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With this setting activated, xLights will perform an backup (similar to a user pressing F10 to manually backup) each time the sequence is saved - when the user clicks on Save or Save As.
The existing files, including the saved sequence XSQ, will be backed up to the Backup folder in your show directory prior to the render executing and FSEQ file being created.
With this setting activated, xLights will perform an backup (similar to a user pressing F10 to manually backup) each time xLights is launched. The existing files will be backed up to the Backup folder in your show directory, prior to the application launching and updating any xLights files when it is launched. The Backup sub directory created will have a suffix of ‘_OnStart’ added to the folder name.
When selected, backups are made of all relevant files both in the show directory as well as any sub-directories (excluding the backup folder itself).
This drop-down sets how long xLights will keep backup. With "Never" selected xLights will not delete any backups. 365, 90, 31, and 7 days will delete backup folder older than the selected length. This helps to clear out older files and free up space.
This defines the location where the backup folder(Backup on Save/Launch or F10) will be saved. If the 'Use Show Folder' Checkbox is selected (the default) the backup files will be saved in the current show folder. If this is unchecked and a folder path is specified all the backup files will be saved to that location. If this folder doesn't exist (move computers or remove a harddrive) the backup directory will default back to the show directory.
This is the location where the Alternative backups will be saved. This is manually triggered with F11 or the File Menu option. This Backup function is intended as a secondary backup location, like a external hardrive or NAS device. By default the location is not set and will prompt you if you attempt to do a Alternative Backup and no folder is set. To enable, set the desired folder or drive location.
The File menu enables you to create a new xLights sequence, open an existing xLights sequence, Save, Save As or Close a sequence that is currently open, select a show directory, backup xLights sequences to another directory and quit the xLights application. These actions can also be done using shortcut keys and via icons on the top bar of the canvas.
Create a new sequence, either a musical or animation. See New Sequence Page for more information
To open an existing sequence, either use the Open Sequence icon, select Open Sequence from the File menu or press Ctrl O. You will be presented with the ‘Choose Sequence file to open’ window, with the directory defaulting to your show directory. Select the required xLights (XSQ or XML) sequence file to open. You can also select the FSEQ file and it will open the XSQ or XML file referenced within.
To open a recently used sequence, select any item from this list.
To save an open sequence, either use the Save Sequence icon, select Save Sequence from the File menu or press Ctrl S. If the sequence has not been saved previously, you will be presented with the Save As dialogue window to enter the name for the sequence.
If the Render on Save setting (under the Settings menu) is set (i.e. checked) then all the effects on all the models will be rendered first before the sequence is saved in the FSEQ file. This is the default. Progress status messages are displayed on the last line of the window with a progress bar indicating the render progress.
When the sequence has completed saving, a message will be displayed on the last line indicating the name of the FSEQ file and how long the save process took.
If you click on the green progress bar, a window opens and you can see the render progress of each model / model group.
One line is displayed for each model or Model group that is being rendered.
You can stretch and expand the window to see all the models.
To save an open sequence with a different name, either use the Save As Sequence icon or select Save As Sequence from the File menu. You will be presented with the Save As dialogue window to enter the name for the sequence. If the Render on Save setting (under the Settings menu) is set (i.e. checked) then all the effects on all the models will be rendered first before the sequence is saved in the FSEQ file. This is the default. Progress status messages are displayed on the last line of the window. When the sequence has completed saving, a message will be displayed on the last line indicating the name of the FSEQ file and how long the save process took.
To close the currently open sequence, select Close Sequence from the File menu. If the sequence data has not been saved since the last change, you will be presented with warning.
Click on Save Changes if you want to save your changes. If you click Cancel then you will be returned to the sequence. If you select and click Discard Changes, then the sequence will be closed without any sequence changes being saved.
The Preferences Dialog allows the user to set all the global settings in xLights. These settings are stored in the system register and are persistent between show folders.
The Sequence Settings Dialog allows the user to edit all the settings for the currently open sequence. See Sequence Settings page for more information.
The Key bindings Dialog allows the user to manually edit the keyboards shortcuts in xLights.
