Scripting wait commands not accurate

[ralbrightii]

I am having some trouble with the wait command in the scripting. It would appear to be inaccurate and then will vary in length. I spent about 7 hours day before last scripting out a sequence with some challenging lighting commands that must hit at a certain point in a song. I got it done. The next day, I come back in, all of the scripting is identical, run the script, and the timings are now different (some slower, some faster.) I ran this script that night before at least a dozen times and every lighting cue hit at the exact right time, next day (only difference was that I had shut down the computer and turned it back on between rehearsals) timings are needing to be tweaked, and things are not hitting the same.

The script is:

Code: Select all

startfunction:17 // Counter StartStop;
wait:10ms;
startfunction:60 // Counter Reset;
startfunction:5 // Masquerade final edit2.mp3;

wait:8s;
startfunction:23 // Andre and Firmin;

wait:14s250ms;
startfunction:26 // Masquerade (Add Stage);


wait:1s750ms;
startfunction:22 // Masquerade (Full);
stopfunction:23 // Andre and Firmin;
stopfunction:26 // Masquerade (Add Stage);

wait:5s;
startfunction:63 // Masquerade - Party, Preset;

wait:1m19s500ms;
startfunction:50 // Masquerade Low Intensity;
startfunction:65 // Masquerade - Party, Active;
stopfunction:22 // Masquerade (Full);

wait:5s;
startfunction:22 // Masquerade (Full);
stopfunction:50 // Masquerade Low Intensity;
startfunction:74 // Masquerade - Movers Off;
wait:20ms;
startfunction:64 // Masquerade - Lines, Preset;
stopfunction:74 // Masquerade - Movers Off;

wait:500ms;
startfunction:66 // Masquerade - Lines, Active;

wait:6s;
startfunction:74 // Masquerade - Movers Off;
stopfunction:66 // Masquerade - Lines - Active;
wait:20ms;
stopfunction:74 // Masquerade - Movers Off;

wait:21s500ms;
startfunction:51 // Masquerade (Red Phantom);
startfunction:52 // Movers Reset;

wait:5s;
startfunction:58 // Slow 2 Black;

wait:2s;
stopfunction:52 // Mover's Reset
stopfunction:58 // Slow 2 Black;
stopfunction:51 // Masquerade (Red Phantom);
stopfunction:22 // Masquerade (Full);


startfunction:17 // Counter StartStop;
wait:10ms;
startfunction:60 // Counter Reset;

However according to my counter that is displaying on the VC, the first command, while it has a wait of 8 seconds, does not hit until about 14 seconds. The wait command "wait:1m19s500ms;" is actual closer to a 2 minute wait in the song.

I am running this with the latest version 4.11.0 on a MacMini 2014 with 16GB RAM. 2 universes of lighting with Enttec OpenDMX , 1 universe of loopbacks (where my counter is doing its thing). This is quite a bit frustrating, as I had pushed a lot of things to scripting because of the flexibility, but then had to push it all back out of scripting (except for basic items) due to the wait commands not holding the same time.

[mcallegari]

Writing a script like that doesn't make any sense IMHO.
Use a Show. It's there exactly for timed programming and it's more human understandable compared to a bunch of meaningless numbers

[ralbrightii]

Writing a script like that doesn't make any sense IMHO.
Use a Show. It's there exactly for timed programming and it's more human understandable compared to a bunch of meaningless numbers

DOH!!! That is what I get for trying to be "smart", I over thought the problem.

However it still doesn't explain the weird timings that I get from the scripting and how they inexplicably changed from one day to the next.

[ralbrightii]

So I just tried what you stated. Putting everything in a show. However the timer on the show is CONSIDERABLE slower than real-time. When the song that the show is based on is done (which is 3:46 in length) the timer for the show is over a minute slower (at 2:15 and still going.

Am I doing something wrong? Because time is not being kept properly in QLC+ either in scripting or shows.

[ralbrightii]

I just tried a new show with a 12 second clip of audio, (That is the only thing in the show) and pressed play. At real time 00:12, the audio cuts out (at the end of the clip), however the timer in the show shows that only 8.1 seconds has elapsed. Something isn't right here, and this is exactly what I was seeing in the scripting.

Again running 4.11.0 on MacMini late 2012 El Capitan with 16GB RAM.