Nutcracker: new release Matrix target

[smeighan]

There are lots of changes with this release on the target generation.


1) I changed the prompts from 16 to 7. I had an "aha" that allows this reduction. I will explain it in a future tutorial.
2) GIF's now autoscale. The more pixels in your RGB device, the larger the gif. This allows comparing smaller and larger tree counts.
3) Any number of folds now allowed in the target generation.
4) A string does not need to be divisible by the folds evenly. Take a 100 pixel string and fold 3 times, the extra 10 pixels wrap to the 4th strand.
5) The target generator only shows your strings and pixels (No more 'Nutcracker Pixels')
6) The target generator colors your strings. You can use this for building instructions
7) Matrix is now activated! So you have mega-tree, matrix and ray. Ray will create something , but the dimensions are wrong. Future release will fully fix Ray also.
8) If your target is missing a file, your target will be shown in RED. To fix any RED lines, just click on your target and re-submit the form in the TARGET screen.

9) if you are making Matrix displays always set your display window to 360 degrees.


So, how does the Matrix look as compared to the Mega-Tree?




This is going to show 16 strings of 100 pixels folded in different ways. Other than the folds, all other settings are the same.
array_to_save
username f
user_target AA_MATRIX7
effect_class butterfly
effect_name FLY_0_0_MATRIX
window_degrees 360
frame_delay 50
sparkles 0
seq_duration 5
formula 1
radian_shift .05
start_color #FFFFFF
end_color #FFFFFF
background_chunk #FFFFFF
background_skip #FFFFFF
background_color #000000
submit Submit Form to create your effect
OBJECT_NAME butterfly








Matrix, 3 fold

Matrix, 4 fold

Matrix, 7 fold

Matrx, 4 fold. text example

Matrix, 4 fold. Meteor example

 

[fasteddy]

Now this is what ive been waiting for

 

[Charles Belcher]

Sean,


It would look great as a backdrop to musical theatre, covering the entire front first floor of a house presenting a Christmas display, DJ backdrop or DJ booth facade, a stand-alone exhibit, etc. etc. etc.


The beauty of your work is in the design. All of the creative types in the world will figure out the end use.


Funny you posted this today, as I am sitting in my office with a LOR CCP system connected to Madrix and actually doing some of these same patterns.


Charles

 

[smeighan]

Sean,


It would look great as a backdrop to musical theatre, covering the entire front first floor of a house presenting a Christmas display, DJ backdrop or DJ booth facade, a stand-alone exhibit, etc. etc. etc.


The beauty of your work is in the design. All of the creative types in the world will figure out the end use.


Funny you posted this today, as I am sitting in my office with a LOR CCP system connected to Madrix and actually doing some of these same patterns.


Charles

You know charles i dont consider myself artisitc in any ways. I play the flute,piccolo and recorders in 5 bands/orchestras. I build things (like the nutcrackers), i juggled in the renaissance faire, taught scuba diving, create macrame, made furniture. None of it i think of as artistic. My mother was an artist.


I think of myself as a builder. I look forward to what people, with more artistic talent, can do with the Nutcracker.


Remember, i built this tool originally for me since i wanted an rgb megatree for this next christmas and i am too lazy to try and program it manually.


The tool is going to be 3 months old on April 16th. I wonder what it will be doing by the fall?


By this summer i am expecting to give timing tracks and have the entire 3 minutes of rgb be done by Nutcracker.


I have 64 channels now of hardware. I dont know if i am using LSP or vixen for the software, it may just be xlights.


it is an interesting trip.


Next up , i am looking at coding the boids algorithym.
http://www.vergenet.net/~conrad/boids/pseudocode.html


This simulates a flock of birds. The group tends to move in the directions of the central mass and a vector.


I thought it would look cool as a christmas pattern.










thanks

 

[westy27]

Love the addition of the matrix feature!

One question, I have a matrix this year (Gutter Pixicles) which is 150 x 6 made up of 18 x 50 pixel strings. How do i create that model ? Stupid me cant seem to get it to work !

Cheers

 

[smeighan]

Love the addition of the matrix feature!

One question, I have a matrix this year (Gutter Pixicles) which is 150 x 6 made up of 18 x 50 pixel strings. How do i create that model ? Stupid me cant seem to get it to work !

Cheers

Build the target as
Strings? 18
pixels per string? 50
folds? 8 <= this will give you each strand as 6 pixels each


You will end up with 150 strands, each strand will have 6 pixels.


thanks

 

[Timon]

I like what I'm seeing but can one build a sequence based on multiple images and controlled based on a given number of steps. Basically I'd like to do something like FastEddy did on his display last year.


