dkulp
Full time elf
2026.19 — October 23, 2026
Enhancements
- dkulp — Bars: new "Custom" direction with an Angle slider (-180 to 180) to move the bars in any direction
- dkulp — Pictures effect can use SVG images, drawn sharp at the model's size
- dkulp — Palette and effect colour buttons preview the colour live while the colour picker is open, and Cancel restores the original
- dkulp — Palette menu: new "Update Only Colors" applies just the palette colours to the selected effects, leaving each effect's palette checkboxes as they were
- derwin12 — Find Possible Source Effects is available from any view; opening a result for a model not in the current view switches to Master View
- derwin12 — Tools > Generate Moving Head Effects adds white moving head effects (section sweeps, chorus ping-pong, outro, dark pre-position links) from bars and sections timing tracks
- derwin12 — Windows: Stem separation adds Guitar and Piano stems (the 6-stem model is downloaded the first time either is picked)
- derwin12 — Faster renders for sequences with large models or groups set to Render Disabled
- dkulp — Import Effects: unsupported imported videos (e.g. AVI) can be converted during the import instead of on the next open
- dkulp — LOR S5/S6 import: effects on LOR motion-row regions (strands, tiers, columns) land on the matching part of the model, later LOR rows draw on top, Single Block imports as Morph, embedded pictures and GIFs are carried into the sequence, and starfield, moving shapes, spin fade and simple shape effects are no longer dropped; imported effects use as few layers as possible
- dkulp — LOR S5/S6 import: custom motion rows (bows, outlines, arms, stripes...) are listed as their own sources so they can be mapped to submodels or groups instead of covering the whole model
- dkulp — LOR S5/S6 import: sketch effects (singing faces, drawings) import as SVG pictures instead of empty Sketch effects
- dkulp — LOR S5/S6 import: singing faces get lip-sync timing tracks built from their mouth shapes (one per voice), and each face can be mapped onto a model as a Faces effect driven by that track
- heffneil — The Faces, States and SubModels "Import From Model" pickers have a filter box to narrow a long model list
- derwin12 — Layout Controllers tab: clicking a model in the preview switches to the Models (or Groups) tab with that model selected
- dkulp — "Promote to Base Show Folder" on models, groups, 3D objects and controllers copies them (and what they depend on) into the base show folder and links them
- heffneil — Pin favorite show folders with a name in the Directories dialog and switch to them from File > Favorite Show Folders
- heffneil — Batch Render shows a window with each sequence's result and time, overall progress and time left, a Stop button, and Copy Results
- heffneil — FPP Connect upload window shows the current step and sequence, time left, and a list of each finished step and sequence with per- controller results (Keep Open)
- derwin12 — FPP Connect remembers the Keep Open setting
- dkulp — Controller Connection: "LOR Enhanced" protocol on FPP controllers' serial ports. Models take a Unit ID and Start Pixel instead of a channel, long strings carry on into the next unit ID, and uploading configures FPP's LOR Enhanced output; Check Sequence flags two models on the same pixels of a unit
- dkulp — FPP string capes and hats: models can go on USB serial adapters plugged into the controller (ttyUSB0-7, ttyACM0-3) as well as the cape's own serial ports. Uploading turns off a serial output xLights wrote earlier once its port has no models, and adapter ports stay put when a reboot renumbers the adapters (on an FPP that reports its serial devices)
- dkulp — Automation: importSuperStar (with all import dialog options, plus "replace" to clear the model and its unused media first), clearModelEffects and removeUnusedMedia, for re-importing after a model's size changes
- dkulp — Automation: importS5Sequence imports a LOR .loredit with a mapping file and/or auto map, without the mapping dialog
- dkulp — iPad - Controller visualizer: drop a model on the top half of a row to put it before that model, and Move to Front puts a model at the head of its port
Bug Fixes
- derwin12 — Some shaders rendered as random noise since 2026.13
