I'm a software developer and a hobbyist in event technology. After trying some other PC based light solutions I use QLC+ now since about one year. Now at the moment I created a fork where I add features that I miss until now.
Of course I want to contribute these to the QLC+ if there is any interest in it.
Before I invest time in creating a pull request (at the moment the changes are "proof of concept" and need more tests, better integration into the GUI and documentation) I want to ask the following questions:
- Is there an other way to do what I want that I didn't found until now, so the feature would be unneeded?
- Is there an interest in integrating the feature to QLC?
- Is the way I implemented the feature OK or are there better ways/other concepts?
Description:
In QLC there exists a Fader-Type named "submaster", but the effect of the submaster depends on the placement of the submaster in the GUI, that can create very ugly GUIs. I missed a "submaster" for fixtures as found for example on Martin M-PC, where it is possible to dim a set of fixtures by a fader, independent of where the fixture got his intensity (Scene-Button, Scene-Fader, Chaser, Level-Fader, ....), so it is possible to limit the intensity of a fixture.
Example:
If the fixture gets the brightness of 80% by a Chaser started by a button and the Fixture-Submaster is set to 50%, the resulting brightness of the fixture is 40%.
GUI:
I created a Combobox in the Level-Tab to select if normal behavior or "Submaster"-behavior is wanted, because the selection of the channels the Fixture-Submaster should affect is the same as for the Level behaviour.
Implementation:
In QLC+ there already exists a function named "BlendMode" that does exactly what I need for the Fixture-Submaster (Universe::MaskBlend). This work fine for me in the current tests.
Diff on GitHub
(Please note that the commit is for "proof of concept" and there are errors with indentation (tab instead of whitespaces) and the integration in the GUI is not ready).
Feature 2: Modifier-Key
Description:
Using hardware buttons lead always to the same problem: There aren't enough keys
Sometimes I want to be able to flash a scene and also to toggle a scene. At the moment I need two hardware buttons for this. For this I created "Modifier key" that enables to snap-in a flash button:Without pressing the modifier key the Flash button behaves like a Flash button, but if the flash button is pressed while the Modifier Key also has been pressed it will behave like a toggle button and snaps in. The concept of modifier keys could be extended in the future with new possibilities.
Diff on GitHub
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