Motion Effects - Rough Fades

[scodavis]

Hello,

I am now using S5, and finished creating my Preview for my 2023 show (I'm doing 2022 with S4 as I had already started).  In my office (for testing of effects) I have a Pixie 2 device with 100 cosmic color bulbs.  It is hooked up to my computer with a high-speed adapter.

When I use RGB channel programming and have Enhanced LOR turned off, fades between colors or on/off are very smooth.

When I use Motion Effects programming and have Enhanced LOR turned on (required), fades are very stuttered.  The best way I can describe is without ELOR, a fade from 0 to 100 happens in 100 steps and it is smooth.  With ELOR, a fade from 0 to 100 happens in something like 7 steps so therefore it is rough because you can see each step.

The same thing happens with fades on my Pixie 16.

Is this something that just happens with ELOR?  Is there any way to fix this?

-Scott

[Box on Rails]

Great question Scott. I have been using the Enhanced settings for so long I guess I got used to it and just figured That's what pixels do. Thinking back 10 years ago when I got my first CCR the fades were smooth on that old standard network.  I have the same thing that happens with all my networks in my shows ever since I went to all enhanced, I noticed that same stutter when fading in and out. It's never been very smooth from the beginning. I am very interested in what this group has found for the solution. In the meantime, I am going to experiment today with a CCPII and a Pixie 16 and see what happens. I'll report back if I find the fix. 

Kenny

[Box on Rails]

I just finished testing and no solution was found. I used a Pixie 16D and a CCP II. I tried pixel and linear curve changes. I tried to find any Hardware settings I could change. there were none. I also used a LOR 50 strings and a 100 string Amazon bought string. No difference. What I did observe is that if the fade in quick there is a lot of stutter the longer the fade less stutter. and there is more stutter in the fade percentage between o and 50% with all pixel and linear curve settings. There also seemed to be nothing between 0 and around 8%. I used the pixel console in the hardware editor to do tests and I found that at zero no lights and they did not come on until the slider hit roughly 8%. I had no success in finding a solution. 

[scodavis]

@Box on Rails I'm glad it's not just me.  Thank you for taking the time to do additional testing!  I have sent in the issue (with this thread) to LOR to see if there is any response.  I also ran tests both in Sequencer and saving the sequence and running it in Show Mode and the result was the same.

[MattBrown]

In Prop Definition, setting the dimming curve to "Pixel Curve" will make a big difference. However, you will NOT see this difference when using the Pixel Console in the Hardware Utility. The Pixel Console never uses a dimming curve. The best you can do is to create a test sequence with a Color Wash motion effect where the intensity varies from 0  to 100%. Pixels will turn on at 1% with the Pixel Curve.

That said, Enhanced LOR networks will never achieve quite the level of smooth dimming you get with non-Enhanced, especially for fast transitions. That is the difference between the ramp being generated and sent out from the computer (enhanced) and the ramp being generated on the controller (non-enhanced).

Matt Brown

[scodavis]

It is unfortunate that, in this way, Enhanced Mode is actually Inferior Mode.  I do appreciate you taking the time to reply to me.

Can you tell me more about what Pixel Curve actually does (behind the scenes, with numbers)?

-Scott

[Box on Rails]

On 4/22/2022 at 12:44 PM, MattBrown said:

In Prop Definition, setting the dimming curve to "Pixel Curve" will make a big difference. However, you will NOT see this difference when using the Pixel Console in the Hardware Utility. The Pixel Console never uses a dimming curve. The best you can do is to create a test sequence with a Color Wash motion effect where the intensity varies from 0  to 100%. Pixels will turn on at 1% with the Pixel Curve.

That said, Enhanced LOR networks will never achieve quite the level of smooth dimming you get with non-Enhanced, especially for fast transitions. That is the difference between the ramp being generated and sent out from the computer (enhanced) and the ramp being generated on the controller (non-enhanced).

Matt Brown

Thanks Matt. I had a feeling that was the case and I have never had a spectator complain about this issue in my show. Lol.