Q Light Controller+

Hi,

Just starting with the QLC+ adventure...

I was wondering what the best practice is for creating a color matrix in the virtual console.
At this point I have created for each fixture a scene for each required color.
To control all of them (or a group) I think of making a collection of these individual scenes.
That means a LOT of scenes to be created. Is this the way to go or am I making a mistake?

Secondary question: dimmer channel should not be included in this for RGB fixtures? Is that correct? That channel is ideally controlled by another scene?

WIP:

Did you consider using the wizard? It creates all kind of functions for you. https://docs.qlcplus.org/v4/function-ma ... ion-wizard

Thanks for the quick reply!
Wizard? No I didn't even notice that one --> Just gave it a try on a new project to understand its capabilities. Fancy little tool.

My conclusion (with regards to my initial question):
- Color assignment for multiple fixtures at the same time is done via scenes, not a collection --> Although it feels like a collection would be more maintainable due to the fact that it reuses the base colors rather than recreating it (e.g., when a color for a fixture gets updated, it is immediately reflected in the fixture group collection).
- Dimmer channel should not be included in the color selection. This should become a new group.

Is this the way to go or am I making a mistake?

A QLC Workspace is like a Bob Ross painting: "it's your world, you can create whatever you want!"
It all depends on situation (disco show, lighting a band, theater, men cave, ......), budget and time you can spend and most of all personal preferences (you have to run the show, so you should feel comfortable with it).


If you have a look at the attached example, you can see how i did it.

Just some remarks:
- first of all you should decide which colors you want to use and store them as Custom Color in your Color Selector.
- in your example i see 3 "shades of Orange", but miss colors like SeaFoam (between Green and Cyan) and Brescian Blue (aka Lavender, between Cyan and Blue). As said: this is personal.
- i made the decision that i wanted to control "the four corners of my stage", so you will find 4 soloframes to select a color and each having a submaster to set the level.
Therefor i had to make 4 sets of scenes Left-Front, Right-Front, Left-Rear and Right-Rear.
- I started with creating scenes for all my Wash Fixtures (so all my 20 RGB Wash Fixtures where selected) in 12 colors plus Black and White (set the first fixture and the use the "Copy Values to Other Fixtures" Button).
Then i made 4 copies of those scenes, renamed them (Left-Front, ... Rear Right) and removed all the fixtures from those scenes that i did not need (so on the first tab of your scene delete 15 out of 20 fixtures) .
This works a lot faster then creating new scenes.
To avoid mistakes, you could use logical names for your fixtures (Wash- Left-Front-in, Wash-Left-Front-Out, etc, so you recognise what you are deleting) and when creating the inititial scenes,
add the fixtures in an order that makes sense (start with all the left- fronts, then the right-fronts etc, then you can delete them in blocks).
- make regular saves of your workfile and save them with different file names (workfile1, workfile2, .....). if you make a mistake you can always retrieve the previous version.
- only my Led Bars have a separate Master Level, which explains the frame on the right.

On the workspace you will also find a color bar on top, this is used to set the color for 4 groups at once.
If you only want to use one color, or need to come up with an initial setting fast, this is easier.
In the same way you will find 5 buttons (between the solo Frames) to set the levels at once.
Both "gadgets" use loopback (so you need to put the Input profile in your User Library to make it work).

You will notice that i did not create separate scenes for each fixture, for the following reasons:
- if you have more than "a few fixtures" your workspace will become far to large.
- if you are running a show, you don't allways have time to push all those buttons.
- i opted to use RGB Matrices and EFX's for creating effects (which is a lot easier than creating "Chasers with Scenes").
For an example: viewtopic.php?p=67586#p67586


I hope this will give you some new ideas.

Very interesting and nice looking example Michel!
I'm going to take some time in the next days to dive in-depth into your example because I already noticed a few things that require further study on my side (such as the 'loopback' functionality).

To give already some feedback:
- Color selection; indeed ... I may have been a bit to fast in selectAing a color wheel I found online (turns out it is a color wheel used by photographers ) --> Might still change that in future. Color selector 'preset' is a very good hint!
- Most likely I will for 'live-shows' also use a more 'grouped' approach like you do, but for programming new functions this individual approach may have at some point a benefit. Time will tell. At this time I have already done it anyway (which took me a LOT of time due to not knowing about the wizard) 16 colors for 10 fixture 'groups'.
- Great minds think alike? Took the same approach: first 'all fixtures' per color and than replicating it per group/fixture (by removing the non-applicable fixtures). Still a lot of work. So in the end, I kept the 'set color to all fixtures' via a scene (rather than a collection).
- Fixture names... Agree. Just don't know exactly what setup I will have, so for now quite generic (but for me understandable).
- As I have a programming background - just not lights - I know very well that versioning is a good idea. So plenty of these backup files . How big can you go btw? Is there a time where QLC+ will had enough configuration? e.g., my file size is now 200Kb ... Is there a point in time where I need to be careful for reaching a limit?

Thanks again!
Maarten

How big can you go btw?

My workfile is 5.400 kB, running smoothly in Windows10 on an i5-4570.
So no reason for you to worry yet.

