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Vista and crashes |
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dylanwalker 
Newbie 
Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 15 |
 Quote Reply
 Topic: Vista and crashesPosted: 06 Oct 2008 at 11:45pm |
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Hi,
I have just installed this software and in an attempt to explore the functionality, I have already experienced multiple issues and crashes (running vista). I realize that this software is in its early stages and is still a work in progress. I have included my issues and crashes here: Issues 1) Initial install includes a sequence without the necessary audio file and there is no way to access the menu without creating a new sequence (this is probably not desirable) or close out of the "quick startup" 2) I cannot create a sequence without the inclusion of an audio file... what if I don't want to use audio? 3) If no picture is provided on sequence creation, activating the visualizer editor does not give any user feedback (it should ask if you would like to add an image to the sequence or at least provide you with a blank workspace) 4) I don't see a rewind button in the sequence control... am I missing something? Crashes 1) Crashes on exit 2) Crashes if you cancel out of new sequence creation 3) Crashes in visualizer (after drawing one flood light with a single channel set up) |
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Pony_God
Senior Member 
Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Naples, FL Online Status: Offline Posts: 551 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 8:15am |
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Hay, welcome to Aurora, good to have you here. I'll see what I can comment on for you.
1. Okay, so what? Imagine Elvis isn't there, you're going to create or import a new sequence anyway, right? So just create or import. I'll agree that the no-exit is odd.
2. I've seen this question before, what are you doing with nothing to match the actions to? Just randon stuff blinking randomly? You could just hit the mute button so that you don't hear anything.
3. There is a default _image_ there, but there is nothing drawn. You had to add each chennel, you need to draw where that channel is. How could anyone else know what channels you have, or where they are located?
4. No. There is no rewind. I'm guedding that you'd just hiting the play/stop button and want to work in the middle of a song/songless sequence in your case. What you want to do is highlight in the very top section there the vu is a section (it will turn blue) and then when you play, it will only play that section.
1. Known bug, been that way for a while. I'd suggst reading historical posts. But since you are exiting the software, is it a problem for you?
2. That's because the program "closes" (see issue 1.)
3. Hum... Well, I don't know about only a single chennel added, but I don't have any problems adding floods to my existing 64 channels.
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tonyjmartin
Senior Member
Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Location: Traverse City, MI, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 144 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 9:33am |
Therein lies most of the problem. You are not going to master this or any other similar software in a short time (minutes, hours, or even days). And given that you "just installed" Aurora, it's a bit soon to start a "should" list. Given that brief dressing down, here's some tips: Earl (LightChristmas) has graciously donated his time to create a couple tutorials.   As far as not wanting to use an audio file... this is what Aurora does--it synchronizes a light sequence to music (or any audio file, for that matter). If you just want to open a sequence to have a look around, you can tell Aurora to use any audio file you like. If you don't have any long audio files on your computer, just use Windows Media Player to import a wav file from a CD to your hard drive. Any song around four minutes long will suffice to experiment. Or you could download Audacity (a free audio editing program) and create about four minutes of silence. I then recommend going to any one of the numerous sequence sharing sites available and downloading a few to get you started. Aurora will open it's own format (.dls), as well as import Light-O-Rama 1 & 2 and D-Light music sequences (.lms and .msq respectively). Remember, you can use any mp3 or wav file of sufficient length to open these sequences. But you can always assign the correct song later if you acquire a copy. As a side note--stick to using wav files, or convert your mp3 files to standard wav format (44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo) with Audacity before using them with Aurora. You'll thank me later. Here are some links to shared sequences: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aurorafileswappers/ http://www.lightoramasequences.com/ http://christmas.kreepyhollow.com/Shared.htm http://www.lightsonlogan.com/sequences.asp http://www.lamagiedenoel.ca/Lightorama/lightorama.htm http://www.d-light.us/forum/viewforum.php?f=23 (You will need to join the D-Light Forum to view these shared sequences) Here's some video to experiement with as well: http://www.christmasatthegoods.com/VideoCoop/ As for your Vista installation issues, the Installation Issues area is here. Give it a read. Especially these two threads: Vista MSCOMM32 / Error 339 official thread
Not starting on the right foot (MSCOMCTL.OCX) There's another thread somewhere that addresses Aurora crashing while drawing instruments in the Visualizer, but someone else will need to chime in with a link to that one. |
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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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dylanwalker
Newbie
Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 15 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 1:53pm |
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Hey everyone,
