Asking for some best practice for create a fixture effect

[djkad]

Hello everybody,
First of all thanks to Massimo for this wonderful software.
Although i'm using QLC+ from 2 years, i'm having some problems regarding "functions" and maybe it's because i've misunderstood some concepts.
Using normal dmx controllers there is no difference between "lights" and "movements". Every "FIXTURE EFFECT" is made by a set of one or many "channel snapshots" (STEPS) and the speed (SPEED) is managed altering the frequency of a global stepper counter.
Question 1:
Is it right to consider "Scene" as one snapshot of status channels (one STEP of the FIXTURE EFFECT) ?
Question 2:
Is it right to consider "Chaser" like a set of one/more "Scene" (the FIXTURE EFFECT) ?
Question 3:
Is it right to consider "EFX" like an helper to create some "custom movements/light" from a set of customizable macros ?
Question 4:
Is it right to consider "RGB Matrix" like an helper to create some light FIXTURE EFFECT from a set of customizable macros ?
Question 5:
Is it right to consider "Collection" like an helper to group one/more stuff (Scene,Chaser,EFX,Rgb Matrix) for be launched simultaneously?
Quersion 6:
Is it possible (and how) to have a Global Stepper that affect all chasers/efx/rgb Matrix speed? What i want to achieve is a system that depends only by bpm?

Some little feature requests that "i wish":
1) The possibility to map a midi controller not for virtual console but for software functions (like the checkboxes and some sliders of the scene settings) so it would be easier to create scenes.
2) The possibility to copy different group of scenes in different folders (now you have to first clone scenes - altering all names)
3) Based by the 2) the possibility to alter the fixture groups of a set of scenes

Thanks a lot

[edogawa]

I'm having difficulties to follow the way you ask and use different terminology than QLC+ does in its manual and GUI.

First of all it's unclear to me what kind of effect you refer to as FIXTURE EFFECT, which could be changes in brightness, color, movement focus/beam size, gobo wheels, and more, depending on the fixture.

Second, what do you mean by "normal dmx controller"? I suppose you mean hardware DMX controllers / desks like Thomann is selling, but if you look at their listings you'll realize that there is a great variety of target uses, from simple manual boards via dedicated LED or scanner programmers to full grown lighting desks for big theaters or concert halls.

Anyway, I'll try to answer your questions as good as I can, even though I think the basic concept section in the manual covers most of this quite well:

Q1:
A scene basically is a state of channel values for some or all of the fixtures you have defined in your workspace. It will only alter the channels it includes.
It's a very flexible way to define a look on a stage, it can include hardware channels with dynamic features like color changes, rotating gobos or strobe effects, but basically it is a static state of channel values.

Q2:
A chaser in traditional lighting terminology means a running light that can be looped, to generate a dynamic effect like pulsing/blinking, switching or fading color changes, or even random effects like campfire flicker. It's basically a list of channel states (steps) usually intensities, but can also target movement etc.

QLC+ implements a more powerful concept of Chaser:
it allows to use most function types as chaser steps, set the hold times for each or all steps to infinite, so it can be used as a cue list to manually go through the step list via Crossfader, "Previous" and"Next" arrow buttons in the VC cuelist widget, which is a common need in theater playback.
I recently (ab)used it to play back video loops, audio files and MIDI note on/off commands to trigger light cues that were programmed in the hardware light board next to it,

Also note that a Sequence in QLC is a similar, but a bit simpler function type, a list of steps, but for a fixed group of fixtures only.

Q3: yes, you could express it that way. It's mainly intended for movement effects, but since a while also can act on dimmer or RGB channels. So in RGB mode, you can switch the preview area to display a color field and have the moving ball travel through that.

Q4: RGB Matrix acts on Fixture groups (identical lights in a certain geometrical layout like lines, columns or grid), to display effects generated from a list of scripts, with parameters you can modify. Useful to automatically generate color changes, running light effects etc., but can even display text or images on pixel walls. From the RGB Matrix editor you can generate Sequences containing these effects, and then continue in Sequence editor to refine or modify the individual steps.

Q5: yes, a collection is just a helper function to group and start several functions at once.

Q6: not sure, as I don't do this kind of synced and beat matched light shows. You can make several widgets in the VC all react to the same remote control element, speed dial or even key press, so it may well be possible.

As for your feature wishes, I think 1. is difficult if not impossible to implement, 2. would be convenient and a time saver, and for 3. I don't quite understand what you mean. I find it easy to add fixtures to scenes and copy/paste channel values from one fixture to another or all similar ones, via function editor "helper" icons.

I just doubt that this kind of new features development effort will happen for V4 unless it's easy and also makes sense for V5.

[GGGss]

To your wish list - in V5 2 new features will be introduced: palettes (a holder for a 'look' to be reused throughout QLC+. If you change the palette, you will change it everywhere.) A better grouping feature; is defining a group of fixtures and this group can be reused. When you change the contents of the group, it changes everywhere.
But you will have to be patient- development is done solely by Massimo and this will take quite some time.