Suggestions for XYPad: VC

[cingulingu]

First thing, Great work. XYPad: Introduced presets, including the usage of existing EFX and Scenes : in v4.10.0
My suggestions are to include "collections" of EFX and scenes.
And to add some kind of button/sub menu to enable/disable movement of fixtures or groups in run mode.
That will greatly reduce the space needed for multiple xypads in VC.
Well, I think that will be a great things to have.

[mcallegari]

My suggestions are to include "collections" of EFX and scenes.

And what would be the role of the XYPad once a Collection is started ? Please elaborate.

And to add some kind of button/sub menu to enable/disable movement of fixtures or groups in run mode.

Uhm..not sure I get this. Can you please elaborate as well ?

[cingulingu]

1) I usually use a collection to run the same or multiple effect or scene across different fixtures (MVH,scanners,washes). In sort, I can enable them at once and then disable or change the effect/scsne later on.
With that approach I don't need to made a separate efx/scene for the same thing, just run them (fixt1,2,3,4 (efx1), fixt5,6,7 (efx2) -->collection start all (efx1,efx2)).
2) I'm more a live-concert guy. So i don't use many presets and scenes, but I need a fast access to what I have on hand. The problem that I found is, that I run out of space in VC, just because I need to have 3
xypads for practically the same thing.

Example: on the ramp there a 6 moving heads.
move 1st group, 4 (2+2 left-right). 1x xypad
move 2nd group, 2 (1+1 Center) . 1x xypad
move them all,6 (4+2 all) . 1x xypad

So, if on the xypad would exist some kind of a, selection menu/button, then the fixtures that we want to change the position, can be selected on the fly. And those deselected remain in the previews position.
In this situation, only one(1) xypad is needed, for ramp group. And if you multiply that with front,left,right,...grups. It save a lot of visible space in VC

Update:
On the second thought, may be it will better to add buttons like: all, grup1 grup2,... Groups can be defined in fixture channel groups

[mcallegari]

1) if you're running out of space, use multi page frames. Or collapse the less-used frames
A XY Pad can't do much over a EFX over a Scene. It's too messy and I doubt the result would be nice

2) I got your idea and I think it makes sense. I don't know if I'm able to include something like that in 4.10.0, but I'll surely keep it in mind

[cingulingu]

1) I see... well it was just a suggestion to add a "Add collection" button like "Add poz", "Add EFX", ... or enable a collection selection under "Add EFX" button in the presets menu of the xypad.
For the space problem. I already used all of your suggestions " use multi page frames. Or collapse the less-used frames " but is still crowded and I have to scroll to, multiple page frames.
P.S. It is a 17" Laptop so not that small.
2) That was just a suggestion. I know that this is not easy stuff to do. I think, is more a 5.x.x thing.

[mcallegari]

1) WTF !? How much stuff do you have in your VC ?

2) Your suggestion can go into QLC+ 4, but QLC+ 5 is totally another story and most likely the XY Pad will be completely reviewed/rewritten.
For example I want it to work in degrees and not in hard-to-understand XY coordinates on a 2D plane.
Anyway, I'm not even close to that, so we'll see...

[cingulingu]

1) WTF !? How much stuff do you have in your VC ?

The real question is what I need on hand.
As I sad, I'm more a live-concert guy. I tried many softs. and mixers around (free and non-free). And all of them offers pretty much the same things.
But in reality, I stumbled on the same problem. All of them a made for static pre-programmed usage,
with static fixtures setups and you need to know in detail, what you will be doing, well before the actual concert.
They a pretty poor for hands on usage. Unlike Qlc+ which cams on his own in that field.
That is not only a my opinion. I worked with the biggest fishes around here (Slovenia - North Italy).
They came to the same conclusions. And was very impressed with what can be achieved with Qlc+ in unknown situations

Off topic suggestions:
1) move (hidden) "$Homedir/.qlcplus" dir to (unhidden) "$Homedir/Qlcplus" dir in linux, and add a default subdir for workspaces.
It has make sense until it contains ".conf" files. But that was deprecated a long time ago. So, it will be more intuitive for new comers on linux distros.
2) make a "Function Wizard" take the gobo images from "fixture.qxf" file (if defined) and use them, when the gobo macros are added to VC ( gobo icons in the buttons )

I made By my self (not copied from anywhere!) some common gobo icons for standard fixtures functions like: start,stop,rotate,flash,...
if you are interested, take a look. They are in may "OBS home project" under the "qt5 project" (download the qlcplus-qt5-xxxx.tar.gz) in "resources/gobos/Common/".

