Guidelines for Official-Looking Customs

[iminashi]

The showlights are a separate XML file that you add as an arrangement like guitar or bass.

The toolkit automatically generates showlights into a file cst_showlights.xml.

 

About 'count' I'm not sure if it matters.

[firekorn]

@@Xaphist The count is just a literal count of the number of even present in the xml. Not sure if it being wrong will have any major impact but i would suggest to stay on the safe side and adjust it accordingly to the number of event you have in your showlight xml to be sure.

[Xaphist]

@@iminashi

@@firekorn

Thanks for your replies!

 

But now I am more confused than ever. I've never seen a "cst_showlights.xml". The Rocksmith toolkit is supposed to generate this? Am I supposed to just make my own xml file that contains the code above? When I do that I get an error.

[iminashi]

The cst_showlights.xml file is in all of my CDLC work directories.  :)

 

When you use your own file, currently the Toolkit requires that the filename ends in "_showlights.xml".

[firekorn]

The file is generated when you create the package with the toolkit, you won't have a file if you haven't created any psarc yet.

[Xaphist]

I figured out my issue. I was using an out of date version of the Toolkit. I updated it and now when I generate a psarc I see the XML. You guys rock so hard thanks for being so awesome and helpful... but now I am getting an error! I am moving this to a different thread so I don't hijack this one.

 

http://customsforge.com/index.php/topic/46361-thread-exception-null-reference/

[cozy1]

The latest beta version of the toolkit has a built in ShowLights Editor.  Here's a quick how to:

1) In the toolkit CDLC Creator GUI, use the 'Import Package' button to load an existing CDLC file.
2) Select 'ShowLights' in the 'Arrangements' box and then press the 'Edit' button.
3) In the 'Edit Arrangement' popup box, press the button next to the 'ShowLight' combobox.
4) In the 'Edit ShowLights' popup box, change the showlight 'note=' values to achieve different showlight effects.
5) Refer to the 'Note Key:' for what the different 'note=' values correspond to.

A picture is worth a thousand words:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0npvst6vi9w1556/ShowlightEditor.jpg?dl=0

​
Some ShowLights features are still a black box.  So editing will take some trial and error.  Changing 'Fog' and 'Spot Light' colors is pretty straight forward.

Special thanks to iminashi for his help exploring ShowLights.

[raynebc]

If the toolkit is going to have this capability, should I add an ability to place these in EOF? It would probably be something similar to the Rocksmith event system where you pick an event from a list and it gets placed at the seek position (like tone changes, FHPs, RS1 era popup messages, etc).

[cozy1]

If the toolkit is going to have this capability, should I add an ability to place these in EOF? It would probably be something similar to the Rocksmith event system where you pick an event from a list and it gets placed at the seek position (like tone changes, FHPs, RS1 era popup messages, etc).

A couple of toolkit users asked me if EOF was going to have the ability of adding/editing showlights.  I leave it up to you whether to add it, since some aspects of creating showlights are still trial and error.  Here's what is known in addition to what iminashi has explained in this thread.

[firekorn]

I could see some aspect of it being interesting to have in EOF (better timing for being on beat) but i don't really see much of a point of spending time on this.

 

IMO, it would be really interesting if it include some kind of visualisation alongside the edition. I don't see myself playing around with light effect if i can't have at least somewhat of an idea of the way it render but that's a whole other deal to work on.

[Alex360]

@@firekorn do we need to write fully featured stage light editor? that's a thing!

I guess it would be viable to give a VPL like form for users to construct showlights from it's blocks, like kids learn to code nowdays

[firekorn]

Need? absolutely not.

 

Would it be cool and make me actually want to bother with showlight? I sure think so.

 

Do anyone have the time to actually make it? I have my doubt but one can dream ;)

 

But if @@raynebc feel like adding some ways to create the showlight in EOF, i guess it would be better than nothing but i see only one advantage for this which is that it would make dealing with the timing of the event easier compared to the Toolkit editor which gives no information about the song structure/timing that goes along side the event.

[cozy1]

@@firekorn do we need to write fully featured stage light editor? that's a thing!

I guess it would be viable to give a VPL like form for users to construct showlights from it's blocks, like kids learn to code nowdays

Think you mean 'do you need to'.   I don't have time.

[raynebc]

I guess my main concern is whether EOF would have to write the complete showlights file or if it will just pass data to the toolkit via some file to specify where the author wanted specific effects at specific times (ie. only the showlight events that the author explicitly added).

[Alex360]

@@raynebc, toolkit could do some more processing  like: "this section was specified with selected color and asks for laser effect, we'll add it on selected even place and stick to specified color for lights\fog" ??

[raynebc]

Is it worthwhile to pursue having EOF provide a partial showlights file and fill in the blanks with the usual auto-generated stuff (or even use the author's supplied events to assume preferred colors/effects for what is auto-generated)?

[iminashi]

FWIW I've been working on an editor. For now it's just a list of the notes and the GUI would need to be changed to something else to actually make more extensive editing of the showlights convenient.

 

 

And for the past two days I've been trying to get this thing working:

 

[firekorn]

@@iminashi

You seems to work on some interesting tool from what i've heard so if you want help or a tester, i'd be more than happy to help around.

[cozy1]

@raynebc  If you incorporate showlights into EOF, I think it would be best if EOF generates the complete working showlights.xml file.  Similar to what is now done with vocals.xml file.  Keep in mind that a valid default showlights file can consist of just two xml elements (fog and beam) so it doesn't have to be complicated.  The CDLC author would still have the option of using the toolkit to do further tweaks on the EOF showlights file or even generate a new toolkit showlights file.

[iminashi]

You seems to work on some interesting tool from what i've heard so if you want help or a tester, i'd be more than happy to help around.

 

My "DDC Improver" program is pretty much done and I should release it to the general public. I just haven't been able to decide what kind of icon I should use for it, and also I've been too lazy to write a proper help/readme for it.  :P

[Alex360]

@@raynebc been there done that, I'm sure it should be optin so if you really have custom showlights track eof will do one for you othherwise it's up to toolkit to mess with it. oDLC usually hane less than 40 showlights count so go figure I've got it up to 200 in early days

[raynebc]

Going from @@cozy1 's previous screen capture, it seems pretty simple. Is there a way to turn off an effect (ie. remove fog) after the effect has been previously enabled? Is there a list handy for the note key (the screen capture has half of it), or should I just get the latest toolkit and check it out?

[Alex360]

@@raynebc I thhink @@iminashi has his hand on filling gaps in this file https://github.com/rscustom/rocksmith-custom-song-toolkit/blob/master/RocksmithToolkitLib/XML/Showlights.cs#L13

there's a list of all known elements w\o going too much in depth.

As I know all you can do to fog light is to change one to another. maybe there's a command to do so like for spotlights but it's unknown

 

fog could be "missing" if you've got it not initialized i.e. there's showlights count = 0 or missing

[cozy1]

Going from @@cozy1 's previous screen capture, it seems pretty simple. Is there a way to turn off an effect (ie. remove fog) after the effect has been previously enabled? Is there a list handy for the note key (the screen capture has half of it), or should I just get the latest toolkit and check it out?

Here's what is known