Running your show outside and previewing on laptop simultaneous

[DougM]

Hey guys. Got a new controller for Christmas. My first time owning one. I have played around and got a sequence done and working. What I want to know, is there a way while my show plays outside to preview it inside

[PhilMassey]

Not in S5. Similar question to the previous post, and the same answer.

Preview only works with the Sequencer, not the show player. 

 

[Orville]

4 hours ago, PhilMassey said:

Not in S5. Similar question to the previous post, and the same answer.

Preview only works with the Sequencer, not the show player. 

 

Couldn't do it in S2, Couldn't do it in S3, Can't do it in S4. 

So as far as I'm aware, no version of the LOR software ever supported anything like that where you could preview your show on the computer during the same time it's running.   

Perhaps if you add some outdoor security cameras and possibly tie them in to your computer to watch what's going on outside is the only way I can think of to possibly do that.

[PhilMassey]

I used to watch the visualizer all the time in S4. Works wonderfully well.

You can even watch it over a network if you want.

[k6ccc]

10 minutes ago, Orville said:

Couldn't do it in S2, Couldn't do it in S3, Can't do it in S4. 

So as far as I'm aware, no version of the LOR software ever supported anything like that where you could preview your show on the computer during the same time it's running.   

Perhaps if you add some outdoor security cameras and possibly tie them in to your computer to watch what's going on outside is the only way I can think of to possibly do that.

Visualizer could do it just fine after it was introduced in S3 - and continued in S4..  Gone in S5.

 

[Orville]

10 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Visualizer could do it just fine after it was introduced in S3 - and continued in S4..  Gone in S5.

 

That's not the way I understood the question, hence my response.   I took the question to mean could they watch the actual display "outside", the real physical display in real time, not a facsimile like visualizer on the computer.   Visualizer is okay, but watching the display itself is the only way to catch any errors that may get missed with these animated drawings.  The animation is good, but I've caught errors in sequences that looked perfectly fine on the computer, but once put into real world use, there were a few glitches in sequences I had to correct.

So I don't rely to heavily, actually not at all, to show me any errors that might occur during a sequences playback using animator or visualizer.  Jave to go outside and really watch the display.

Just so folks know what I was thinking when that question was brought up, and answered it the way I did.

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Orville

[Orville]

So how do you import the LOR Singing Trees into S5 since the visualizer has been removed from S5?   I haven't gotten that far in experimenting with S5 that much yet.   Visualizer made it easy to import the LOR Singing Trees, so how do you do that in S5?

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Orville

[dibblejr]

3 hours ago, Orville said:

So how do you import the LOR Singing Trees into S5 since the visualizer has been removed from S5?   I haven't gotten that far in experimenting with S5 that much yet.   Visualizer made it easy to import the LOR Singing Trees, so how do you do that in S5?

 

They are downloaded from LOR in the preview design/ add prop/ download from LOR. Should take less than a minute.

Edited January 10, 2021 by dibblejr

[k6ccc]

6 hours ago, Orville said:

That's not the way I understood the question, hence my response.   I took the question to mean could they watch the actual display "outside", the real physical display in real time, not a facsimile like visualizer on the computer. 

His specific question was:  "What I want to know, is there a way while my show plays outside to preview it inside"

And the forum topic is:  "Running your show outside and previewing on laptop simultaneous"

Sure sounds like he is looking for Visualizer...

On the other hand, I have also caught errors while watching the actual lights that were missed on the Preview.

 

[Orville]

4 hours ago, k6ccc said:

His specific question was:  "What I want to know, is there a way while my show plays outside to preview it inside"

And the forum topic is:  "Running your show outside and previewing on laptop simultaneous"

Sure sounds like he is looking for Visualizer...

On the other hand, I have also caught errors while watching the actual lights that were missed on the Preview.

 

Well I've made this same type of mistake before, used the word preview, when I meant view, and from the question, I took it he had probably meant view and not preview.  Mainly due to me{and the definition of preview}, a preview is what you do before the actual show is  put in a theater, or, in our case, placed outside into the real world for all to see.

Of course this always comes down to how each of us interprets the words used or, perhaps, not used, like preview for view.  All because of how the question was worded.   Seems when talking to the person, you know exactly what they are looking for, and other times, the written word sometimes may be just enough off the mark, that some answers may not be the correct one or may be in some circumastance and not in others.

So sometimes we just answer based on what we believe the person asking was wanting.

If that makes any sense, it should...but I know how that goes at times.🤣🤣🤣

As for your last comment, that's why I preview it before I even set up my actual display outside, but once the physical display is up and in operation, whether or not I used a computer or a Director, I go outside, get a chair, then sit and watch{view} my entire show with a "notepad" in hand. 

I do that so I can make notes of which sequence may be in need of tweaking a bit, if it needs some extended modifications, or perhaps I really just need to completely remove it from the show and start over.  And all because it just didn't turn out as good as it looked on the computer screen versus what I actually saw and got in my real world outdoor display!🤣🤣🤣

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Orville

[Orville]

8 hours ago, dibblejr said:

They are downloaded from LOR in the preview design/ add prop/ download from LOR. Should take less than a minute.

Thanks JR.  I'll play around with that after my new computer gets here.  Installing S4.4.14 on the new computer and will put S5 on this one to play around a bit more with it.   The one I'm using to check out S5 on is much worse than this system, so I'll upgrade this one to S5 and see how it goes with installing the LOR Singing Trees I have into it.

