Chapter 23. Version 1.9.3.0

It is now possible to change the Random type and the One Shot option within each applied FX in the Prog, View FX and Cue, View FX windows. This avoids the need to create separate FX files (.wve) for random and one shot FX.

The Random FX has been improved on FX that use a Width such as Dim Chase, Ramp, 2 Col. This enables more of a random strobe type effect. To get the best result use width < 30% or greater than 70%. Using parts (e.g. parts = 3) will ensure the randomness kicks in quicker when first activated.

The One Shot FX have been improved - so they now apply from first selected head to last. Previously the one shot sometimes started in the middle of the selection.

In the Prog, View FX, Advanced View it is now possible to add extra Groups to a Group FX using Copy. Press Copy twice, or COPY followed by ENTER on one of the existing Groups in the FX. As before, Groups can be removed from a FX using Remove.

The PixMap FX in the standard FX generator have now been enhanced with new apply type options. In addition to the existing RGB and individual attribute, it is now possible to select Pos Palette, Col Palette and Beam Palette.

When a Palette apply type is used then the pixelmap FX pattern is applied using the palettes rather than using hard values.

For example, if you choose a Vert Line FX then applied to Intensity then line would be applied to the Intensity. If, instead you chose Colour Palette and then select Palettes Red and Green then the the FX would apply the Red and Green palettes - the first Palette Red would be used for all cases where the FX level is 0, whilst the Palette Green would be applied where the level was 100% - i.e. the vertical line. Pixels where the FX is fading inbetween 0% and 100% would interpolate between the Red and Green palette.

Any attributes can be put into the palettes, so a Position Palette could include Position and Zoom - enabling an effect with one Palette up and tight zoom and another Palette down with wide zoom.

The Palettes can be changed in the Prog, FX and Cue FX window as for normal FX Palettes.

Previously MagicQ had one inbuilt PixelFX that used Palettes - Pix2Col. This performed a vertical line or horizontal line on 2 Palettes depending on the size of the Group Grid. This is still supported - but a wider range of effects can be used using this new Palette selection - for example, a PixCircle can be applied to two palettes.

There is one additional apply type - Pos Palette with auto intensity. This brings the intensity at full when the values from the Palettes increases and takes it to zero when the values from the Palettes decreases. This is an easy way to create single direction movements such as waterfall FX.

Cross fading has been improved on the PixMap FX so it now crossfades across multiple pixels. Previously on the vert line, horiz line, square, circle, line, half line it only crossfaded across a single pixel.

One shot is now supported on PixMap FX. The FX is retriggerd if the Intensity goes to zero and then leaves zero, or if the FX type is changed.

The initial offset is now supported on PixMap FX. This enables multiple PixMap FX to be run with different offsets - e.g. an offset between position and colour, or an offset between position and zoom.

The PixMap FX in the standard FX generator can now be applied to any Grid, not just to the Grid for the selected Group.

This enables PixMap FX to be applied to multiple Groups. It also avoids the need to create multiple different Group Grids - a single User grid can be configured for the whole lighting rig and then Pixel FX can be run over the required groups within that Grid.

The Grid can be changed live in the Prog, View FX and Cue, View FX windows.

MagicQ now includes the ability to automatically adjust both the physical position and rotation of Heads within the MagicQ 3D space as used by the Plot View and MagicVis. On arriving in a new venue, users can update four Calibrate position palettes of a rectangle on the stage, and then MagicQ will re-calculate the postiion and rotation of each of the heads using those Palettes.

To initialise calibration go to Patch, View Vis, Attach Objects, select the Heads you want to use calibration on and then press the INIT CALIBRATE soft button.

This creates a Cube object (item) called "Cal Markers" size 10x5m on the stage (unless it is already created) and creates 4 Calibration palettes in the Pos window named "Cal DSR", "Call DSL", "Call USL", "Call USR" using those selected heads. DSR stands for down stage right which is front left as you look towards the stage. USL stands for up stage left which is rear right as you look towards the stage.

Change the size of the "Cal Markers" object if required to match the space marked on your physical stage.

