Light-O-Rama version 5.1.2 released

[LOR Staff]

Today we released production version 5.1.2 of the Light-O-Rama Software Suite.  This is an official production release, not a beta release. 

S5 is the first software from Light-O-Rama that is designed from the ground up to work with mega-pixel displays.  S5 can also be used for non-pixel displays, but you may wish to stay with S4 for this season as S5 is a big change.  During this change over, we will continue to maintain BOTH S4 and S5.

S5 fully integrates the Pixel Editor, Sequence Editor, and Visualizer into a single program and adds many enhancements to help you program large channel count stages.  S5 uses a different methodology called 'Visual Sequencing' to create amazing sequences and has new automatic programming tools called 'Motion Effects' that will speed your sequencing.  For more information on S5, please see the "Sequencer (Showtime 5)" section of our Tutorials and PDFs page on our main website.

Help documentation is not yet complete for this version, however we expect to release it shortly.  The latest S5 help can always be found online here:  http://www1.lightorama.com/help/

We also will be creating S5 based tutorial videos in the near future.  

How to check if your license covers this version

To check whether or not your license covers this version, please go to the license retrieval page, and enter your email address (the one you purchased your license with). An email should then be sent to you with information about your license. The "Summary" section of the email will tell you whether or not your license covers the latest version.

If the email says...

• Your license covers the latest version, 5.1.*.

... then your license already covers this version.  You can use it without making any additional purchase.  Please note, though, that your computer may not yet understand that your license covers this version, so when you install, it might tell you that you are running in Demo mode.  In this case, simply reactivate your license (for example, via "Upgrade Light-O-Rama" on the Sequence Editor's "Help" menu), and your computer will then learn that your license is valid for this version.

On the other hand, if the email instead says...

• Your license does not cover the latest version, 5.1.*.

... then your license does not cover this version.  In that case, you have several options:

 

Upgrading or Renewing Your License

(1) You can continue using whatever version your license does cover (for example, perhaps your license covers version 4.1).

(2) If you want to take this opportunity to increase your license level to take advantage of additional features, you can purchase a license level upgrade.  This counts as a license renewal too - that is, your license will now work with this new version (and some future versions too).  So, if you do this, there is no reason to also purchase a license renewal.

(3) If you already own a Light-O-Rama license, but you do not currently own Light-O-Rama SuperStar, or if you want to upgrade SuperStar to a higher number of CCRs/channels, you could purchase or upgrade SuperStar.  This also counts as a license renewal for the rest of the Light-O-Rama software suite, so if you do this, there is no reason to also purchase a license renewal.  Please note that you must already own a license for the rest of the Light-O-Rama software suite in order to take this option.

(4) If you do not want to purchase a license level upgrade or Light-O-Rama SuperStar, you can purchase a license renewal.  Your license will now work with the new version (and some future versions too), at the same license level as it currently does.  For example, if you have an Advanced license, it will remain an Advanced license, but it will now cover the new version of software.

What's New in Version 5.1.2

Please note that help file updates are not yet complete and will be released in the near future.  Please see the next message in this thread for the current release notes.  We hope to have documentation complete by the next release.

How To Get the Latest Version

You can download the new version from the software download page. If that page lists a different version number as the lastest version, please click your browser's refresh button.

Thank You!

Many thanks to the help and support all of our beta and release candidate testers gave us for the last year!  Without you, S5 would not be what it is today!

[LOR Staff]

Release Notes For ShowTime 5 Version 5.1.2
27 August 2018

This is a production release.