The Export House Preview Video feature will "Play" the loaded sequence and create a video file of the House Preview Window. The video resolution of the resulting file is based on House Preview size. It is recommended you make the House Preview Window as large as possible before selecting this option.
In order to change your show Directory, select Select Show Folder from the File menu, press F9 or click on the Change button against the Show Directory on the Setup tab.You will be prompted to navigate to and select a new directory folder to select.
Ensure that you have the correct xLights XML files (xlights_keybindings.xml, xlights_networks.xml and xlights_rgbeffects.xml) in your new directory.
This option will display a list of previously selected show directories. If you select any of the items listed, your show directory will be changed to the selected directory.
The Backup Menu item allows you to manually trigger a backup of the show folder.
You will be presented will a message indicating where a backup will be created. Click Yes to proceed. Every time this step is executed, a copy will be created of all the ‘*xml’ files from your show directory into the Backup subdirectory of your show directory. A new subfolder is created each time a backup is executed.
By default xlights backs up the key files at the start of a session when xLights is launched.
Pressing F10 anytime, anywhere will backup your XML files for you and store them in a new folder with the date/time embedded in the name the backup was created. You can press F10 as many times as you like and should do this at least once per sequencing session. Keep in mind that you must have saved at least once in order for an updated XML file to be protected.
The Restore Backup dialog enables the user to select the backup folder recover files stored in the backup folder. The right list display basic data about the files found in the selected backup folder.
The left list displays the available backup folders, the middle list displays the files to restore. The right list display basic data about the files found in the selected backup folder.
The Alternate Backup function enables you to specify and use a different location to back your files up, other than the default location that the F10 backup functionality provides for.
Press F11 or select this function from the File menu. The first time you use this function, you will be prompted for the location that you wish to back the files to. Navigate to the required location and select the folder. The prompts after that are similar to the Backup functions.
Subsequently, Pressing F11 will save the files to the specified location. You can change this location via the Settings, Alt Backup Location menu.
The F11 function does not do an auto (in memory) backup of the current sequence if you have one open. It will backup the open sequence XML contents from when it was last saved.
To quit xLights, select Quit from the File menu or press ALT+F4.
If you have a sequence open and the sequence data has not been saved since the last change, you will be presented with the Save Sequence Dialog.
To use ArtNET or E1.31 frame synchronization then you need to enable it using this option. When enabled xLights will emit at the end of the frame a sync packet which supported controllers will use to trigger light output. This can make your show look a lot sharper but very few controllers support these packets.
For ArtNET you just need to select this option.
For E1.31 you also need to set a universe number on the controller tab … this universe number needs to be a universe you are not otherwise using.
By default xLights automatically selects which network interface to send out network data on and sometimes it selects the wrong one. To force xLights to send to a particular adapter select this option and select the IP Address of the adapter you want to use. Select the top blank line to disable forced IP mode and return to the default option of auto.
This selection allows xLights to "skip" frames that contain the same data as the previous frame. This can help with lagging, as it will reduce network traffic. xSchedule will also use this setting when outputting data.
When using the Jukebox Panel with xFade or xSchedule, this determines which instance of xLight to select the effect from.
The Color Tab allows the user to change the colors options of xLights. The First two Columns Relate to the colors in the Sequence Tab, while the third column changes Layout Colors.
These Colors are used for the Timing Tracks Header's background color in the Sequence Tab.
Changed the Timing Mark's Color.
Effects Changes the Color of the "Bounding Boxes" of the Effects
Selected Effect Color (When Mouse Click and Dragging to select multiple effects.)
Effect Referenced Color.(The Effect the Effect Settings Dialog is Currently Referencing)
Row Heading Background Color
Row Heading Text Color
Currently Selected Row Heading Color
Mouse Click and Drag Box Color
The color of the Gridlines between the rows and columns.(Red in the Picture Below)
Timing Track Label Background Color
Timing Track Label Outline Color
Singing Faces Phrases Background Color
Singing Faces Words Background Color
Singing Faces Phonemes Background Color
Timing Tracks that cannot be edited.
