Non Integer Cue ID's

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Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby ingibekk » Thu Feb 19, 2015 5:18 pm

The title kind of says it all.

This keeps driving me a touch insane.

Thanks.

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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby Daniel Kaminski » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:26 am

I do not understand?
Do you want HEX or what? This does not make any logical scene to me. Please explain why this is a problem for you and what an NON-Interger CUE ID would look like?

Daniel
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby ricky » Fri Feb 20, 2015 10:47 am

I think he would like to have intermediate cues, the same as lighting console. For exapmple if you already have cue 1 and cue 2 and you discover that is necessary an intermadiate cue between these, at now it's a pain to renumber cues as is not present a cue list manager in the interface. You must rewrite all cue IDs manually and this is a loss of time.
In the other side I agree with Daniel when he says this is not logical to have cue 1.5 cue 1.7 because when you use the lighting console to trig the system you will not able to recall that kind of IDs.
The best solution would be to have a cue list manager to quickly renumber cues in the project.
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby ingibekk » Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:21 pm

I mean exactly what Ricky mentioned above Daniel.

I find it very strange in such a sophisticated system that non integer values (such as 1.3, 1.7 etc) are not valid as cue ID's.

I work on shows that have up to 100-200 cues on average and I find it hard to accept that I can't insert a cue between cue 156 and 157 without having to either painstakingly shift all the cues that come after up one number with all the knock on effect that has within the production (having to update a show callers cue document for example.) or insert a number that is completely out of sequence.

"In the other side I agree with Daniel when he says this is not logical to have cue 1.5 cue 1.7 because when you use the lighting console to trig the system you will not able to recall that kind of IDs. The best solution would be to have a cue list manager to quickly renumber cues in the project."


If I understand you correctly Ricky you are probably referring to a way that a console triggers a PB timeline via dmx (please correct me if I'm wrong). But if you are using a console anyway I can't see why the server wouldn't be controlled completely by the console on a per layer per attribute bases like you would normally do. I might speak for myself here but when I would need that kind of control (timeline triggering) I would simply use MSC out of the console to trigger the sequence which I have done on many occasions.

The bigger point that I'm probably trying to make is that if this system is ever to gain a firmer foothold in theatre or opera this needs to be implemented and I frankly cannot see why that would be a problem. I know for a fact that I am not the only video designer/programmer that shares that opinion and I'm sad to say that I have in the past talked productions out of using the system because of this seemingly 'simple to solve' issue.

I apologise if this seems blunt but I'm simply trying to make a firm point.

All the best,
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby Dennis Kuypers » Thu Feb 26, 2015 12:39 pm

Hello,

If you need that, you can number your cues starting with 1000 and then increment by 1000 for each cue. Now you have plenty of space in between.

Regards
Dennis
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby Daniel Kaminski » Thu Feb 26, 2015 4:50 pm

Hi Ingi,

I hearby let you know that your point of yiew is heard and I will put it on the feature wish list for further discussion.

There are a tone of people who are triggering a Timeline via DMX and do not control the Layers from the console. It all depends on the project and there are very very good reasons to do so.
Not every console supports MSC and a lot of users are not familiar with MSC as you are, but very many people are very familiar with DMX / Artnet.

MSC can use Subcues and they are implemented like this:
Use Cue Subsection:
As decimal places for cue numbers are not supported in Pandoras Box, you can use the check box option "Use Cue Subsection". Doing this will multiply the incoming cue command x1000 (for example: GO to Cue 1.020 will be interpreted as GO to Cue 1020). With this option three decimal places are supported.

We are very sad to hear that this missing options makes you use another product, especially because there are very easy workarounds, e.g. like Dennis suggested using 1000 Steps. I personally would be Interested to know what system you are using instead.
As said I will put this to the feature request list and hopefully you will be able to talk productions into using Pandoras Box soon. We will see.

Daniel
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby ingibekk » Sat Feb 28, 2015 9:24 pm

Hi Daniel,

absolutely, different show different approach...completely agree. Did probably generalise quite a bit there.

I am aware of the workaround, and am very happy that it actually exist as such.

Thanks for putting this on 'the list', looking forward to it being implemented.

Best regards,
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Re: Non Integer Cue ID's

Postby florian » Sun Mar 01, 2015 6:15 pm

Hello,

I have encountered this issue a fair amount.

I don't understand why the DMX triggering of cue numbers poses an issue with implementing decimal point cues.

Daniel points out the cue subsection option that allows you to parse MSC point cues into integers:
IE: MSC_Q(1.234) -> PB_Q(1234)

If the Cue parameter in the Pandora Timeline fixture profile were turned into a 16 or 24 bit value (this is a good idea anyway IMHO) you could reverse the cue subsection approach.
IE: DMX_Q(1234) -> PB_Q(1.234)

All it would require is an updated DMX personality for the timeline and another checkbox to modify the parsin (at least from a user standpoint).

I highly suspect that modifying the variable type throughout the software is precisely the kind of task to makes the programmers cringe. :)
-flo

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