thanks for your responses. 1) The problem is that people that initially install the software would probably like to take it for an immediate test drive (this is what the included sequence is for, no? I couldn't even register my software, because the quick start menu prohibits access to the main toolbar. In order to do this, you first have to create a sequence (which means choosing an audio file and waiting for the software to process it, etc... ) 2) Actually I have a lot of uses for light sequencing that don't include sound. I like to run my lights on a nice looped sequence for many hours during the holidays (and I suspect my neighbors would not be pleased if I was constantly running music)... Muting the audio is OK as a workaround, but its silly that a user should have to make an xx minute long audio file of silence just to get an xx minute long sequence. 3) Actually, I simply didn't see any default image at all in several instances (could this be because I had not yet added channels?). I realize what the visualizer does and have used the one in spectrum before... but it did crash out on me in my quick 1-channel test example. This along with the other crashes has given me the feeling that the software is a little unstable (and I've had crashes ruin hours of sequencing work, as I'm sure many others here have as well, so I want to make sure that the stability issue isn't insurmountable before I dump hours of my time into it) 4) I think rewind is crucial! Again, the software is very similar to spectrum and I found myself using the rewind in spectrum frequently to get a sense of how my sequence was evolving. Now there are surely ways to work around this, but I think the lack of a rewind is pretty counter-intuitive... and would it be a hard feature to implement? Tonjymartin, thank you for providing the tutorial links; I realize many of this is out there (and I think you're assuming since I have no experience with THIS software, that I have no experience whatsoever)... but all the links your provide are surely useful to anyone reading this as well and thank you for trying to help. That being said, I think your response to me was a little unwarranted. I do not expect to "master" a software in a short amount of time and I don't think my complaints reflect that. And I don't need to be dressed down. The software crashes in multiple instances (even if this is a consequence of the flow routing to a software exit and it's really just one crash; I didn't tell the software to quit, and it probably shouldn't) Many of the issues I have mentioned (software crashing out at multiple places), (install not including the media files for the "example" sequence that is "ships" with) are things users would expect from a commercial software product that is "ready to ship". I think those things matter, even if there are workarounds that allow you to use the software successfully. As to the issue of creating a sequence without audio, I really would like this feature. I am migrating over from spectrum, where creating a lighting sequence without audio is easily accomplished (and no, it isn't just "random lights blinking"... give me a break). I think the solution of creating a xx minute long audio file of silence is a poor solution to the problem and I suspect that the feature of supporting audio-less sequence would not be an insurmountable addition, in the future. Also, suppose I want to create an audio-less light sequence and I am not yet sure of the length. I think this would be a great feature. Please realize that I'm not asking for any of these things to be resolved overnight. It is a bit frustrating, though, to be migrating away from a software and losing features that were very useful. |
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ChrisL1976
Beta Testers 
Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 2:17pm |
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Welcome to Aurora......you'll get the hang of it.....the learning curve
from spectrum isn't too bad if you haven't already noticed.
First, open this PDF file and print it out, its all the short cuts for Aurora http://www.d-light.us/forum/download/file.php?id=434 1. This was most likely something that was just overlooked.....unless you accidentally open aurora, how often are you not going to be opening a sequence or creating one. I'm sure its on the list of things to add in the future. 2. Aurora does not have a animation sequence creator like Spectrum did, BUT the work around is extremely easily. Download and install Audacity (audio editing software) and simply create a blank wav file that 5-10 minutes long.....If you search around the forum, I believe Michael (creator) mentions the exact length of audio file you can use. When you create your new sequence just import that. 3. It automatically inserts the picture of Michael's house as the default picture. I inserted a flood light on a single channel and I get no error. Can you specify the exact channel your getting the error. network id # ,device id # ,and ch # Please be aware that if you draw lights on a channel, then later change the channel numbers (netowr, device, ch#, ect.) it erases the lights on that channel. 4. Rewind.....Aurora has a rewind and a fast forward key....Spectrum Rewind took you to the beginning of your sequence...Aurora, just hit the HOME KEY If you want to go to the end of your song, hit the END key. Only thing I would like to see eventually is a Pause function. Look over that PDF file for Aurora key board functions and you'll find its pretty easy to work with. When you get a crash, copy the error code down so you can tell the Aurora guys know exactly what happening. Edited by ChrisL1976 - 07 Oct 2008 at 2:31pm |
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Chris
www.lightsonsixth.com |
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Pony_God
Senior Member
Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Naples, FL Online Status: Offline Posts: 551 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 2:32pm |
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Alright, I undersntand what you are saying so let me reply again. 1. When I installed the software, I did not have my key yet and did want to take it for a test drive, so I created a new sequence and played for 5 mins, then got kicked out. I didn't have a problem being "forced" to select an audio file. (continued in point 2)
2. I suppose that I understand what you want to do, and I suppose that's fair enough to ask. Not that tonyjmartin or I'd ever use that option, but I suppose it's fair enough to want.
