jfk
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Posts posted by jfk
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By the way only one CAT 5 output on the Computer and the TCP/IP v6 is turnned off.
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WATCHOUT only cares about valid Windows IP connections.
Granted CAT5 is connected to an Ethernet port, which is a valid IP connection,
but it is not limited to that.
Windows will provide valid IP connections via many methods - bluetooth, firewire, wifi, etc. - even virtual interfaces.
As Jonas indicates, it would be best to confirm no additional Windows IP connections are active.
If any are found, de-activaate / disable them in Windows.
On computers with FireWire ports (usually on the motherboard), as a Windows default,
more than once I have seen the Firewire port as an active IP connection - with nothing physically connected to the Firewire port.
Same is true for computers with integrated wifi.
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Well I'll be, when you install WATCHOUT 5.3.1, Dynamic Image Server shows version 5.2.
Thanks for pointing that out to me. I guess the DIS improvements were on the production / display side of the system.
Dataton AB, any comments?
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I would not attempt to troubleshoot that problem
without first running the same / newest version of WATCHOUT on the Dynamic Image Server.
There are improvements to the Dynamic image Server in 5.3 / 5.3.1 specifically related to .swf files.
Please uninstall WATCHOUT and Codememeter and install the same version on the Dynamic Image Server and try again.
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Hi WO-people!
We're working on a presentation where one part has a BIG logo-sponsor-scroll. The graphic is a PNG with alpha on a star-field background.
The problem is that we're getting wrong display in the stage editor and on screen - it's like the alpha channel is not rendered properly.
Some specs:
The PNG is w1024 x h18060 px (we used to work with 770 x 3860 on earlier versions of the show).
I googled on the subject and found out that 'Save for web' in Photoshop has its limits - which is quite fair! No one works with 18060 px on the web ;-)
Anyway we did some trial-and-error-tests by saving 'Save as PNG' in Photoshop and one of the tests actually worked - and it was still 18000'ish in height. But some other tests with 5000 px height didn't compute.
I can't find the logic here... could there be some limitations between PNG and Watchout 3.4.2 ?
We could split the scroll into 5 smaller parts but that would give us more work - and we're on a tight tight deadline here... and Santa's coming to town :-)
Thanks!!
Cheers
/Henriko
Out of curiosity, have your tried changing the transparency setting
in the Media Window object's Image Settings Dialog
from 'Auto Detect' to a specific transparency setting?
From WATCHOUT User Guide — Chapter 3 Media — page 36
Transparency
In most cases, WATCHOUT can determine the kind of alpha channel (transparency)
being used in the image, if any. If the automatic detection fails,
choose the correct type of alpha channel here.
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We recently bought Watchout at our theater and I have started playing around with the software and designing a few things for shows. My artistic director would like to send me somewhere to learn more about the capabilities and uses of Watchout. Ideally I could assist with a design, programming or install or something like that. We are a french theater in winnipeg and would prefer to stay in canada and learn in french but we are open to anything in North America. There is also possibility of an offshoot of coming to our theater and doing a workshop with a group of technicians and artists to learn the possibilities of Watchout in entertainment and art. Any ideas or leads would be appreciated.
-Miguel
Hello Miguel,
Show Sage conducts 2-day WATCHOUT training classes at various locations.
Our next class will be held in Valencia, CA USA (North of LA) on Janauary 15-16.
It is also possible to schedule private classes in the US or Canada for a fee that covers labor costs and expenses.
Contact sales _at_ showsage.com for more information.
Dataton AB conducts a one day WATCHOUT Academy class as well,
next one is in Amsterdam, Netherlands January 8,
although I see that one is now 'sold out'.
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to clarify this further, I'm referring to newer iOS 6 iPad w/remote app controling a Watchout display running version 5.1 on windows 7.
Do we need to update to WO 5.3 for the remote to work properly with apple iOS 6 device?
Yes, version 5.3.1 to be exact.
Version 5.1 existed before iOS 6 existed, Apple changed something that broke the iOS support in iOS 6.