The Calibrate palettes in the Pos Window have intensity, narrow zoom and narrow iris as well as pan/tilt to help to make the focus more accurate.

Update the palettes to focus on the corners off the Cal Markers on your physical stage in the normal MagicQ way. If you need to modify the focus/zoom then remember to SHIFT RECORD these attributes into the Calibrate Pos palettes.

Once you have the Markers Object and the Calibrate Palettes updated then you can press the CALIBRATE HEADS soft button (it replaces the INIT CALIBRATE button once initialised). MagicQ takes the pan and tilt values from the Calibrate palettes and recalculates the physical positions of the Heads within the MagicVis space.

If heads are selected when you INIT CALIBRATE then only those heads are put into the Calibrate Palettes - this allows you to keep the palettes simple if you are only planning using a few of your moving heads for tracking. If no heads are selected then it crfeates the palettes for all heads in the patch.

Similarly when you do CALIBRATE HEADS - if heads are selected then only those heads are calibrated - otherwise it attempts to calibrate all heads.

The number of supported Trackers has been increased from 20 to 100.

When receiving OTP and PSN it is now possible for MagicQ to decode rotation data and use it to control MagicVis attach objects.

When the Tracker rx option is set to OTP and the OTP Function field is set to Vis Object (rx) or Tracker + Vis (rx), then received tracker data with a name that matches the name of an Attach Object will cause the Attach Object to be set to the position and rotation received via OTP.

When the Tracker rx option is set to PSN, then received tracker data with a name that matches the name of an Attach Object will cause the Attach Object to be set to the position and rotation received via PSN.

MagicQ can now send PSN - set the Tracker tx option to PSN. If the OTP Function field is set to Vis Object (tx) or Tracker + Vis (tx) then MagicQ sends the positions and rotations of MagicVis Attach Objects over PSN. If the OTP Function field is set to any other values then MagicQ sends the Tracker position and rotation for any valid Trackers.

In Group Cues we always apply the Head file invert to the encoder movement. This ensures consistency if the Heads in the Group are changed. When operating as individual Heads (non Group Cues) MagicQ has never applied these inverts.

From this version, if Group Cues is enabled, then this affects the encoder movement direction of both Group Cues and Normal Cues. This ensures consistency within the show when making Cues that have both Group Cues normal Cues in them. #0030918

Parking individual attributes of Heads is now supported when using Group Cues. #0031090

MagicQ now supports replacing a Group in a Cue or a Cue Stack in a similar way to replacing a Palette in a Cue or Cue Stack. In the Group Window press SHIFT + REPLACE GROUP, select the Group to replace followed by the Group to replace with. Then press the S button of the Cue Stack to replace the Group in. Similar to REPLACE PALETTE, Cue IDs or ranges of Cue IDs can be specified.

In addition to using REPLACE GROUPS and REPLACE PALETES on Playbacks, these operations can now be carried out on Cue Stacks and Cues via the Cue Stack and Cue windows. This enables replace operations to be carried out on multiple Cue Stacks / Cues.

By cursor selecting all items it is now possible to REPLACE GROUPS or REPLACE PALETTES in all Cue Stacks and Cues. Soft button E can be used to quickly cursor select/deselect all Cue Stacks in the Stack Store and all Cues in the Cue Store.

Filtering has now been added to the Stack Store to show a subset of the Cue Stacks and to the Cue Store to show a subset of Cues. Using filtering it is possible to REPLACE PALETTE and REPLACE GROUP easily on a subset of Cue Stacks and Cues, such as the current page, or on Cues contain specific Heads.

The options are:

Use Soft button A to select the filter. Press VIEW ALL (soft button C) to return to showing all Cue Stacks/Cues.

Palettes of all types (Intensity, Position, Colour, Beam) can now have default values. Default Palette values are not specific to a particular head and can exist in a Palette even when there are no channels from Heads in the Palette. This is particularly useful for Group Cues where Heads may be removed from a show and new Heads added.