So far, I've not had much success in getting lights or anything to work when I've tried to add them to S5.  That's the part I seem to have the most trouble with.   I seem to be able to get a preview to show me lights and stuff, have checked Control Lights, but when a controller and lights are connected, I've yet to see any real lights work via the controller[s] through S5.  So I must still be doing something wrong during the initial set up phase.

I'll see what happens when I upgrade this system to S5, once I've got my sequences and everything transferred over to the new computer first.

So for now my 2021 shows will still be run and created via S4.4.14, perhaps in 2022 or with a little luck, maybe by September 2021 I'll be able to migrate to S5, if I've learned it well enough to feel comfortable using it and can get it working with my controllers.

BTW: in S4 and some earlier versions you could use assorted tracks to break up your display.  I haven't tried using tracks in S5 yet, because I haven't been able to get it working with a controller and lights as yet.  We didn't lose that option too, did we? {Sure hope not, that's how I set up the sequencer for my display.  It's so I can locate what I want to sequence easier!}

 

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by Orville

[dibblejr]

14 minutes ago, Orville said:

Thanks JR.  I'll play around with that after my new computer gets here.  Installing S4.4.14 on the new computer and will put S5 on this one to play around a bit more with it.   The one I'm using to check out S5 on is much worse than this system, so I'll upgrade this one to S5 and see how it goes with installing the LOR Singing Trees I have into it.

So far, I've not had much success in getting lights or anything to work when I've tried to add them to S5.  That's the part I seem to have the most trouble with.   I seem to be able to get a preview to show me lights and stuff, have checked Control Lights, but when a controller and lights are connected, I've yet to see any real lights work via the controller[s] through S5.  So I must still be doing something wrong during the initial set up phase.

I'll see what happens when I upgrade this system to S5, once I've got my sequences and everything transferred over to the new computer first.

So for now my 2021 shows will still be run and created via S4.4.14, perhaps in 2022 or with a little luck, maybe by September 2021 I'll be able to migrate to S5, if I've learned it well enough to feel comfortable using it and can get it working with my controllers.

BTW: in S4 and some earlier versions you could use assorted tracks to break up your display.  I haven't tried using tracks in S5 yet, because I haven't been able to get it working with a controller and lights as yet.  We didn't lose that option too, did we? {Sure hope not, that's how I set up the sequencer for my display.  It's so I can locate what I want to sequence easier!}

 

 

When you get there and need help all yoi have to do is ask. I do jot know all S5 has to offer but I did have some great help and learned a ton from Phil.

And in the end I had 3 successful shows in 2020

JR

[PhilMassey]

Tracks are now Grid View Groups 

All my tracks imported with my S4 sequences.

[TexasLights]

not "running your show and viewing", but if you have LOR loaded before you starter the sequencer, you can play your show on your computer and it will play on the lights outside.    I did that a lot the first year i started to get a better feel for what did what.  

[Orville]

15 hours ago, dibblejr said:

When you get there and need help all yoi have to do is ask. I do jot know all S5 has to offer but I did have some great help and learned a ton from Phil.

And in the end I had 3 successful shows in 2020

JR

Thanks JR.  May end up doing that at some point.

15 hours ago, PhilMassey said:

Tracks are now Grid View Groups 

All my tracks imported with my S4 sequences.

Thanks for letting me know.  I've tried importing a few older sequences since I didn't wast to mess up anything, just in case, I was importing those that weren't set up in tracks to try and see how S5 worked.  But it imported those okay, but it wouldn't let the controllers light the lights.   So I'm guessing I need to add props into S5 after the sequence import to make this work?  Or is that something that has to be done with a new blank sequence first?   I've tried adding props, but I still must have done something out of step or missed something that I didn't do, as I've never gotten S5 to light any lights connected.

13 hours ago, TexasLights said:

not "running your show and viewing", but if you have LOR loaded before you starter the sequencer, you can play your show on your computer and it will play on the lights outside.    I did that a lot the first year i started to get a better feel for what did what.  

Thanks for the reminder TexasLights, but one thing that you didn't mention is make sure you turn on "Loop at end" under the Play tab, otherwise the sequence will only play once and you may miss the first part of it before you can get outside to watch the sequence.   This way the sequence will continue playing until you go back in and stop it manually.  

I used this as well, but I found just writing and watching the entire show that I could start it after I got outside by adding about a 4-5 minute start time and just watch the entire show for errors to correct. 

Both work, but I found doing the Loop at end was more tedious than setting up the show and watching it, having the same sequence playing over and over back to back would drive not only my neighbors, but me insane! LOL  

It's bad enough WE HAVE TO DO THIS when creating and modifying our sequences.    I don't need to torture my neighbors with that when checking out sequences for errors. LOL

But that really all depends on your neighbors, how close your house is to them, and if they might have issues with the same sequence/song playing over and over and OVER again while you're looking for where to make changes or issues with the sequence.

 

[ItsMeBobO]

On 1/9/2021 at 2:22 PM, DougM said:

Hey guys. Got a new controller for Christmas. My first time owning one. I have played around and got a sequence done and working. What I want to know, is there a way while my show

plays outside to preview it inside

Hi DougM    There was a recent prior thread on this topic which I am linking here.   Matt replied with some good news.