*** UPDATES TO THE SEQUENCER ***

Sequence grid row height:
1) Bug fix: if the user repeatedly shrunk the row height in the sequence grid, they would reach certain sizes where some prop/channel names did not get displayed. Now names are always displayed, regardless of the row height. Reported by user ndutton.
2) Enhancement: depending on the row height, the Sequencer would choose one of 3 font sizes to display prop/channel names with. Now it will choose among 4 font sizes - a new one was added when the row height is extra tall. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

In Preview Design, renamed "Channel Conflicts" tab to "Channel Conflicts (and bulk change tool)" to better reflect its functionality. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

Audio wizard changes:
1) Bug fix: when the VU Wizard was set to analyze only part of the song, it would still insert timing marks and/or channel effects for the entire song. Reported by Light-O-Rama.
2) The default timing grid shown in the Beat, VU, and Tapper wizards is now the one currently selected in the sequence grid. Reported by Light-O-Rama.
3) Improved performance when the Apply button is clicked in the Beat, VU, and Tapper wizards. Reported by Light-O-Rama.
4) Bug fix: when clicking the "Start" button on the Tapper wizard, typing the space bar did not produce taps. Reported by Drew Hickman and NJ Malenke.

Moved menu item Sequence > Audio Wizards > Add Beat Channel to Sequence > Add New > Beat Channel. On the sequence grid's right-click menu, the Audio Wizards > Add Beat Channel item was removed. Added item to the Grid View menu: Add New > Beat Channel. Reported by user Drew Hickman.

Fixed multiple issues with the Renumber Strings dialog (accessed by going to Preview Design, Channel Conflicts tab, Change Selected Props > Renumber Strings). Also added a "Reverse Order" button to this dialog. Reported by user k6ccc.
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/46721-editing-channel-assignments-information/

The "Other Warnings" tab in Preview Design will now display a warning when the channel assignments for a master prop and sub-prop are out of sync. A sub-prop has the "Uses the same channels as" field populated in the Prop Definition screen. Reported by user k6ccc.
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/46721-editing-channel-assignments-information/

Renamed the opening "Sequences" tab page to "Start Page" to better reflect its purpose. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

Enhancements to the Prop Definition window:
1) All shape parameters are now displayed in a single column list and a scroll bar will be displayed if the list does not fit in the available space. 
2) There are no longer separate tabs for the "Custom" and "Advanced" shapes. The grid to edit those shapes is now accessed from a button which opens a separate window -- giving the user much more screen space to edit custom props. 
3) A thumnail view is now displayed for Custom and Advanced props in the lower portion of the Shape section.
4) The delete key can now be used to clear cells on the grid when editing a Custom or Advanced shape. 
5) The last shape you used to create a new prop is now remembered and set as the default the next time you create a prop. 
6) The Save and Cancel buttons were moved to the upper left corner to be consistent with the Preview Design window. 

New shapes in Prop Definition:
1) Tree 360 panels. This can model large commercial trees that are assembled by tiers, and those tiers are broken into panels/branches. The shape assumes each panel has its own set of channels and that every panel is lit the same way. Requested by user Drew Hickman.
2) Tree 360 tiers. Also known as "Z trees". This shape does not support RGB pixels. Requested by user spascall.
3) Sphere and Cylinder shapes. These can be configured to display 1, 2, 3, or all 4 quadrants (vertical sections). The Tree 360 Wedges shape was also updated with a parameter to choose the number of quadrants it displays. Requested by user stevehoyt and others.
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/46771-how-to-define-prop-for-tree-shaped-like-a-globe/

If there are no existing previews, the Upgrade Sequence screen now disables the choose existing preview option. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

The sequence upgrade process now does a better job of handling inconsistent settings on RGB channels. Previously, some situations could cause the Sequencer to crash. Reported by user Val Bennett.
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/46800-upgrading-sequence-error-from-s4-in-s5/

During the sequence upgrade process, warnings about subsequence channels now include the channel name. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

Adjusted the size and layout of the New Animation Sequence and New Musical Sequence dialogs so they display correctly when the "Visual Effects" tab of Window's Performance Options dialog is set to "Adjust for best performance". Reported by user John Hall.

