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S4 Sequences into S5


HLE

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1 minute ago, HLE said:

Do I need to open all of my old S4 sequences into S5 and then re-save them as in the S5 format for them to work??

Please don't convert now as it is way too late to get comfortable with S5. S5 has a huge learning curve and if you have to ask how to convert from S4 to S5 then I would tell you to wait until after the Holidays so you have all of next year to learn it. Trust me if you change now you will have nothing but headaches and be hating life.

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To answer the OPs question, yes. You DO need to import the S4 sequences and then save them in S5 format.

I started the conversion well over a month ago for my 10 sequences from last year and just recently completed them. At this late date, I would not recommend starting now.

HOWEVER, if you insist, you may (MAY, I said) get away with importing the sequences and selecting a default preview for each sequence and saving them as is in the new format. It will be a very ugly preview and you likely won't be able to make any changes to the sequences or creating new ones, without, as Mr. P says, a lot of headaches and hating life. Keep in mind, this defeats the purpose of being able to create a single preview that would cover all of your sequences and make the import of any additional S4 sequences much nicer as well as when it comes time to create new ones.   

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The only thing is I don’t use the previewer. We change our display each year and add things and subtract things to keep things new. Like last year we did 32 trees around the outside of the yard. This year those trees will be scattered across the yard and new arches brought in. And usually we don’t decide where everything is going to be till the first of November so the preview really doesn’t matter to me. 

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In S5 you will need to have a "Preview" - there isn't any reason it has to look at all like your actually display.  It just needs to include all your props.  The "Preview" is where you tell S5 which channels/universes are for which items in your show.  You can also have multiple Previews if you want.  I currently have a basic Halloween and a Halloween+PixelTrees that I am using for my current show.

Your 32 trees could be shown in your "Preview" as just a row of 32 trees and that would be sufficient.  If they are traditional lights with 1 channel per tree, they could be in your "Preview" as just a single "bulb" that is connected to the correct controller & channel.  But you do have to have a "Preview" created since that is where the software connects channels to items.

 

PJD

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Agree with what dbeebe just said. You MUST have a preview in S5. The most basic preview upon import is just a bunch of blocks of lights that represent the lights contained in the sequence. It won't look ANYTHING like your house. Each of your sequences can have its own preview, but again, that defeats the purpose of the usage of the preview in S5. Importing with the basic preview for each sequence will, at minimum and maybe, get you through this year but there will be a lot of work for next year.

At this late date I don't recommend moving to S5.  

2 hours ago, HLE said:

The only thing is I don’t use the previewer. We change our display each year and add things and subtract things to keep things new. Like last year we did 32 trees around the outside of the yard. This year those trees will be scattered across the yard and new arches brought in. And usually we don’t decide where everything is going to be till the first of November so the preview really doesn’t matter to me. 

And that is the beauty of using the preview as designed to be used in S5. Once you create one that looks like your setup and has all the channel config, etc., you can use it for EVERY sequence. At that point making a change to the preview in one sequence makes it for all the rest of the sequences that have that preview assigned to it.  So, you create a preview for 2019 and save it with a name like Christmas-2019. Then next year, you modify it to your liking and save it as Christmas-2020 and assign any or all of your sequences to that preview. Thinking ahead, IF you do anything for Halloween, you just create a Halloween preview with different channels and props.

It's a new way of thinking about it. Props (one or more strings of lights) are stand alone things. You create a prop. In the tutorial it's a string of lights around a window. To control that string,  you assign it to a UnitID and a channel (say, UID1 and Ch1). From now on, every sequence that uses that preview will use UID, Ch1 to control that window. IF you want some other unit to control that window for a different sequence, then you need to create a different preview with that unit configured to control it. As you can see, using a different preview for EACH sequence will be a LOT of work. That's where the single preview makes life much easier in the long run. Like, next year.

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You must be mistaking a preview for Visualizer. In S4 the Visualizer is optional, you don't need it to create a sequence. However, in S5 you must create a preview in order to create a sequence. S5 istotally different then S4 so if you have been using S4 in the past then wait until after the Holidays to convert to S5.

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I successfully imported my halloween sequences from S4 into S5 and created a preview.  HOwever for some reason my matrix of CCRs which run on my Aux network are not working on the house.  they work in the preview.  I know I must be missing something but have not been able to determine it is.  Any help will be appreciated.  Everything else is ready for Halloween. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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I believe I have figured it out -- my CCRs were still archived.  I have unarchived them now so I expect they will now play the lights.  I will find out for certain when I play my sequences tomorrow. I'll test them while it is still light out so I can see what I'm doing.  Fingers crossed but I'm feeling good that I have solved the problem.

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Well I thought I had figured it out but unarchiving my CCRs did not resolve their darkness.  I'm missing something -- if anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate them.  I switched back to S4 so that I can at least run my Halloween show.  My Christmas show is still S4 and I'll probably leave it that way this year.  Decided to test S5 for Halloween as it is a much smaller show and thought it would be a good learning experience which it has been.  Still some learning to do obviously. Thanks for any help.

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