Thanks to everybody on the sunlite team for continuing to work with me on my requests. I looked at the new feature for 'this switch is always on' that I had asked about. But when I tried to make it work as I have been thinking about, it just didn't. I also have been playing around with the LiveControl functionality and I think I know what I am really looking for. So here goes:
Currently, when you turn a switch off, it resets all channels to zero that the switch was controlling and it's done. Specifically when programming a show in Easy Show of the complexity that I am trying to do, you have to use a lot of extra switch layers per fixture to 'overlay' switches so that when you want to, for example, switch a color from red to blue... you don't have to program an easy time or easy step sequence for it, you just place two color switches where you want them in Easy Show and you're done. Problem is, if you don't overlap them with mulitple layers, your red switch could 'end' and then you get zero (or usually white) and then your blue switch begins and it goes back to blue.
Also, when it comes to LiveControl....especially for on the fly spotlight control within an existing EasyShow program, it would be great for a LiveControl switch to be able to 'inherit' and then take control of the channels that it is controlling via LiveControl. Example: You have a show running and scanners are moving light beams around. If you then turn on a LiveControl switch, it does not make sense to have LiveControl default the beams to some 'starting position' and then be able to control them. LiveControl should inherit the current DMX values for its channels and then use the relative mouse movements to adjust those values on the fly while the switch is active. Likewise, when a switch using LiveControl is swiched off, the switch should be able to leave the channels as they are instead of going back to zero.
I know that these features may be very difficult, if not impossible to implement since they kind of go against the way sunlite works with its switches and so forth, but if they were options per switch that could be made, I think they would be very beneficial.
Let me summarize:
Switches should have option for '0 when switched off' or 'hold dmx values when switched off'. LiveControl channels should have option for 'inherit current dmx value' or 'use XXX starting value'. The first feature would replace the 'this switch is always ON' feature that you added in May.
Once again, many thanks and I hope that these features could be added. I think they could useful to myself and the rest of us.
Sunlite will be used to create and perform an extremely intricate multimedia lightshow called LightConcert in Phoenix, AZ in January 2007 for a private audience. This show will be a mix of intense pre-programmed sequences and some LiveControl work. A video of the show will be made available afterward. Further details coming soon at www.lightconcert.com
Thanks again!
--Joe
switch on/off control and LiveControl options
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