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Published: 28 articles

Jinx! V1.3 – with resizable mainwindow, real DMX and sACN/E1.31

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Today I released the version 1.3. A lot of work had been done in this version and lot has changed inside the engine. First of all, all generators now uses their own threads to use multi core cpus effective. We no can do much more cpu intensive effects (e.g. multiple Full HD AVIs with smooth resize and color control on a really small matrix) without dropping the frame rate or running into a hanging application. The second big change is the main window, which is now fully resizable. Also some new drivers has been implemented. We are now able to use sACN/E1.31 and real DMX with the Enttec Open DMX USB and Enttec DMX USB Pro interfaces. sACN/E1.31 as well as the Enttec USB DMX Pro can also be used as input for remote controlling Jinx!. To complete the output updates we now have also a borderless and freely placeable DVI window that can stay always on top. You wil find some notes about all inside the user manual.

Here is the (nearly) complete changelog:

  • fix bug for patching without fastpatch, first device could not be patched since v0.97
  • fix bug in bitmap export, color order was wrong rgb/bgr as well as a bmp stride bug, which took place on various matrix resolutions
  • made main window fully resizable, which needs some changes in the matrix options dialog and scene/chase window docking as well
  • all generators got its own thread to speed up and stabilize everything
  • a lot of internal optimizations and code cleanups
  • pixel limit has been rised to 24576 pixels
  • instance check on starting Jinx! – only one instance allowed to avoid threading troubles
  • new output protocols and devices: sACN/E1.31 (tested with sACNView), Enttex OpenDMX USB and compatible (tested with Enttec), Enttex DMX USB Pro and compatible (tested with EUROLITE USB-DMX512-PRO)
  • new input protocols/devices for remote control: sACN/E1.31 (tested with sACNView), Enttec DMX USB Pro (untested due the lack of hardware)
  • borderless DVI Output Window, which stays on top
  • all preview panes (including main and showwindow) now configureable via context menu (right click) for grid and stretching pixels, possibility to transfer the setting to all other previews
  • grid witdh in preview panes is configureable in the matrix options dialog
  • capture screen engine gots a new configure window and is now configureable for smooth or simple resize and the already known color controls with brightness, color saturation and gamma

Jinx V1.2 Release

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Another small release which will fix some bugs and gives you a few new feature additions.

Small Changelog for V1.2:

  • fix $LTIME in scrolling text, which was broken since version 0.99
  • small fix for avi player to not crash when an avi is broken
  • a lot of code cleanups, simplifies and optimizes
  • Matrix Size dialog gets renamed to Matrix Options
  • new option inside Matrix Options to only draw patched pixels. Is this option active, you only see patched pixels in the matrix preview panes. In that way you can display a custom shape matrix.
  • new variables for scrolling text: $DAY, $MONTH , $YEAR – so you can display the actual date in any format you want (e.g. $DAY.$MONTH.$YEAR or $MONTH/$DAY/$YEAR)
  • additional color saturation, brightness and gamma controls for Image Viewer and AVI Player – especially useful to reduce the color loss you will get on resizing images or avis, additional it can be used as cool effect to color up your images/vids

New Release: V1.1 with integrated AVI Player

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I have uploaded the version 1.1 today, which will include the long awaited AVI Player. You can directly play AVIs on your matrix and take control over various resizing and aspect ratio options like you already know from the image viewer. The AVI Player depends on the Video for Windows API and is able to play every AVI, when you have the needed codec (VfW) installed within your system. A good starting point to get the most AVIs to run is the ffdshow-tryouts codec: http://ffdshow-tryout.sourceforge.net/
Be sure to activate the „VfW Interface“ option while installing ffdshow-tryouts to get the VfW codec version installed.

Small Changelog:

  • implement new generator: AVI Player
  • add greyscale option to AVI Player and Image Viewer

One more hint: Decoding and resizing videos is cpu intensive, so it is not a good idea to play and resize full hd videos down to a really small matrix resolution.

Jinx! V1.0 release out now

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After a long phase of testing, I think its time to offically release the version 1.0 as stable. We have reached a rich featureset and a high system stability, which is ready for productive use. There are only a few changes to the version 0.99a:

  • more optimization on metaballs and plasma
  • fix some more variable declarations to avoid crashes
  • some optical changes to grey out inactive controls inside the configure dialogs
  • fix some typos
  • optimize the rendering of the channel preview panes
  • actual output frame rate can be displayed in the titlebar (Menu View-> Display FPS or Shortcut F12)
  • new chase step type called „Random Scene“ which will select the next scene by a random generator. So you can make a chase which will randomly loop thru all your scenes with one easy step.

I will especially thank everyone who helped me to get Jinx! so far. All your testing, bug finding and ideas helped me a lot to get this job done. I hope you enjoy Jinx! v1.0.
So, lets see how the road to version 2.0 will look like 😉

False Positives on Symantec and McAfee virus scanner

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Symantec and McAfee virus scanner will produce a suspicous report on the jinx zip file and the jinx.exe. These are false positives. If you download your version from this site I will guarantee that Jinx! is virus free. These false reports will be produced by Symantec and McAfee on everything that has been compiled with the MinGW compiler Suite.

virustotal.com scan for jinx-0.99.zip: https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/bf06436411eb3b7aa0fac3a11fed7e6bebcf69e9966cb3d5a0f298e2f30c263c/analysis/1389873577/
virustotal.com scan for jinx.exe (v 0.99): https://www.virustotal.com/de/file/d0a8a4b97a9fe053f5d9e9e724820bbe910a4e63eba0a5cd5f4d46d464b6d531/analysis/1389873665/

McAfee user forum: https://community.mcafee.com/thread/52688

Bugfix Release Version 0.99a

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Small bugfixing for the metaballs engine. There was a possible memory violation which will cause app crashes on various matrix resolutions and ball sizes.

Version 0.99 released

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Today I uploaded the new Jinx! version 0.99. A few bugfixes and small changes, as well as some new features:

  • fixed some possible race conditions on scene changes for some generators
  • fix spectrum analyzer band calculation for a matrix width > 128 pixel
  • extend allowed matrix dimension for width and height to 4 – 320 Pixel, limited by a pixel count limit of max 16384 pixels (see manual for more info)
  • matrix options dialog now corrects width/height directly if any limit has been reached
  • preview grid will be disabled automatically if pixel size in preview window drops below 1 pixel
  • optimize metaball calculation for large matrices to save more cpu time
  • implement more command line options: now you can autostart a scene or chase and also invoke show mode on startup via command line
  • for debugging purposes you can now reduce output frame rate to 20fps via command line (see Manual for more info)
  • implemented offset into Radar/Scan Line to get a defined starting point when a scene with this generator gets loaded
  • new perspective transform effect for Scrolling Text also known as star wars effect
  • $TIME and $LTIME placeholders now gets replaced inside a text instead of replacing the whole text, so you can use the time inside a multiline scrolling for example
  • new generator: Fading Pixels
    will generate randomized pixels which will fade out – you can adjust pixel count, size, fadespeed and color (including randomized pixel color)

New Version 0.98

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Today I released the new Version 0.98. These are the new features:

  • Slideshow mode for Image Viewer, automatic image change with time and audio trigger
  • new bicubic image resize algorithm for Image Viewer to get better results on downsizing
  • integrated user manual as context sensitive windows help
  • mouse wheel now works on Scene and Chase list even when the lists are not focused
  • new Jinx! File Recorder and Player, now you can record animations and use it as a downmix inside one engine and combine it with new effects
  • new hotkeys for help, Scene and Chase window, Showmode and Jinx! File Recorder