Selected Locked Effect (Click and Drag Select)
Locked Effect Referenced Color (The Effect the Effect Settings Dialog is Currently Referencing)
Audio Waveform Color
Audio Waveform Background Color
Audio Waveform Selected Color
Audio Waveform Selected Effect Interval Marker Color
Model Color
Model Selected Color
Color of other models with overlapping channels of the selected model. Overlap checks enabled must me active for this to appear.
Mouse Click and Drag Box Color
Import Color Settings from a .xtheme file saved on the computer.
Export Color Settings as a .xtheme file to use/import on other computers.
Reset Colors to the xLights Default colors
Cancel Color Changes and Close Preference Dialog
Save Color Changes and Close Preference Dialog
This function enables you to change the size of the tool icons that are used to represent the effects on the effects ribbon.
Four options are available:
The OpenGL setting is used to define what version of the OpenGL API is being used for certain components of xLight rendering of 2D and 3D graphics.
This option does not have to be used unless you see issues with the waveform or icons not being displayed or the sequencer is jerky. In which case, starting with 3.x and working downwards , select an option and restart xLights and check the results. Advise the xLights team, as it could be that your video card drivers on your computer need updating.
In 3D mode, Model and Objects sometimes do not look correct in the house preview on all videocards. The Render Order 1-6 options use different render methods to generate the model layout. If you are having unwanted visual artifacts, try a different options and see if the models look better on your specific computer.
This option will adjust the size of the model handles in the Layout Tab.
There are three sizes available:
"Always On" will display the window in all cases, "Always Off" won’t display the window and "Auto Toggle" will display the window if the effect supports it, else won't display the window if the effect does not have this capability. Click on an effect in the sequencer grid and expand the Effect Assist window. If "Always on" is selected and the effect is not supported by this window, then you will see a red X in the window.
This Options will display Play, Pause, Stop, Scrub Bar to the House Preview to allow control of the sequence playback. They will only appear if the house preview window is larger than 400 wide by 300 high.
Automatically Show the House Preview Window when the sequence is playing and hide the House Preview when the sequence is stopped.
This function enables you to change the size (i.e. width of each band) of the sequencer grid.
Five options are available: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large.
When an effect such as the Morph effect is placed between timing marks (as an example over several seconds long), a representation of the color changes over time for that effect.
If unchecked, then the effect on the sequencer grid will only show the generic effect icon and not the colors. Not all effects have this difference.
This function provides the ability to turn off the effect displaying colors at the node level.
Turning it off improves rendering performance and is recommended where effects are only being dropped at the model level. The value can be turned back on as required.
If checked, When moving or resizing an effect this will snap the effect beginning and/or endpoint to the closest timing make if you drag it close enough (approx 10 pixels on your monitor).
When "Play Timing" is selected, if you Double Click a timing mark, xLights will play the sequence for that timing mark interval. If "Edit Text" is selected, the Edit Label Dialog will appear. This Dialog allows you to input lyrics for singing faces or states for the state effect. The opposite option's functionality will works if you hold down shirt key then double click.
When Enabled, the audio waveform will appear smaller on the screen. This is designed for screens with lower resolutions.
If checked, color bars are display to represent transitions, like fade in or fade out.
This settings allows the user to provide a contact email for when xLights submits a crash report. This is completely optional.
This setting allows xLights to use the computer's GPU to render video files. If you are having issues with video files's not displaying, it is recommended to disable this setting.
This setting allows xLights to compile shader effects on a background. This can help improve render times of shaders.
If selected, when a sequence is packaged with the Package Sequence option, all effects presets are stripped from the xlights_rgbeffects.xml file.
If selected, when a sequence is packaged the audio file is skipped as it is generally not legal to share audio files with other people. When the recipient opens the sequence they will need to point to where the audio file is on their computer.
If excluding the audio from a packaged sequence, it is necessary to provide the source of the audio file to those the package sequence is being sent to. This is best done by filling on the metadata on the sequence settings for the song, artist, album, and music URL (link for download).
Set the Video Codec and bitrate used by the Export House Preview Menu Dropdown. H.264 is recommended new Macs (M1, M1 Max, M2) with hardware video rendering. MPEG-4 is an older/slower standard that will create large video files.