The Palette defaults are shown on the top row of the Palette View window. Default Palette values can be created using the DEFAULT PALETTE soft button in the Palette View window. MagicQ uses the existing channel data in the palette to create the values for the default attributes. Where attributes have range with range types - e.g. narrow iris, then then the attribute will be stored as a range type rather than a hard channel value. This enables the default to be correctly applied to new Heads added to the Palette.

Colour Palettes have additional information - they store a CIE X/Y value for the colour from the palette. Creating a Default Palette for a Colour Palette automatically creates a CIE X/Y value for the Palette. MagicQ uses the existing channel data to calculate the CIE value.

Press SHIFT + DEFAULT ALL PALETTE to add default values to all Palettes.

Press REMOVE on the Default Palette row to remove the Default Palette. To remove the Default Palette (including CIE X/Y values) from all Palettes press SHIFT + REMOVE DEF ALL PALETTES.

When Group Cues is enabled the Default Palettes are automatically created whenever a Palette is recorded. This ensures that the Palette information is maintained even if all Heads are removed from the show.

If required, the CIE value can be set on a Colour Palette without creating a Default Palette - press the SET CIE soft button to set a CIE value for the Palette. Press SHIFT + UNSET CIE to remove the CIE value.

The Palette default value is automatically used in Palette FX and Group Cues where there is no explicit channel data stored for selected heads in the Palette. This avoids the need for having explicit Palette data for all heads which reduces the show file size.

The Palette Default values are not currently used by Cues using individual Head data Palettes - this requires explicit channel data in the Palette.

To expand a Palette to contain specific Head data for all patched Heads press the EXPAND HEADS soft button. This adds attributes for all patched heads to the Palette using the default values. If no default values exists then it automatically creates default values first using the existing channel values in the Palette. Channels that already have explicit values in the Palette are not affected by EXPAND HEADS. If you wish to fully recreate a Palette from the Default Values then first remove the channel data (but not the Default Palette).

MagicQ has a setting to automatically expand Palettes in Setup, View Settings, Cue Storage. This has been renamed to "Expand Heads in Palette". Previously this only expanded Heads of the same type. Now there are additional options to expand to all Heads.

Note that in the Palette View window the NEXT PALETTE and PREV PALETTE soft buttons have been moved to Soft Button A to make room for the new Default Palette and Expand Head soft buttons.

The top soft buttons in the Pos, Colour and Beam windows have beem modified to add new menu items. The old Palette shortcuts on the top soft buttons have now been removed to free up space - Palette shortcuts can now be activated through Execute Window / Excute Buttons.

Set UNLINK PALETTE, EXPAND PALETTE and REPLACE PALETTE now do not require SHIFT so they are more easily accesible. Use SHIFT for UNLINK ALL PALETTE and EXPAND ALL PALETTE to unlink/expand all Palettes of that type.

These functions have also been added to the Intensity Palette window where they were not previously available.

Added the ability to pin both the "Cue Stack Audio" layer along with all the new marker set layers (see the subsection below).

Layouts now store the Cue Stack, scroll lock, scroll position, zoom level, cursor position and whether the Cue Stack is locked. Switching layouts containing different chosen/locked Cue Stacks is possible.

Locking the console now affects Timeline window.

Added extended function to copy within the timeline window. Now when you press copy you will see a encoders C and D give you options on how many times you would like to copy your selection and an offset between each copy respectively. For accuracy using The cursor can be used to mark the beginning of where you would like the copy to begin.

Device Label has been added to VIEW RDM to show the labels of individual devices, and to enable them to be set. Previously it was only possible to set the Label in View PIDS.

When selecting device curves or device modulation frequencies the select box now shows the name of the curves/modulation frequencies where available. #0030965

In VIEW PIDS soft button A now can be used to step through devices.

In VIEW PIDS it is now possible to set more of the standard PIDs. Note that many of the standard PIDs can be accessed through the VIEW RDM - these are then not available for viewing or setting in the VIEW PIDS. Note that standard PIDs that have multiple fields or that use an index to select multiple items are not available for viewing or setting in VIEW PIDS.

The Help Window now contains two new views - VIEW COMMANDS and VIEW LOGS. Press CTRL and HELP to open the Help Window directly in the VIEW COMMANDS / VIEW LOGS views.

