Release v5.1.0 [December 19, 2023]

Version 5.1.0

Version 5.1.0 is a significant new release for CueServer that includes many new features. Major features are focused on support for the new CueServer 3 Flex hardware, new LCD display features, new Smart Module support, improvements to touchscreen layout editing, new effects, and application optimization for increased overall speed. This release includes 60 new features in all, plus 94 bug fixes. CueServer v5.1.0 is available to install on all CueServer 2 and CueServer 3 models.

• Significant Feature Additions
  • Feature Added support for the CS-34xx (CueServer 3 Flex) family of devices.
  • Feature Added a new “By Fixture” mode to the Stage’s grid view.
  • Feature Added several new screens, PIN entry, and customizable Lock Screen to the internal LCD display.
  • Feature Added “Soft Keycaps” to the built-in buttons for display on the internal LCD screen.
  • Feature Added support for three new Smart Modules (Station Bus, MIDI, and RS-232).
  • Feature Added both MIDI and Serial (RS-232, RS-485) Input Triggers.
  • Feature Improved the function chooser for Touchscreen Controls to have more standard behaviors and to be easier to use.
  • Feature Improved the Fixture Plotting function with several new features.
  • Feature Added two new Effects (Palette Rotate and Palette Randomize).
  • Feature Improved overall application performance.

• Navigator Window
  • New CueServer 3 Flex (CS-34xx) devices now properly appear in the Navigator window.
  • New Warn users when a CueServer is discovered that is using an unreachable Link Local address.
  • Bug Corrected a problem that could cause a newly powered-on CueServer 3 to trigger a dialog window that asks the user to set the device’s IP address.

• Editor Window
  • New Added a warning icon that appears in the Live views when the network is experiencing high latency.
  • New Added MIDI Triggers panel.
  • New Added Serial Triggers panel.
  • Bug Improved detection of network connection dropouts.
  • Bug Addressed an occasional problem with the Editor Window becoming unresponsive after the network connection to the CueServer is broken and re-established, or in some cases the host computer goes to sleep and is re-awakened.
  • Bug Improved the visual transition of the window when switching into one of the Live views.

• Stage View
  • New Added ability to change the channel grid view to sort by Fixture Number.
  • Bug The Groups menu item in the Select menu is now properly disabled when there are no available groups.
  • Bug The CTC control now allows dragging from the “pin” icon.
  • Bug Fixture profiles are now accessible while working offline.
  • Bug Sliders in the fixture controls can no longer be moved if the source channels are locked.
  • Bug Improved the reliability of the Stage View when making large selections of more than 16,000 objects.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that could cause channels to not be selectable after scrolling.
  • Bug Optimized the performance of selecting a large number of channels at once.
  • Bug Fixed a problem with Copy/Paste when working with multiple Fixtures’ values.
  • Bug Resolved a problem with selecting channels on the right-side of the view when the fixture controls are hidden.
  • Bug Addressed an issue that could cause Effect properties to not properly be saved if that are set to exact whole number values.
  • Bug The brightness wheel surrounding the Color Wheel now has improved hit-testing.
  • Bug Repaired rendering of effect sliders while not in dark mode.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that prevented Shift+Select from targeting the correct chanels when the view is scrolled.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that could cause flickering during the rendering of active effects.
  • Bug Repaired an issue that could cause the Option/Alt key to stop switching into Channel Scroll mode after being used.
  • Bug Fixed a regression that affected the ability to double-click a channel value to edit it in place.
  • Bug Addressed an issue that could cause incorrect scaling of contents if the window is dragged between Retina/Hi-DPI screens and regular screens on a multi-monitor setup.

• Playbacks View
  • Bug Fixed problem that prevented the “+ Changes” status from appearing in the Flowchart view.

• Zones View
  • Bug Addressed a problem that caused Zones with no channels to be reported as active.

• Front-Panel Status
  • New Support for CS-34xx devices has been added.
  • New The Front Panel page now displays an interactive remote LCD Touchscreen for CueServer 3 models.

• Cue/Preset Editor
  • Bug Fixed a problem with the fader wheel not manipulating fixtures properly.

