Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Computer type speed


Tony Hefner

Recommended Posts

is there really any difference in performance if they are compressed? not sure really what the difference is except that obviously a compressed file is smaller i guess, lol... but doe that effect performance outputting the right led at the right time?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It makes a HUGE difference.  Huge.  Literally the difference between a sequence playing smoothly versus lagging and freezing up in places.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

meaning compressed will run more smooth? I would think if it compressed it and needed to try and play live it would lag

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, brichi said:

is there really any difference in performance if they are compressed? not sure really what the difference is except that obviously a compressed file is smaller i guess, lol... but doe that effect performance outputting the right led at the right time?

Yes, using compressed sequences saves CPU cycles.  If you are using SuperStar or Pixel Editor, and can use intensity files (requires a Pro license), that is an even greater reduction in CPU usage (huge difference).

 

Just now, brichi said:

meaning compressed will run more smooth? I would think if it compressed it and needed to try and play live it would lag

Nope.  A .lms file is a human readable file and is therefore massively wordy.  A compressed file eliminates a lot of the extra stuff that makes it human readable and only leaves the commands in a machine readable form.  That means that the computer does have to spend as much time translating the .lms file.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats great to know! thank you for the info guys

 

I do have a pro license and am now programming only on S5 so i'll play around with how you do compressed. I saw an option in the LOR CP so maybe its as simple as just enabling it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're using S5 and have a Pro license, use intensity files.

Just as an FYI, for 2016, everything was sequenced in SuperStar and exported as intensity files.  Sequence Editor only had one channel, and that was only because you can't have zero channels.  That one channel was a cooling fan that was on all the time.  That means that my un-compressed .lms files were under 1K.  And yes, enabling compressed files is just a checkbox.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

And yes, enabling compressed files is just a checkbox.

Be aware, however, this advice is great for playing shows using the Show Player.

It's not so great for using the Sequence Editor (at least through all the versions of S4) in that it takes a LOT longer when saving the file since it creates a new compressed file each time you push the save button.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so i guess in S5 if in Control Panel i select "use compressed sequences" that automatically will save all my stuff as i save playback files to "compressed"

Edited by brichi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

when I save playback files in s5 it saves a .LID which is 52MB and a play.LMS which is 2KB and is what is added to the show editor to build a show, so i guess at 2KB, thats pretty compressed,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, brichi said:

when I save playback files in s5 it saves a .LID which is 52MB and a play.LMS which is 2KB and is what is added to the show editor to build a show, so i guess at 2KB, thats pretty compressed,

The .lid file is the intensity file, and the play.lms is essentially the same as my one channel compressed file

 

14 minutes ago, George Simmons said:

Be aware, however, this advice is great for playing shows using the Show Player.

It's not so great for using the Sequence Editor (at least through all the versions of S4) in that it takes a LOT longer when saving the file since it creates a new compressed file each time you push the save button.

There are two different checkboxes.  In Sequence Editor, there is a checkbox to automatically create a compressed sequence every time you same a sequence.  This is what George was referring to.  Back in the old days, this functionality was always enabled and not user selectable.  It was a request from the forum users to allow us to only create the compressed file when there was a need for it.  Uncheck this box if you sequence in Sequence Editor.  In SE there is a separate command to export a compressed sequence that you can use when you are completed with the sequence.  The sequence compressor will compress a single song, single show, or everything (can't remember the exact wording)

The other checkbox tells the show player to use compressed sequences.  If that is checked, and if there is no compressed sequence, then it will create one when it loads the sequence.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok great, so its doing what i want it to do then, now if the play file would actually work on my controllers in S5, lol.... I have an issue with it, reported to Matt. Alll of my files in S4 show editor and show on demand work great and my lights all do what they should but in S5 they dont light up doing the same exact thing, weird

Edited by brichi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, brichi said:

ok great, so its doing what i want it to do then, now if the play file would actually work on my controllers in S5, lol.... I have an issue with it, reported to Matt. Alll of my files in S4 show editor and show on demand work great and my lights all do what they should but in S5 they dont light up doing the same exact thing, weird

Interesting.  I have S5 on my laptop - and can have all my S4 sequences.  I will try to run my landscaping show from the laptop Wednesday or Thursday evening and see what happens.  I'll let you know what I see...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

now that i saved them as compressed play files it all seems to work now in the "Show on demand", weird

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that data point. I'll see what I can do in the next day or two.


Sent from my phone using Tapatalk, so blame any typos on Android!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • The topic was locked
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...