In DMXControl 3, you can store values for device functions as both absolute and relative values within a scene.
Overview
It is possible in DMXControl 3.2.2 to store both absolute and relative values for individual device functions in Cues. A typical use case for relative values are the effects, such as for moving heads or scanners. This allows the center points of effects, stored relatively in the scene, to be moved live during runtime via separate Cuelists with different position values.
Important Features
The display of whether a value is relative or absolute currently only occurs in the Device Control. To check this, the scene must be loaded into the Programmer and then the relevant device or device group must be selected.
Usage
The selection between absolute or relative values is made when preparing the light mood in the Device Control. Before the respective function, which supports saving absolute and relative values, there is a corresponding button. This button toggles between absolute values ABS and relative values REL. The input logic does not change. For example, relative values for position or dimmer are entered in the same way.
It is also possible to use both relative and absolute values for different functions in a scene simultaneously. That means you can, for example, set the dimmer to an absolute value while the position is stored as relative.
A switch between absolute and relative values is possible for all numerical values. However, color is an exception.
Output Behavior
The output behavior differs whether you execute multiple cuelists with relative values simultaneously or work with relative values within a single cuelist. Additionally, priority also affects the output.
Using Multiple Cuelists
If you have stored different values as relative values in a scene, these will be added to or subtracted from already output values when the cuelist is played. This may also result in two cuelists with relative values cancelling each other out if the respective device functions, such as position, goborotation, or goboindex, allow negative values.
Multiple cuelists with relative values can also be executed simultaneously. DMXControl 3 adds the values contained in the scenes to the current absolute value. This is either the value for the base state, which the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) sets for devices not addressed by cuelists, or a cuelist whose scenes contain absolute values. In the latter case, the cuelist always provides the reference value for the relative values, which wins based on its priority and mixing modes (HTP, LTP, or LoTP).
Relative Values Within a Cuelist
When using relative values within the same cuelist, the last set values are always considered. There is no accumulation over multiple scenes.
Accordingly, it is possible to remove the relative values by creating a scene with relative values for the respective device function and setting the relative value to 0. From this point on, the absolute values will correspond to the actual output.
Influence of Priorities
For relative values of a cuelist, only priority applies. The mixing mode (HTP, LTP, or LoTP) is not taken into account here. The priority of the cuelist determines when the relative values will interfere with the output, if cuelists with absolute values are running in parallel. The following definitions apply for the output:
- If only cuelists with relative values are executed, all of them are added together, regardless of the cuelist priorities. The reference value is the base value of the devices.
- If cuelists with absolute values are executed in addition to cuelists with relative values, the cuelist with absolute values that has the highest priority and was started last is used as the reference value. DMXControl 3 will then only add cuelists with relative values whose priority is equal to or greater than the priority of the cuelist with absolute values. Cuelists with a lower priority are "ignored," regardless of whether they contain absolute or relative values.
Based on these definitions, the following values are derived for the "Position" device function in the examples below:
- Example 1: If only cuelists with relative values (cuelists 12, 13, 22, and 23) are executed, which are assigned priorities 0, 3, and 4, DMXControl 3 will add the values of all cuelists. The base value of the device will be used.
- Example 2: If a cuelist (cuelist 21) with absolute values is started, whose priority is between 1 and 4, this cuelist will serve as the reference value for the addressed device function. DMXControl 3 will then only add the cuelists with relative values whose priority is equal to or greater than the priority of the cuelist with absolute values. Cuelists with a lower priority are "ignored," regardless of whether they contain absolute or relative values.
- Example 3: Here, only cuelists 21 and 23 are executed. Since no cuelist with absolute values has a higher priority than 5, the absolute values of cuelist 21 will serve as the reference value for cuelist 23.
- Example 4: If all cuelists from this example are executed, cuelist 31 with its absolute values will overwrite all cuelists with absolute and relative values with a lower priority, due to its priority of 32.
| Input | Output | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | Type | Prio. | Explanation | Ex. 1 | Ex. 2 | Ex. 3 | Ex. 4 | |
0; 0 |
ABS | --- | Base value | active | active | active | active | |
-30; +45 > +30; +45 |
ABS | 0 | Cuelist 11 | off | off | off | active | |
-10; +10 > +10; +10 |
REL | 0 | Cuelist 12 | active | off | off | active | |
+10; -10 > -10; -10 |
REL | 0 | Cuelist 13 | active | active | off | active | |
0; +80 |
ABS | 3 | Cuelist 21 | off | active | active | active | |
-45; -15 > +45; -15 |
REL | 3 | Cuelist 22 | active | active | off | active | |
-20; 0 > +20; 0 |
REL | 4 | Cuelist 23 | active | off | active | active | |
0; -35 |
ABS | 32 | Cuelist 31 | off | off | off | active | |
| Result | -65; -15 > +65; -15 |
-45; +65 > +45; +65 |
-20; +80 > +20; +80 |
0; -35
| ||||