Changelog and version history?

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funkyant
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Changelog and version history?

Postby funkyant » 14 Mar 2019, 16:31

I notice we're now up to v3.1 after not using the software for a while, but I can't find any info about the releases.

Any chance of a sticky with the version history/ changelog?

I'm experiencing some wheel assignment bugs that I don't remember ever having before, and now I don't have access to the older version I was using.

If I get a chance I might make an extra youtube video, addressing features in the releases if warranted.
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niclights
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Re: Changelog and version history?

Postby niclights » 14 Mar 2019, 17:57

There haven't been a huge number of changes. Mostly they have been to accommodate new Titan features such as Capture and, more recently, product thumbnails and gobo swatches. And many of these are intended for the production of factory personalities and are not particularly relevant to customers (other than to maintain compatibility). For example the Atlabase GUID's for Capture are not available externally and there are some functions to assist adding gobo swatches that are designed to work with a very specific setup. It won't do any harm if other people use them but they are probably counter-productive unless you are producing large numbers of them and in conjunction with other tools that are not available to end users.

However, it is important to use the latest version - personalities saved from older versions of Personality Builder will almost certainly be stripped of newer features where relevant (for example Capture links, product thumbnails or gobo swatches).

There have also been a number of important fixes in the latest version. Saving certain multi-cell personalities could result in losing some of the master links and then these personalities would not work correctly when patched. This related to a very specific situation and only affects a very small number of personalites (3 or 4 IIRC) and this is explained in the history of the affected files but as long as you use the latest version it should not be an issue. Similarly, there was a problem previously where 16bit values could get rounded if DMX Values were set to 8bit when the files were loaded. In the vast majority of personalities there was no problem as the 16bit values were originally set as 8bit (most manufacturers document 16bit ranges as 8bit values) but it could result in changing the values in personalities where they were set accurately, typically media servers. These might then not work correctly when patched. Lastly there was a bug in Personality Builder v3.0 where it was not possible to load R20 files. All of these issues have been resolved in v3.1.

I am not aware of any wheel assignment bugs. I currently use v3.1 to produce all of the factory personality files and have used it to create hundreds of files without issue. If you can provide more details I will look into this further.
funkyant
Posts: 27
Joined: 07 Sep 2012, 18:03
Location: Ibiza, Spain

Re: Changelog and version history?

Postby funkyant » 15 Mar 2019, 11:37

Thanks Nic,

The specific issue I'm having is as follows:

Show console (TTII) on Titan 10.1 (for now). Builder 3.1 on laptop. Also testing on 11.1 simulator.

Make a personality from scratch as per the method outlined in my YouTube tutorial.

In the wheel assignment page, if I intentionally leave a wheel blank on page 1, for example I want lamp ctrl and fixture reset on the second page, (even though page 1 has empty wheels), titan seems to put the wheel assignment from page 2 on the empty slot on page 1. I don't remember this behavior in previous versions.

Also, similarly, if I assign dimmer to wheel 1 and shutter to wheel 2 on the intensity attribute, for some reason shutter is assigned to wheel 1 on page 2. This is on 10.1. On 11.1 it behaves as expected.

I attempted to open the personality created in builder 3.1 on builder 3.0 in the console and resave it, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

I suspect you're going to tell us to just update the console, but I thought it worthwhile to note that backwards compatibility may be broken, which can be a trap for people using updated laptops with client's consoles that have not been updated because, "it aint broke", which is what I'm dealing with here.
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niclights
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Re: Changelog and version history?

Postby niclights » 15 Mar 2019, 12:41

The bunching up is a Titan thing rather than anything to do with Personality Builder and it has done this for as long as I can remember, possibly always. In some cases it is useful - for example where fixtures have modes with different control options if it didn't bunch up you could end up having to cycle through empty pages. But it is also true that it would be useful to set absolute slots in other situations (along with the ability to page pan/tilt, define Attribute Editor page layouts without then being linked to wheel slot/group and affected by window size etc.) Hopefully there will be solutions in a future version (of Titan and Personality Builder).

Regarding intensity there was a change in Titan v11.0 where controls in the separate dimmer slot were combined into intensity so that controls such as dimmer and shutter would appear together without having to change page. I suspect the difference you are seeing is related to that.

In terms of versions I understand about backwards compatibility and practicalities of updating. However, the personality files are compatible with all versions of Titan, regardless which version of Personality Builder is used. So there should be no problem in using Personality Builder v3.1. The fixes mentioned below are significant. It is currently used to produce all factory personalities and I cannot think of any advantage there would be in using an older version.
funkyant
Posts: 27
Joined: 07 Sep 2012, 18:03
Location: Ibiza, Spain

Re: Changelog and version history?

Postby funkyant » 15 Mar 2019, 13:02

I'm updating everything now, but have sent you a PM

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