How do I display a 2d pattern?

1

I’ve got my Pixelblaze wired up, I’ve done the clicky-clicky to map the pixels, I uploaded the resulting code to the Mapper tab (with Matrix and “contain” selected) and it shows “Looks OK, pixel map is live!” at the bottom of that tab.

But when I go to the “Patterns” tab and select a pattern with “2D” in the name (like “Pulse 2D”) the “Rendering Mode” indicator remains on “1D” and the pattern is obviously only rendering in one dimension. Clicking on the Rendering Mode does nothing.

What am I doing wrong?

2

One thing to check – after entering your map on the Mapper tab, be very sure you’ve clicked the sometimes-hard-to-see “Save” button at the bottom of the page, just below “Looks Ok,…”.

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3

Yep, did that. There’s no indication that save (or any other button in the app, frankly) actually did anything though, so I’m at a loss.

4

Do you have a preview of the map show up on the mapper tab?
It should also show up on the edit tab with live pixel data.

5

Yep, I have both of those.

What is supposed to happen? When I tap on a pattern with 2D in the name it should just use the 2D version of the pattern if I have the mapping correct?

6

Yes, that is what normally happens. If you edit the pattern does it have a render2D?

7

It does have both render() and render2d() functions declared but when I comment out the former it says, “No valid render function found” in the rendering mode in the top left of the window.

For some reason it really doesn’t think I have a matrix defined.

What’s the difference between a “Matrix” and a “multiple panel matrix” in the mapper? I have two panels running off different pins of an output expander, does that make any difference in how I have to do the mapping?

IMG_0549
IMG_05491512×2016 1.37 MB

8

Oh hey—now it’s working? I just clicked around a bit and re-copied the pixelmap app back into the mapper tab and now it seems to work.

9

I guess this should be taken as a bunch of UI bugs then:

  • the drop-down at the top of the mapper tab doesn’t indicate it’s just examples of mapping code—I thought I had to select “Matrix” or “Multiple matrix” (or whatever my layout was) in addition to pasting the static mapping array generated by the pixelmap app
  • Some parts of the app have old-school modify-form-then-click-save interactions (the Mapping tab) and some have new-school all-changes-are-saved-immediately-when-you-make-them interaction style (the Settings tab.) This inconsistency is confusing.
  • None of the button clicks anywhere have any “sparkles” or fades or anything indicating the button has been clicked/control has been actuated. Turns out these are pretty important for usability!
  • Edit: “stalled” should probably blink red or something too, that might have been why my mapping update didn’t “take”, but you really have to be watching to see that change
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10

Thank you for the list of trouble spots!

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