Mike Fahl
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Posts posted by Mike Fahl
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All error messages seem to indicate Network related problems. You may want to look into the network configuration of the offending computer(s). Disable any unused NICs in case those confuse WATCHOUT.
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I get the impression you're trying to mix version 5 and 6 computers in the same system. That won't work. If you have v6 production software, you must also have v6 display software.
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What do you mean by "use Telnet from Watchout"?
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I'm trying to use DMX to modulate tween tracks from an ETC Ion using Artnet. Do I need a separate DMX to Artnet converter to go into the Watchout system, or can the Watchout system receive Artnet through a shared network between Lighting and Watchout?
That should work, assuming they're on the same subnet. Some Artnet devices are picky here, but I think most modern interfaces can be used on any subnet.
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There's a "-NoLogo" command line switch that will disable the on-screen logo. Described in the WATCHOUT 6 manual:
http://academy.dataton.com/wo6/Command%20Line%20Options.xhtml#toc_marker-15-1
It will work in v5 as well, but I believe in that version it may in that version not suppress the logo when the program is first launched - only subsequent appearances.
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But can you explain further.. "trigger things in WATCHOUT from a console." I presume console = A lighting desk of some merit?
Right. I was under the impression you wanted to integrate WATCHOUT with lighting, and MSC is a way to do so if you run lighting from a console that supports that standard.
re "Bring in a couple of channels and set up the triggering conditions in the Task window". If you've a page reference in the manual i'll re read the manuals.
See under "DMX-512 input" and "Triggering Tasks" here:
http://academy.dataton.com/wo6/index.html
Finally re "You can also use DMX to modulate tween tracks in WATCHOUT." again and sorry to be so slow here... how?
See the sction titled "CONTROLLING TWEEN TRACKS" in that same chapter.
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You can certainly use DMX to trigger things in WATCHOUT from a console. Bring in a couple of channels and set up the triggering conditions in the Task window. You can also use DMX to modulate tween tracks in WATCHOUT.
Alternatively, if your console supports MSC (MIDI Show Control), you can output MSC from the console to trigger timelines in WATCHOUT.
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The data saved by WATCHOUT 6 is a bit easier to deal with here, since it adds a comment to each line in the file with the name of the corresponding field as a trailing line comment. Makes it a bit easier for us mere mortals to find what we're looking for.
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Audio playback selection on Prod or Display doesn't seem to have this option in v5. Is this option new to V6?
Yes.
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If it helps quitting and then restarting the display software (and it then loads OK), then my guess is that WATCHOUT loads before some crucial other software component is fully operational, resulting in the erroneous behavior you describe.
I so, the best solution is to identify the component causing this behavior, and (if possible) adjust its settings or disable it entirely (assuming it isn't required). If this is not possible, the -Delay command line parameter can be used as a work-around, by delaying the start of WATCHOUT by whatever time required to make the computer start up reliably before launching WATCHOUT.
See here:
http://academy.dataton.com/wo6/Command%20Line%20Options.xhtml#toc_marker-15-1
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As I understand your setup, someone (a human being) would have to authenticate to get access to your server. I guess you could do that manually by interacting with the window on the dynamic image server computer. But doing this as a manual method isn't particularly practical. Perhaps you could arrange with your server people to have an alternative method of "unattended" authentication since, in this case, there's no human operator standing by to handle the authentication. Some kind of API key – passed as a query parameter, or similar – comes to mind.
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I forgot to mentio there are some options controlling the behavior of extended texture corrdinates on the Advanced tab of the Cue that displays the 3D object. See under "TEXTURE" here:
http://academy.dataton.com/wo6/Cues.xhtml#toc_marker-7-2
These options control whether and how the texture will "tile" when using extended UV coordinates, with the following options:
Repeat Image Side by Side. The texture you apply will be shown repeatedly, side by side, for as large a range as required. For instance, if the texture range in the 3D model is five wide by five tall, 25 copies of the texture will be shown in a 5-by-5 arrangement.
Repeat by Mirroring Even Copies. This option is similar to the previous one, but will cause copies at even positions in the grid to be mirrored or flipped. This works better with some textures to create a more seamless look.
Extend image edge pixels. In this mode, texture coordinates that fall outside the 0…1 range will be filled with whatever color is at the closest edge in the texture you provide.
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A note for Mike Fahl, I do notice when a TCP port is closed by Watchout, Wireshark shows it as a port ‘RST' (reset). I am not fully knowledgeable on this, but an RST appears to be a somewhat non-standard way to close the port. Terminal applications I have available to me (I tried MS Hyperterminal, PuTTy, Crestron Viewport and the Apple command-line Telnet client) will all maintain the TCP connection under normal circumstances until closed. When the socket is closed by the terminal Wireshark will show a disconnect as a "FIN,ACK" exchange and seems happy. It is only with Watchout the RST occurs. I am not certain, or if this is bad behaviour.
Many thanks for your valuable insights, Bill, as always! There's a difference in how WATCHOUT closes the TCP connection compared to most standard tools (such as telnet). A TCP socket can be closed in two ways; gracefully and forced. When closed gracefully, the closing app first closes its sending end, and then awaits the other end to recognize this and close its end. Then the connection is terminated. In between these to close operations, the app that first closes its connection may still receive data from the other end, until the other end also closes its end and acknowledges that. This procedure is to guarantee no loss of data on the "return" channel from the initial closing end's point of view. But since WATCHOUT doesn't care about data being sent from the other end, there's no need to wait for it. Hence the slightly less "graceful" forced close behavior.
