Some More Feature Requests

[daniel]

Hello Dan and Light-O-Rama Crew! I was just thinking of two features that I would like to see in the new Light-O-Rama software.



1. Easy Play - An application that can play a sequence of choice (w/video) of choice on demand. This application has 10 simple click customizable buttons to setup which sequences you want to easily play. Before/after the sequence plays, an optional background sequence could play. This application should be able to play shows as well as individual sequences.

2. LOR-2-Go - A portable, knocked-down version of the sequence editor paired with the current show/schedual player that use flat file instead of the windows registery, enabling you to work with sequences on the go.




With that said, sorry for the "longish descriptions" kinda felt like explaining my thoughts. Anyway, the "easy play" (#1) would be an AMAZING feature! I personaly would use this application year-round for EVERYTHING.




--Daniel L

[rwertz]

I like your easy play idea. It would be great to be able to run a show “on demand” without having to schedule it. A checkbox option to loop at the end might be nice too.

[taybrynn]

I'm working a sequence right now and in particular, I'm working on mapping someone else sequences (display) into my own.

I'm in the animation window and suddenly it becomes apparent that its pretty hard to see whats what after its been drawn (into the picture). So you can choose Draw, but it shows up very minimally and really hard to see, especially in a really busy animation picture.

(1) So it would be nice to have a "show me" button, that really flashes out the selected channel for you and makes it really easy to see on demand.

(2) Tagging mode: This would off a tag input box when selected.
Looking at the animation graphic/picture, it dawned on me that this would be the perfect place to do some fairly difficult grouping or tagging. In a previous enhancement request I went into more detail on how the tagging could work in terms of showing only certain channels while sequencing. This time, I think it would be really neat to be able to enter a tag (identifier) and then click on the items in the animator that you want to be part of that group (or those channels to be tagged as the current tag you enter). So one example of how this could be used is to do fancy left to right stuff across your display. So you might first enter a tag for the "far left" channels. Then click on them to assign them to this group. Then you could enter the
"left" tag channels, clicking on them. THen enter the "center" tag and then click on the channels in the center that you want to be part of that tag group.

(3) On a similar note, it would be nice to have an identify mode in the animation window. In "identify mode", you could click on anything in the animation graphic and it would identify what channel it is and highlight the entire channel (similar to the show me mode mentioned in (1) above) ... so it is easy to see and know what it is. Then there could be two options if you wanted to do more than just identify something. (3a) Draw This Now or (3b) Erase This Now ... which would take the currently identified channel and put you either into the draw or erase mode for that channel ... i.e. you would not have to re-select it ... rather it would already be selected for you to draw or erase onto/from.

(4) I also would like the animation window settings preserved for a sequence. So if I click 'simulate nighttime' ... then it remembers this the next time I open the sequence. Currently, it forgets everytime.

Regards,
Scott

[George Simmons]

While we're wishing, I'd like to see copy and paste functions available for drawing animations.

[Bowshock]

I would love to see a random show generator.

For example if I have 12 songs sequenced, it would be great if I could tell the computer to pick 3 songs at 8:00 and 3 songs at 9:00 and 3 songs at 10:00 to play. Then the next day the computer can pick 3 songs again for the 8:00 show wth the only restriction being it can't pick any of the songs used the day before at the same time.

I don't know if I'm describing it well. I hope I'm getting the point across.

[daniel]

Bowshock wrote:

I would love to see a random show generator.

For example if I have 12 songs sequenced, it would be great if I could tell the computer to pick 3 songs at 8:00 and 3 songs at 9:00 and 3 songs at 10:00 to play. Then the next day the computer can pick 3 songs again for the 8:00 show wth the only restriction being it can't pick any of the songs used the day before at the same time.

I don't know if I'm describing it well. I hope I'm getting the point across.

You can say from timea to timeb to play the songs randomized, ike give the time 15 min, and put 20 sequences in the show, it could randomize and pull out the sequences to ill the time slot, but this is a hassle, I like your idea also. Adding onto your idea, additional ways to schedual shows/sequences would be a BIG bonus! (Even to play sequences on demand... )



--Daniel L

[NWSanta]

While we're wishing. I'd like to be able to customize the toolbar. And be able to have a "Play Visible Screen" Button. Instead of having to go up and change it through the menu.

-Evan

[michael.farney]

Bowshock wrote:

I would love to see a random show generator.

For example if I have 12 songs sequenced, it would be great if I could tell the computer to pick 3 songs at 8:00 and 3 songs at 9:00 and 3 songs at 10:00 to play. Then the next day the computer can pick 3 songs again for the 8:00 show wth the only restriction being it can't pick any of the songs used the day before at the same time.

