program own shapes for "shape generator"

[GEORGzer]

Hello,

I'm new in this forum, but not new to Avolites
Me and my friend use a Pearl 2000 console. We recently updated it to the 2004 software.

We also edited the .r20 fixture files we use regularly, to customize the "locate" position and the color palettes. We also updated the shape file to the latest version available. So we know, how those files are coded and work.

Now I have a question about the shape file: is it possible to create a shape, which uses "tilt" and "dimmer" at the same time?
We want to create that "tilt/dim" effect (maybe also known as fallout or "curtain" or something other) where the lights move from tilt 50% to 100% at dimmer 100% and back to tilt 50% at dimmer 0%. So when you use more lights and they run the shape as "even", it looks like an endless rising of lights. I have to look on youtube if I can find a clip of that effect.

I started to study the shape file (SG.DAT) and I believe I understand how it works by now. However, it seems like all preprogramed shape use either pan/tilt or colors or dimmer, but nothing combined. Is that even possible?

When I use the existing "tilt swing" shape

SHAPE "Tilt Swing" "SIN"
6 80 64 0 0 0 0 0
SEND

and I edit in some coding for the dimmer (8) like

SHAPE "Tilt Swing" "SIN"
6 80 64 0 0 0 0 0
8 255 64 0 0 0 0 0
SEND

it doesn't actually work. I believe because the pattern "SIN" also tries to work with the dimmer.

I haven't studied the coding of the shape file yet, so I don't know what numbers I have to put past the dimmer (8), but I just wanted to know if it is possible at all.
Maybe by creating a new pattern" as well?


Thank you for any help
Greetings from Austria,
Georg

[niclights]

Unfortunately what you are trying to do is not possible. As you have already discovered you can only have one pattern assigned to any given shape. For a 'cascade' type effect to work you would need different patterns for the intensity and positional part. This does not mean it is impossible to achieve but it will require manually combining two shapes when programming. I have done similar things before using iris and shutter. For the shutter part I wrote a custom pattern & shape to get the open/closed switching just how I wanted it.

[GEORGzer]

Thank you for your answer!

I managed to do those effects before with chasers, like this one.


But it isn't nearly as comfortable as with a shape. And to make it look "smoother", lamp nr. 2 would have to start it's movement when lamp nr. 1 is still on it.
With enough time and lot's of "unfolding" it's doable, yes. But well, it's an 13 years old console, what am I complaining about


I have another, related question:
is it possible to create dimmer shapes with subtraction?
Meaning: when I work with palettes, I save the dimmer channel of all moving lights to one playback fader. However, if I wanna use a dimmer shape like "pulse 3.1", I have to set the "dimmer playback" to 0. Otherwise all lamps stay at dimmer 100% and nothing happens.
My friend who owns a chamsys controller told me, that he could set dim chasers like this.

Or do I have to chance modes for that so the dimmer shape "overwrites" the playback fader?

Thank You again!
Georg

[niclights]

It will work if you write a custom pattern for the dimmer and then overlay this with the tilt shape. The trick is getting the pattern right so that the intensity is fully lowered before the fixture starts to move to its start position and doesn't raise the intensity until the fixture has had time to get there. Once you've figured that out you can get all the nice shape spread functions working. The only thing to watch out for is when adding the two shapes together in the programmer they won't automatically sync. The way I do it is to add the shapes, record a playback, clear and then include the playback. This will then show you the two shapes correctly synchronised. The other important thing to remember is the speed of the two shapes must be identical and always adjusted together.

/Edit: In response to your second question, the way patterns work is they add or subtract around an origin. The size parameter acts as a multiplier but assuming it is set to full then the patterns allow a maximum of + 127/-128 decimal. In the file these are written in hex (7f/ff80 respectively, where the ff means negative). This is a significant limitation of the Classic software meaning it is not possible to achieve full subtractive or additive shapes which require + 255/ -256. You can do this in Titan. You can set an absolute base position by changing the last value in the shape definition. This is set in decimal. When set to zero it will use the current channel value for its origin. Any other value will override this and become absolute. A typical example is with the rainbow effect which will always snap all colour components to 50% regardless of their current value. The 'user' shapes are versions without the absolute origin.