Fasteddys 2011 Colour Christmas Light Show

 

[fasteddy]

I doubt that this can be done automatically with any good clarity, Sean uses mathematics to generate effects. I used LightShow Pro matrix tool grid and just drew my animations using the tools available. It really wasnt a long time consuming thing to do. The issue is when we have a much higher resolution, then this can become very tedious to draw. Importing a video into LSP matrix grid may be an option for higher resolution matrices but i tend to find importing anything like this never gives sharp lines and edges which may not be a problem if the matrix resolution is high enough.

It would be a great feature if Sean could enable manual manipulation of the grid so animations can be drawn.

 

[smeighan]

I doubt that this can be done automatically with any good clarity, Sean uses mathematics to generate effects. I used LightShow Pro matrix tool grid and just drew my animations using the tools available. It really wasnt a long time consuming thing to do. The issue is when we have a much higher resolution, then this can become very tedious to draw. Importing a video into LSP matrix grid may be an option for higher resolution matrices but i tend to find importing anything like this never gives sharp lines and edges which may not be a problem if the matrix resolution is high enough.

It would be a great feature if Sean could enable manual manipulation of the grid so animations can be drawn.

its on my todo list.


I will be releasing a new effect this week, it is working now in test. I open icon files and move them/


Things like here [SIZE=78%]http://www.iconarchive.com/category/christmas-icons.html[/SIZE]


I am next gpoing to get animated gifs so they will project. I was waiting for the matrix because these images look best on a square grid.

 

[Timon]

Yahooooooooooo 8)

 

[AussiePhil]

Sean

You continue to amaze me at just how much you are achieve and how fast you are doing it.

Going to just raise the Pixeltoy flag again

but i think even more importantly I would love to see yourself and Ed (J1SYS) actually catch up for a chat what comes out of that I believe could stun the community and possible the lighting community in general.

Cheers
Phil

 

[magii]

Is there a minimum matrix size to do scrolling text? Can it go down as small as 5 - 7 pixels tall on a single line?

 

[smeighan]

Is there a minimum matrix size to do scrolling text? Can it go down as small as 5 - 7 pixels tall on a single line?

The text is 5x7 for upper case, it is 5x9 to have the trailing staffs of lowercase letters. There is a one pixel hap so it is a 6x9 pixel matri to show any letter. Prob would work 6x7 , lower case letters wont show correct, but if you want only upper case you prob are ok

 

[fasteddy]

For me this looks great but as a user of LightShowPro, this is useless to me as i cant use it with LSP. Is there any plans for adding LSP support or have you decided its not worth pursuing

 

[smeighan]

For me this looks great but as a user of LightShowPro, this is useless to me as i cant use it with LSP. Is there any plans for adding LSP support or have you decided its not worth pursuing

I am still planning on getting a native LSP file. Some LSP users have already gotten Nutcradcker data loaded by opening a lms file. LSP doesnt seem to recognize the <rgbchannel> xml tag and is loading the data in as 3 separate rows. It still works.


This is the thread on the LSP forum with David.
http://www.lightshowpro.com/effect-plugin-development/2532-nutcracker-plugin.html


I asked some questions to help me produce an LSP file in post #6, there was no answer to them. I think David is heads down on LSP 3.0, I also think he will have some RGB effects for megatrees (I am just guessing at this).


It would be nice if i could get something like the vixen vir format.


There is no documentation of the LSP xml format anywhere and i guess i am waiting to see what the LSP format looks like this summer. I have a slight technical challenge that i cant get 7zip loaded into meighan.net without me moving to a dedicated server. I wish , that the xml was not compressed.


In post#5 , David says this:


"a lot of development is occurring with LightShow Pro currently, one of the items being extended significantly are Layers.[/size]Layer transitions will be 3 dimensional and provide several alternatives to effect generation... including new transition features yet to be shared.[/size]The LSP file format is changing to be more scalable, but will still be UN-encrypted when generated for the licensed channel count.it will retain backward compatibility with files."
[/color][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, calibri, geneva, sans-serif][/size]This seems to me to mean that LSP 3 files will not be compressed. [/font][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, calibri, geneva, sans-serif]Maybe some of you LSP users could post on this thread that you would like to see Nutcracker working with LSP. [/font][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, calibri, geneva, sans-serif]Before end of summer, in the worst case, i will build the msq files but you will have to install WAMP on your windows machines and 7zip. I dont think my moving to a larger box at a $500-1000/year increase in my server costs will fly with my wife.[/font][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, calibri, geneva, sans-serif]I will NOT abandon LSP, i have stated that i want all 3 sequencers to work.[/font][font=verdana, arial, tahoma, calibri, geneva, sans-serif]Have you tried the lms file import Eddy? Others have gotten it into LSP.
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