Avolites visuliser with titan

[Racer_Rob]

Success!! :D I reinstalled the titan simulator and followed Nick's steps to the letter - that's the most work I've ever done to get a Par 64 on! :P I still have the loopback adapter installed as Emma suggested so I'm not sure whether that's also playing a part.

 

As for what was going wrong before my best guess is I was sending the Art-Net down the wrong universe as Nick pointed out. I tried changing the address in Capture to correct for this with no luck, I realise now that was probably because the IP was set to some obscure destination from my previous attempts to fix it, but I'd already decided to reinstall the simulator before I thought of that.

 

Thanks for the help guys this has been a bit of a mission; if I didn't now have a vector integral calculus exam to revise for I'd be burning some virtual kW tonight B-)

[niclights]

Glad to hear you got it working eventually. Networking is rarely simple and the way Art-Net insists on starting at zero is just silly, unless you are a computer. Now all you have to do is learn Capture or whatever visualisation package you want to use, sit back and enjoy the extra heating from your graphics card.

 

Sometimes the simple old wireframe has its pros!

[cafc-dan]

Hello all, sorry to hi-jack a successfully finished topic! I've got a similar problem but this time my setup is as follows:

 

A MacPro running Capture Polar (with lots of graphic'y goodness)

Network Hub

Dell Notebook with Avolites Titan Simulator

 

I've set all the network settings and DMX settings to Artnet and the IP address to be within the same streams, however I cannot for the life of me get it to work. After many reboots, changing of IPs, sitting and waiting for Capture to recognise it - I've still had no joy. However running MagicQ's offline software with and without the wing connects perfectly with the same IP...

 

If anyone could assist with my woeful tale it would be greatly appreciated and maybe even one of those free beers at plasa ;).

 

Ta,

 

Dan

[timsabre]

Have you got any way to confirm that Titan Sim is correctly set up and sending out Artnet? That would be my first step.

 

The fact that you've got magicq to work tends to suggest there is some setup problem with Titan.

[Judge]

Not working for me. In the Capture window should it see external universe. I have gone through all of the above, apart from setting loopback IP because I dont know where to set this. On Titan, or on my PC?

 

edit..I just decided to fire up MagicQ to see if it would talk to Polar, and it does, no problem at all. The procedure needed to do this is this simple:

1. Go to setup

2. Select View DMX I/O

3. Click "enable" on universe 1 making sure it is set to Art-Net

4. in the visualiser column, select the option "Capture (same PC)

 

and thats it. Worked immediately and now in the external universes window I see ChamSys MagicQ, darkstar U1

and I am waggling a Mac700 around.

 

Why is it not that easy on Avolites? It obviously can be. Maybe it will be on Titan 7? In the meantime an idiots guide to get it working on Titan 6 would be most appreciated.

Cheers

j

[niclights]

The thing is it should be that easy with Avo as well. In all the times I have tried it on the same PC I can launch Capture, launch Titan, go to DMX Settings, click on 'Broadcast:Universe 0' under Art-Net nodes and then click on DMX Line 1 to map it there. For me that's all I seem to have to do and it works. It is not clear why it doesn't work for everyone but I am sure it is related to settings on the PC, one way or another. Windows networking can sometimes be a royal pain, often for no apparent reason.

 

To reconfirm I have the following settings:

 

Under general Art-Net settings (DMX module properties) I have [Default Adapter] selected. However, if I select [Local Area Connection] it still works fine. Here the IP address of the Local Area Connection is my machines IP which is within the subnet of my network router. If I was not connected to a router the machine IP address could essentially be anything.

 

In the individual Art-Net universe settings (Node properties) I have IP address 192.168.1.255. The 192.168.1.x part is my router subnet. The x.x.x.255 part is a special broadcast address. Technically this is heavy-handed but it works and doesn't cause any issues in this application. Alternatively you could try the loopback IP here (127.0.0.1).

[Judge]

Thats a big help actually, thanks. It helped me to work through it and see what was going wrong and I got a clue from the main DMX settings overview window. Here I could see that my machine has three network adapters and by the looks of it Titan only likes one of them.

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a1.jpg

 

So, head over to Artnet module properties in Titan and select the right network adapter like so:

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a2.jpg

 

Now onto the node properties panel and manually give it an IP address, in this case 192.168.1.255

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a3.jpg

 

and its not immediately apparent how to do this, but it has to be done from the softkeys on the right of Titan panel - click button C and then enter the address using the panel keypad.

 

And now go to the settings in Polar Capture....

 

Change Art Net IP to the correct one.......

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a4.jpg

 

and then, holy moly, Capture sees Titan!

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a5.jpg

 

and now it works. The day proves fruitful.

Now, I may have a more complicated setup here than some with the three adapters so hopefully not everyone will have to jump through these hoops to get this setup working. But the point is this...with the MagicQ I had to do none of this at all. I did not have to know any IP addresses of anything, I just told it I was using Capture on the same PC and it worked. If I did not have a little bit of networking nous I would still be floundering right now. I think Avolites needs to take a look at this really. ChamSys has made the assumption that people will want to connect Capture or WYG and made it really easy to do so.