Dataton responded by updating their iOS support in the next version released - 5.3.1
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Sounds like a neat trick, only thing is that it's hard to lock/sync the two input (Datapath) cards together in WATCHOUT.
There is no equivalent to video genlock for DVI, as far as I know.
/endquote
Agreed, on the WATCHOUT capture side, the capture cards have no genlock functions. Been thinking about that.
If the two sources can be genlocked, then the result would effectively be genlocked at the WATCHOUT / capture card interface.
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when can we mac guys expect an upgraded remote app for the new iPads & iPhones?
????
Are you referring to compatibility with the new iOS 6.x.x ?
That was done after iOS 6 release in 5.3.1
from WATCHOUT 5.3.1 Release Notes Dataton WATCHOUT version 5.3.1
This version of Dataton WATCHOUT™ brings a few new features along with some bug fixes.
New Features
WATCHOUT is now compatible with Windows 8.
You can now control WATCHOUT display software using the WATCHOUT Remote App running under iOS 6.
...
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Quick question. Does Watchout handle Adobe Illustrator/vector graphics?
Thanks,
Brent
/endquote
No.
Illustrator will render a bitmap with its export function.
When it is time to use it in a WATCHOUT Show,
it is time to set the resolution and save for WATCHOUT.
Rendering it in Illustrator to the resolution needed in the show
should produce the best results. PNG works well.
from Adobe Illustrator user guide PNG formatDeveloped as a patent-free alternative to GIF, Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is used for lossless compression and for display of images on the World Wide Web. Unlike GIF, PNG supports 24-bit images and produces background transparency without jagged edges; however, some Web browsers do not support PNG images.0 -
Thanks Jonas
Follow-up to above. Has anyone tried using the Enterprise management tools like WinRM, remote access via UAG or any of the other Enterprise features on a system running Watchout, how many of these features would work if one was to apply the entire tweaklist? What effect would NOT applying the entire list have on watchout?
I'm hoping to try the UAG thing tomorrow and any tips would be appreciated.
/endquote
Never tried Win 7 enterprise, but Win XP Pro caused lots of problems with management tools like WinRM.
i.e. you should shut all those things off as part of your tweaking.
Which brings up the question, why use Enterprise for WATCHOUT?
There are no features unique to Enterprise that help WATCHOUT in any way
and one heck of a lot of them that will mess with WATCHOUT.
Seems like wasted money and un-necesary risk
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Hello all,
I have a project with two projector edge blended with 25% overap. The two displays total 1792x768. I made a jpeg graphic that is 7168x3072. 4x the size of my displays. I made 4x larger so I can scale it down over 4 minutes. As the graphic starts to scale down it plays smooth, but as it gets to around 35% scale it starts to stutter/jitter and playback rough. The graphic is only 7mb. Would the size of the graphic be bogging down the display computer? If so, is there another way to do this?
Thanks,
Bg
The issue you describe is common to v1-4, addressed in v5.
What version are you using?
As for the file size of the jpeg, it is irrelevant.
All that matters is the pixel count.
WATCHOUT converts all bitmap files to a common internal file format
prior to playback (that is what the caching process is during upload).
In v1-4 the cached image data was stored in only its original pixel count.
.e. a 1920x1080 5 gb Photoshop file with transparency
and a 1920x10 10 Mb jpeg file
are exactly the same once they have been prepared (cached)
in the display computer prior to playback.
v5 stores multiple pre-downscaled copies in the common internal file format.
This should reduce the processor load to avoid the stuttering observed.
Other causes could be upcoming media pre-loading.
That can often be identified by looking at the cue relationships on the timeline.
If needed, manually adjust pre-roll time on movies so that they pre-roll before the stuttering effect,
or load stills earlier (before the stuttering effect) at 0 opacity
and ramping them up when needed.
You will rarely hit the ceiling on graphics card memory (many, many bitmaps loaded at the same time),
you will more often hit the ceiling on DMA transfer from the hard drive to the GPU,
which can cause effects to stutter.
