GO Monkey (BASIC) - Theater Cue Stack

[Mattotone]

BASIC VERSION NO LONGER UNDER DEVELOPMENT TRY http://www.freestylersupport.com/fsforu ... 067#p11067

stackV3.png

Features:
No Hard limit to the amount of cues you add to the stack
Halt and wait time: Automatically advance onto next cue after the wait time has elapsed or halt on the cue until the go button is pressed.
Set cue properties such as Random, Loop, Restore Previous Values etc.
Master Intensity and Cue Speed fades.
Midi Commands
Large GO and Back Buttons.
Easy XML. Setup your entire show in an easy to read XML format.

XML Description

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Sequences>

<cue>
<CueName>white</CueName> <- this must be a valid sequence name
<Wait>0</Wait> <- number of seconds to wait before automatically advancing onto next cue
<Halt>Yes</Halt> <- if halt is set to Yes then the cue wont advance after its wait time and will wait for the operator to press go
<Random>No</Random> <- Enable random mode in sequencer
<Fade>Yes</Fade> <- Enable fades in sequencer
<Loop>Yes</Loop> <- Enable loop in sequencer
<Restore>Yes</Restore> <- Enable restore function in sequencer
<Description>End Show</Description> <- Allows you to set a description of the scene
</cue>

</Sequences>

[Mattotone]

This is a quick build, started this morning. As i have a small project coming up and need this so the features are currently just what i needed.
The Fiancees school children are running a small talent show, and to get every one involved the children want to do their own lights., so here it is.

Yes the sequences loop, but there can be an option to disable this.
Restore values i can add too.

Its quick and dirty but works if you use it how its intended. After the show il try and improve it.
the XML is case sensitive so Yes and No have capital letters.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<Sequences>

<cue>
<CueName>white</CueName> <- this must be a valid sequence name
<Wait>0</Wait> <- number of seconds to wait before automatically advancing onto next cue
<Halt>Yes</Halt> <- if halt is set to Yes then the cue wont advance after its wait time and will wait for the operator to press go
<Random>No</Random> <- Enable random mode in sequencer
<Fade>Yes</Fade> <- Enable fades in sequencer
<Loop>Yes</Loop> <- Enable loop in sequencer
<Restore>Yes</Restore> <- Enable restore function in sequencer
<Description>End Show</Description> <- Allows you to set a description of the scene
</cue>

</Sequences>

No, im not undertaking a timeline.....Way to complex for me to attempt, just don't have enough time.

[Mattotone]

I have added the restore and loop options.

Oh And BTW space bar triggers GO

[Onge]

Nice work Matt,

That should please some people who are looking for theatre style stacks with the BIG GO Button.

[Mattotone]

The joys of Rapid development.
I had the same error when i ran it outside of the development software.
I had left some debug information which had no ware to write it to. so it would crash.
-
Should be ok now

[Onge]

I cannot download it Says the attachment no longer exists.

[Mattotone]

you must of tried it when i was re uploading

[Mavi]

A little "off topic" question: Which porgramming language do you use?

Well it is not that off topic. I thought about programming an "time line editor" which will generate an XML file the style you use them. But if you want to include it to your project it should be programmed in the same programming language

[Mattotone]

Its c#.
The Cue stack probably inst the best place for the Timeline. But a nice xml generator is a good idea.
I can give you a class file i have made to speed up talking to Freestyler so that you don't have to go the same mistakes i did.

[Onge]

.

[Mavi]

Mh. Never worked with C#. Just Java, a little C++, Adobe Flex, PHP/HTML/CSS/MySQL/JavaScript and Borland Delphi (Object Pascal)

Perhaps you can send me the class file and I will give it a try.

[Onge]

.

[LJ_krede.dk]

Can't wait to try it. Is there any chance you will make it controllable via MIDI (maybe on a different channel (channel 2) than FreeStyler uses so I don't interfere?

[Mattotone]

Iv never had a go with midi.
But i do have a BCF2000, and a week off work so i can give it ago.

[Mattotone]

Right iv had a go.
Finding any examples or documentation seems to be very hard. There just isnt a great wealth to go through.
But here it is. I haven't put it into the cue stack just yet as i didn't want to over complicate things whilst testing.
But if every one can test it, then we can add it to the app.

Instructions:
Device ID, For PC that only have one midi device plugged in this would be 0 im hoping to replace this with devices names.
connect, disconnect. Self explanatory really.

When you press connect the number displayed is the number of devices found. The maximum number you should put into device id is this number -1. As the ID's start at 0

If you click in the text box at the bottom and then press a midi key, its Key (Channel number and Parameter combined) will be shown.
When you click out of the text box and press the same midi key again if its value is above 10 it will glow green. This is to test assignment.

Any midi key pressed will show in the large text area. it will contain its Key (Channel number and Parameter combined) and then its value

midi.png

[Mattotone]

I have added midi to the program, the only problem is. It seems you can't run two midi software at the same time.

[LJ_krede.dk]

I have added midi to the program, the only problem is. It seems you can't run two midi software at the same time.

I dont know about the BCF2000 but if you install the driver for the Korg nanoKontrol, you can have several programs to recieve midi from the device.

I really love the program, very easy and simple and the MIDI control is top nice, it even works on different channels. I have a request thoug: I know i can control this in FS with MIDI but it could be nice to control the master and speed with midi as well in the cue stack program. Another request is to assign more sequences to run on the same time. this will do the programming more simple if you want different lamps to do different things. this way you dont have program everything into one sequence.

by the way: how many cues can you enter in the program?

[Mattotone]

You can have unlimited cues, but it will depend on systems resources. i haven't tested this above 30.
I could make it fire multiple cues and il probably add that eventuall, it was actually something i was going to add to allow up to 4 to run, but im getting a fair bit of stick off the missus for spending my time off upstairs in the office. How many cues would you need. I think FS could handle maximum of 20.
I will also add the midi commands for speed and master.

[LJ_krede.dk]

How many cues would you need. I think FS could handle maximum of 20.

i will use this feature for theater and concert light where i know which song the bands will play. then i can program the whole thing in front and just press go when I need a new look/effect. furthermore you can make more changes at once than if you should do it manually. I dont think i would use 20 sequences, if you make it 10 i would think there is some headroom if other users want more than my needs of 4-6 sequences..

another thing. if you make this feature and have the same "movement" sequence on two cues, would it restart the sequence when you change cue?? this could give a visible bad effect than the sequence just keep running. i know this may be complex to make and it is just a "nice to have" feature, Not "need to have".

[Mattotone]

<cue>
<Cue1>white</Cue1>
<Cue2>running Loop</Cue2>
</cue>
<cue>
<Cue1>blue</Cue1>
<Cue2>running Loop</Cue2>
</cue>

If you look at the example above. When you go from the first cue to the second cue. only cue 1 is changing cue 2 will remain the same, it will not reset the sequence but continue on.

It works quite well with four cues so far, but updating to ten is easily done, the only real problem is now displaying all the data on the screen.
I may have to cut it down so it only shows Description Halt and wait time.

[dmxlighting]

I consider myself to be a very technically mind person but I cant keep up with this!
I'll have to look at it all again (maybe when Im not so tired!)
Looks really cool just can't get my head around it yet.