Graphics

 View Only
  • 1.  Transition Logic - Audio "Error"

    Posted 08-30-2018 21:00
    I have created multiple scenes for a show. I am using transition logic on all of them. The IN and OUT animations are on separate scene directors, and they include audio. The animations run fine when I'm taking scenes and then taking them offline one at a time. When I take the scenes back to back, the animation part works correctly--the scenes take back to back without the IN or OUT transition scene director running, however, the audio from the OUT scene director plays after the sequencer transition from one scene to the next, and it's not supposed to.

    Is there a known bug, or is there a work around, or something I need to do in order to stop the audio from playing when I take scenes back to back. I'm running Xpression version 7.0

    Things can sometimes change during the show, so it's not like I can just turn off the audio during the show. I am using the transition logic so I have the flexibility to take scenes individually, or back to back 'on the fly'.


  • 2.  RE: Transition Logic - Audio "Error"

    Posted 08-31-2018 17:11
    Hi Katherine,

    Would you be able to upload a sample for me to investigate.
    You can upload to transfer.rossvideo.com. Log in as "xpression", password is "rossvideo".
    It's write-only account, so after creating a folder and uploading, you won't actually be able to see the file on the server.
    Just send me the name of the folder you put it in and I will take a look.

    Thanks

    #XPression


  • 3.  RE: Transition Logic - Audio "Error"

    Posted 09-04-2018 20:18
    I uploaded the files. It runs off of an Excel table, so I included that separately, just in case it didn't go with the file export. The files names are "PTW_Show Template.xpp" and "PTW_Data Source.xls." I'm not sure if the graphics will load properly. I've never 'exported' a project out of Xpression, so I'm not sure how it works, or if it reconstructs the directory structure correctly. All the links in the table are pointing to files in the directory structure of the project, and the excel file is usually under the \misc folder. Most of the scenes seem to be working properly using transition logic. It just seems to be the two scene templates called:
    "TL_Generic Rows_C_TABLE 0*" and "TL_Jeffrey's Picks_PICKS TABLE 0*" that are having the audio problems. I have the groups with those scenes open on the sequencer.

    Thanks
    #XPression


  • 4.  RE: Transition Logic - Audio "Error"

    Posted 09-11-2018 15:59

    Hi Katherine,

    I just looked at the project and what was happening was that the way your IN/OUT rule was defined, it was actually running the Transition Out for the outgoing scene when doing a back-to-back. The way you've designed the transition logic is a little irregular from the normal way we would design it, where normally you create B2B In and B2B Out scene directors and the normal In Out scenedirectors also, and the default scene director is just left empty. Then rules are created for the In, Out, and B2B cases.

    I can see why you do it like this though; because you are trying to take advantage of the Push transition defined in the sequencer in addition to just running the normal default scene director in the back to back case. If you wanted to do this the more traditional way, you'd end up needing to the keyframe the Push into your B2B scene directors.

    The good news, is I was able to tweak your In/Out rule to work how you want. If you open the Live Log (tools->debug) menu and run yours, when you run the B2B case, you would see it actually logs a message saying that it is running the Out Transition for the outgoing scene because your rule was checking to see if the "TL_Generic_Rows scene was not online", and if false, play the transition out. In the B2B case, the TL Generic Rows scene is actually online, therefore the rule checking if it is "not online" is false, and therefore the outgoing scene will play it's out.

    I changed the rule, to instead use the "B2B Condition->Compare Scene Name". Like this screenshot. This rule will check if the scene with the given name is already on the same layer that the the new scene is going on, and if it is not, then it will play the In animation. During the back 2 back, the layer already contains a scene with that name, so the rule will not play the out.

    Hope this makes sense.. Conceptually it's a little tricky to wrap your head around, but I find looking at the live log as you play the scenes and it showing you which rule it chooses and what the rule evaluates to can help.

    I also found you have an MOV file in the project which you should convert to XPression AVI as it will play much faster.

    I also found the datalinqs very slow to prepare because it was querying a ton of datalinqs in these scenes. You may want to look at using the "Fixed Table" option in the datalinq where you define a datalinq as Fixed Table, set it to Asynchronously refresh, and set a refresh rate of a couple seconds. You'll need one datalinq for each table in the XLS file you access though (or only the ones where you query like 50 entries at once in a scene). You will find the fixed tables return the data almost instantly as opposed to waiting a long time for each individual query to occur. You can enable "logging" in the ADODB datalinq to see all the queries the scene is making as it prepares itself.


    #XPression


  • 5.  RE: Transition Logic - Audio "Error"

    Posted 09-18-2018 22:46
    I finally got a chance to check the forum. Thanks for looking into this for me. I wish I'd known about the Fixed Table feature before this--so many things with this software to learn. I will make those changes. Thanks Again!

    Katherine
    #XPression