Scene Fade Suddenly Not Working

Hi Matchless.

Check out "Page Settings" then go to channels.
Every channel has an option to check or uncheck a fade option.
It sounds like something happened and Fade function is no longer active.

Let me know,

John,
My Page Settings were correct...Fade option was checked on every scene. I eventually determined that the problem had to do with my fixture patches, and now I have a new (bigger problem):

I am totally baffled by how patches work in CompuLive. It seems that every time I open a different show, then try to open the 3D viewer for that show, it says the patch has changed, then it asks me if I want to update automatically. If I say yes, it totally jacks up the positioning of my fixtures. If I say no, sometimes everything is fine, but sometimes it just totally deletes some of my fixtures (not all).

I've been storing all of my stages under the main program folder in a sub folder called "stages" and all of my shows in a sub folder under the main program folder called "shows". I've noticed that when I try to open the 3D viewer for the first time after opening CompuLive, it wants to look in "/EasyView_data". Why is this? Why can't it remember where I always open my stages from (/CompuLive/Stages)?

This is also another big problem: Lately, when I've been saving stages, the file sizes are getting incredibly larger...like 8 and 9 MB each. The storage space is not a concern, but I find it taking over 10 minutes to open a stage, which is absurd. I'm running a 1.8Ghz Core 2 with a 256 MB video card.

CompuLive has been great up until this week...I'm really starting to get frustrated by these quirks!

Can you please help explain what is going on with my stages?

Thanks,
Brian

Hi Matchless.. I see a few things going on here.

1. check your page settings again. you say that fade option is checked on every scene. However this option is not found in Page settings.
In Page settings you will find channels. Every channel has a Fade option.
This fade option needs to be checked.
What type of fixtures are you using?

2. Patches in Compu Live 3D window are different than Patches on Compu Live program window.
If you have more than one page, then you will have conflicting issues.
I have never had fixtures reposition simply by saying yes. your supposed to say yes so that the channels of the Compu Live match the fixtures in 3D window. positions changing may have to do with your 3D problem.

3. All of you work for 3D easy view needs to be saved in the folders it asks. The software is written to look in those folders and not subfolders that you create.
When you work on 3D easy view, let everything save to its appropriate folders. When you save your 3D work, you can save this in a completely different folder. but while your working it. keep everything in the easyview data folders.

John,
1. Ok, I checked the Page Settings like you said and all of the "channels" do have the FADE function enabled. They're grayed out, but they ARE checked. I'm using DLED36's (8), AMDJ P64LEDPros (8), and DS250's (4).

2. You say, "If you have more than one page, then you will have conflicting issues". I do have more than one page...one page for each type of fixture. Is this a problem? If so, how can I possibly add fixtures without adding pages?

3. I'm fine with saving it in the default folder (EasyView_data). Where should I be storing the "Show" files?

4. Also, how do you explain the file size (8 to 9MB) of the stages increasing dramatically? It's to the point now, where it takes over 10 minutes just to open one fairly simple stage.

ill leave john to answer number one, but number 2 and 3 and 4 are mine.
2) he means more than one page for the same set of fixtures. like if you have 6 ds 250's had you set up a fixture page for each head that you have that will cause problems. so he meant multiple pages of the same fixture.
3) i have always stored SES and show files in the main sl2006 folder. its just easier to find.
4) send me one of your stage files and ill see whats up. james K at elation lighting DOT COM
also how much RAM does your computer have and how much dedicated video memory? those can be culprits for slow 3D load up.
Sincerely,

Jingles,
Thanks for the rapid response.

2. Ok, then no, I only have one page per fixture.

3. Ok, will do. You mentioned "SES". I believe my stages save as ".evs". Should I be saving them as a different format? Could that be the problem?

4. Will do. The size though is just under 10MB. Will your email accept that large of a file?

Computer Info:
64 x 2 Dual Core
2.4 GHz w/ 2 GB RAM

Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
256MB DDR2 RAM
128 Bit

1. if the check box is grayed out its because you need to see individual channels. you will see a + symbol near fixture name.
click it and it expands all channels. The important channels for moving heads that need the FADE option checked are pan tilt dimming focus Iris and zoom.
LED's need Red Green and Blue and dimming checked.