- dkulp — Shader effects on a buffer larger than the GPU texture limit now show yellow instead of crashing
- dkulp — Windows: fix Shader effect crashes with background shader rendering enabled
- derwin12 — Bars: the gradient no longer picks up extra hues (rainbow) when the layer blending is anything other than Normal
- dkulp — Windows/Linux: Bars gradient colours rendered on the GPU (Vulkan) now match macOS and CPU rendering
- derwin12 — Chroma Key no longer turns transparent areas of the layer black, which hid the layers below when the effect didn't cover the whole buffer (#7195)
- derwin12 — Pictures: Loop Animated GIF and Suppress GIF Background are no longer lost when copying and pasting the effect
- derwin12 — Moving Head Adv: Position Zone colours and the zone indicator no longer show in the preview when Enable Position Zones is off; the indicator ring is now sized to the model base
- derwin12 — Fix crash rendering a Butterfly effect whose Bkgrd Skip was saved as 0
- dkulp — Butterfly: fix crash (Intel Macs with AMD GPUs) and wrong output on buffers more than 65535 pixels wide or high, e.g. Single Line on a large matrix
- dkulp — Fix crash rendering a Music effect that starts before the beginning of the sequence
- derwin12,dkulp — Fix crash rendering a model group with a very large buffer (e.g. Horizontal/Vertical Stack - Scaled on a big group); the buffer size is now capped
- derwin12 — Model groups whose models sit in a near-perfect row (e.g. a row of floods) could build a giant render buffer and render very slowly
- derwin12 — Fix crash when the render cache folder or its files are damaged
- dkulp — Fix crash when a sequence starts rendering while it is still being opened (e.g. after picking missing audio in the settings dialog)
- derwin12 — Switching audio tracks while a sequence is playing now moves playback to the new track instead of leaving the previous track playing (#7188)
- dkulp — macOS/iPad: fix crash closing a sequence or changing its audio while another audio track was playing
- derwin12 — Display Elements: Show All / Hide All / Hide Unused now stick for timing tracks instead of going hidden again after editing a timing track
- derwin12 — Fix crash adding an Audio Tempo or Audio Chords timing track from the Add Timing Track dialog
- dkulp — Fix crash drawing the waveform after the selected effect was deleted outside the grid (e.g. by an import)
- dkulp — Fix crash clicking a Search result whose effect was deleted after the search
- dkulp — Fix crash dragging an effect from the toolbar over the Effect Presets window
- dkulp — Fix crash in the effect Assist panel after the effect's model was changed in Layout
- dkulp — Fix crash playing a model group after Replace Model in Layout
- dkulp — macOS: picking a colour in the system colour picker and clicking OK no longer shifts the colour
- derwin12 — Fix crashes reported against 2026.18: FPP Connect with an invalid reply, Falcon V4/V5 controllers whose status query times out, controller discovery when FPP and DDP both answer from one IP, HinksPix export of a damaged FSEQ, the Fire effect on oversized buffers, loading a corrupt FSEQ, Check Sequence with effects on models missing from the layout, dragging an effect after the timing rows changed, playback/scrub after the previewed model was removed, the 3D layout after switching show folders, the Video effect preview, and the New Sequence wizard
- dkulp — Package Sequence could leave out shader, video and other media files used by effects added since the sequence was opened (e.g. by Import Effects or paste)
- dkulp — Import Effects: copied images, videos, shaders and faces are stored show-relative, so the next open no longer reports them all as relocated
- derwin12 — Fix crash importing effects from a zip, or opening a sequence, whose file names use old Windows/DOS accented characters
- derwin12 — Fix crash opening a sequence whose media file name contains characters Windows can't map
- dkulp — Fix crash when a batch render or automation request closed the sequence while the Import Effects dialog was open
- dkulp — SuperStar import: effects that overlap on one SuperStar layer no longer land behind other layers' effects, and re-importing no longer reuses old images sized for the previous model
