Don Moir
A couple minor details with this. VDJ seems to know about 'none' and effect_select none will indicate None is selected. You cannot activate None but you can bring up the user interface for None. It is blank but you should not be able to bring up the UI for this, right? What exactly does None mean to VDJ when you use it like this?
What I would really like to do here is select nothing so slot is completely blank. I am using 'none' since I am not aware of what the syntax would be for selecting nothing. 'none' does work for intended purposes but not quite right. I need to force an unload of the plugin like 'unload'.
Another minor thing is, if the effect in question was an audio only vis, and it is now inactive, and it was on deck 2 say before it became inactive, then effect_select on that deck does not work. Makes some sense that it does not work since it was loaded up on master and 'deck 2 effect_select none' does work. It is just strange and like VDJ does not know what deck it was left on. Normally you do not need to add deck number specifics to it and works sometimes like that but not always. Probably goes back to VDJ not knowing what a visualization is sometimes.
What I would really like to do here is select nothing so slot is completely blank. I am using 'none' since I am not aware of what the syntax would be for selecting nothing. 'none' does work for intended purposes but not quite right. I need to force an unload of the plugin like 'unload'.
Another minor thing is, if the effect in question was an audio only vis, and it is now inactive, and it was on deck 2 say before it became inactive, then effect_select on that deck does not work. Makes some sense that it does not work since it was loaded up on master and 'deck 2 effect_select none' does work. It is just strange and like VDJ does not know what deck it was left on. Normally you do not need to add deck number specifics to it and works sometimes like that but not always. Probably goes back to VDJ not knowing what a visualization is sometimes.
Posted Wed 25 Nov 15 @ 4:31 pm
djdad
Not aware of the "none" Effect. There is only a "None" Video transition which actually "cuts" at 50%. Could you please explain further , where did you see the None Effect ?
EDIT. I just tried an action effect_select none.. and indeed it selects a None Effect, but thats more like a "hack" to me as there is no such Effect. Probably allowed to indicate that no Effect is selected on a deck, but not sure if this can be used for what you are after.
EDIT2. The same thing goes with any video transition, so if you write .. effect_select Cube, you get the Cube Effect selected. So i guess this "trick" cant be used to force an unload of Effects.
EDIT. I just tried an action effect_select none.. and indeed it selects a None Effect, but thats more like a "hack" to me as there is no such Effect. Probably allowed to indicate that no Effect is selected on a deck, but not sure if this can be used for what you are after.
EDIT2. The same thing goes with any video transition, so if you write .. effect_select Cube, you get the Cube Effect selected. So i guess this "trick" cant be used to force an unload of Effects.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 3:32 am
Don Moir
Yeah well I tried none because cannot think of anything else to use to have VDJ dump a plugin in a round about way like a post process. You can't just use any old word but noticed 'none' is special and none is used elsewhere in the UI. There is no such 'none' effect though :) but it does mean something special. None should mean NONE no matter where it is. I can't be using anything else really that is the name of a real effect though so maybe someone has an answer about how to dump a plugin. I know it happens internally by VDJ with the visualizations and so looking for a similar thing for an external effect. With the visualizations it just leaves the slot blank as it kicks stuff out of the way. I think even None there would be better than blank though.
EDIT: Definitely can use some trick like this to unload a specific effect but I don't like using tricks unless I have to.
EDIT: Definitely can use some trick like this to unload a specific effect but I don't like using tricks unless I have to.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 3:47 am
djdad
The "None" for the Visualizations was implemented to have the ability to turn it off.
For Audio/Video Effects, i find no reason why you would want an "unload" action. Whatever Effect is selected, you just turn it off using the effect_active off action.
For Audio/Video Effects, i find no reason why you would want an "unload" action. Whatever Effect is selected, you just turn it off using the effect_active off action.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 3:52 am
Don Moir
Of course you don't see any reason why I should need something and normally I would not if there was a sane implementation for visualizations... Look I don't want to get into another shouting match over this here but I really hate when some one who thinks they know what I need to do starts saying "I see no reason blah blah blah..." But it is to help over come the deficiencies of the way visualizations are handled. Now I almost never need to dump anything but I have one case that it would be handy to do it. There is either a legitimate way or there is not.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 4:16 am
Adion
Selecting another effect (such as the 'None' video transition) is just as effective as unloading an effect.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 4:21 am
Don Moir
Thanks Adion. It appears to me that none is almost like a nop which does suit the purpose.
Posted Thu 26 Nov 15 @ 4:39 am
Don Moir
I am finding that there is one case where this does not work. It is very rare though and takes a number of steps to reproduce it so I am not too worried about it. This is just for your info and could be timing related etc. but I can cause the problem consistently but again takes a number of steps. Could be me but I can clearly see the code it doing what it needs to do but does not work in this rare case. It has to do with when an effect is no longer the visualization that was the visualization. This here is the most difficult thing to deal with anyway and one that I should not need to be dealing with. It seems that when this occurs, some effect script stops working. It is odd because some other effect script works as it normally should. In this special case, the thing that does work is effect_select none and it does not matter how I code it either deck specific or not. It is like VDJ has lost track of what it was or where it is. Again not to big a deal and just reporting as I go. I might end up not using effect_select none because of this though. Being able to completely unload an instance just makes this so much easier and convenient but if it is not 100% percent reliable I will need to do something else.
