Problem when Superstar effects overlay motion effects

[Brad Stucky]

I was glad to see the overlay mode become available in the Add/Modify motion effects popup window, however, I seem to be having a problem when trying to overlay a motion effect with a Superstar effect.  A motion effect over Superstar seems to work fine.  When I place a motion effect in the first effect row and a Superstar effect in the second effect row, Superstar completely blocks the motion effects from showing.  Is anyone else having this problem?

[k6ccc]

Obviously a single pixel can only display one thing at a time..  If you have effects (SuperStar or Motion Effects) at the same time involving the same pixels, whichever one is on a lower effects row takes priority when there is a conflict for a specific pixel.  In the image below, there are four effects going on.  The fireworks overrides the Meteors, which override the fire, which overrides the the marquis.  Those were all Motion Effects, but the behaviour is the same with SuperStar effects from my earlier testing.

[Brad Stucky]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Obviously a single pixel can only display one thing at a time..  If you have effects (SuperStar or Motion Effects) at the same time involving the same pixels, whichever one is on a lower effects row takes priority when there is a conflict for a specific pixel.  In the image below, there are four effects going on.  The fireworks overrides the Meteors, which override the fire, which overrides the the marquis.  Those were all Motion Effects, but the behaviour is the same with SuperStar effects from my earlier testing.

I guess after re-reading what I wrote, I should have explained a bit better.  Absolutely nothing plays in the preview except Superstar effects when I have Superstar overlay a motion effect.  When the effect rows are switched, the motion effects then overlay the Superstar effects as expected.  (the Superstar effects showing in the background and motion effects showing in the foreground).

Is that panel of yours 128 x 48?  Pixel nodes on black coroplast?  That's nice!  I've got a 150x16 using pixel ribbon as part of a diagonal star prop.

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Brad Stucky
noticing your panel

[MattBrown]

Brad,

SuperStar effects get converted to a movie (they are essentially movie effects in the Sequencer). The movie has no alpha transparency - so that is why anything beneath cannot show through. Changing to the "Blend"  mode should allow effects behind the SuperStar effect to show through.

Matt

[k6ccc]

22 minutes ago, Brad Stucky said:

Is that panel of yours 128 x 48?  Pixel nodes on black coroplast?  That's nice!  I've got a 150x16 using pixel ribbon as part of a diagonal star prop.

Yes, it is 128 x 48, but no it is not individual pixels.  That is my 4W x 3H P10 matrix.  Here is another photo that shows both the P10 and the 3W x 2H P5 matrix hanging from my family room ceiling (where they spend the off-season).

Thanks for jumping in while I was typing this Matt.  I did a test after my previous post and confirmed that I was getting SuperStar and Motion Effects to work well together, so apparently I am in "blend mode".  However I have never heard that term before and have no idea how to control that.  Of course I understand left and right window blending within Motion Effects, but I don't that is what you are talking about.

 

 

[Brad Stucky]

6 minutes ago, MattBrown said:

Brad,

SuperStar effects get converted to a movie (they are essentially movie effects in the Sequencer). The movie has no alpha transparency - so that is why anything beneath cannot show through. Changing to the "Blend"  mode should allow effects behind the SuperStar effect to show through.

Matt

Thanks Matt.  That's good to know.   I'll have to work around that a bit then.

[MattBrown]

9 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Thanks for jumping in while I was typing this Matt.  I did a test after my previous post and confirmed that I was getting SuperStar and Motion Effects to work well together, so apparently I am in "blend mode".  However I have never heard that term before and have no idea how to control that.  Of course I understand left and right window blending within Motion Effects, but I don't that is what you are talking about.

See the "Motion Row Combination Mode" section on this page:

http://www1.lightorama.com/help/motion_effect_rows_dialog.htm

Matt

[Brad Stucky]

4 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Yes, it is 128 x 48, but no it is not individual pixels.  That is my 4W x 3H P10 matrix.  Here is another photo that shows both the P10 and the 3W x 2H P5 matrix hanging from my family room ceiling (where they spend the off-season).

Thanks for jumping in while I was typing this Matt.  I did a test after my previous post and confirmed that I was getting SuperStar and Motion Effects to work well together, so apparently I am in "blend mode".  However I have never heard that term before and have no idea how to control that.  Of course I understand left and right window blending within Motion Effects, but I don't that is what you are talking about.

 

 

Now I see the size with the respect to other items.   I store a few props in our back room as well and my wife will complain when I'm playing around with them. 😁

[k6ccc]

4 minutes ago, MattBrown said:

See the "Motion Row Combination Mode" section on this page:

http://www1.lightorama.com/help/motion_effect_rows_dialog.htm

By George, I was in Blend mode...