2. when I say more than one page, I refer to having multiple DESIGN SPOT 250 pages or DLED 36 pages with the same DMX address.
Do you have any pages with overlapping DMX address?

3. Show files can be stored anywhere.

4. File size increasing?? wierd. I would need you to e-mail me those files so I can see what you have going on.
If you can save your files and send them to me it would be great.
You could infact have 9MB of information, since I don't know what you have going on, I can't really say.

1. I drilled down to the individual channels. The appropriate channels that you mentioned still have "Enable FADE function" checked, but they are still grayed out.

2. No overlapping channels from page to page.

3. OK

4. I know! I sent them to Jingles and asked to forward to you...didn't get your email.

Thanks,
Brian

I'll forward of along to john soon as I get it. No .evs is fine. SES is a easyshow timeline file. Sorry for the confusion I just threw out a file type.

Matchless,
All is working good.
I loaded your programming file.. it looks good.
all working great and looking as it should. Nice work.
I loaded Delux EVS and all the fixture positions loaded just as you set them on stage. Also.. looking very good.

1. I see your missing fades from scenes 1-25.
scenes 31-54 have fades and they all work good
then scenes 61-125 no fades again.
Are you asking why are some scenes missing fades?
Right click on the word "Master" right on the control window and you can select the scene-fade toolbar. activate this tool bar, click on the scene you need a fade and active the fade toolbar for that scene button by clicking on the check box.
You can tell which scenes are missing the fades by looking for the little check mark in the scene button.

2. 3D being 9MB. You loaded a lot of high resolution 3D people. Some 3D objects are bigger than others. The ones with colors take up much more memory than those that are grayed out.

Over all... your files look really good, and the programming is nice.

Best regards,

1. Fades are missing from scenes 1-25 on purpose. Scenes 31-54 are exact copies of 1-25, but with fades. I'm pretty sure I got the fades back...no problems there.

2. I see what your saying...those people are memory hogs! What's weird is after you pointed that out, I deleted all 6 people AND all unnecessary objects. Now the file is larger: 11MB!! I cannot figure this out. Try it on your end...try deleting the people and save the file as a different name. What is your file size after doing this?

Thanks for the compliment on the programming.

Brian

Matchless. i tried loading the 9Mb file unfortunately it did not load on my machine after waiting 10 minutes! haha. so i checked out the smaller stage that looks really nice. i would recommend getting rid of the floor texture and simply pick a wood type color. and also if you want to choose no walls and no ceiling. this may help or may not i am not sure. you definitely have a weird issue going on with the increase in file size. if it persist i can send your file to our developers and they can check it out and report back to me. i agree with john VERY nice programming. you definitely have a good handle on this software another trick i want to point out to you is have all or most of your INIT scenes assign a hot key of the backspace or space bar for quick blackouts. just am idea. But again nice work.
Sincerely,

Jingles,
Well, after about 2 hours last night I decided just to re-create my stage. The same basic stage saves as 1.7 MB now. Not as small as it used to be, but still much better.

I am still curious as to what was causing the size increase. Hopefully it stays manageable, but I will definitely let you know if it gets out of hand again.

Thanks to you and John for your help! Thanks for the tip on the INIT...will do.

Brian

Jingles/John,
After re-creating my stage, I'm still having the same problem. I'll open one show, then open another, and every time I save each one (even if NOTHING appears to change), it adds another 1 or 2 MB to the file size. I really would like to know what is going on here.

Thanks,
Brian

I was checking out both your .evs files.. I see they are almost exactly the same.
Can you send me your file while its in the 1 - 2 mb range..
We will do some testing here and see what happens.

Just sent the file to Jingles' email. I mentioned this in the email, but I'm noticing now that even when I don't SAVE the stage, and just close out the stage, it increases the file size. For example, I just closed my Deluxe stage, which WAS 2.5 MB. Then I re-opened the 3D viewer, and the file is now 10.1MB. This was never a problem before the Mar 21 2008 update. I'm beginning to wonder if I should go back to the previous version.

Is anyone else having this same problem?