Cheers

j

[indyld]

The difference between using ArtNet and CITP come into play here too, I expect. The MQ setting is firing CITP on the same machine. Doesn't Titan do CITP via a plug-in or something? So, again not quite the same "easy" interface maybe.

 

As I know that Judge has networking nous, I don't feel too bad and saying that if one doesn't have said networking nous in 2013 then one should forget lighting and control as a career. :** laughs out loud **:

 

E2A: Just noticed Judges original listed MagicQ workflow. I'm not sure the ArtNet setting is needed in the list as am pretty sure that the Capture setting is for CITP. The most I've had to do is hit Reset Vis or whatever it is.

[niclights]

The important thing is you now have it working. I did wonder if you might have multiple adapters.

 

Titan assumed to use the one assigned as default by Windows which, if you have to choose one, seems like as reasonable as any way to go about it. It might be worth looking into how your adaptors are configured and why the one that I'm guessing is your main adaptor isn't appearing as default.

 

However, it is interesting how MagicQ knew which adaptor to use. From your description it appears ChamSys are using some alternative way of discovering where Capture is (ie. the set Vis to Capture part). Presumably Capture announces itself somehow, independently of network apdaptor, and so maybe this is something that can be looked into to help in these situations, albeit probably unique to certain visualisation applications. Not my department though...

 

Regarding changing IP address in DMX Settings AFAIK you are supposed to be able to click/touch on the IP Address field in Node Properties and change it, but currently it's not working properly and that is why you had to use the softkey alternative. This is an issue that needs to be resolved.

 

As for CITP, no, there is no separate plug-in or anything else to setup. Once Art-Net is setup you can patch active fixtures in the same way as normal fixtures. Any suitable fixtures on the network will automatically appear as options in the active fixture menu. If they support CITP thumbnails then these will be visible within the appropriate controls in the attribute editor workspace and automatically used as legends when storing relevant palettes.

 

 

/Edit: Just noticed a couple of other things in your screenshots which might be useful. I see you have 'Continuous Art-Net Data Stream' enabled. This should not normally be necessary, although neither is it likely to cause a problem. With it enabled you will always see 'Art-Net Universe 0' in the Capture Universes External Universe section. With it disabled it will only appear when values in Titan change.

 

Also, in node properties you have 'Blind' enabled. In case you are not aware if you are operating the console in blind programmer mode (or fire any playbacks set to blind), this blind information will be visible on that Art-Net universe. The purpose of this is for visualisation applications where it is useful to preview blind edits or blind playbacks separate to the live stage output. The internal Visualiser always behaves this way. Of course if you are using Art-Net as your live output you would not normally want this enabled.

[Judge]

Thanks Nic and Rob.

"if one doesn't have said networking nous in 2013 then one should forget lighting and control as a career"

Aye, that certainly appears to be about right - and it is often a right ol' pain. However, on the plus side, I may never have to see a 37 pin Socapex ever again, let alone solder one.

Rob, you make an interesting point about the DMX settings and CITP. I went back in to MagicQ and turned off Art-Net in DMX I/O and Capture still worked. I then disabled status of universe 1 and it still worked so clearly a different protocol is in play here.

Also it is interesting to note that when Titan connected it just saw the settings

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a5.jpg

 

whereas connecting with MagicQ it sees the name of the interface and computer...

 

http://www.ice9.me.uk/lx/a6.jpg

 

 

It really is about as plug and play as you can get. About my three adapters, the motherboard has dual Gigabit LAN but only one of these is connected to anything, the one with the 192.168.1.100 address - which is connected to router and the other one not used, so easy enough to see whats what. The third is a bluetooth adapter.

 

Nic, regarding the 'Continuous Art-Net Data Stream' and 'blind' thanks - I was trying everything to see if it would work! Thank you for explaining those functions.

[indyld]

Rob, you make an interesting point about the DMX settings and CITP. I went back in to MagicQ and turned off Art-Net in DMX I/O and Capture still worked. I then disabled status of universe 1 and it still worked so clearly a different protocol is in play here.

 

Of course. MagicQ is talking directly to the visualiser with the output enabled or not because that connection via CITP resides alongside it rather than after it. It's just sending via the Loopback (if "Send To Applications On This PC" is set to Yes).

 

CITP is Capture's original open standard communications protocol (I may be wrong but I don't think Capture started of with ArtNet at all) which has since been used in a variety of ways and by a range of kit makers.

 

CITP enables two way comms in the same way that the WYSIWYG proprietory protocol does (when you set "WYSIWYG Same PC" it does the same via the Loopback address). Nick mentions the use of CITP for transport of media thumbnails via the MSEX layer, but let's not forget that CITP was actually originally used for Desk <-> Vis.

 

 

ArtNet is just ArtNet, one way, DMX universes over network. I know this is all a little off topic, but seems worth mentioning to explain the differences relating to Judge's experience.

 

E2A: It's also interesting to note that console makers are now providing the much hoped for "Blind" send to the vis, MagicQ included. This makes a ton of sense in many applications when you want to edit something using the vis without outputting the result to stage.