Adjusted the wording of items in Preview Design's "Add New Item" dialog. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

Changes to motion effects:
1) Removed the align left, center, and right buttons for the Text effect -- as they did not have any effect on actual lights. Reported by user k6ccc.
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/46834-feature-request-horizontal-position-offset-in-motion-effects/
2) Added TextPE effect that exactly replicates the S4 Pixel Editor's text effect to improve sequence upgrades. Adjustments to text effects in upgraded sequences are no longer required. Note there are now 2 text effects in S5: "Text" and "TextPE". Reported by Light-O-Rama.
3) Renamed the "Full Length" option in the Movie effect to "Movie Length Matches Sequence Length". Reported by Light-O-Rama.
4) Bug fix: when inserting a new motion effect, the Motion Effect Generator window could be calculating the effect "None" (blank screen) even though the selection in the drop-down box showed a different effect. This only occurred when Sequencer Preferences > Motion Effects > "When opening, initialize from the current toolbar effect and color" was unchecked. Reported by Light-O-Rama.
5) Bug fix: in some cases the bulb size slider control on the Motion Effects Generator could disappear. Reported by Light-O-Rama.
6) Bug fix: the scanner effect could cause an error during effect calculations and result in the play buttons not being enabled. Reported by Chris Reynolds and Eric Brown.
7) There is no longer a delay when you first open the Motion Effects panel until thumbnail images appear. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

On the grid's toolbar, the Motion Effects and SuperStar tools are now only visible when the user has a PRO level license. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

Added a warning when trying to use the Fill tool on an empty row. Reported by Light-O-Rama.

If the current toolbar effect is set to "Motion Effect" when the Color Fade tool is selected, the toolbar effect is now automatically changed to "On". Reported by Light-O-Rama.

*** UPDATES TO SUPERSTAR ***

FEATURES:

Added "Snake Up" and "Snake Down" as movement options in the Auto Sequence dialog box

Added "skip inactive grid squares" option in Auto Sequence dialog box

Added "Average the Time Length of Effects" option in Auto Sequence dialog box

BUG FIXES:

Fixed a bug where an encrypted file from previous versions would not read in if it has groups or timings in it.

Added a check for "Full Range" color mode if launched from a SuperStarRequest. If in "Full Range" mode, SuperStar forces "Balanced" mode and adjusts all the color values to be 100 or less.

Made it so every 5th long tick mark on the edges of the sequencing grid is thicker.

Fixed a bug where if you had effect groups in a sequence and you did "select all" then you could no longer expand the effects in the effect groups

Doubled the amount of memory SuperStar can use This prevents memory errors when compiling large sequences.

Fixed a bug where writing out a large image could cause the program to crash.

Fixed it so the Auto Sequence movement options work properly with pixel speeds other than 1.00

*** OPEN ISSUES ***

S5 Sequencer section of the help file is still in the process of being updated.

Clipboard files from S4 (.LCB) can be used in S5. They import correctly into single color channels, but not into RGB channels.

In the Sequencer, subsequences will play back to lights only on LOR enhanced and DMX/E1.31 networks. They will not play to un-enhanced LOR networks (playback works fine on all networks in the Show Player).

Support CCR macro channels during preview playback (on screen)
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/43877-s5-not-supporting-ccr-macros/

Pixel Editor previews imported into S5 require manual adjustments to props that have been rotated. Props with no rotation in PE import correctly. Props with rotation in PE are in the correct location but may have the wrong rotation and scale).
http://forums.lightorama.com/topic/45546-s4-pixel-editor-show-in-s5/

*** MOTION EFFECT ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS ***

Would like an option in the spiral effect where you could do a fill like a true spiral tree would do. Requested by SPaschall.

Add movement options to the Picture effect that are essentially the second half of the Peek-a-boo movement. So exit_left, exit_right, exit_top, and exit_bottom would be the new options. Requested by Little_b.
http://forums.lightorama.com/index.php?/topic/43699-feature-request-using-picture-effect/

Make the "once to fit duration" option available in more motion effects.