This option will cause xLights to save both the Controller Settings and Layout Settings when either save button is clicked.
When Uploading Controller Inputs and Outputs, this will cause xLights to do both upload actions when Upload Output is clicked.
If enabled this will prompt the user of error during batch render. These errors could be related to missing models and missing effect files. If disables these errors will be ignored and render will be skipped for the models involved.
Force xLights to download the newest Vender Models on startup. It is recommended to enable this option on fast internet connections.
Set the 'Level' of tips of the day, you will receive. Off will disable Tip of the day.
Backing up your critical files and sequences should be done regularly – as good practice.
What should be backed up ? Anything you require to run your show, but in particular your XML sequences, your media files and your user specific xLights configuration files.
The xLights configuration files are located in your show directory and are: xlights_keybindings.xml, xlights_networks.xml and xlights_rgbeffects.xml
By default xlights backs up the key files at the start of a session when xLights is launched.
The files are saved in a subfolder with a timestamp and ‘_onstart’ suffix.
It will also create a backup when the show directory is changed. If you have enabled Backup on Save, it will also take a snapshot after every Save operation.
Pressing F10 anytime, anywhere will backup your XML files for you and store them in a new folder with the date/time embedded in the name the backup was created. You can press F10 as many times as you like and should do this at least once per sequencing session. Keep in mind that you must have saved at least once in order for an updated XML file to be protected.
Alternatively, from the File menu, select Backup.
You will be presented will a message indicating where a backup will be created. Click Yes to proceed. Every time this step is executed, a copy will be created of all the ‘*xml’ files from your show directory into the Backup subdirectory of your show directory. A new subfolder is created each time a backup is executed.
The F11 function does not do an auto (in memory) backup of the current sequence if you have one open. It will backup the open sequence XML contents from when it was last saved.
It is a good practice to also separately backup any files that you may have used as inputs to your sequences such as LSP, LOR, Papagayo files that you imported, media files that may have amended with audacity, GIF or JPEGs etc. You may also wish to backup any FSEQ files, though this can be recreated by saving the sequence again.
Backing up the show directory (and media directory if it is different) to an alternate location is the simplest way to ensure that you have the files required.
To summarise the backup functionality:
When xlIghts starts up - a folder timestamp_OnStart is created and the XML and XBKP files in the show directory are backed up there.
When F10 / F11 is pressed , a folder (timestamp) is created in the show/alt location and the above files are backed up there (referred to as an on demand save).
Every x (3,10,15,30) minutes , the current open XML file (i.e xxx.xml) is backed up (overwrite) to xxx.xbkp or __.xbkp (for a new unnamed sequence) in the show directory. This will occur if there have been any changes since the last auto save or on demand (F10/F11) save.
Every x minutes (same value as set above), the xlights_rgbeffects.xml is backed up to xlights_rgbeffects.xbkp in the show directory. This includes the layout as well. This will occur if there have been any changes since the last auto save or on demand (F10/F11) save.
If you need to recover, File -> Restore Backup
Select the backup folder from the left list and "check" which files to restore. The right list display basic data about the files found in the selected backup folder.
xlights_networks.xml file contains the controller tab data.
xlights_rgbeffects.xml file contains the layout, model, preview and preset data .
xlights_keybindings.xml files contains the keyboard shortcut settings.
The Sequence Tab can be used to backup sequence files.
Click the "Restore Files" button to start the restore process.
Backup Preferences contains all the backup and restore settings.
View Preferences contains settings related to the scaling and size of items on the screen.
Effects Grid Preferences contains settings for the Sequencer Effects Grid.
Sequences Preferences contains settings for rendering and saving sequences.
Output Preferences are related to sending data to physical hardware.
The Random Effects tab allows the user to set which effects are used by the Generate Random Effects Right click menu option in the sequencer.
The Color Tab allows the user to change the colors options of xLights.
Output Preferences contains settings that did not fall under the other categories.
To create a new sequence, either use the New Sequence icon, select New Sequence from the File menu or press Ctrl N. The following screen is displayed:
If you do change your mind about creating a sequence, click on the Don’t Create Sequence button.