[lorenzoandreani]

The real question is what I need on hand.
As I sad, I'm more a live-concert guy. I tried many softs. and mixers around (free and non-free). And all of them offers pretty much the same things.
But in reality, I stumbled on the same problem. All of them a made for static pre-programmed usage,
with static fixtures setups and you need to know in detail, what you will be doing, well before the actual concert.

Yes, I fully agree!!!!!

[mcallegari]

The real question is what I need on hand.
As I sad, I'm more a live-concert guy. I tried many softs. and mixers around (free and non-free). And all of them offers pretty much the same things.
But in reality, I stumbled on the same problem. All of them a made for static pre-programmed usage,
with static fixtures setups and you need to know in detail, what you will be doing, well before the actual concert.
They a pretty poor for hands on usage. Unlike Qlc+ which cams on his own in that field.
That is not only a my opinion. I worked with the biggest fishes around here (Slovenia - North Italy).
They came to the same conclusions. And was very impressed with what can be achieved with Qlc+ in unknown situations

Well, to be honest I implemented the fixture remap functionality for this reason.
But I admit it's for when you go to a place and don't know before what you will find. Also fixture remap doesn't fix the positions of your heads.
BUT
if the project has been designed in a smart way, with functions as much generic as possible, it shouldn't be difficult to adapt it on new stages.
Anyway, as I said before, I will implement the "fixture group" preset. Now it's too late to include it in 4.10.0, but keep an eye on GIT right after the release.

Off topic suggestions:

1) move (hidden) "$Homedir/.qlcplus" dir to (unhidden) "$Homedir/Qlcplus" dir in linux, and add a default subdir for workspaces.
It has make sense until it contains ".conf" files. But that was deprecated a long time ago. So, it will be more intuitive for new comers on linux distros.

[EDIT] Misreaded what you have written. Yeah, I agree but it will be a pain to migrate the old installations. I'll think of something.

2) make a "Function Wizard" take the gobo images from "fixture.qxf" file (if defined) and use them, when the gobo macros are added to VC ( gobo icons in the buttons )

Do you mean to put the gobo image on a VC button background ? If so, makes sense.
But please, if we need to continue this discussion, let's create a new thread. Apparently you teach other users how to use the forum and then drop these off topic bombs in a XY pad discussion

I made By my self (not copied from anywhere!) some common gobo icons for standard fixtures functions like: start,stop,rotate,flash,...
if you are interested, take a look. They are in may "OBS home project" under the "qt5 project" (download the qlcplus-qt5-xxxx.tar.gz) in "resources/gobos/Common/".

OK I will when I have time.
Gobos are my thorn in the flesh There would be many that should be added (think of lasers for example) but I'm concerned they are not worth it, for 3 reasons:
- every gobo added to QLC+ increases 1:1 the binary size of the releases
- not everybody needs them or use fixtures with gobos
- when introducing generic usage gobos like the one you mentioned, someone should review the whole fixture library to see if some fixtures can use them. And who has time to do it ?

[cingulingu]

Now it's too late to include it in 4.10.0, but keep an eye on GIT right after the release.

I know is to late. Don't worry, applies to all suggestions. ( urgency = none ).

Do you mean to put the gobo image on a VC button background ? If so, makes sense.

Exactly.

- not everybody needs them or use fixtures with gobos
- when introducing generic usage gobos like the one you mentioned, someone should review the whole fixture library to see if some fixtures can use them. And who has time to do it ?

Actually, they are not exactly gobos.... Preview
Delegate the task. Ask for help on the blog. They won't be done immediately but who cares. Those that use a fixture will do it.