Nutcracker 3.0.8 released. Fireworks! and LSP export

smeighan

smeighan

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
1,109
Location
4217 Greenfinch Dr CO 80126
David Pitts coded up the Fireworks effect. I added slider bars so the effect can be modified.


fireworks.gif



During this animated gif,, i moved some of the scroll bars to change the fade of particles, the velocity of particles and finally how often there was an explosion.


I am leading a boy scout project for Memorial Day. Fireworks has come along just in time.


Also in this release, you can now export a sequence into a LSP UserPatterns.xml file. This will allow pasting a Nutcracker effect into an existing LSP sequence.




go to http://nutcracker123.com/nutcracker/releases/ to pick up the latest version


Thanks again Dave!


sean
 
Matt said:
been giving it a whirl, seems very good Sean, well done.

does NC always crack out a fairly large file for LSP ?
Click to expand...


yes, it is always big.


This is because for each word of actual data the byte gets wrapped with up to 100 bytes of xml. The good news in LSP is it stores rgb data as a 24bit word. The bad news there is a lot of extra xml stuff around that one word.



can you find the RGB value in the below string? bst is the starting RGB value at the beginning of the 50ms frame, ben = the ending rgb value. If i had time marks of say one second this starting and ending values could have indicated a color shift. with 50ms, i always create the beginning and the end the same color.


So how do the various sequencer formats compare for storing a single RGB word?
xLights *.xseq is a binary format, it uses 3 bytes to store the 24 bit word
HLS *.hlsnc uses a space delimited file so 9 bytes to create ascii.
Vixen base64 storage uses 4 bytes to store the 3 bytes of data. 33% overhead
LOR uses xml and wraps an additonal 30-50 bytes of stuff around each byte of data
LSP uses xml and wraps 70-100 bytes of xml around each byte.


Example of one RGB value from UserPatterns.xml
Here is one word of data from the UserPatterns.xml file. The hex value "FF0000", RED, is 16711680 in decimal.
The other thing to note is one second is equal to 88200 units. To place this one pixel on the timeline you use the "pos=" variable.


Code: 
<TimeInterval eff="3" dat="&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;utf-16&quot;?&gt;&lt;ec&gt;  &lt;in&gt;100&lt;/in&gt;  &lt;out&gt;100&lt;/out&gt;&lt;/ec&gt;" gui="{DA98BD5D-9C00-40fe-A11C-AD3242573443}" in="100" out="100" pos="864360" sin="-1" att="0" bst="16711680" ben="16711680" />


If you changed the html codes back into their original ascii, the above line becomes.Note "" is CRLF

Code: 
<TimeInterval eff="3" dat="<?xml version="1.0"; encoding="utf-16"?>
<ec>
  <in>100</in>
  <ou>100</out>
</ec>" gui="{DA98BD5D-9C00-40fe-A11C-AD3242573443}" in="100" out="100" pos="864360" sin="-1" att="0" bst="16711680" ben="16711680" />


I asked David last year if maybe LSP could have an internal binary file or maybe read xseq files from xLights. He said there were no plans to change the file formats. He was working on 2.5 at the time, so this would have been low priority. It becomes more and more an issue as channel counts go up.

I suggested the HLS file format (space delimited 24bit words). This would work with Nutcracker and also allow users to write their own utilities to generate new animations. Pretty easy to write a space delimited file, one line per pixel node.

maybe it will come up again with the new management.

thanks
sean
 
N00b question here,
I've been playing with 3.08 this morning and can create a test tree effect and saved the file in xlights format. When I go to export to LSP I get a {filename}.user file and that's it. I can't seem to figure out a way to import/open it in LSP. Anyone got a quick guide/link?
 
what you need to do is go to your LSP folder

something like c:\program files(86)\minleon\LSP

Inside there you will find a file called Userpatterns.xml

make a copy of that file, rename or something

Then the exported file. the *.user.

Rename to userpatterns.xml and place in the directory you just made the backup of the file.

Open up LSP, and your pattern will be there now

Just for help also, depending on the size of your pattern, it could take some time to actually import to the grid, fear not however, it does happen.
 
For some reason 3.06 is the only one that will open fully and the last couple of revison's will onlu open part of the way. I get the double arrow and try to drag it open but nothing happens. This is on my laptop..
3.08%20Nutcracker.JPG
Please see picture and let me know.
 
Without trying it here, what happens if you restore the window first (so it's not maximized) and then try to widen it?
 
Would not let me do it either way. Uninstalled and reinstalled still nothing. Changed display settings and Bingo !! Working perfect... Great Job Sean and David !!!

Jeff
 
yes make sure you are using the maxium resolution. If you have something 1024x768 or even 1200, i dont think it all fits.


my desktop is 1920x1080 so i dont see these issues.


thanks
 
Sean,


I have just noticed that the effects, Twinkle, Tree, Spirograph and Fireworks do not appear on the drop-down list for Effect 2.


prof
 
prof said:
Sean,


I have just noticed that the effects, Twinkle, Tree, Spirograph and Fireworks do not appear on the drop-down list for Effect 2.


prof
Click to expand...


Prof; that is correct. they havbe never been there. i need to go and add any new effects to both sides. i was taking the shortest path by only adding them on the left side. It is on my todo list to put them on both sides.


thanks for reminding me. I think ill open a bug so i can track it


sean
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top