[QLab] Trimmin' the fat

[Christopher Ashworth]

On the face of it, I agree with Steve that this should be swept under  
the rug.  Assuming that there is never any lag, all you care about is  
whether the cue is running or not.

(In other words, the ability to manually load a sequence is only  
important because QLab's current design makes it important.)

The trick here is whether QLab can be intelligent enough to do this  
transparently.  Keep in mind that loading a sequence isn't just a  
matter of whether or not there is going to be a small delay when you  
press go; it can also fundamentally change the behavior of a  
sequence.  Example:  If a sequence of auto-continued Sound Cues are  
loaded, firing the first one will typically produce a sample-synced  
sequence.  In contrast, if they are loaded on the fly, aurally  
significant delays are introduced.  The first case can sound  
extremely different from the second.

Now, that doesn't mean that I couldn't make QLab more intelligent  
about waiting to fire a sequence until everything in the sequence is  
loaded, but that change would take some time to think through and  
test.  There are some potential gotchas with that, such as "what if  
other cues are messing with the sequence in question--could you get  
into a situation where QLab keeps trying to load cues that are  
getting stopped, producing an infinite loop and a sequence that never  
fires?"  Not likely, mind you, but the sort of thing I'd need to work  
through.

At the moment, therefore, I'll probably stick with the current system  
as "sufficient, if not perfect".  But I think Steve's basic point is  
well taken, and it's something I should seriously consider....

Chris

On Dec 3, 2006, at 11:08 PM, Steve Waddicor wrote:

> To me, not having all the sounds loaded and ready to go is a memory
> saving optimisation.  That's not the sort of thing a user should have
> to be concerned with.
>
> When you are running a show, QLab manages to have the right sounds
> loaded at the right time.  Maybe it needs to  guess what you want in
> the case you describe too.  Perhaps auto loading whatever sound (or
> sequence) is selected, after perhaps half a second, so it doesn't
> load every sound as you scroll through.
>
> On 4 Dec 2006, at 01:51, Ross Goldman wrote:
>
>> I find the yellow circle to be very useful; I encourage its continued
>> inclusion in the program. I often use it in conjunction with the key
>> command L to make sure a certain cue is ready to go when I hit GO.
>> This is not so much important in the regular run of a show as in
>> rehearsals where the designer/op is constantly jumping around the cue
>> list, or changing cue parameters. It is extremely helpful to know
>> that the next cue you want to play, regardless of where it is in the
>> sequence, is loaded and ready.