VIEW COMMANDS shows the user commands and responses. Commands include those entered via the console buttons, the keypad and also those entered via the touch screens.

VIEW LOGS shows all the functions that are logged on the console into the log files including button presses, fader movements, encoder usage, touch screen presses and events generated internally or from external inputs. It also shows general system logs and errors.

Both views automatically update as the commands are entered and logs records are generated. The windows can be locked so they do not update using the LOCK soft button. The SEARCH, SEARCH FWD, and SHIFT + SEARCH BKWD soft buttons can be used to search for events.

In VIEW LOGS it is possible to filter the log records shown by log class. Press the FILTER CLASS soft button.

The Event class includes MIDI, MIDI SYSEX, MIDI OSC, ChamSys Remote Ethernet Protocol (CREP), Scheduled events and Automations.

Log records of the Event class are only generated when Extended Logging is set to Extended & Events. Events of this class can occur very frequently which could create very large log files. On systems with a lot of automated events we recommend only enabling Extended & Events during programming and when fault finding.

Set the Extended logging via the LOGGING TYPE soft button, or from the Setup Window, View Settings, Hardware tab.

On system start the commands and logs are the current commands and logs. Using soft button A the previous log files can be viewed to look at commands and logs from previous sessions - i.e. from before the current console start / reset. The title bar shows the file name of the current log file being viewed.

Press soft button B at any time to return to the current commands and logs.

On MagicQ PC it is possible to examine log files from other consoles. From the top toolbar under Tools, select Log Viewer. This opens a standard system file selection dialog box to enable selection of a log file from any folder on the PC/Mac. MagicQ opens the Help Window in the VIEWLOGS view showing that file. Use Next/Prev on soft button A to examine other files from within that same folder.

On system installs where the system is expected to run for many days, months or years the Help Window should be closed when not in use to prevent system degradation over time as the log files increase size.

The number of Layouts has been expanded from 48 to 144. Each page of 12 Layouts can be accessed by pressing CTRL and selecting a Layout Page from the normal Layout buttons.

A new Layout Window has been added which can be used to quickly change Layouts, for example to see different Groups of fixtures within the Groups Window.

Press ALT + CUE STACK to open the Layout Window.

Layouts can be recorded to the Layout Window, named, moved and removed. When recording, the monitor mask can be chosen.

If the Layout Window is open full size on the first monitor then the Layout Window is not included in the Layout. In all other cases the Layout Window is included in the Layout.

When in Net Sessions with separate programmers for each console (no programmer sync) it is now possible to Include the Programmer from any of the consoles in the net session into any other console in the Net Session.

Press CTRL and INCLUDE. MagicQ shows a dialog box with each of the other the consoles in the Net Session. Select a console to include the programmer from that console.

In previous software versions CTRL and INCLUDE was used to grab DMX from other consoles. When the console is not in a Net Session then this operates as before. When in Net Sessions, MagicQ adds a "DMX" option to the console selection dialog to enable grabbing DMX from another console as before.

It is possible to only include selected heads or selected attributes from another console. Press SHIFT + INCLUDE to open the Include Options. Then press SELECTED ONLY and/or choose attributes before pressing the new INCLUDE OTHER CONSOLE soft button. MagicQ then shows the console selection dialog box as above.

The Include Other Consoles is also available from the Include Options toolbar. Toolbars are shown when Setup, View Settings, Windows, Always Show Record Options is set.

When operating with Programmer Sync the programmers are already synced so Include from Other Console is not required.

Include from Other Console is only available when in Net Sessions as the show files must be synced on the consoles to ensure the Patch is the same.

User mananagement has now been improved with separate show settings for each user being stored within the current show file. Previously only the show settings for the current user were in the show file, with the show settings for the other users stored within separate files named user_XXXX.set where XXX was the name. This added extra complexity, particularly in multi consoles situations.

Settings continue to only be saved and loaded for users if the Load Settings option in the User table is set.

When the Load Settings is set for a user, MagicQ now also stores the current layout and the programmer contents as well as the show settings. When changing to a different user their layout will be opened and the progammer contents included.

