DEVBLOG 1

NDI, Panel Guides, and more!

6 June 2018

Multiselect Subdivide & Unsubdivide
Lucas Morgan
Another quality of life improvement that was long overdue was the ability to subdivide and unsubdivide any number of selected panels. Up until this point this was causing issues to the way the internal database was structured, which resulted in fixture misordering, parentless panels, etc. The solution I came up with allowed us to keep the current storage solution intact, but certain commands like subdivide/unsubdivide, delete, etc. now pass through an additional layer of logic that parses, creates, modifies, then flattens back into its original format.
NDI Added
Lucas Morgan

NDI input is fully integrated in Crescent Sun. Stream dozens of textures over a network cable from any device or software that outputs NDI format. Crescent Sun will automatically discover the stream name. You can also use NDI to stream texture from another software located on the same computer as Crescent Sun, but I would still recommend using Spout instead when on a single machine as it is lower latency.

Panel Guides
Lucas Morgan
I added useful panel information as an overlay to every panel and group fixture in the Panel Mapper. Quickly see measurements and resolution of a panel just by hovering. No more need for a calculator!
Cues Waveforms
Eric Mintzer

Cues is the new preset system under construction that combines the best parts of a DAW software, lighting console, and video editing software. Lucas and I originally built this to run panel sequences without a console but now we are using it to record, edit, and playback control signals to any UI element in Crescent Sun. Finally, program and jam on your show like a lighting guy! Or, just hook it up to a console and be a lighting guy. Either way, I hope you appreciate that waveforms are now visible directly on the timeline. I’ve also finally changed the value storage to a data type instead of the previous channel type to allow for a more rich future development cycle. Hopefully we can place this into a stable beta in the next month or two.

Polypusher by EPIC
Vello Virkhaus, Lucas Morgan
I migrated Polypusher, a crazy generator with lots of detail and control parameters, over from EPIC (by VSquaredLabs) into Crescent Sun. Not only is this a sweet customizable generator that you can use in your performances,it also represents the first generator of many that will be imported from EPIC to make Crescent Sun more playful.
Global Color Receiver
Eric Mintzer, Vello Virkhaus

Borrowed from EPIC (by VSquaredLabs), I’ve added a new and updated take on global color control. Utilizing the Colors tool, you can now drop a Colors Receiver FX in to any Pipeline to easily adjust the color of an individual deck or the final output. We have a few more features planned for global color control but this tool is already much more useful.

Undo Button
Lucas Morgan
I added the often-taken-for-granted Undo button to Crescent Sun, in regards to the Panel database. Newly created/subdivided groups or panels can now be undone to previous states rather than deleting and recreating a bunch of fixtures.
Responsive UI
Eric Mintzer
I spent much of the first two weeks of launch dealing with UI scaling issues on wacky resolution displays, including the Demo version of Crescent Sun, which has a capped resolution. Wacky resolution users, worry no more! The UI is fully responsive to any display resolution. It’s a pretty basic scaling operation so text and boxes might take up an awkward amount of space on huge resolution displays, but this should work for now.
SceneProv (alpha)
Eric Mintzer, Lucas Morgan

SceneProv is another big development we will be releasing into beta later this year (currently in private alpha). SceneProv is like a video game system but for concert production. It allows Crescent Sun users to render 3D scenes from Maya, C4D, etc. in realtime with lighting, shadows, and high quality PBR-based textures. Why would anyone be crazy enough to do that, you might ask? You can stop tiling your beautiful content across festival stages for one, and immerse your crowd in the 3D scene on behemoth displays. Also, you can now jam on 3D elements of the scene, such as that model of a cow that is dancing across your background, or even the virtual light fixtures that light up your scene. You can probably see where this is going; we are officially in alpha and have the receiver integrated in this release of Crescent Sun.

2018.1.3 | CRESCENT_SUN.2018.1.3.4916 | 6/6/2018 | TD099: 22800

MORE NEW FEATURES:

– Newbie Screen: highlights sections of the user interface so first-time users can be guided through building their first showfile.

– NDI Integration: stream dozens of HD textures over a single ethernet connection.

– Duplicate Fixture: duplicates selected Panel or Group Fixture.