If creating a music sequence, click on Musical Sequence. A ‘Choose Audio File’ window will open, defaulting to your media directory.
You can select ‘FPP Audio files’ or ‘xLights Audio files’ to filter which file types can then be selected.
FPP Audio files: *.mp3;*.ogg;*.m4p;*.mp4
xLights Audio files: *.mp3;*.ogg;*.m4p;*.mp4;*.avi; *.wma;*.au;*.wav;*.m4a;*.mid;*. mkv;*.mov;*.mpg; *.asf; *.flv;*.mpeg.
If in doubt, select FPP Audio files.
The most common supported files on the FFP are .mp3 and .ogg. There is limited support for .mp4 and .m4p files for audio. Constant Bit Rate (CBR) audio works well. Variable Bit Rate(VBR) is quite uncommon.
Select the frames per second (fps) for your sequence.
The most common one used is 20fps (50ms).
On the Timing tab you can select one or more of a number of timing bar options, which will generate timing marks automatically (similar to those that can be done via Audacity).
If intending to create an xLights sequence, on the next screen, select the View that you wish to use on the sequencer screen (use the Drop down if the View displayed is not what you require) and then press Quick Start.
The next screen displayed will be the sequencer grid and all the models from the selected View, will be displayed.
If you selected More options from the previous screen, then you are presented with this screen.
If creating an xLights sequence, at this stage you can select ‘Done’ and import timing marks later (either via the Timings menu or by Right Clicking on the Sequencer menu). Alternatively, you can click on the Timings tab now – this will lead to the Timings menu.
Press either Skip or click on Done. If you pressed Skip then the following screen is displayed:
If you click on the Edit Metadata tab, this will lead to the Sequence Settings dialog box. You can Import a Timing Track or click on any of the tabs for the corresponding functionality.
Click on Done when complete.
At this stage a new empty sequence has been created. You can...
Select Save to save the sequence in your show directory – you will be prompted for a sequence name.
Click on the Sequencer tab and continue with
Adding models for this sequence to the sequencer view,
Creating/adding timing marks
Dropping effects on the sequencer grid
Playing the sequence
Ensure that you save the sequence prior to exiting to save the work that has been done so far. By default though, the layout and sequencer changes are saved every 3 mins to a backup file i.e. ‘xxx.xbkp’ file in your show directory (where xxx is the name of the sequence).
If creating an animation sequence, click on Animation Sequence. No media/audio file is required or requested for.
This option enables you to create a timing track with marks at fixed intervals of your choice e.g every 1 second or every 5 secs. This is especially useful for animation sequences so that you don’t then have to go through and create timing marks manually.
Click on Timing and then from the drop down window , select the Metronome option.
In the popup window select the timing interval between each mark in milli secs ie 1000 for every 1 sec, 5000 for 5 every secs etc.
It must be a multiple of the base timing selected (ie 50 millisecs if 20fps was selected on the previous screen).
Click on Done when complete. xLights will create a Timing track with timing marks at the specified intervals.
The subsequent process is the same as in the Musical Sequence. By default, xLights will create an animated sequence that is 30 seconds in length. To change this , click on File, Sequence Settings and you can change the Sequence Duration.
The default setting is to render all the effects of all the models and groups when saving the XML. If this setting is unchecked (i.e. to turn off), then it will only save the sequence XML file when you click Save/Save As, resulting in a very fast save operation. If unchecked, then Render All must be used to populate the render buffer. You must Render All and then File Save to create a up to date FSEQ file.
When Enabled model like matrixes and trees can be set to render at a smaller resolution to help lower render times during sequencing.
When enabled, the Model Blending option in the sequence settings dialog will be enabled when creating a new sequence.
Select a View to default as the Master View when creating a new sequence.
Render Cache allows xLights to render an effect or group of effects once and then save the individual frames in memory (and on disk) so it doesn't need to render the frames again. This can speed up render times, as xLights does not need to re-render unchanged effects.
This defines where the render cache files are saved on disk. If "Use Show Folder" is 'checked' xLights will use the current show folder. If 'unchecked' and a folder path is specified all the Render Cache data will be saved to that location. If this folder doesn't exist (move computers or remove a harddrive) the Render Cache directory will default back to the show directory.