When changing users, MagicQ saves the current layout and programmer contents for the old user before loading the settings for the new user. MagicQ uses free layouts and free Cues to store the Layout and programer contents starting from the highest free Layout or Cue. The Layouts and Cues are named User X: YYYY where X is the user number and YYYY is the user name. MagicQ adds and removes these Layouts and Cues as required without any user interaction required.

The programmer contents contains all the information that would be recorded into a Cue including values, times and FX. Note that head selection and selection order is not saved into Cues and therefore is not saveed in the user settings.

When changing users it is now possible to choose the Logoff option. This logs the user off the console returning the console to the default user and locking the console. The Layout and programmer contents are automatically saved before logging out the user.

An Enable Remote App field has been added. Setting the field to No disables the remote app for this user; Yes enables it and Yes (Exec Only) enables the remote app for the Execute Window only (For use in installs).

The CUE button can now be included in keypad syntax after an action button such as RECORD, INCLUDE, COPY, MOVE and REMOVE to operate directly on Cues within the Cue Stack on the currently selected playback. #0020400, #0022026, #0025636

Examples are:

Note that in older versions of MagicQ prior to implementation of Copying Heads via keypad syntax it was possible to copy cues from the keypad using syntax COPY 1 @ 2 when in the Cue Stack window was the top (focused window). This has not been supported in recent versions. The CUE syntax above replaces this.

To force MagicQ to create a new Cue press SHIFT and COPY and select Unlinked. To force record of entire state, press SHIFT COPY and select ENTIRE STATE.

A copy options toolbar can be enabled from Setup, View Settings, Windows, Always Show Record Options = Yes.

When morphing if Auto palettes is enabled, the values from the palettes from the personality file are used in preference to the palettes in the show. Previously the palettes from the personality file would be overriden by palette values from the original heads in the show.

This only affects the auto generated palettes. All user generated palettes are converted from the existing show as normal. If you do not wish to load the auto palettes then disable auto palettes as for normal patching.

In Setup, the Start Mode setting and Run In Execute Window settings have been moved from the Window and Playback tabs to the Mode tab to make them easier to find. There have also been minor re-orderings and spacing out of some of the settings to make them easier to find - particularly in the Playbacks, Network and Ports tabs.

When console brightness, desk lock, volume settings are changed, do not change them on other net consoles in the net session.

Cursor key repeat is now enabled on the Stadium Connect.

The Intensity Wheel on Stadium products can now be set to scroll windows.

When using Programmer Shortcuts Z is now UNDO.

The Help Window now supports CTRL F, CTRL LEFT and CTRL RIGHT for searching in the manuals similar to the MagicQ spreadsheet windows.

In Net Sessions there are now key shortcuts to turn on and off Programmer Sync: hold the CURSOR LEFT and CURSOR RIGHT keys down. Then press * to turn on Programmer Sync. Press / to turn off Programmer Sync.

The Layout Page (set using CTRL + layout buttons) is now saved in the show file. This is useful when regularly using Layouts 13 to 48.

When adding VDIMs to multi element heads the DUP/IND setting is now set the same as the main head. When changing DUP/IND setting for a multi element head the VDIM head is set to the same setting.

On MQ250M, MQ500, MQ500M and newer MQ70s, MagicQ now sets the network switch by default to disable IGMP snooping - this eases operation of multicast protocols. On these products the network switch can be configured in Setup, View System, Network, Network Switch. When set to Normal IGMP snooping is enabled. When set to Original the network switch is in its original boot up state - MagicQ does not change it.

Added Global Tap to Time option to Remote Trigger Action setting in Setup, View Settings, Ports.

Added support entering BPM number directy on keypad before pressing TAP button to set BPM directly rather than Tap to Time. Works with TAP button (Stadium consoles) and BIG GO when set to Tap to Time.

Added an extra mode option to the Cue Stack Macro T0 for triggering 10Scenes. Now to release all 10 buttons on a 10Scene Zone use the Cue Stack Macro T0,<zone>,0,6

Hide sort buttons when choosing Heads in Simple Mode as they are not relevant / supported.