Peculiar operation... [fixed]

[Detour DJ]

I just spent some time setting different scenes and ran across an odd behavior that I haven't found a solution for yet. A brief description:

I have one of my live pages set up for "Master" scenes, including basic color washes and blackouts. I have the "Solo Buttons" option turned on for this page because I only want one button active at a time. Another page is set up for "FX & Solos", with the "Solo Buttons" off. This page has several "layer" buttons I've designed to go over the Master scenes, such as individual solo highlights, various strobing and preset dims (75%, 50% & 25%).

Now here's where it gets odd: I've got the "percent dims" designed with nothing but dimmer levels active and a smooth transition over 2 seconds. If I set a master scene, then press the 25% dim button on the FX page, the lights gradually dim to the 25% level as desired. I've got two slow-blackout scenes designed exactly like the dims, the only differences being that they are on the same page with the master scenes, they dim to zero and they have dim times of 2 and 3 seconds each, but they both jump immediately to blackout without the slow fadeout.

Any answers for why it's ignoring the smooth transition time and jumping straight to immediate blackout? The really odd part is that going between "smooth transition" scenes in the Master page fade smoothly from one to another, but the smooth blackouts jump to black. It's kinda baffling...

[Johann911]

Just reopen editor and load the fadeout scene.
Make sure that it either has 3 steps:
1 - exactly the same as the scene you're fading from
2 - the fade (with scene transition set to the fade curve)
3 - the faders on zero

or 1:
Simply set the faders for the lights you want to fade to the levels you want (ie. 0 for blackout) and ensure that the dimmer curve is on.
then just set that button as a no-loop and it will fade out and de-activate.

Hope it helps.

[Detour DJ]

Thanks, Johann. Unfortunately, both #2 and #3 I'm already doing, but it's not responding as expected. I don't want #1 because I want the blackouts to be masters for any scene, essentially a slow fadeout for whatever scene is running, so I just want the dimmer levels to black out...nothing else.

As I mentioned, I have layer scenes on the "FX" page called "Dim 75%", "Dim 50%" and "Dim 25%", all with exactly the same characteristics as my slow blackouts. The "Dim" buttons work perfectly, slowly dimming the lights to the chosen levels. The slow blackouts jump to zero though.

The only other thing I can think of now that I've had time to sleep on it is that maybe the dimmer IS actually slowly dimming, but because I'm not activating any of the RGB channels in the blackout, they're all jumping to zero (default) levels when their scene button is released by the blackout button? Maybe if I set all the RGB levels in the blackout to zero also with smooth transitions, this may solve the problem. I'll try it tonight and repost later with the results.

I tell ya, even though I'm having to figure out new ways to write lighting scenes, the possibilities in ShowXpress are endless! Lovin' it!!!

[MikeyMo16]

This is just a suggestion (sorry if its already been covered) but check and make sure that your dim is not disabling the channel. All my black outs have every channel (color, gobo, strobe, ect) disabled. If you were wanting to fade to blackout set the value of the channel your wishing to fade out to zero. Hope that helps! (also make sure you don't have other scenes/chase's active that would compete with the fade as I believe they would take priority over fading to zero)

[Detour DJ]

Thanks MikeyMo16,
I was doing that. The only channels I had enabled for the blackouts were the dimmer channels. I'm using RGB LED lights though, and each of the RGB channels also acts as a dimmer for each color, so I'll bet I'm correct with my last statement on my previous post. The blackouts are on the same page with the basic RGB washes, and the "Solo Button" option is turned on for that page. When I hit a blackout scene, it cancels the RGB wash scene, so although my dimmer might be fading down over the set time, the RGB channels are immediately reverting to the default value (zero). I didn't get a chance to try this theory last night, but I will tonight and repost. I'd bet a huge sum that I'm right. If the blackouts were on a separate button page, or if the "Solo Button" was turned off, I think the scene would work as designed, but I want the blackouts to cancel the washes. I also have key triggers set for the blackouts so they can black out everything using the "CTRL" + "Shift" method. Thanks again...

[MikeyMo16]

I would also bet a huge sum that your right. Best of luck and let us know if that was the solution

[Detour DJ]

BINGO! That was it. I rewrote the slow blackout scenes with the dimmers on full and the RGB channels on zero (this is just for the RGB LED fixtures). Now, the LED washes fade exactly as desired.

This is definitely something to keep in mind if you use the "Solo Buttons" option on a Live page. Since the new button will cancel the old button, you need to remember that any channels you don't enable in the new scene will revert to either zero or the levels set by a button on another page. As I first wrote my scenes, no other buttons were controlling the RGB washes, so all the disabled channels in the blackout scenes reverted immediately to the default "null" value: zero.

Chauvet better start clearing some space for me in their offices...I'm gonna get so good at ShowX (and their other products) to the point where they offer me a job!

[support]

FYI
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=383

[Detour DJ]

Thanks Support,
That was the key a while back for me to understand the layering of scenes, and helped me want to make the jump from ADJ's MyDMX to Chauvet's ShowX. The concept of stacking scenes is huge. The only note I can add is regarding the use of one scene at a time, which is what I've tripped across as the basis for this thread. By Soloing scene buttons, they don't stack and layer...they replace the previous scene. So that scene essentially gets turned off, and any channels that aren't used in the new scene revert to zero immediately (or to levels set by an active scene on another page).

Thanks again to everyone for their assistance!