Rework log: preview information (AKA Monitor information)
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2018 12:03 pm
This is another rework that's been necessary mainly for QLC+ 5, so no visible change on QLC+ 4.
The 3D preview introduced the actual representation of physical objects, therefore fixtures like generic dimmers have to be represented as separated items.
Along the way, many other aspects and missing features have been addressed, so the major changes are:
- physical representation of fixtures
- linked fixtures
- menu flags
- custom items
If you want to know all the techy details, here's a document that explains the decisions taken.
Physical representation of fixtures
When adding a dimmer with multiple channels, you will no longer see this
unless the fixture is actually a single physical item with multiple heads (e.g. LED bars)
You will see separate items with indipendent positions and rotations, like this
And of course, in the 3D preview you will see separate 3D objects.
With this change, I've taken the chance also to review the Fixture Manager logic, and focused it on Groups/Fixtures/Heads instead of Groups/Fixtures/Channels like it was in Alpha 2.
This allows to quickly select an entire fixture or a single head and act on the capabilities of the selected item.
Linked fixtures
One other feature that's been requested multiple times, is the possibility to "link" fixtures together, as it happens in the real world by assigning the same DMX address to different products (of the same type !) on the same DMX line.
A linked fixture will therefore appear as a new physical item that could be positioned and rotated indipendently.
However, a linked fixture will not appear when DMX channels are diplayed (e.g. DMX view or channels selections). You will always act on the "master" fixture and therefore act on the linked fixture too.
Here's a screenshot of the huge advanced fixture properties where you can create linked fixtures:
Menu flags
As you might have noticed, QLC+ 5 tends to always display every fixture you added. This is because the QLC+ 5 editing approach is visually based.
However, you might have the need to "park" some fixtures that you will not use during a gig, or that simply you don't want to see in the previews.
So, one above all, a "show/hide" flag was needed to address this need. In the screenshot above you can see a green eye icon.
Once hidden, the fixture will disappear from previews as well as from the fixture manager.
With this change, it came easy to add more "true/false" flags, so I've also added a "Pan invert" and "Tilt invert" flag to reflect settings done in the fixture menu.
Note: these flags are not yet wired to the previews, but the information is stored in the project XML file.
Custom items
Again, the 3D preview had some kind of limitation as it was up to alpha 2. Fixtures can be added, stage presets can be easily set...but it's still not enough.
I wanted to have a way to import arbitrary 3D objects into the 3D scene, and more importantly, have a way to store the information in the project XML file.
So now we can literally have flowers and unicorns in QLC+ 5 !
The 3D preview introduced the actual representation of physical objects, therefore fixtures like generic dimmers have to be represented as separated items.
Along the way, many other aspects and missing features have been addressed, so the major changes are:
- physical representation of fixtures
- linked fixtures
- menu flags
- custom items
If you want to know all the techy details, here's a document that explains the decisions taken.
Physical representation of fixtures
When adding a dimmer with multiple channels, you will no longer see this
- dimmer_old.png (3.7 KiB) Viewed 14013 times
You will see separate items with indipendent positions and rotations, like this
With this change, I've taken the chance also to review the Fixture Manager logic, and focused it on Groups/Fixtures/Heads instead of Groups/Fixtures/Channels like it was in Alpha 2.
This allows to quickly select an entire fixture or a single head and act on the capabilities of the selected item.
Linked fixtures
One other feature that's been requested multiple times, is the possibility to "link" fixtures together, as it happens in the real world by assigning the same DMX address to different products (of the same type !) on the same DMX line.
A linked fixture will therefore appear as a new physical item that could be positioned and rotated indipendently.
However, a linked fixture will not appear when DMX channels are diplayed (e.g. DMX view or channels selections). You will always act on the "master" fixture and therefore act on the linked fixture too.
Here's a screenshot of the huge advanced fixture properties where you can create linked fixtures:
As you might have noticed, QLC+ 5 tends to always display every fixture you added. This is because the QLC+ 5 editing approach is visually based.
However, you might have the need to "park" some fixtures that you will not use during a gig, or that simply you don't want to see in the previews.
So, one above all, a "show/hide" flag was needed to address this need. In the screenshot above you can see a green eye icon.
Once hidden, the fixture will disappear from previews as well as from the fixture manager.
With this change, it came easy to add more "true/false" flags, so I've also added a "Pan invert" and "Tilt invert" flag to reflect settings done in the fixture menu.
Note: these flags are not yet wired to the previews, but the information is stored in the project XML file.
Custom items
Again, the 3D preview had some kind of limitation as it was up to alpha 2. Fixtures can be added, stage presets can be easily set...but it's still not enough.
I wanted to have a way to import arbitrary 3D objects into the 3D scene, and more importantly, have a way to store the information in the project XML file.
So now we can literally have flowers and unicorns in QLC+ 5 !
.... 