– Multiselect subdivide/unsubdivide: allows you to quickly create and edit your panel instancing.

– Global Speed Knob Quantization: locks to nearest quantize beat as you scroll through speeds.

– Capture Card Improvements: new settings in Settings Window and ClipBin allow for more manageable capture card setups of multiple cards and inputs.

– Double-Click Defaults: on any knob to revert knob value back to the default.

– Panel Shape Engine: Allows Group or Panel fixtures to be non-rectangular surfaces.

– New Fx: Global Color Receiver (allows global color control over a specific Deck or master)

– New Generators: Polypusher by Epic

– Cues (alpha): You can now experiment with the new Cues engine by enabling it in the settings menu. The Cues system is an advanced – data recorder, pattern generator, and playback timeline of full control over any parameter in Crescent Sun.

– SceneProv Networkability: SceneProv now works over a network connection via NDI to allow you to use a different computer for real-time rendering 3D scenes than your show computer.

– Force Processing Res: will now force all your textures to process at a specific resolution to lower GPU ram or CPU processing if needed. This is off by default.

– Undo Button: Undos fixture creations and edits for a more streamlined workflow.

– Deck Texture Knob: allows you automatically scroll and insert clips in to your decks; great for lighting console integration.

– Auto-tag by folder: Gives user the ability to automatically tag their clips based on folder structure.

– Filterable Fixture Viewer: allows you to easily view and organize your Group and Panel fixture attributes.

 

UI/UX IMPROVEMENTS:

– Project Guide Indicators: See realtime data of your Pixel Map by hovering over panels.

– Clear Pixel Map: button clears current Pixel Map texture.

– Create Group Bounds: Conditional logic now prevents the user from creating ‘bad’ groups, such as ones that have an impossible pixel pitch or fall off of your pixel map.

– Settings Window: now always appears on your primary monitor.

– ClipBin Tag Organization: is now in two rows to quickly navigate between server tags and user tags.

– Multi-View: to see multiple Views on a single monitor. Use by shift-clicking multiple views.

– Hide xyz: in WorldEditor option in Settings menu.

– Live Preview: of camera feeds, NDI, and spout streams.

– Spacebar Pause Option: can be turned off in the Settings so that spacebar no longer pauses the server

– Panel/Group auto-select: when deleting a panel or group fixture.

 

OPTIMIZATION:

– Pixel Map Creation is much faster due to new GLSL-based pixel map and logic-based cooking so unnecessary code does not need to process.

– UV tool now displays dragging in semi-realtime.

– Various cook chain issues were optimized in which code no longer executes unnecessarily resulting in a higher frame rate during project assembly.

– Pixel Map locations of fixtures now display relative coordinates (based on currently selected Pixel Map) instead of absolute coordinates.

 

BUG FIXES:

– Saving name with an ErrorType no longer spams textport, which sometimes caused frame droppage.

– Subdividing panels correctly show subdivision markers without needing to click twice.

– Pixel pitches can contain a decimal again.

– Scaling UV map on groups and panels at the same time no longer renders panel textures incorrectly.

– Subdividing and creating groups can be done in any order without parent/child dependencies breaking.

– UV tool subdivide all button no longer requires a double-click to initiate.

– Various tagger system bug fixes that prevented a user from tagging clips properly if a certain condition was reached. Added extra system-checks to parse clips with bad names, duplicate names, ‘empty’ cells, etc. All known tagging issues are now fixed.

– Group/Panel snapping now works on panels that are rotated on different axis

– MIDI forget key would sometimes forget the first MIDI mapping instead of the selected.

– Settings window can no longer go behind main window.

– Deleting all color palettes from the Global Color tool will no longer force your stage to be black.

– Groups/Panels that have a pitch not equal to 10mm has better automatic placement in the WorldView.

– Media folder now saves with your project file.

– Always able to select panels in PanelMapper regardless of Worldmapper Tools selection.

– Windows manager now loads properly on irregular resolution displays.

– Record Settings [x] button now closes window.

– Show Texture and Texture Opacity Slider now affects World Editor View.

– FX names would sometimes be incorrect in the pipeline.

– Clicking on Panels and Group Fixtures very fast will no longer create clicking issues.

– Outliner did not show groups if there was only 1.