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It should not work, WATCHOUT does not support DMX via USB
WATCHOUT supports DMX only via ArtNet (DMX over Ethernet).
from the user guide ...
If the devices being controlled don’t have an Ethernet connector accepting theArtnet protocol, you need an Ethernet-to-DMX interface, as shown under“DMX-512 Input” on page 201.0 -
Hello,
I would like to known if its possible to input MIDI values directly into a cluster display?
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Not with version 4.5.1. Requires version 5.1 or newer to work in that manner.
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Hi,
The easiest way to turn off the Japanese translation is to rename the "ja" folder found in the WATCHOUT installation folder to something else, such as "ja-disabled", then restart WATCHOUT. To restore it, just rename it back again.
There's also a -Lang command line switch that can be used to force any available localisation. To use it, put it into the shortuct starting WATCHOUT, followed by the two character language code. Put a space character on either side of the -Lang switch, like this:
C:/WATCHOUT/WATCHMAKER.EXE -Lang tr
Where the first part is the path to the production software, as installed on your machine. /jonas
Thanks for describing both methods Jonas.
Renaming the language folder seems more encompasing, as that will work no matter how you start WATCHOUT.
The command line switch method requires always starting from a modified shortcut,
no double clicking on show files to initially open WATCHOUT, or it will revert back.
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Hey guys, I want to jump from one position to another in the main timeline by pressing a key on my MIDI keyboard. I can trigger auxiliary timelines as it is explained in the training video Timelines - Starting from External Events on http://www.dataton.com/watchout/training-movie/timelines_starting_from_external_events . This works perfectly. However I don´t want to trigger an auxiliary timeline but the main timeline itself. I am aware that I can trigger control cues by preesing F1 - F12, but these are not enough keys for an event lasting 90 minutes. I´d like to trigger control cues with my midi keyboard, just as I can do this pressing F1 - F12. Is this possible? I can´t find a solution in the user manual. And How? I don´t get it ... Thanks for your advice. Greets from Fabi
It is not the most elegant solution, but you can make auxiliary timlines with as little as just one cue, a control cue to positon and run the main timeline. Those can be triggered by the MIDI keyboard, you map the triggers anyway you wish using the control cue in each aux timeline.
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Far more complicated than I was planning. I really don't have the budget for controller stuff. Hmmm
Thanks for the tip
Efe Ersoy
No need for any external controller, just a simple method of
taking your simple electrical push button and converting it to a MIDI note message to Windows.
Should be relatively inexpensive.
A simple interface box like a MIDI Solutions Footswitch Controller (sample price: Musician's Friend)
and a simple MIDI-USB interface like the MOTU FastLane USB (sample price: B & H Foto)
should be all you need to interface your simple electrical push button to the WATCHOUT Display computer.
Should be ≈ $220 USD for just one, less per switch when doing more than one.
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I thought the same as Fredrik Svahnberg, a processor down stream not keeping up.
In v4, there is one other possibility, scaling down the image a large amount
(this issue is addressed / eliminated by v5's addition of dynamic scaling).
If the original still image is very much larger than the display size
and it is being scaled down a significant amount in v4 or earlier,
this could cause some animation stepping as well.
Fix is to scale it to the correct size with an appropriate graphics tool
before bringing it to WATCHOUT.
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... I don't know how many hours lamp projector worked to this day ... I'm rather a perfectionist and I like when every detail is refined :-] ...
Most perfectionists would just replace all the bulbs in that case and then control lamp strike on all projectorsso all would accumulate the same number of hours. Doesn't part of perfectionism strive to keep it simple too?
Adding an adjustment band-aid to overcome bulb variances seems like more complication than needed
I believe Jonas' guidelines are right on for achieving perfection.
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is there an instruction on how to setup watchout for these devices? I'm trying to use a moxa 5110 to send serial commands to a camera... I can see the moxa device on the network, but i'm not sure how to send the serial command from watchout through the moxa to the camera. Do you have any advice that you can share please?
Not much to go on there. What step is tripping you up?