Posted Fri 27 Nov 15 @ 7:46 pm
Adion
Could you describe the steps?
I tried to activate video so that visualisation was activated, then load 2 videos so that it got deactivated, and after that effect_select "None" was still working for me.
I tried to activate video so that visualisation was activated, then load 2 videos so that it got deactivated, and after that effect_select "None" was still working for me.
Posted Sat 28 Nov 15 @ 4:38 am
Don Moir
I am still trying to refine it Adion. I am not sure you can do it just externally from the UI but this is how I can get some consistency. I am using C++ code for much of it but start out selecting TM as the visualization thru normal VDJ UI. I drop a video on deck 2. So the vis is on deck 1 now. I bring up the UI for the visualization from the deck 1 [+] button. I go into config and select none as the visualization. Note this config 'none' is not the same 'none' just to be clear haha. Now it should be selecting 'None' via my code on deck 1 but it does not work. If I do not bring up the UI for TM it does work. Also this is the easiest scenario for it and the only case that dose not work. It works every other way and even in more complex ways that I can come up with. So now there is no visualization, the TM user interface has been removed, but TM is still selected on deck 1, and None should be selected. In other words effect_show_gui off did work to turn off the TM user interface but effect_select none did not work and does not matter if it called before or after effect_show_gui off is called. Could be something to do with timing and will look some more. The odd thing is it not working in the most straight forward and easiest case to deal with. I have not yet ruled out yet that it may be something with the handling I am doing but again this is the easiest case to deal with.
Posted Sat 28 Nov 15 @ 6:15 am
Don Moir
I think it may be related to some handling I am doing in turning the GUI off which comes in at some point when I am trying to do a select none. So I commented out the removal of the GUI on my end and the effect_select none worked. So don't spend any time on it now Adion. I can handle this different and it will work but I still may dump this whole effect_select none thing. Just the alternative is more complex but it will be more deterministic.
Posted Sat 28 Nov 15 @ 6:51 am
Don Moir
Pretty strange stuff. effect_select none not working has to do with the with the hiding of my main gui window. All handling seems ok and still don't have an answer why but at least I know the root cause of it now.
EDIT: Scratch that :) Works sometimes but not always. I think it may be time to move on to other methods.
EDIT: Scratch that :) Works sometimes but not always. I think it may be time to move on to other methods.
Posted Sat 28 Nov 15 @ 3:37 pm
Don Moir
Adion, effect_select none not working sometimes ended up be a thread switching issue and on my end. The fact though that you took a look though gives me some positive feelings :)
The effect_select none is only used in rare cases but it has to do with switching from being the visualization to not being it or vice versa. This is the most difficult thing to control and wish I did not have to do it. Only a complete revamp of the visualization implementation in VDJ can change that though. I am only doing this to give some sanity to at least my own things.
This image shows TM in normal non visualization mode:
This image shows TM in visualization mode and this was auto detected without restarting etc. In this case it did not miss a beat. The master that was up is now the visualization instance and will be tracked. The deck 1 instance has been has been unloaded. When in visualization mode, any interaction with decks is prevented for TM but it does it in a way that makes the most sense that is possible. If the visualization is actually on a deck, then all behavior is normal except activation which is prevented at all times in the TM user interface and VDJ handles that in it's own way. Would be nice though if you would stop calling OnStop and OnStart when user clicks to deactivate the vis.
It is kind of cool watching this change state and track and acts like it knows what it is doing and it does :) Unfortunately tied to the current implementation of visualizations in VDJ but I am prepared to change as necessary so if you could give me heads up that would be good.
The effect_select none is only used in rare cases but it has to do with switching from being the visualization to not being it or vice versa. This is the most difficult thing to control and wish I did not have to do it. Only a complete revamp of the visualization implementation in VDJ can change that though. I am only doing this to give some sanity to at least my own things.
This image shows TM in normal non visualization mode:
This image shows TM in visualization mode and this was auto detected without restarting etc. In this case it did not miss a beat. The master that was up is now the visualization instance and will be tracked. The deck 1 instance has been has been unloaded. When in visualization mode, any interaction with decks is prevented for TM but it does it in a way that makes the most sense that is possible. If the visualization is actually on a deck, then all behavior is normal except activation which is prevented at all times in the TM user interface and VDJ handles that in it's own way. Would be nice though if you would stop calling OnStop and OnStart when user clicks to deactivate the vis.
It is kind of cool watching this change state and track and acts like it knows what it is doing and it does :) Unfortunately tied to the current implementation of visualizations in VDJ but I am prepared to change as necessary so if you could give me heads up that would be good.
Posted Sun 29 Nov 15 @ 1:57 pm