dgrant Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 Yeah, same here with me. After going to S5/S6, loss of the visualizer for shows actually running, things do appear from time to time that you might not catch on the preview. I will say though that the preview display is pretty decent and shows all the same things as the visualizer did for S4, just lacking the ability to view while the show is running. I'm guessing that from a computer standpoint with LOR's programmers, it uses up too much CPU time and ram memory for older machines to still function. Sort of like they would like to give it to us but they don't want people with old machines to be left out or worse, telling people they'll have to upgrade their old show computers. Truly I don't know their reason(s) but I'm sure its important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 I had a display for 8 years. I can honestly say the idea of the Preview running while the show was running was nothing more (to me) than eye candy. Sure, if you have a reporter shooting B roll for a story, then you might fire up the Sequencer and have the Preview Window running so they can get some pretty footage. Aside from that - again in my personal opinion - it was pointless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted August 20, 2023 Share Posted August 20, 2023 The ability in S3 & S4 to display the running show in Visualizer was something I used somewhat regularly. From my computer desk in the very back of my house, I have no visibility of the show, but the show audio passes through a sound mixer next to the computer so it's easy to listen to the show. So I would regularly bring up Visualizer on my desktop and setup the Show Player to send Visualizer commands to the desktop. That way I could see and hear what the show was doing. This was before I had almost a dozen security cameras in the front yard that were watchable from my computer desk. Because I now have lots of cameras, I no longer miss the Visualizer display of the show. As a side note, the Visualizer commands were IP route-able, so one time I set up some IP routing so that I could watch the Visualizer on a computer at work via the Internet. Worked fine (no sound however). That was just a "prove it worked" item... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 7 hours ago, Don said: I had a display for 8 years. I can honestly say the idea of the Preview running while the show was running was nothing more (to me) than eye candy. Sure, if you have a reporter shooting B roll for a story, then you might fire up the Sequencer and have the Preview Window running so they can get some pretty footage. Aside from that - again in my personal opinion - it was pointless. HIGHLY disagree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 Clearly others disagree. Which is totally okay. Besides, as I said long, long ago. "It's only Christmas lights." :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremiah Ackermann Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 Like Don, I haven’t missed the visualizer and mostly see it as eye candy as well in regards to live playback during a show. Obviously you want to see the preview when sequencing. A visualizer can give some verification that data is being sent out, but that’s only if if the implementation is based on the packet data being sent on the wire vs a different implementation that could just be re-rendering the file. The benefit of using IP data is a visualizer could be done as a stand alone app and setup on a different computer as mentioned above. Though to get the serial data, you would need to split the signal or change it to be IP-based which limits some of the verification benefits. But even if it was based on data, it doesn’t give me any confidence the show is running correctly. Watching the display or having a web cam does that. So I think if it’s brought back, it would be important to understand what exactly is wanted and why those things are beneficial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 Another plus one for the Visualizer. I have lights set up in my den year round to give me a reference on brightness and color. It's also better than TV. I also find that the response from Sequencer is not always spot on, occasional lags and stutters. I used to like using the Vis to play the show files and my inside lights for verification before show season when I still had time to adjust things. Now I can only use the Sequencer to play one file at a time with its occasional oddities. I would also use the Vis while testing MIIP controlled shows for correct operation which can't be done from Sequencer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremiah Ackermann Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 8 minutes ago, PhilMassey said: I also find that the response from Sequencer is not always spot on, occasional lags and stutters. I used to like using the Vis to play the show files and my inside lights for verification before show season when I still had time to adjust things. This is why I wonder if a visualizer was made available if it would be what people expect. It’s very likely the sequencer’s preview would just be used in any kind of visualizer implementation because it already knows how to render props, etc. It sounds like people missing the visualizer are trying to use it as a confidence monitor, but it would be a weak confidence monitor. For testing MIIP, can the control panel be used? Is most of the verification just knowing which sequences are being played and less about what the sequences are doing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 43 minutes ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said: This is why I wonder if a visualizer was made available if it would be what people expect. It’s very likely the sequencer’s preview would just be used in any kind of visualizer implementation because it already knows how to render props, etc. Stand alone Preview is fine with me. It already exists and is configured. 42 minutes ago, Jeremiah Ackermann said: For testing MIIP, can the control panel be used? Is most of the verification just knowing which sequences are being played and less about what the sequences are doing? No and both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremiah Ackermann Posted August 21, 2023 Share Posted August 21, 2023 18 minutes ago, PhilMassey said: No and both I haven’t used MIIP, but from what I understand, it just triggers sequences to play. The S6 control panel lists all playing sequences, including background sequences. The player log would include it as well. So I would think when testing MIIP, knowing it triggered the correct sequences is the important part. What would a visualization provide on top of that? I am just curious since I only ever used the S4 visualizer while making my sequences and never really saw the need to use it during show playback. Sure it could visualize the lights, but I assume it’s already known how it looks when it was built and tested in the sequencer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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