I don't know if I'm describing it well. I hope I'm getting the point across.

We definitely need a more powerful show generator. First off, drag and drop and allow multiple deletes. When I have 50+ sequences in one show, it's super tedious having to click the down arrow 50 times to get the sequence where I want it. Can't I just drag it where I want it in one fellow swoop? Same with the delete. If I want to change something and it involes 30 sequences, I have to manually delete one at a time. Highlight, click the minus. "Are you sure"? Yes. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It usually takes me over 30 minutes to build one show. It would be good if we could highlight multiple entries at once for either moving (drag and drop) or deleting.

Next, please allow buckets! The reason why I have such huge shows is because I can't schedule random and have the show alternate between sequences and voiceovers. I want this:

random sequence
random voice-over
random sequence
random voice-over
etc.

Since I want "random" with the above pattern, I end up having to simulate it by adding everything to the show multiple times. I then "randomize" it by organizing it in a random order but keeping the sequence/voice-over pattern. I then build about 10 of these and schedule a different one everyday. (Otherwise, the same songs will play in the same order at the same times every night.) It takes many hours to build these shows to just to simulate a random play effect. It would be more efficient to place these in song buckets and schedule the buckets. Then, LOR could randomize the choices it makes from the bucket, but it will allow us to schedule the buckets:

Song bucket
Voice-over bucket

There. That simple show above saves about 5 hours of building shows.

When we get interactivity and some of the other improvements, the show generator has to become more sophisticated to handle it. I hope to see many changes and new features. With all the other wonders happening with S2, I hope the show builder doesn't get left in the dust.

[Dr. Jones]

I realized another feature i'd like:

the ability to change a ramp profile - fade up/down in a nonlinear curve

What do you think?

[bensontrent]

I really like the non-linear curve idea. I've always thought it would be nice to be able control the light levels with handle bars like you do with paths in Adobe Illustrator. Having "handles" would be a much more elegant way to control light levels, as you wouldn't need to switch between different tools to create ramps, levels or on/off. You would simply double click on a linear line to add a handlebar--then drag the line to the desired level. Much the same way audio levels are controlloed in video editing software.

[HiramDawg]

I would love to see a toggle on/off for the fade up and down like there is a toggle for simply on/off.

[Gerald Corey]

We would like to see a "flip" feature, so that if you had one mega tree going clockwise, you could do a "flip" and program another mega tree going counterclockwise without having to do the whole deal. Would also work with mini trees going right to left, then left to right.

This is year #2 for us--finally learning a few shortcuts!

Thanks, Gerald & Rosemary Corey

[evan.a]

since we're wishing. how about a pause function. yes i know i can use the tool and do visial play. but sometime i just see a mistake. pause it, fix it, and continue on to the end

[Cajun Cheesehead]

One little thing I would like to see:

In the visualizer, an option where a single channel can be multicolored (for those of us using multicolored strings)

[taybrynn]

I second the multicolor idea in the visualizer.

I'd also like the visualizer settings saved ... i.e. the simulate night time

option never remembers between saves ... would be nice to remember

your last preference.

[Denny]

Cajun Cheesehead wrote:

One little thing I would like to see:

In the visualizer, an option where a single channel can be multicolored (for those of us using multicolored strings)

I believe this is a feature with the Holiday Soft 4.0 to be released on July 12.

[-klb-]

Foreground effects needs to have at least two operating modes..

Currently it behaves as applied effect * roundup(base intensity)

Thus if you are applying a foreground effect to three adjacent cells, each of which ramp from 100 to 0, and you apply a foreground effect to ramp from 100 to zero, you wind up with one single ramp from 100 to zero..

A second mode that I think would be useful is to just take the foreground effect value multiplied by the base intensity value. Such that the same scenario above winds up with a ramp from 100 to zero, a ramp from 66% to zero, and a ramp from 33% to zero..

I think it has been asked for before, but I don't know if it ever got adequately explained.

I will add that I see value in having the ability to select to do it either way..

- Kevin

[basis21b]

I am not sure if this request is in or not:

Incandescent lights fade on a different curve than LED's. I would like to see a feature where I identify what kind of lights will be at the end of the channel and the software will dim both kinds without my having to goof with power levels to keep them 'even' with each other.

Perhaps even having a way for me to input information about the device to control that behavior myself.

[ItsMeBobO]

Cool idea !

[Steven]

basis21b wrote:

Perhaps even having a way for me to input information about the device to control that behavior myself.

To expand on this idea, you should be able to tell that this channel is controlling a motor, transformer, strobe light, or other non-dimmable device, and then the sequence editor would only allow on/off. This would have kept me from blowing a transformer last year.