Use Superstar for a non CCR Horizontal Matrix

bluzervic

65,768 Channels, 185 Universes
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This may be kind of Primitive, and being a new at this, I do not know any other way.
So here is how I do it until I figure some better way to do it

I took a look at superstar and it looks like it is only set up as CCR's at the moment
You may be able to import a visualization into superstar with a channel configuration, but I do not know if you can.

Here is how I will go about doing it for my Pixel trees and this is how I did it for my Matrix

1.Open up superstar
2.Create a new layout, but select CCR layout and not visualization, you can create the number of strips(CCR's) and number of led.
3.Do not worry about the network layout as you will not be using it.

Example: create a 12 CCR x 50 layout… This will show 12 rows and 50 columns

You want to lay it out horizontally for a word matrix…Vertical for a tree

Keep in mind the orientation of the strip (where the controller is) so your words are not upside-down. Mine are on the left.

Keep in mind the bottom and top as well.


3. Once your layout is done, select the music you are using (open a media audio file)

4. You can import timing, not sure how, so I do create timing… this will read the audio file and make some timing marks for you to follow

5. Now it up to you…. You can morph, use pixel node some other cool stuff and of coarse make words

6. Once you are completely done. You will need to save the file and then export it to a sequence file…

7. Try to name this file something you will know it is for that fixture and is a temp file…not your main sequence file

Sequence file:

1.Create your main sequence file if you have not done so.
2.Set up your channels you will be using, make sure you have enough to match what you will be bringing in from superstar.
3.Save that file and keep this file open
4.Open up your sequence file that you created when you exported your file from superstar
5.Both file are now open
6.Go to your first device in your superstar sequence file and expand it
7.Go to the 1st column and from top to bottom highlight it(select it), then right click and select rows, only the black section, not the special CCR channels
8.This should have selected the whole device and channel selection
9.Copy it
10.Now go to your main sequence and select the one you are really going to use and expand it the same way
11.Select the 1st column at the top left and Paste it
12.Now work your way from top to bottom channel by channel
13.Save your file when you are done….
14.Always keep track of your file names and increment version numbers so you never over-write incase you mess up.

That's it.

I will try to video or do pictures or post this up some how…but feel free to contact me and I can help walk you through it

If you do not how to use superstar there are tutorials on it in you tube including how to copy and paste and import from superstar, much like I did here.

Sorry for the Primitiveness of this, but will get it documented.....(another reason to get a Go-Pro)

-Vic
 

Gilrock

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There's a much easier way. Setup your channels in your LOR configuration so that there are 7 dummy channels at the end of each strip. Then you and cut and paste the entire Superstar sequence in one step.
 

harrison0550

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Dec 16, 2011
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There is an even easier method now. SS will now export DMX channels. You just need to draw the matrix in the LOR visualizer as CCR's then you use keywords in the comments section of the prop. Then import that viz file into SS and start sequencing away. When you export it out of SS it will create all your DMX channels for you. The first time you export it will just spit out 3 channels for each RGB. Right click and convert them all to RGB channels and save that channel config. Now you have a DMX channel config based off what you drew in the visualizer and never have to add extra channels again. You can rock and roll on every song and just export as DMX. I will find the actual directions for ya.

"
1) Launch the Visualizer
2) Click on the "CCR Draw Wizard" tool, this is the one that has a multi-colored circle with a 2 segment line on top of it. (do NOT use the "Draw Cosmic Color Ribbon" tool)
3) Do a click and drag to draw a single line, double click to terminate the line.
4) A dialog box titled "Number of Pixels" will appear, Type in a name for the "Prop (CCR) Name" and then change the number to the total number of pixels in your DMX string. This number can be any number from 2 to 500. In other words, don't worry about having it be more than the number of pixels in a CCR which is 50. In most of my testing I used 60 as the number of pixels in a string.
5) After clicking on OK, a dialog box will appear titled "New/Existing fixture". Use the default which is "Create as many new Fixtures as required (Recommended)"
6) After clicking on OK, the visualizer will create a string that will have one or more CCRs in it, enough to create as many pixels as you specified. Don't worry about defining the Unit IDs for the CCRs, you can leave them undefined because SuperStar will ignore them.
7) On the right side of the visualizer are two buttons labeled "Fixtures" and "Props". Click on the "Props" button and then double click on the prop that you just created.
8) In the comment line of the prop, add the text "superstar dmx=<universe>,<channel>" (do not enter the double quotes into the comment line, just the text inside the double quotes)
<universe> is the universe to use for the first pixel of the prop and <channel> is the channel to use for the first pixel of the prop.
For example, if you had 6 strings with 60 pixels each, you would add 6 props and you could add the following in the comment line of the props:
superstar dmx=1,1
superstar dmx=1,181
superstar dmx=1,361
superstar dmx=2,31
superstar dmx=2,231
superstar dmx=2,410

In the above example, the third string starts with universe=1 and channel=361. SuperStar will automatically bump up to the next universe when it runs out of channels for the current universe. So the last 10 pixels in the third string will use universe 2.

Also, as noted earlier, when SuperStar sees the keywords "superstar dmx=" then it ignores the unit id settings in the CCRs that are in the prop and uses the universe, channel settings that you specify.

Note that because SuperStar is using the comment line to supporting dmx, you cannot play the exported sequence back to the visualization because the Visualizer doesn't recognize the dmx settings that you placed in the comment line."
 

Gilrock

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That sounds like a big mess to me...lol. Have you ever tried to draw a 12 ribbon tree in LOR's Visualizer? It's not a one-click operation you gotta draw each string manually and hope you are a good artist unless they've changed something since last time I tried it. I'm pretty sure I just tried a few weeks ago to see if they had improved anything and it didn't look like they've touched the program in a year. Importing visualizer files into superstar doesn't look as good as using the configurations that are built in. If you are doing a 12 ribbon tree I still like the way I did it better. You only setup the channel template one time in the LOR sequencer and then use it as a template for all sequences. And it's pretty easy to create a DMX controller in LOR if you are starting at channel 1. I use a P12R to run my 12 ribbon tree so every output is used. Therefore each string is it's own universe. I'm using universe's 1 through 12 and each string starts at channel 1. It's easy to define that in the LOR sequencer without all that fixture and prop comment mess in superstar and having to deal with using a visualizer file in superstar.

What the LOR boneheads really need to do is let us check a box that says don't include the macro channels when exporting from superstar. Their hardware utility already lets you tell the CCR that it's not using the macro channels.
 
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