There is a purge render cache option under Tools->Purge Render Cache.
The Auto Save functionality creates a copy of your working sequence xml, in your show directory. By default, the open sequence will be saved every 3 minutes and will create or override a file ‘XXX.xbkp’ where ‘XXX’ is the name of your sequence. You can use this menu to change the timeframe this occurs at or to disable it. The ‘*xml.xbkp’ files will also be included when you press F10 to back up your xml files from the show directory. It won’t be included if F11 is used to back files up to an alternate location.
In order to recover your sequence file from an unexpected error or corruption to the point when the last autosave executed: e nsure that xlights is not active. Then rename your existing sequence file (’xxx.xml’) to another name and rename the ‘xxx.xbkp. file to ‘xxx.xml’. Restart xLights, open the sequence and Click on Render All.
This defines where xLights will search for audio/picture/video files, This should only be set if the audio/picture/video files are not stored in the current show folder or a sub-directory of the current show folder. On Mac OS, adding folders in this section will give xLights the correct permissions to search them.
This will save the current rendered data to the FSEQ file on save. If this setting is disabled, the user will have to preform a Render All after opening a sequence. It is recommended that thus setting always remain checked (enabled).
Version 1 is the "original" FSEQ file format. V1 files contain all the channel data and can be very large file. xLights, FPP, and most controllers support V1. Version 2 of the FSEQ file format added compression and "skips" off channels to reduce file sizes. FPP 2.5 and lower do not support the V2 file format. ZSTD, ZLIB, Uncompressed are additional options to select which compression format to use. ZSTD is the default and is the preferred setting. These options can be changed in xLights to generate FSEQ files in the different file format for devices that require them. xLights 2019.64 and FPP 2.6+ support all the available file formats.
This defines where xLights will save FSEQ files. The FSEQ files are the raw sequence data for each sequence. If "Use Show Folder" is 'checked' xLights will use the current show folder. If 'unchecked' xLights will use the set folder path. If this folder doesn't exist (move computers or remove a harddrive) the FSEQ directory will default back to the show directory.
Select the Sequence Settings option from the File menu. This screen can also be accessed by clicking on the button of the toolbar. The Sequence Settings screen has four tabs.
The Info/Media tab displays information about the sequence including the xLights release that was used to create the sequence, the number of models saved, the Sequence Type (i.e. Media or Animated), if media has been specified then the name and location of the media file. The sequence duration, the sequence timing and whether the media tags should be overwritten.
The sequence type, media file name or location, the sequence duration and whether media tags can be overwritten can be changed from this tab after the sequence has been created.
Sequence Duration determines the playback length of the sequence in seconds. For Media sequence types this is fixed to the media/audio file length used and cannot be changed. Animated Sequence duration defaults to 30 seconds and can be changed to the new length from this dialog.
Sequence Timing dictates the playback speed of the sequence. A Sequence Timing of 50 milliseconds would have a playback speed of 20 frames per second. Click the Question Mark to change the Sequence Timing.
Allow Blending Between Models determines if effects from the model groups blend with model level effects. If enabled the model groups effect data will be merged with the model effect data. If disabled models lower in the render order with override effect data of models higher in the render order.
Changes to the length of sequence duration, Sequence Timing, and Allow Blending Between Models require a "Render All" for the change to take effect in the current open sequence.
The Metadata tab enables the media metadata to be entered or updated. The attributes supported are the author, email, website, song, artist, album, music url and a comment.
This information does not drive any functionality in xLights.
xLights will parse and retrieve the information from the media file. It won't update any information entered on the media/info screen unless the Overwrite Media Tags setting on the Media/Info screen is ticked.
After updating any data Click on Done to Update.
The Timings tab enables you to create or import one or more sets of timing marks on timing tracks for the audio of your sequence.
This screen is part of the flow when creating a new sequence or can be accessed via this tab at any time after creating a sequence to add additional timing tracks.
Clicking on New will present you with a list of options. You can either select a fixed value such as 50 or 100 ms or select from one of the options in the list.
