S2 Version 2.7.4 Released

[bob]

Version 2.7.4 of the software has been released. A brief summary of the changes will be listed later in this post, but first:

For the complete change log, please refer to the help file's "What's New" page, which you can see online at:

http://lightorama.com/help/index.html?whats_new.htm

You can get the installer for the new version from the software download page:

http://lightorama.com/SoftwareDownloadPage.html

If that page says a version number other than 2.7.4, please try hitting your browser's "refresh" button.

Now, a brief summary of the changes:

• Show on demand: You can now cause a show to be played without scheduling it. This is done through the new "Show On Demand" menu item of the LOR Control Panel's popup menu.
• Show Player can preload sequences: Previous versions of the LOR Show Player would load sequences as they are needed, i.e. immediately before the first time that they are to be played in a given show. Depending on the size of the sequence and the power of the computer, this could lead to a noticeable delay between one sequence and the next. This is still the default behavior, but you can now set an option on a show to tell it to preload all sequences, so that all of them will be loaded before any of them are played.
• Shows can be shut down gracefully: In previous versions, "Disable Shows" would cause the currently running show to stop immediately, even abruptly in the middle of a song. This can still be done, via "Disable Shows Immediately", but there's now a new option to shut the show down gracefully instead ("Disable Shows Gracefully").
• LOR Control Panel Improvements: Several improvements were made to the LOR Control Panel:
  • The "Current" and "Scheduled" sections of the status window were often mostly redundant (if the currently playing show was the show that was scheduled to be playing at the current time). So, the "Scheduled" section has been replaced by a "Next" section, which will show what will happen after the current show.
  • Those sections would update only after a noticeable delay, sometimes several seconds. They now update much more rapidly.
  • Similarly, the first log messages that were displayed would often be delayed; they're now much more real-time.
  • The Control Panel's light bulb icon (in the System Tray) now displays in different colors depending upon what's going on: If scheduled shows are enabled, it is blue; if they are disabled, but shows on demand are enabled, it is orange; if nothing is enabled, it is red.
  • Several new log messages were added, hopefully giving a more informative view into what the Show Player is doing.

  [*]Shuffle mode options: In previous versions of LOR, if you set a show's musical section to be played in "shuffle mode", any sequence could play at any time, even back to back, or more than once before all other sequences have played at least once. You can still make your show behave this way, if you want, but you now have more control over exactly what "shuffle" means: you can prevent songs from playing back to back, or you can prevent them from being played twice before all others have been played at least once, or both.[*]Maximum circuit number is now 512: The maximum allowable circuit number for a Light-O-Rama controller is now 512. At the present time, this is primarily useful for controlling DMX devices.[*]New iDMX1000 firmware (version 1.41): This new firmware contains the following enhancements:

  • There is now native address support (i.e. there is no longer any need for multiple unit IDs for a single iDMX1000). The old mode (where a single iDMX1000 had multiple unit IDs) is still available, though. Which mode is used depends upon the primary unit ID assigned to the unit - if it ends in a "0", it's in legacy mode; if it ends in anything besides a "0", it is in native mode.
    
  • DMX addresses up to 512 are supported (but only in native address mode).
  • There is now support for 128 "intelligent channels" - twice as many as before. That is, up to 128 channels can simultaneously be doing shimmers, twinkles, and/or fades.

  [*]New DIO32 firmware (version 1.30): The new DIO32 firmware supports native address mode (i.e. there is no longer a need for multiple unit IDs for a single DIO32). The old mode is still available. Which mode is used depends upon a jumper setting.[*]New DC-MP3 firmware (version 4.10): This new DC-MP3 firmware adds the following enhancements and fixes:

  • Previously, an individual sequence could be up to 10 minutes long. It can now be up to 44 hours long.
  • Previously, only certain manufacturer's SD cards were supported. A much larger variety of SD cards is now supported.
  • SD cards with the FAT32 file system are now supported.
  • SDHC (high capacity) SD cards are now supported.
  • Previously, shows could be set to play every hour or every half hour; they now additionally can be set to play every fifteen minutes or every ten minutes.
  • Digital Output (DO) pins 1 through 6 now operate. They react to commands for unit ID F0, channels 1 through 6. They only react on the DC-MP3 that is controlling the show; for example, they will not react on a DC-MP3 that is controlled via the PC network.
  • Under some circumstances, shows would start at midnight, without having been scheduled to do so. This has been fixed.
• Bug fix: Protection against several possible crashes was added to the LOR Control Panel. It's not known if any of these actually caused any crashes, but it is known that some customers have had crashes.
• Bug fix: When disabling shows, or when unloading Light-O-Rama, the LOR Control Panel would sometimes hang frozen for a noticeable amount of time (perhaps a second or two) before becoming responsive again or closing.
• Bug fix: The LOR Control Panel's status window would sometimes incorrectly state that the next show would start at 12:00 AM on Sunday.
• Bug fix: Sometimes, lighting commands were quickly repeated back-to-back. This would not cause any noticeable problems with how the sequence looked, but it did cause a minor increase in network traffic, or in standalone/SD sequence file size.
  

Please Note:

If you upgrade to this from an earlier release, it might ask you to activate your license again. This will not use up one of your license seats.