4 minutes ago, Brad Stucky said:

Now I see the size with the respect to other items.   I store a few props in our back room as well and my wife will complain when I'm playing around with them.

Yea, the first photo does not give any size reference...

Part of why I leave the matrix panels up is that I can test them during the off season.  Currently in order to drive P10 or P5 panels (except as video) REQUIRES using Falcon Player.  To do that from LOR uses Bridge mode in FPP.  From my observation there are not all that many people able to test Bridge mode in FPP during the off season.  I can - and do.  There have been a few issues with FPP in Bridge mode that I was able to catch so they could be corrected.  I check for FPP updates at least every couple days in the beta program (in fact just updated a couple minutes ago).  The panels with their BeagleBones and power supply are all on a remote power switch (cause the outlet is buried behind stuff), so I can turn them on or off with "Alexa, turn on matrix" or "Alexa, turn off matrix".

There is a long story behind this family room, but for the most part, I can do with it as I want.

 

[Brad Stucky]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

By George, I was in Blend mode...

Yea, the first photo does not give any size reference...

Part of why I leave the matrix panels up is that I can test them during the off season.  Currently in order to drive P10 or P5 panels (except as video) REQUIRES using Falcon Player.  To do that from LOR uses Bridge mode in FPP.  From my observation there are not all that many people able to test Bridge mode in FPP during the off season.  I can - and do.  There have been a few issues with FPP in Bridge mode that I was able to catch so they could be corrected.  I check for FPP updates at least every couple days in the beta program (in fact just updated a couple minutes ago).  The panels with their BeagleBones and power supply are all on a remote power switch (cause the outlet is buried behind stuff), so I can turn them on or off with "Alexa, turn on matrix" or "Alexa, turn off matrix".

There is a long story behind this family room, but for the most part, I can do with it as I want.

 

I was sort of wondering how these P10, P5 panels were being used with LightORama.  I just about quit 5 years ago when the pixel thing really started to catch on, thinking I'm too old to learn that stuff, but by the Grace of God I was able to slowly figure out a bit. (Whew!!!  That first year!)
Our back room has a story as well. It's an addition to our house about 5 years ago, primarily (in my mind) to make it easier to work on Christmas props since we attached a garage/shop as well, which this year also became storage for props that are too large to get into our back room such as a 40 inch diameter 24x56 pixel globe we added.
I've been doing this for about 15 years now and at age 69 I'm feeling the pressure to wind down.  There is a technical matter that also has me discouraged.  I'll explain:  Most all my sequences are precisely timed to the music. (I'm anal about that)  A couple of years ago I was sitting in the car of a fellow Christmas lighting enthusiast (Vixen software however), watching our show and noticed my lighting was slightly out of sync to the music.  Well the conclusion I came to is that his Lexus radio has some digital audio processing that ends up delaying the audio output. The show looked fine watching from our older Honda.  Alas, I feel the need to change my programming style to accommodate this, but that would be difficult at this age and time. Take care, Jim, and thanks for information about your panel.

[k6ccc]

8 minutes ago, Brad Stucky said:

Well the conclusion I came to is that his Lexus radio has some digital audio processing that ends up delaying the audio output. The show looked fine watching from our older Honda.  Alas, I feel the need to change my programming style to accommodate this, but that would be difficult

Unfortunately, that is not unique to his Lexus.  And there is not a damn thing you can do about it.  You "fix" it for one car and it will be wrong for someone elses car.  You have no control over their car radio.  Even between different cars that have a signal processing delay, the amount of delay is going to be different.  As I understand it, with at least SOME (likely most) of the newer car radios that have that "feature", the user can defeat the delay.  I would think that checking the manual for something like "drive in theater" mode would be a good start.

 

[Brad Stucky]

1 minute ago, k6ccc said:

Unfortunately, that is not unique to his Lexus.  And there is not a damn thing you can do about it.  You "fix" it for one car and it will be wrong for someone elses car.  You have no control over their car radio.  Even between different cars that have a signal processing delay, the amount of delay is going to be different.  As I understand it, with at least SOME (likely most) of the newer car radios that have that "feature", the user can defeat the delay.  I would think that checking the manual for something like "drive in theater" mode would be a good start.

 

Thanks, I will check with him on that "theater mode".  If there is some sort of setting to defeat this I may have to include instructions at Christmas time on our facebook page or a flyer.