This component uses the VAMP plugins to generate the timing marks.
Selecting one of the options then presents a window where you can either select the defaults or change the timing name or any of the plug-in settings.
Click Ok and the audio track will be analysed and a timing track will be created. You can then click New again to select another timing track (‘Beats’) to be created.
Click Done when complete.
The Import button enables you to import timing marks created externally for example using Audacity or where you have created a timing track manually or wish to import one from another sequencer in a supported format.
You will be presented with a window to navigate to and select a file containing the timing marks to import to the timing grid. This can be a text file (.txt), a LOR .LMS/.LAS file, Papagayo .PGO file, LSP File, or, xLights .XML/.xsq/.xtiming file.
You can repeat this process to import another timing grid from the same file or from another file. Click Done when complete.
If the Render Mode is set to Erase (which is the default value), then the fseq file is erased before every render. If set to Canvas Mode, then the data in the fseq is not cleared before a render, rendering is done over the old data.
If set to Canvas mode, deleting an effect will still show when played until it is overridden with a new effect. Imagine a 6 foot painting in which you paint over a 4 foot section. The 2 foot original section is still visible. This is the how canvas mode works.
When should you use the data layer to import effects?
Typically if you have sequences from other sequencers such as LSP, LOR, Vixen, HLS that you wish to use within xLights. The imported sequence is mapped very efficiently as a data image rather than individual effects. After importing the sequencer you can:
Save it ( an .fseq file is created) and run it within xLights or via the Falcon Player
Add xLights effects to new models via the sequencer
Selectively override some of the effects from the imported models within xLights.
You cannot however ‘edit’ any of the imported effects directly. In order to do that see the Import Effects function. The data layer embeds the CONVERT tab into the sequence. The process is used to convert an incoming file from another sequencer into an *.iseq file. Therefore, Vix, Lms, Seq, and Hls data into an ISEQ file.
This conversion is done in two places.
When you a import a data layer
When you press the ‘Render All’ button
The purpose of ‘Render All’ is to render all the effects and data layers to the sequence object without saving to disk. The already imported ISEQ file data is used. If the source (‘LMS’, ‘SEQ’, ‘HLS’ etc) file is changed, then you need to go to the Data Layer tab, click on that layer and select the Re-Import function.
Before using this function, a new sequence should have been created or an existing sequence opened.
From the Main Menu tab, select Sequence Settings and then Data Layers.
Click on Import, navigate to where your input file (‘LMS’, ‘LSP’ etc) is, change the file type as required and select the file to be imported. Click ok.
On completion of the import, the Data layer details and the number of channels imported to the data later will be displayed. The file has been imported/converted and stored in an .iseq file.
The normal (and default) option is for the xLights ‘layer’ to be on the top and the imported sequence data represented below it. When rendered, the data is rendered from the lowest layer upwards, so the xLights effects will be rendered last. (Refer to discussion under Move Up/Move Down).
On the Main Menu, click on the ‘Render All’ button, after which the sequence can be played. Click on the ‘Save’ or ‘Save All’ buttons to save the sequence.
You must click Render All or Save the file after the Import function is complete, the data is not automatically rendered.
To view the details of the data that has been imported, double-click on the model's row title to reveal the strands and then the nodes. The imported effects are at the node level.
Use this function if you wish to delete a data layer that has been created via the import function. Select on the layer and delete.
While the most common use of this function is to import effects from a previous sequencer once per sequence, you can import multiple layers to be rendered at the same time. An example of this is where you may have two purchased LOR (or other) sequences for a mega tree singing faces. Or you may have xLights effects on a whole house model which you then want to be ‘overridden’ by the imported data layer.
Using the Up/Down buttons allow you to determine which layer will take precedence over the others. The highest layer will render last i.e. on top of the others and so forth.
Use this function, if you wish to re-import and overwrite an imported data layer. Normally required if the source i.e. LSP, LOR sequence has been amended in any way and you wish to overwrite the previous import without affecting any other effects that may have been added to the sequence within xLights. Select the data layer and click on the re-import function, after which, functionality is the same as the Import function.
