Fade time on single scene cues

[Andrew]

Hi all,

I wonder if someone could help me with a question / problem?

Basically, I have eight Mac 500 moving heads set up in Lumidesk. I want to create a cue that moves them all to a specific position from wherever they currently are (in other words I won't call this cue after a specific previous cue). I created a cue that had one scene - "scene 1". I then set the position of the moving heads on that cue to where I wanted them.

Here's my problem / question: I assumed that the fade time on that scene could be changed to control how fast those moving heads actually move to the next position however, the fade time seems to make no difference. That is to say, in the visualiser it doesn't matter what the fade time is set to because they visualiser (and DMX values) always flick from the previous value to the new value instead of fading from one value to another. Why is this?

I kind of found a workaround: I put an extra scene into the cue that has a start position and set the fade time as low as possible, then the second scene in the cue has the end position and the fade time on the second scene seems to work in the sense that I can change the fade time and this alters the speed at which the fixtures move to the new position. However, this also presents a problem because what the visualiser shows is the moving heads moving quickly to the start position (from wherever they currently are) and only then moving to the second scene position. The reason this is a problem is because watching the DMX values, they don't actually seem to do this. So I think the visualiser is recieving the data for scene 1 and completing that before it does the next scene, even though there is not enough time for the moving heads to physically move.

So either way you look at this, either Lumidesk or the visualiser doesn't seem to accurately represent what the programming is telling it. Any help, much appreciated.


Kind regards, Andrew.

[lumidesk.support]

I am sorry to hear that your are having problems with these moving heads.

Have you enabled Fade in the Moving area?

Are you making sure that Fade time stays in the Sequence area?

[Andrew]

I am sorry to hear that your are having problems with these moving heads. Have you enabled Fade in the Moving area? Are you making sure that Fade time stays in the Sequence area?

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I've tried it both with and without the fade enabled in the panel. It doesn't work either way. That is to say, with one scene, the fade time doesn't seem to make a difference to how long the fixtures take to reach the new position, from wherever they might be positioned previously.

Kind regards, Andrew.

[Andy_64]

Hi @all,
I'm Andreas from Germany and I'm new to the Lumidesk too. I was working very successful with myDMX since more than 5 years.
I switched to Lumidesk Ultimate, because I would like to use
- more than one univers
- combine the light control with sound Input
- and very important stack scenes
Switching to Lumidesk seems to be not a big deal, because of the simuliarity of a lot of functions.

However, I'm very confused about the following issue, which seams to be more or less the same as Andrew explained:

... a very simple scenario:
1. I created a first cuelist with a single cue and one scene "White" setting a lamp to "on" with color "White" with a fade time of 5s and hold of 5s
2. I created a second cuelist with a new cue and also one scene "Color" setting the lamp, e.g., to blue with, e.g., a fade time of 5s

So now I expected, that in the live mode I can click alternating on the buttons scene "White" and "Color" and the lamp changes from White to blue and vs. by using the fade time. But it doen't happend.
The light switches promptly. The fade time has no effect to the first scene in the cues.

How I can apply in any time and case, that the fade time is running for the first scene of a cue during switching from one Scene to another of the same or a different cuelist.

Tanks a lot for your urgend help.
Andreas

[Andrew]

Hi Andreas,

I've been working on this issue with support from LumiDesk staff and the conclusion I reached was, the Fade Time in the first scene of a cue is not relevant. In other words, if you create a single scene cue, it will ignore the Fade Time specified. You can observe this by watching the DMX values on the relevant option screen within LumiDesk. They switch, rather than fade.

The workaround is to create two scene cues. That is every "position cue" needs scene1 to specify the start position and scene2 to specify the end position. In this scenario, the moving fixture will be commanded to go to the start position and then immediately move (using scene2 Fade Time) to the end position. In reality, a slow moving head will therefore twitch towards the start position of the cue and then move correctly to the position you want, using the Fade Time.

For moving fixtures, this means that you cannot use LumiDesk to switch your fixtures from position A to position B and indeed any other position, without a small jerk in the movement due to the first scene in the cue momentarily switching (not fading) to the new start position.

I suggested two different fixes to LumiDesk support staff:

1. Grey out the Fade Time in the interface, on scene1 of a cue. This would at least make the user interface match what the real fixtures do by making it obvious to the user that the Fade Time is not relevant to reality on a single scene cue.
2. Make the Fade Time actually work as it should do on single scene cues (this is my much preferred solution).

LumiDesk have not indicated either way to me, what their solution (if any) will be. Though they did say they would contact me by phone when the developer was with them, to once and for all get their heads around the issue.

Hope that helps.


Kind regards, A.

[Andy_64]

Hi Andrew,
thanks a lot for your answer.
I also prefer option 2
And I hope LumiDesk will solve it soon, because your work around may fix the issue for static lamps (I have to test it later on) but may not work for moving heads as you described before.
Regards
Andreas

[Andrew]

your work around may fix the issue for static lamps (I have to test it later on) but may not work for moving heads as you described before.

I think my workaround (it was LumiDesk Support that suggested it to me actually) would make a static lamp colour change go from whatever colour it was on at the time, to scene1 colour very quickly, and then to whatever colour your specified for scene2, using the applicable Fade Time. In other words, it would have the same issue as my movement workaround, albeit with colour, not movement.

But, let us know how you get on. It's all very interesting.


Kind regards. A.

[Andy_64]

Hi Andrew,
yes, I figured out it too.
From my perspective it is absolutely unbelievable, that such a fundamental function - a smooth fade-in when tapping onto a scene button - is not available/working
How long is Lumidesk on the market? ... since 5 years? ... and nobody figured out respectively solved this issue? Or is this no issue and part of the concept, but if so, how to configure a smooth fade-in when starting a sequence or scene? Hm.
Is there anybody still working on the software? I have to ask this, because the last entry into the version log file is from April 2014 !!!
Regards
Andreas

[CMBDJ]

In Lumidesk you have multiple ways to trigger scenes. You have your scene that you record with fade and wait times. And you also have fade and wait times for the trigger buttons in love mode. You can individually set times for each sequence, or for the Cue as a whole. Right click on the button in Live view, select settings, the fade/ wait tab to adjust those settings.

I have been a Lumidesk user since 2008. I almost went with myDMX by ADJ, but I saw that Lumidesk offered more features and setting up your shows for playback. I've been a Lumidesk user since 2008 and now a dealer. Let us know if you need any more help.

[Andy_64]

Hallo Casey,
thanks a lot. Using the fade time in Live Mode works
However, it is mostly very important to understand the philosophy of a the software. Therefore I wish much more documentation via a short description when holding the mouse over per each function.
For example, what are the effects by de-/activate the following in Hardware Manager > Settings?
- Scene Fade
- Force Scene Fade Time / Duration
- Dimmer

Best Regards
Andreas