 pixel trees and I had no lag using LOR. It must have been something else in your setup.

 

I did not use intensity files at all.

 

This past season what version of LOR were you running?

I am just curious. What are the specs on your show computer? Thanks

[godman]

It could have very well been the lack of Ram, what computer set ups are everyone else running............ 

[jstorms]

Last year's show computer I used a computer with i7 processor and 32Gb RAM.

[Ron Boyd]

I have to agree about the lack of RAM. IMHO, even though the 4 Gb RAM PCs were good for normal incans and LED, most of us were running less than 200 total channels, (I did say Most, not All). Now that each bulb is 3 channels instead of 50 bulbs are 1 channel, PC horsepower has became, not overkill, but in some cases, nowhere near what's needed and I think, in need of an upgrade.

 

I updated my PC last year. I have an i5 with 16 Gb RAM and 2Gb video card (no lag in the Visualizer either) and had zero lag issues. Some of the Pixel tree sequences have some fast transitions and it was flawless. I can't compete with Doug's 30K channels, but I was running a bit over 10K this passed year.

Edited January 27, 2016 by Ron Boyd

[godman]

ok sounds like a computer upgrade is in order, What are the average file sizes for most people?

[dougd]

My show computer was a 3rd generation I7 with 16 gig ram. Solid state hard drive.

 

My sequences were anywhere from 100 meg up to 1 gig.

[aesl1982]

Are the songs running as intensity files, or "normal" LOR files?  I ran into the same problem my Wizards in Winter before I even had all the channels programmed.  Found in my case that the old slow show computer was running out of horsepower.  Switched to an intensity file for everything coming from SuperStar, and the problem went away.  Kinda cool seeing the .lms file at something like 1K in size!  Loads REALLY fast and takes practically zero memory.  For 2016, EVERYTHING will be in an intensity file and only one dummy channel (since you can't have zero channels in an LMS file).

I purchased several 12ccr sequences last year and would like to continue to use those this year. If I export those from superstar to the sequence editor as an intensity file then lag should not be an issue is what you are saying correct? I had no lag last year but I am adding about 2500 more pixels this year and those will be sequenced using Pixel editor which will all be intensity files. I have been a little hesitant not knowing which sequence program I should use due to worrying about lag since last year I only had 800 pixels and this year I will have around 3000. Over 2000 of those will be ran in E131 with the Falcon f16v2.

if you purchased from holiday sequnces he should be able to convert them over to xlights for you. Or send you the "pixel sequence" to work for your needs

[godman]

if you purchased from holiday sequnces he should be able to convert them over to xlights for you. Or send you the "pixel sequence" to work for your needs

 

Yes Robert will send you either the .SUP file or the DMX pixel file on request.

[aesl1982]

I did not use the intensity files, I really don't like the PE as it stands, much prefer Xlights and will go that direction unless LOR comes out with a better Pixel program

i believe the same Guy that created xlights is the one who created pixel editor. Only difference I see is the saving as intensity file to be able to use hand in hand with sequence editor. It's a different step and hard to grasp for me