Good to know! Thx!
Also went in more detail through your example, and after some further reading in the manual it all makes a lot more sense now. Especially the benefit of having the loopback function in there to control the 'All colors' buttons.
I think I'll rebuild my console based on your virtual console template if you don't mind. I see the benefits of how you did it now.
M.

Edit 01/01/2024 16:04: One thing I don't fully understand is why you have each time two steps for every color loopback sequencer. I would have thought you just need on scene with value high (256).

maartenvd84 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 01, 2024 1:42 pm
Edit 01/01/2024 16:04: One thing I don't fully understand is why you have each time two steps for every color loopback sequencer. I would have thought you just need on scene with value high (256).

Even without looking into Michel's project, I can only assume he needed a reset value. (BTW: 255 is the maximum 7-bit value because binary is zero-based...)
Keep in mind that QLC+ needs a rising edge to trigger things. So a zero to a non-zero value triggers, and non-zero to zero does nothing.

PS: Since you are from Ghent, we can mingle if you want... Roeselare speaking here

Have a look overhere: viewtopic.php?t=16270

While experimenting with this, i learned that using a sequence is more reliable.
If you use a scene, it works most of the times.
If you use a sequence, it works all of the times.

Keep in mind that QLC+ needs a rising edge to trigger things. So a zero to a non-zero value triggers, and non-zero to zero does nothing.

Hello Roeselare ! Now that's good info. Does the LTP/HTP influence this?

If you use a sequence, it works all of the times.

I hate getting frustrated, so I don't mind taking the 'works always approach' even if that takes a bit longer. Thanks for this! Clearly still a lot to learn for me.

maartenvd84 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 03, 2024 3:23 pm Does the LTP/HTP influence this?

If you change the priority behaviour, it will follow this logic yes... but I cannot see the use of multiple sources for a loopback channel... LTP/HTP only comes into play when multiple sources send information and the engine has to decide what to do with these possible conflicting values.

You told me you have a programming back ground, so you should be familiar with Boolean Algebra.
Q. What is the difference between (A AND B) and (A OR B), if i tell you on beforehand that A and B will always be the same.
A. None.

In a simular way, there will be no difference between LTP and HTP, as long as you ensure that there never will be more than one Function (e.g. scene) that triggers your DMX channel at the same moment.

If you have a closer look at:
- the attached Input Profile, you see that every loop back channel is meant to be used for one specific purpose only.
- the Sequences, you will notice that they are set up to "Run Once", perform the 2 steps in sequential order and both steps have a specific Hold Time (so always will stop after that).

If you adapt a same kind of discipline, you can prevent yourself from getting unexpected results.

With your initial post you asked for "Best Practices": here is another one.

Thanks Michel!
Just realized that the *.qxw files are also XML files and pretty readable too. Not that I'm planning to do some CTRL+F ... but good to know
Going back to a previous post by Fredje...

...and non-zero to zero does nothing.

Would it be smart in some cases to set (e.g. for the dimmer channel) value 1 (which results in truly nothing visually changing) to force the value being processed?

if you need a scenario where it is off - on - on - on ... yes you could use the 1-value trick.

Hello, I try to reproduce the virtual consol of your files for 6 par, but I got a problem with the third universe. It only works on my red channel but I didn't understand why...

Here's my files, if you have any advice or idea where can be the problem it will help me a lots !

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 10:06 pm
You will notice that i did not create separate scenes for each fixture, for the following reasons:
- if you have more than "a few fixtures" your workspace will become far to large.
- if you are running a show, you don't allways have time to push all those buttons.
- i opted to use RGB Matrices and EFX's for creating effects (which is a lot easier than creating "Chasers with Scenes").
For an example: viewtopic.php?p=67586#p67586


I hope this will give you some new ideas.

Go to the Functions Tab and have a look at your Sequences.
The (DMX Value of the) second step should be different from the first step (otherwise it will not work as a trigger).

Hello Michel thks for you answer and your advice , I have set up on my file as:
- white: 1
- Red : 2
- ...

I think my DMX value are already different because they are on different channel (as you can see on the screen) but I still not understand the problem of my configuration

In your sequence "Loopback 2. Rouge", there are 2 scenes. The first one sets the value of the channel to 000 the second one to 255.

In your sequences "Loopback 1. White", "Loopback 3. Orange" and "Loopback 4. Yellow", the values of the 2 scenes are the same, they are both 000.
They need to be different to have any effect.



By the way: If you use Yellow for Jaune, why not use Red for Rouge?

oh you just solve my problem amzing Thanks a lot's !!

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 9:52 am In your sequence "Loopback 2. Rouge", there are 2 scenes. The first one sets the value of the channel to 000 the second one to 255.

In your sequences "Loopback 1. White", "Loopback 3. Orange" and "Loopback 4. Yellow", the values of the 2 scenes are the same, they are both 000.
They need to be different to have any effect.

There is absolutely no logic In my work I use english and french so I have a bad habbit of using english words in my french sentence (especially when I write message)

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Wed Feb 21, 2024 9:52 am By the way: If you use Yellow for Jaune, why not use Red for Rouge?