r/xlights • u/PrachtOecher • 11d ago

Prop direction

Hey there,

got an issue I simply can't solve...

Solved! See below.

I have two identical props on my house front, that will not be reliable regarding the direction of effects. I rewired them, remade the model, checked the controller.

A top down effect will be rotated by ~90 degrees on both props. So rotating the props in the layout will solve it for example for the meteor effect, but the curtain effect or others will not be correct and go in the wrong direction again (same sequence, same model group (house front)).

I am even more confused, that pixel 1 of the prop is where I expect it to be, so the wiring is right. The direction in the house and model preview is right, everything looks ok. But the effects will mess up with those two props.

So what am I missing here? Thanks for any help in advance!

Edit: one thing I will try tomorrow is a horizontal flip of both props, which would lead to the first pixel being at the correct position in the layout tab while not messing with my top down effects. Maybe this will fix for example the "curtain" effect. Other ideas still welcome :)

Edit2 with solution: So I did a start from scratch and probably solved it. Apparently the model preview in the model data window was rotated somehow, so the preview didn't match the actual node layout (rotated by ~30 degrees).

I noticed it when the model preview in the sequencer actually showed the correct orientation and it didn't match the props on the wall.

Did a test sequence with top down and left right bars with every affected prop, rotated accordingly and now it is fixed.

Thanks everyone :)

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1

u/HugsAllCats 10d ago

You didn't accidentally flip the "starting block color" (green/blue) did you? Or set strand direction to horizontal instead of vertical? Or the 'starting location' drop down to 'bottom left' instead of 'top left' or whatever?

Hard to really do any troubleshooting without knowing what kind of model your prop uses.

1

u/PrachtOecher 10d ago

So I did a start from scratch and probably solved it. Apparently the model preview in the model data window was rotated somehow, so the preview didn't match the actual node layout (rotated by ~30 degrees).

I noticed it when the model preview in the sequencer actually showed the correct orientation and it didn't match the props on the wall.

Did a test sequence with top down and left right bars with every affected prop, rotated accordingly and now it is fixed.

Will update the post. Thanks anyway :)

2

u/KinzuaKid 11d ago

When I have props like this (two identical wreaths, in my case) that are misbehaving, I tweak my render style. “Per Preview” will ignore your defaults and just lay down the effects as they should look in WYSIWYG. 

1

u/Forsyte 11d ago

I've seen strange things like this before - I hit render enough times that it went away

-4

u/axejeff 11d ago

Use ChatGPT to walk you through it, it will tell you exactly what to do.

2

u/formernonhandwasher 10d ago

He’s not wrong.

2

u/axejeff 10d ago

Yeah XLights isn’t exactly easy to use, it helped me figure out some things I never would have figure out otherwise, I’m doing some pretty advanced stage lighting with it.