• Layouts Editor
  • New Added Selection option to the Adjust function that allows an object to change the current selection.
  • New The Page Navigation control now has options for both horizontal and vertical tabs.
  • New Improved the usage of variables and default values in the property fields of objects.
  • New Dropping an image onto the background of a page will set the page’s background image if the dimensions match (otherwise, it is handled as creation of an image object).
  • New Added the ability for the user to upload and use their own custom fonts.
  • New Added a Fade Time parameter to the Adjust function of controls.
  • New Added popup tooltips for certain inspector properties.
  • New Added the ability to drag the thumbnail of an image out of a layout to the desktop to be able to save the original image.
  • New When dragging one object onto another to trigger a Plotting function, the popup window now has a “Don’t Plot” option.
  • New Pressing the Escape key when the Potting window is open cancels both the Plot and the singular place operation.
  • New Dragging an object onto another will not open the Plot window if the Option/Alt key is being held.
  • New Dragging out multiple objects onto another object now auto-populates the Plotting window with the object count.
  • New Added setting that allows the user to enable/disable the Plotting function.
  • New Renamed control Function pointers to “Defined By” when referring to Buttons, Contacts, Outputs, or Shared Controls for improved clarity of purpose.
  • New Added control functions for directly performing CueScript and Macros without needing to link to a Button definition.
  • New Added control functions for selecting Channels, Effects, Fixtures, or Groups.
  • New Added control functions for directly toggling the value of an object.
  • New Added link buttons to jump directly to a button/contact/shared control definition from a control’s function editor.
  • New Clicking multiple times on an object in the Library before dragging it to the canvas increments the number of copies that will be dragged at once.
  • Bug Improved contrast of inspector items in the layout editor.
  • Bug Dragging a control onto a “plottable” target and then cancelling the Plot Dialog now properly simply places the dragged object into the layout.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that could distort the relative positions of multiple selected items when they are being dragged simultaneously.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that could cause the Apply button to become disabled after more than 50 individual edits were accumulated at a time.
  • Bug Fix a problem that prevented inline editing of a button’s label if the || operator was being used.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that could cause controls to move to the page’s origin unexpectedly if the original layout was created by a pre-release version of Studio 5.0.0.
  • Bug Handle the case where negative values are entered into the rotation field of an object.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that could prevent the Cancel button from being clicked when inline editing the label of a control.
  • Bug Improved the behavior of the Layout Editor’s “Run Mode”.
  • Bug Fixed a regression that could cause curved lines to not render properly.
  • Bug Addressed a regression that affected the ability to use ranges of values in the link field.
  • Bug The Lasso tool no longer selects locked objects.
  • Bug Saving a layout no longer clears the editor’s undo history.
  • Bug Corrected a problem that could occur with links to Button definitions when upgrading a file from a pre-5.0 version.
  • Bug No longer highlight Button links in red while working offline.
  • Bug Restored the ability to run a touchscreen layout in “Play Mode” while working offline.
  • Bug Adjusted the colors used by the Layout Editor to match the rest of the Studio application.
  • Bug Addressed an issue where the arrow keys would still be able to move control positions when the editor is in “Run Mode”.

• Web Page Editor
  • Bug Addressed an issue that prevented the Web Pages panel from enumerating stored files properly on CueServer 3.

• Stations
  • New Added new device simulator for CS-34xx models.
  • New Updates device simulators for CS-31xx and CS-3900 models.
  • Bug Addressed an issue that prevented function button indicators to not work when linked to a fixture group.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that was corrupting pages if they were re-numbered.
  • Bug Fixed an issue that would cause the Page drop-down menu to be empty if a Station has Pages, but no Page 1.
  • Bug Fixed a regression that caused the built-in contact-closure inputs on an Insite touchscreen to not trigger events assigned to them.
  • Bug Addressed a situation when nested touchscreen stations require authentication and an inner station looses authentication so that the outer station remains authenticated.

• Touchscreen Engine
  • New Added drag-to-select capability for quickly selecting multiple fixtures at once.
  • New The pressed state of buttons is now reflected across remote devices.
  • Bug Addressed an issue that could cause a button to stop functioning if it has a PIN number.
  • Bug Fixed an issue that could cause a button to be accidentally clicked when a control changes the active page during a button press.
  • Bug Fixed a rare memory leak that could cause touchscreens to stop working after being visible for extended periods of time.
  • Bug Improved the performance of loading pages that include thousands of fixtures.
  • Bug Addressed an issue with Fixture Selection Toggling on Buttons and other non-adjustable controls.
  • Bug Indicator colors are now properly resolved if a control points to a Contact Closure.
  • Bug Further optimize the loading of pages in the background to improve load times and conserve resources.
  • Bug Fixed a problem with Sliders assigned to CTC properties appearing in a “mixed” state.
  • Bug Fixed a bug with a Color Wheel pointing to a Button Definition that is referencing an RGBW group appearing in a “mixed” state.
  • Bug Text fields can now properly handle the input of non-UTF-8 (such as ISO-8859) characters such as å, ä, ö, etc.
  • Bug Addressed an issue where web URLs to physical stations (such as Mystique and Ultra) might be accessible even if Web Access is disabled for that station.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that caused background image aspect settings to not take effect when viewed on a client device.