- dkulp — LOR S5/S6 import: effects with an Overlay mix no longer import invisible or at half brightness, bars and spirals move at LOR's speed, curtains finish with the effect, and diagonal bars, text colour, meteor colours and single-colour washes convert correctly
- dkulp — Convert: fix crash converting a LOR sequence whose channels exceed the xLights controllers
- derwin12 — Circle models with an Inner starting location and different layer sizes put the outer layer's nodes on the inner ring
- derwin12 — Multi-string Cube models showed every node on string 2 in the wiring view and controller port highlighting (#7248)
- derwin12 — Multi-layer arches from pre-2026 layouts lost their Zig-Zag Layers setting when opened
- derwin12 — Older DMX models from the vendor download library (and old shows) failed to load with "Unknown Model Type: DMX"
- dkulp — Fix crash loading a layout containing older DMX Moving Head 3D models
- derwin12 — Align Front/Back on boxed models (matrices, trees, etc.) uses the pixels' actual depth, so flat models line up at the same depth
- derwin12 — Model Sets can no longer mix base show folder models with the show's own models; existing mixed Sets are held in place
- derwin12 — Model previews (e.g. the Submodels node layout) could get stuck panning with no mouse button held
- DPattee — Layout: Add Object is available on startup when the layout is already in 3D on the Default preview
- derwin12 — Terrain: grid points can be selected and raised/lowered again when Edit Terrain is on (#7197)
- dkulp — Model groups that contain each other crashed the Layout tab. A group can no longer be added to a group it already contains, and a layout saved with such a loop is repaired (with a warning) when it loads
- dkulp — Layout: fix crash selecting a model group whose name has leading/trailing spaces
- dkulp — Fix crash on Layout undo/redo
- dkulp — Fix crash re-opening or changing the show folder with a model selected in Layout
- dkulp — Fix crash opening a show folder while the Layout 3D Objects list is showing
- dkulp — Fix crash after using a property's "..." button (states, faces, submodels, etc.) when the property grid was refreshed while its dialog was open
- dkulp — Fix the app freezing (and iOS closing the iPad app) when a 3D mesh or its textures are in iCloud but not downloaded yet; the mesh appears once the download finishes
- dkulp — Fix crash with a model whose start channel is "!Controller:0"
- dkulp — Fix crash opening a show with an old networks file that has an unknown network type
- heffneil,dkulp — Controller visualizer: moving a model to the front of its chain, moving a multi-string model, or dropping a model on the header of the port it already ends no longer breaks the port's chain
- nsxfreddy — Models newly assigned to a PWM or serial (DMX) port on an auto- layout controller no longer start one channel early
- scott — Controller Connection: changing an Ethernet controller's Vendor/Model/Variant while using DDP, Twinkly, or a multi-universe protocol (E1.31/Art-Net/KiNET/OPC) could shift its ID by one each time
- dkulp — Discover and FPP Connect could take minutes to start when several controllers set by hostname weren't on the network
- derwin12 — FPP Connect / controller discovery no longer asks for a password when another local web server (e.g. AdGuard) answers on localhost, and cancelling a password prompt no longer cuts discovery short
- derwin12 — FPP Connect: an FPP advertising a stale 169.254.x.x address could be reported as "not a supported FPP Instance" at its real IP
- dkulp — FPP Connect: a sparse fseq already on a remote was re-uploaded on every run when the remote's channel ranges ran past the end of the sequence (or for effect sequences); progress bars now move only for remotes that need a new file
- dkulp — FPP Connect: uploading the controller/cape configuration silently did nothing for an Inactive controller whose IP is set to a hostname
- derwin12 — FPP Connect: no longer crashes if the temporary sequence file for an upload can't be created; the upload is stopped and the error logged
- dkulp — macOS: FPP Connect sequence uploads and downloads work when the system temporary folder isn't writable
