Hi,
yesterday I was working on a sequence where I needed to insert a chase at some point. I did as suggested in the help files and wrote a script EFXstart:name, and it all worked fine but from that moment all cues kind of blinked once when established. I tries even to run the chase manually, with the same effect. The cue goes and when finished the whole state just blacks out for a millisecond and then stays. It even felt like the machine became really busy, mouse clicks on window elements became really slow. It`s a fairly good computer, mac book pro retina. Once I removed the script and did not try to run the chase any more after restarting the system it all worked fine again.
Effects
The fastest that an effect can go is with zero up/down and follow times. The actual speed of this varies with the computer. But, it works correctly on a range of Macs from a G5 to a 3.2ghz quad core Mac Pro. On a 2.4ghz i5 MacBook Pro the fastest chase is about 0.056 sec per step. The step rate is limited to .025 seconds/40hz because that is approximately the max DMX refresh speed. Faster would involve more than one step per dmx frame! So at 0.056 seconds, one step takes about 2 DMX frames worth of time.
Actual step times vary a little but this shows avg values for the 2.4ghz MacBook Pro:
Follow Actual
0.0 0.056
0.1 0.138
0.2 0.245
0.3 0.333
0.4 0.443
0.5 0.553
1.0 1.050
This does not explain the behavior you observed. However, what you observed is similar to what happens if you set a blank up or down time on a regular cue. So it is possible that your effect contains one of these cues. Or, is set to override time and the up or down time is blank.
The latest build 3.0.7 traps all up and down fade times so that they cannot be set to blank. If you try, it will default to 0. So, this may fix your problem.
If the problem persists, you can e-mail the file and we can try to duplicate the issue.
Actual step times vary a little but this shows avg values for the 2.4ghz MacBook Pro:
Follow Actual
0.0 0.056
0.1 0.138
0.2 0.245
0.3 0.333
0.4 0.443
0.5 0.553
1.0 1.050
This does not explain the behavior you observed. However, what you observed is similar to what happens if you set a blank up or down time on a regular cue. So it is possible that your effect contains one of these cues. Or, is set to override time and the up or down time is blank.
The latest build 3.0.7 traps all up and down fade times so that they cannot be set to blank. If you try, it will default to 0. So, this may fix your problem.
If the problem persists, you can e-mail the file and we can try to duplicate the issue.