3. Well... Lets see, is the 'default.jpg' in the correct place? Is the 'dimness' of the image too low where you just can't see it? Adjust the brightness with the sun icon on the editor. It could be that you don't have any channels added yet, that's not a 'normal' path to take so it may have slipped though a test crack. How about you add one of your ACx16s (I'm guessing on your hardware here) and see how the editor works then?
3A. As for stability, I do quick CTRL-Ss almost every other time that I hit play just incase of anything. Once I'm working in a sequence, I very rarely have any issues though. I do sometimes get a 'can't redraw' error. And there's really only one other error that I have that we're working on, but that does not cause work to be lost.
4. Have you tried to highlight a specific section to play and figure out what's going on? You can also left-click in the top and 'play-from-here'. Sometimes I just zoom out and grab a larger section. Sometimes a just go back a bit and start from there. Never having a 'rewind' I don't miss it. Also, what point exactly are you rewinding from? While sequence is playing?
I'll create a point 5.
5. Missing Elvis. Do you own that Elvis song? I don't, so I can't have it. I would think that the best option is to remove Elvis from the installation. (BUT DON'T DELETE IT FROM YOUR DRIVE) <- Aurora needs it there.
6. Don't forget that migration is always a change. Keep that in mind when your sequence actually play correctly with the schedular, or when Aurora doesn't suck up all of your memory, or when Aurora does save the file correctly. When you actually add your controllers in and then draw and then start sequencing, let's see how easy Aurora is to use for you. Features + poor stability != fun. I really havn't come across many places that I really need a feature, and I've only come across one work looseing crash-bug.
If you read some of the other posts around here, you'll see that there were some initial install fixes, and tweaks, and little bugs being worked on. There's a beta in testing currently, and hopefully a lot of little bugs will be tweaked and cleared out.
I'm sure everything will be worked out very soon.
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ChrisL1976
Beta Testers
Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 07 Oct 2008 at 3:05pm |
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I used a 30 minute pre-show last year that the lights changed from scene to scene in my display and it wasn't to any music.....lot of slow fades and such, but really I'm not sure how many of the users need it and the work around it not all that difficult.
Aurora does have a safety feature that spectrum did not have. If your working on something and get a crash....which, knock on wood hasn't happened to me so far.....when you open Aurora back up.....on the bottom of the first page, click on the "Use Backup workspace" DONT CLICK ANYTHING ELSE. Aurora automatically saves periodically to a temporary file. It will open the to the last point it saved to. If I remember right, its like every 4-5 minutes. |
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Chris
www.lightsonsixth.com |
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LightsOnLogan
Admin Group 
Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 3187 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 08 Oct 2008 at 11:46am |
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We can't include the Elvis song because licensing it would be cost prohibitive for a low volume product such as light sequencing software. Still, for tech support purposes it helps to have a "known good" sequence included with the program. Just prior to 1.0.0 the test sequence was Wizards but that sequence had become dated and needed updating since it was created with 0.2.0. Eventually we'll license something else (probably cheezy) from one of those royalty free catalogs and create a test sequence for it so that we can include the audio with Aurora.
Pause... we'll eventually add this. In the list of priorities our first priority is to stabalize the unexpected bugs that 1.0.0 had and to add the Firefly RGB tool before we start work on feature additions.
Just a reminder (since this comes up occasionally), you can use the arrow keys while highlighting stuff (audio, events) in order to extend your highlight selection beyond the visible screen. Also, there is a "loop" feature for playback of a highlighted section as well (click the play button a second time to enter loop mode).
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dylanwalker
Newbie
Joined: 06 Oct 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 15 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 09 Oct 2008 at 7:49am |
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Can I suggest as a priority for adding to the release, adding temporarily to the help file:
- a list of links to online tutorials (e.g., the ones provided in this thread)? - I think the "well known" vista solutions could also go in there... - and maybe any other recurring issues with known solutions/workarounds ...just a thought. It wouldn't have to be perfectly formatted and presented, so long as the information is there. |
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tonyjmartin
Senior Member
Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Location: Traverse City, MI, USA Online Status: Offline Posts: 144 |
Quote Reply
Posted: 09 Oct 2008 at 8:45am |
Aurora is working on a manual/help file, but they are a bit busy with the issues that Michael mentioned above. As for the other stuff, that's why we have this forum. |
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Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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