- scott — FPP Connect: ESPixelStick uploads could fail with "Response Code: 0" and nothing written to the SD card; failed uploads are retried once as an uncompressed zip in a form the controller can read (#7120)
- scott — FPP Connect: a configured, reachable controller (e.g. ESPixelStick) could be missing from the instance list, and from Add FPP (#7120)
- dkulp — ESPixelStick: fix crash uploading when the controller's input configuration can't be read
- dkulp — LOR output now behaves like FPP's: fixes channels above 256 getting stuck, channels past unit 240 wrapping onto low units, units dropping out while paused, and lag at low baud rates
- dkulp — LOR Optimised: zero values in bank 0 could corrupt commands, and All Off sent the wrong banks to every unit after the first
- dkulp — LOR Optimised: fix crash when the controllers add up to more than 20480 channels or a unit has more than 1024 channels
- dkulp — Output to Lights: fix crash changing the show folder or deleting a controller while auto-upload controllers were being configured
- derwin12,dkulp — Videos the hardware decoder can't handle now switch to software decoding for the rest of the session instead of retrying the hardware decoder for every model
- derwin12 — Very small videos (e.g. 70x80) decoded on NVIDIA hardware showed squashed into a corner with gray padding
- dkulp — Windows: videos the GPU's hardware decoder cannot handle (e.g. larger than it supports) fall back to software decoding instead of rendering black or not at all
- dkulp — Windows: Video effects with Sample Spacing above 0 no longer render black/garbled with hardware (DirectX11) video decoding
- dkulp — Windows: ProRes/FFV1 videos no longer use Vulkan hardware decode, which crashed on some AMD drivers
- dkulp — Windows: fix crash when several Video effects open hardware-decoded videos at once
- dkulp — Windows: fix Vulkan crash after a Remote Desktop reconnect or display change
- dkulp — Automation: importXLightsSequence no longer opens message boxes; warnings and errors are returned in the response
- dkulp — Automation: closexLights with force no longer stops at the "Save Effect Preset changes?" prompt
- dkulp — iPad - Controller visualizer: moving a model keeps the rest of its old chain in place, including after saving and reopening the show
- dkulp — iPad - FPP Connect uploads outputs to inactive controllers set by hostname, and finds configured controllers on other subnets without typing their addresses in
- dkulp — iPad - LOR S5 import no longer drops sources added with "Add Additional"
- dkulp — iPad - Find Possible Source Effects: opening a result for a model not in the current view switches to Master View
- dkulp — iPad - Update Palette now matches desktop: it copies only the colours and checkboxes, keeping each effect's sparkles, brightness and other colour settings
- dkulp — iPad - Media Manager lists the media of just-imported effects without reopening the sequence
- dkulp — iPad - Remove Unused Media no longer drops media used only by submodel, strand or node effects
- dkulp — iPad - Switching audio tracks while a sequence is playing keeps playing on the new track
- dkulp — iPad - Smoother sequencer scrolling and redraws on large sequences; the spectrogram strip also redraws after a low-memory purge
- dkulp — iPad - Scrolling the sequencer no longer keeps the CPU busy rebuilding every row heading
Changes
- dkulp — SuperStar import: Image Resizing now defaults to All, so pictures scale with the rest of the imported effects on models of a different size
- derwin12 — Removed the remaining nutcracker123.com links: the vendor and music lists now come from GitHub, and Help > Forum (desktop and iPad) opens the xLights board on the Falcon Christmas forum
xLights is available for download from https://github.com/xLightsSequencer/xLights/releases/ for Windows/Linux and from the App Store for Mac.
Issue tracker: https://github.com/xLightsSequencer/xLights/issues
Video tutorials: https://videos.xlights.org
xLights user manual: https://manual.xlights.org/xlights/
If you have encountered a specific issue, developers ask that you submit details to the xLights GitHub repository.
For requests for general help among peers, consider starting a new forum thread: https://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/xlights-xschedule.61/post-thread