Graphics

Hi folks,

I have a decibel meter which is hooked up to a microphone in our arena. Long story short, I've animated this meter to fill according to how loud the crowd is. It works, but the animation is choppy.
I've set an animation controller to 100 frames , starting on 0 and ending on 100 to relate to the percentage of how much the decibel meter is filled.

The decibel software is limited to updating once every 500ms, so is there a way to make the animation always take 15 frames (500ms) to complete when the start and stop point are different?
I've included my code here because my explanation isn't the best. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.


OnSetText:

dim meter1 as xpTextObject
dim meter2 as xpTextObject
dim BarUp as xpAnimController
dim divisor as integer
dim minus as integer

scene.GetObjectByName("DB1", meter1)
scene.GetObjectByName("DB2", meter2)
scene.GetAnimControllerByName("BAR UP", BarUp)

divisor = 40
minus = 60

meter1.text = (self.text - minus) / divisor

if meter1.text > meter2.text then
BarUp.PlayRange(meter2.text * 100, meter1.text * 100)
else if meter1.text < meter2.text then
BarUp.PlayRange(meter2.text * 100, meter1.text * 100)
end if

meter2.text = meter1.text

Hello Wes ,
you can adjust the speed of your anim controller to match the duration of 500ms.
BarUp.speed = Math.abs( CDbl(meter2.text * 100) - CDbl(meter1.text * 100) ) * constantfactorValue

constantfactorValue will depend on your framerate and the total duration of your anim controller

Also , to avoid jitter if the value is not updated exactly every 500ms , don't use the previous stored value, but use the current position of the animation instead
BarUp.PlayRange(BarUp.Position, meter1.text * 100)


Let's try this kind of script :

dim BarUp as xpAnimController
dim divisor as double
dim minus as double

if scene.GetAnimControllerByName("BAR UP", BarUp) then

divisor = 40
minus = 60

Dim posCurrent as double ' current position in the animation
Dim posToReach as double ' position to reach
Dim constantfactorValue as double

constantfactorValue = 1 ' value to compute to match the constant duration

posCurrent = BarUp.position
posToReach = (CDbl(Text) - minus) / divisor * 100
BarUp.speed = Math.abs( posToReach - posCurrent ) * constantfactorValue ' speed adjust
BarUp.PlayRange(posCurrent, posToReach)


end if

Hope it helps
#XPression

I'd love to get more information on your decibel meter integration. What meter are you using?
#XPression

Thanks for your responses folks. I won't be back in the control room for a couple weeks
I'll try your suggestion and get the info on the decibel meter. Stay tuned.
#XPression

Amignon, your code looks promising but we are having an issue with the decibel meter not outputting any values (first time since it was installed four years ago!). Unfortunately I'll have to try it later.

Cam, the software is called LAMA from lama-audio.net. It looks as though the microphone is just plugged into the mic input on a Mac Pro.
#XPression

I'm going to follow this one too.

#XPression

Ok folks I finally got this working... and the code is much simpler than I originally had.

dim meter1 as xpTextObject
dim meter2 as xpTextObject
dim BarUp as xpAnimController
dim divisor as integer
dim minus as integer
dim constantFactorValue as double

scene.GetObjectByName("DB1", meter1)
scene.GetObjectByName("DB2", meter2)
scene.GetAnimControllerByName("BAR UP", BarUp)

divisor = 40
minus = 60
constantFactorValue = 0.07 'speed adjustment value

meter1.text = (self.text - minus) / divisor

BarUp.speed = Math.abs(meter2.text * 100 - meter1.text * 100) * constantFactorValue
BarUp.PlayRange(meter2.text * 100, meter1.text * 100)

meter2.text = meter1.text

I got rid of the "if statement" after I realized both conditions resulted in the same outcome. Feel free to use this as you wish. Let me know if you have any comments or questions about this!
This works because my source is always being updated every 500ms. If your refresh rate is variable, you would have to use something else.
#XPression