Presets and compiling...No one mentioned this!!

[mowgli]

If I create a Wire patch, I can create presets from Wire that will be available from Avenue or Arena.
If I load that Wire patch in Avenue or Arena, I can create further presets from there.

What I haven't seen mentioned in any of the documentation (maybe I've missed it but I've looked for it!) is that if after making presets for the Wire patch within Avenue or Arena I open my Wire patch in Wire and compile it, the presets made in Avenue and Arena ARE INCLUDED IN THE COMPILED PATCH!!!

While this is a good feature if you know about it, it is a big mess if you don't!
I just discovered it the hard way, which means having to redo a lot of work

[Zoltán]

https://resolume.com/support/en/wire-sa ... ng#presets

[mowgli]

"When a patch is compiled, the dashboard presets are saved with it.
These presets are used by Resolume Arena/Avenue as presets for effects and sources."

That doesn't specify which presets are compiled, Wire or Arena.

As I'm compiling from Wire, the assumption is that the compiled presets are those created in Wire, especially when the presets created in Arena don't actually work properly in Wire if they have things like animated parameters etc..

In any case, I learnt this the hard way. I suggest that this is clarified in the documentation.

[Christoph]

Just adding that the possibility to have Arena/Avenue presets in your compiled patches is a nice addition, as this way you can actually program presets with BPM/Timeline animation and envelopes from Arena and include those presets in your shipped patches, so you can program more advanced presets than with Wire-only.

[mowgli]

completely agree that it is a great feature. The problem is it is not mentioned and that has caused problems.

[Zoltán]

Both Wire and Arena presets are in the dashboard in Wire, so I think it was straightforward to us.
Added a line to the support page to say it explicitly.

[mowgli]

Although the names of Arena presets appear in Wire, they don't necessarily work. Any animation settings are lost, there are no envelopes etc...
The differences between them are quite substantial.

[Christoph]

Yes, presets made in Arena/Avenue do not work in the Wire editor (but as mentioned before are included in compiled patches).

In Arena/Avenue you can recall all presets, those made in Arena/Avenue as well as those saved in Wire.

There is a new tutorial planned explaining all this in detail.

[mowgli]

I think that an in-depth tutorial and better documentation are definitely necessary. I've discovered a lot of unintuitive behaviours while making patches and creating presets.

One I've discovered recently, is that although there is a differentiation between presets created in Arena and Wire from within the Arena interface, the differentiation is only real for certain aspects but not all which is confusing.

As an example, if I have a preset made in Wire and name it potato, I then open Arena and make a preset in Arena also named potato, I can then see both of them from within Arena under Wire Presets and Arena Presets. To me this implies that there are 2 presets.

If I now close Arena and open the patch in Wire, the potato preset created in Wire will no longer exist and I'll be left with the potato preset created in Arena which I can't use in Wire.

All this is extremely confusing.