Mike
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Try to provide more details on what you mean with "crashes", in order to understand what's going on here. How does this crash manifest itself? Can you get a screenshot of it? Is there any more details available? Such informaion will help in figuring out what's crashing. To begin with, it must be determined whether it's actually WATCHOUT that's crashing or the capture card's driver or some other software. I understand this doesnt make much difference for you, but it does make a difference in how to figure out what's going on and how to fix it.
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I believe WATCHOUT will handle both cases. Easy enough to try.
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So, does the WO show save, which BMD Decklink driver was used when creating the show?
No.
And does it help re-installing Watchout after I updated the Decklink driver+firmware?
No
The only information saved in the show file is what you see in the Live Video media item settings dialog box. In addition to this, the information used to access the capture source is what's selected on the Video In menu of the computer at runtime (which is not saved in the show file, but is local to that particular computer).
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I'm not aware of any automatic method for accomplishing this. I guess you could manage positioning from some external control system, and there write a script feeding values to WATCHOUT in some random fashion. But I think you're better off creating something in WATCHOUT that has a "random look" to it, positioning objects manually using one or a few auxiliary timelines.
Having a number of auxiliary timelines to alter between will avoid always having the same look, making it appear more "random". You can set up trigger conditions for those auxiliary timelines so they alter among themselves by using the new "Generic Variable". Add a cue to each of the aux timelines, setting such a variable to a different value. Then use that value in the trigger condition to choose among those "randomized" timelines, thus making different timelines start when the basic triggering condition is met. This will add some sense of "randomness" to the end result.
See more here:
http://academy.dataton.com/wo6/InputsOutputs.xhtml#Anchor-18
Note that the ability to use outputs as part of task triggering expressions is new in WATCHOUT 6, specifically designed to allow this kind of internal control within WATCHOUT itself.
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Easiest option in watchout is to get a 3D model. Build your effects in 3D then render them out from the viewers perspective. In 2D software you can then add your tracelines and other effects. Back in 3D software put your 2D output back onto the model, calculate your projector positions in real life then render content for each projector. You can then use watchout to warp and blend your projectors. To project behind columns you'll need to make sure you have projectors hitting these walls.
While that method certainly works (and has been in use very successfully for many years), it is the pre WATCHOUT 6 method, In WO6, you can work with the 3D model directly in WATCHOUT. For a large object, such as a building, you need to consider the resolution needed to texture the building. If you need very high total resolution (beyond 4k), you may need to divide the building into multiple "sub-meshes" in the 3D file, and then texture those separately in WATCHOUT. If you're OK with 4K or less total resolution, you can use a single mesh and a single texture for the entire building. Note that this doesn't require projectors to be 4K, as you may use multiple projectors to cover the entire building. But the video used to texture the 3D object in WATCHOUT need to be of sifficient resolution to look good at the desired viewing distance from the building.
The fitting of the video onto the building is all based on the UV mapping done in the 3D file. Once you have this figured out, the 3D program can generate a "template image" that shows where everything goes, just as Josef says. This can then be used as a basis for the content (e.g., video) creation. The video will then snap in place in exactly the same way when dropped onto the 3D model in WATCHOUT.
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I would concur with both Erik and Jim. Since WATCHOUT is a 32 bit app, it can not use more than 4GB by itself. It could still have a leak, of course, and run out of space inside its 4GB "world". But that would not cause Windows to run out of memory on a 16 GB system. So my guess is there's something else in the system that's being used by WATCHOUT - such as a driver or similar - that in its turn has a leak causing the OS to run out of memory. More information is probably needed to figure this out.
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Yes. Make the UV coordinates extend outside the 0…1 range, and textures will tile accordingly, I.e., if you have UV range of 1…5, you'll get 5 copies of the textures "tiled".
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I know there were some changes related to accessing video proxy files on network shares in WO6. But you probably need to contact support@dataton.com with a small test case and details on how you want to use it in order to get a useful response.
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Video input device not specified
This error message indicates that your input number mapping isn't set properly. Make sure the input number you use is correctly mapped to the proper capture device. In the display software, this is done on the Video In menu, as described here:
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If there's no known and predictable sequence of characters that can be sent to the projector after opening the TCP connection to make it behave the way you want, it may not be possible to do from WATCHOUT. But that sounds quite unlikely to me. Surely, the whole point with having a command protocol is to enable the control from external system by sending a command string to the device.
Page 51 of the projector's manual found here
seems to imply that you need to wait for the string "Hello" from the projector before you can send any commands to it. This almost make it sound as if the network protocol is designed to be used by a human typing at a terminal. Why would a control system be interested in getting a "Hello" prompt? If this is indeed the case, I don't think you can make it work, since there's no way to make WATCHOUT await a "Hello" string from the projector before proceeding with the command.
Have you talked to Christie about the problem you're having?
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OK, so you need to do the same when firing off this command from WATCHOUT. I.e., press Enter the first thing you do (by inserting a carriage return, presumably), then type the command. Hopefully this additional "blank line" will not upset the projector on subsequent commands. So your command string should look like this:
$0DC0D$0D
Where the first carriage return (aga $0D) takes care of the empty password entry, and the following characters (and the terminating carriage return) is the actual command.
Hope this works out for you!
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I need a Display PC with 4 outputs and SDI capture card, without delay
in WATCHOUT FORUM
Posted
As long as the resolution and refresh rate are the same, I would think so. But I've never really tried. There's certainly nothing in WATCHOUT that would prevent this combination.
Mike