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Too many events and movies, Is there a way to do it more efficient in BrightAuthor?

Nils Marklund

September 28, 2020 20:16

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Is there a more efficient way of setting up my project?

I am using udp events let´s call them 1. 2. 3. ... 26 to trigger movies 1. 2. 3. ...26. Udp 1 starts movie 1 no matter what movie currently is playing etc.

I can do it in BrightAuthor by dragging arrows and pointing each udp event from each movie and it works fine for my smaller projects. But with 26 events from each and every movie there is just a lot of arrows and I suspect I might error or forget.

Is there any state or type of zone trick that can exist in the background or work as a constant state so I just have to tell the player what it should do when udp event 1 occurs once, no matter what movie is playing? Now I have to tell it 26 times for every event.

All the best

/nils

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3 comments

• 0
  
  Allen H. Porter September 28, 2020 20:25

  Not sure if it the best way but you could link the UDP to a superstate then drop in whatever video you wish to trigger.  So 26 superstates that always remain the same but the mp4 inside could change.

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  Brandon September 28, 2020 21:20

  You could use a Video Play File state (On Demand state in BA:connected).  You just load all your movie files into the state and the movie with the Key value matching the UDP input's data (or user variable) will play when the state is entered (so if you use a user variable, whatever sets/changes that variable needs to trigger entry into the Play File state)

  A side-effect to this method is sending the same UDP message will restart the same movie if you have the UDP Input event on the Play File state itself - or if you don't put a UDP Input event on the Play File state, then the movie will have to play through to completion before another one can be started.  You can change this behavior using user variables and Conditional Targets - set a variable to track what started playing and ignore the UDP Input event if it matches what's already playing.

   

  Super States are the more-general answer, but you don't need 26 - just one.

  Put all the movies in the Super State

  Put all the events that should be active on every movie in the Super State onto the Super State itself.
  If there are specific events that should trigger only for specific movies, put those events on the movie states inside the Super State.

  Normally only events on the current state are active.  But, if the state is in a Super State, the events on the current state plus the events on the Super State it is within are active.

  The only downside here is that triggering the same UDP

  Hint, to move your current states into a Super State:

  1. Click a state in your playlist, or click a blank area in the playlist to ensure it has focus.
  2. Control-A to select all your states
  3. Control-C to copy them
  4. Add a Super State to the playlist
  5. Double-click the Super State to enter it
  6. Control-V to paste the states
  7. Click the Playlist "breadcrumb" above the playlist to back out of the Super State
  8. Control-A to select all the states
  9. Control Left-click to de-select the Super State (make sure it's not highlighted blue anymore)
  10. Hit the Delete key to delete the other states.

  Like the Play File method, a side-effect to this method is sending the same UDP message will restart the same movie if you have the UDP Input event on the Play File state itself - or if you don't put a UDP Input event on the Play File state, then the movie will have to play through to completion before another one can be started.  You can change this behavior using user variables and Conditional Targets - set a variable to track what started playing and ignore the UDP Input event if it matches what's already playing.

  _________________________________________________________________________

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  Nils Marklund September 28, 2020 21:52

  Thank you Brandon and Allen for responding.

  Brandon, the udp-sideffect restart should in this case be advantage. Thank you for giving some insight and step by step instructions how you can use superstates. The BrightAuthour documentation seems a little short on the use of superstates and have been glancing on them from a distance for a while. Have a lot to try now and with some initial perplexity aside I should get it up and running.

  Again, thank you

  /nils