Creating a String Output set to IP for the Moxa connection? (WO 5.2 UG pg 206) WO 5.2 UG = WATCHOUT 5.2 User Guide
Creating a string command on the timeline for the String Output? (WO 5.2 UG pg 208)
As far as what to type in the string command, that is defined by the camera.
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Flash animations, of that size you mention, is NOT playable inside WATCHOUT, unfortunately.
/jonas
x2
Normally you would render the Flash animations into movies to play them back on a WATCHOUT Display computer.
The WATCHOUT Dynamic Image Server software (an additional computer and license) can run Flash,
but it is intended to render static images created on the fly during playback
(like current weather grabbed from the web, stock ticker, tweets, etc.) and those are limited to 2048x2048 each,
although you can run multiple Flash files to generate multiple 2048x2048 chunks at the same time.
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Does anyone know if the Display PC and Production PC be one in the same?
It is not intended to be used that way.
If so will they need one or two licenses?
Yes. There is an unsupported trick that could be used to take a completed WATCHOUT show (finished .watch file and assets)
and load the display side using a single computer with two keys.
There is no possibility of controlling playback from production when both are run on a single computer.
The workaround is only useful to get display loaded and ready, nothing more.
Then normal display only operation must be returned and control provided by some other means.
Or do they need to be on separate systems that are networked together?
That is the software author's (Dataton AB's) stated method
and any tricks we users pull outside of that is beyond their support.
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Yes, from the perspective of software, both WATCHOUT and Windows 7 will be fine
outputting six 1920x1080 60p per computer.
Combining two such systems is no issue either.
Now content and hardware play a role here too.
Attempting to get one computer to decode six 1920x1080p movies at the same time is possible.
But not necessarily carefree. Assuming encoding to the Dataton guidelines published in this forum,
movie decoding six1920x1080 30p MPEG2 is possible,
movie decoding six 1920x1080 60p MPEG2 is borderline.
Almost all compliant six output Graphics Processing Unit cards
are robust enough for the rest of the WATCHOUT tasks.
GPU does not significantly impact movie decoding / playback - it impacts WATCHOUT animation (tween functions).
For movie decoding, the computer system from hard drive
through motherboard, memory and cpu must be optimized for throughput.
Combined with the movie encoding properly tuned for this task.
If any of that is not optimal, movie playback will stumble / stutter.
When encoding choices do not permit tuning to optimize for WATCHOUT,
then you use more hardware with less outputs per machine
to overcome higher decoding demands.
i.e. at the end of the day,
you must test with an actual target system and content representative of the final demand.
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I have been looking around for a while but dont really know what to get. i need a 4 Output selution for watchout 5.3.
the reselutions i use are 1024 x 768, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080. is there a card that has 4 DVI outputs?
I have not recently seen any ATi based offerings with four DVI output on the backplane.
They did exist a while back, but even then, beware of cards with four DVI outputs.
Such cards are generally targeted at computer based DVR applications.
They tend to have underpowered DirectX 3D accelerators as that is not a requirement of the home DVR market,
yet it is important to WATCHOUT,
Instead, cards configured in that manner tend to have beefed up hardware movie decoding,
which WATCHOUT can not / does not use.
It is better to look for cards with a combination of DVI and DisplayPort (both are locking connectors)
or just DisplayPort in conjunction with a beefed up DirectX 3D engine better suited to WATCHOUT.
Use quality active DisplayPort to DVI adaptors to achieve the desired DVI output.
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MIDI I/O errors were addressed with improvements in the MIDI support of WATCHOUT 5.3.
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Fade out running video layers at unpredictable time?
in WATCHOUT FORUM
Posted
Probably yes.
The trick is to make the video cue free running. If necessary, also make it loop so it won't run out.
Then you can pause the timeline immediately after the video is running,
free running will keep the video going with the timeline paused.
After the pause, the same cue fades out using the tween Opacity track.
I usually use a duration of just one second plus fade out time,
with the pause placed immediately before the fade out portion of the cue.
So the fade out will occur "on cue".