Any information on the animation speed?

[d-albrecht]

Hey guys,

I checked the video and all the linked resources but I can't find any information on the animation speed or frames per second. The only hint is one of the Harvard-scripts that mentions 60fps and 30fps in a comment next to one variable that is never used, Can you make any statements about the (average) speed to load all the 1500 color values onto the tree? As in this year all animations are pre-rendered, I guess the animation speed should be pretty much some constant no matter the actual animation. And if I want to have some effect have specific timings I need this information.

Thanks in advance

[gentlegiantJGC]

Currently the running code runs it as quickly as the tree is able to run it because there is a significant delay when calling the show method to push changes to the tree. This means that the frame rate will vary based on the hardware.

I am currently working on a pull request for the running code to make the frame time configurable within the CSV animation file.
More info here
GSD6338/XmasTree#2

[d-albrecht]

@thatmattparker to draw a bit more attention to this issue: Were you able to run a (random) animation and estimate the time/frame value for your setup?

[gentlegiantJGC]

@oliverdunk I have written an improved runner with a large number of fixes and with support for custom frame times. I opened a pull request on the harvard repository but they are not maintaining the repository so won't be accepting the pull request.

I am going to open a pull request with the same code here in the hopes that you will accept it so that Matt can use it.

[d-albrecht]

That's awesome, but doesn't exactly solve the problem that we still don't know what the hardware is capable of. I can't really use frame times because (a) for my animation one frame should always be the same time interval (so I don't need this feature to reduce otherwise duplicate frames) and (b) annotating my animation with some frame times that the hardware isn't capable of would still not produce the outcome I want to have. If we had an estimate on the hardware's capability, the frame times would be a handy tool (even if for my animation, all frame times would just be the same number over and over)

[gentlegiantJGC]

In the bug report linked above one user worked out that Matt's tree was able to render at a little over 30fps

[d-albrecht]

If you refer to this comment then (a) this is the Harvard tree with - if I got this right - a different RPi version driving it and (b) an animation that wastes quite a few program cycles with printouts; while debugging outputs are great, in production code you should limit the console output because this can actually hurt your performance significantly (in extreme cases).

[gentlegiantJGC]

Yeh that is the one. It shows that the hardware can run at least that. I have submitted some improved code that allows customising frame time for each frame and disabled the printing each frame. Obviously if you put a value less than the hardware limited frame time it won't go quicker than that.

[d-albrecht]

Obviously if you put a value less than the hardware limited frame time it won't go quicker than that.

Not?? How comes?? </irony>

[oliverdunk]

Hey @gentlegiantJGC! Just noting that I've seen this one, I'm going to try and take a closer look in the morning.

[gentlegiantJGC]

Thanks

[NicolasVargas11235]

Hello everyone! I see that many people have had concerns about the ambiguity of the framerate. I have tried to contact @thatmattparker through email with this same question, but I have yet to hear back from him. I see that many people have been working on this, and I am unclear on where we stand for the format of the CSV files. Currently, I have a column for the Frame_ID, but I have also read that @gentlegiantJGC was looking to add a time frame column?

If someone can let me know what the proper, current format for the rows and columns are, that would be greatly appreciated. Also, to submit our files, are we to simply upload them to the examples folder? Thanks you.

[oliverdunk]

Hey @NicolasVargas11235 👋 I'm helping Matt with his GitHub and can try to answer your questions.

I am unclear on where we stand for the format of the CSV files. Currently, I have a column for the Frame_ID, but I have also read that @gentlegiantJGC was looking to add a time frame column?

The official format is described in the video description as follows: "each line of the CSV starts with a frame number and then R, G, B values (one 'column' each) for all of the LEDs in sequence." You can test your CSV using one of the simulators in the README of this repository. That's the format Matt will use regardless of any alternative formats that come up.

Also, to submit our files, are we to simply upload them to the examples folder?

You can submit a PR here, adding to the examples folder, or email matt+LEDs@standupmaths.com. Both me and Matt see those and will make sure they're considered.

Last but not least, on the framerate - my understanding based on people who have looked over the runner code is that there isn't a set framerate, and he just runs through the spreadsheet as fast as his hardware can. I haven't confirmed this with him though so I will try do to that shortly.