• Controls
  • New The Slider control may now target an Effect.
  • New The Color Wheel now includes an RGB+W option that displays an extra slider to adjust the White component.
  • New The Color Wheel now supports two-finger vertical drags to adjust brightness. This feature is enabled by default but can be disabled.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that was preventing the Color Wheel from properly adjusting the color of unpatched channels (using the assumption that they are 8-bit RGB).
  • Bug The Color Wheel can now set the color of arbitrary ranges of channels properly.
  • Bug The Toggle control no longer shows an incorrect state while in Edit mode.
  • Bug Fixed an issue with the CTC control sometimes getting stuck on a specific fixture selection.

• Timers
  • New When a Timer is disabled, the Details column now shows a red “Disabled” icon to make it more clear that the Timer is not operating.

• General Settings
  • New The last used sub-panel is now recalled when switching to/from any of the Settings panels.

• Hardware Settings
  • New Added new Display settings specific to the CueServer 3 LCD Display, including Home Screen selection, auto return Home, auto Dim, auto Turn Off, Custom Lock Screen, multiple PIN Security levels, and rotating header fields.
  • New Added both CS-3440 and CS-3480 models to the Preferred Model picker.
  • New Added support for the built-in DMX/Station Bus/RS-485 ports available on the CS-3480 (CueServer 3 Flex+) model.
  • New Added support for 5-Wire Station Bus, MIDI, and RS-485 smart modules.
  • New Added live feedback for installed modules.
  • New Added Sync button that automatically configures each port based on the currently installed modules.
  • Bug Fixed an issue where the Audio volume slider would not adjust the actual audio volume of the device on CueServer 3.

• DMX Settings
  • Bug Improved the performance of having many GDTF fixtures in the Fixture Definitions folder.

• Trigger Functions
  • Bug Fixed an issue that prevented the Raise/Lower functions from properly being able to raise/lower a group that contained both 8-bit and 16-bit properties simultaneously.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that intermittently caused the Lower function to ignore the assigned fade time.
  • Bug Fixed a potential crash when a Contact definition includes the “Turn On Preset” function.

• Trigger Rules
  • Bug Fixed an issue with the condition “AND Button (n) Is Pressed” that would make the condition fail if the referenced button was virtual.
  • Bug Addressed an issue that could cause a Rule to fail to operate properly in extremely rare circumstances.

• CueScript
  • New Added udp.mode and udp.port system variables for changing CueScript UDP firewall settings during runtime.
  • New Added additional INPUT n syntax that returns the current input DMX value of a channel.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that could cause unexpected fixtures to become selected when alternately using both Fixture Groups and Channel Groups.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that was causing the audio.volume system variable to not operate on a CueServer 3.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that could cause a crash if a Preset is activated in a Zone and the Playback fader that the Zone points to is currently Stopped.
  • Bug Implemented a fix to allow audio clips to be started by a Cue that is executed as part of the System Power-On global event.

• Fade Engine
  • Bug Addressed a problem with Groups that could cause them to evaluate to a mixed state in rare circumstances even though the channel values appear to be the same due to internal rounding errors.
  • Bug Fixed an issue with Effects not pausing when the parent Playback fader is stopped.

• Effects Engine
  • New Added “Palette Rotate” Effect.
  • New Added “Palette Randomize” Effect.

• Hardware Ports
  • New Changed several indicator colors for ports and modules to be more consistent across hardware models. DMX Output = Green, DMX Input = Blue, Station Bus = Magenta, Serial = Cyan.
  • Bug Improved the way that the module status LED “winks” during activity to make it easier to recognize and not miss port activity.

• Effects Engine
  • Bug Fixed an issue that caused cues with its effect speed saved as BPM or Period are treated as zero when reloaded.

• Show Database
  • Bug Newly created show files no longer create a web template that improperly identifies the device as a CueServer 2.
  • Bug Fixed an issue that was improperly restricting show names to 48 characters in length.

• System Log
  • Bug Corrected an error that caused the message “Writing RTC” to occasionally appear in the System Log even if the Debug RTC setting was off.

• LCD Display
  • New Added new customizable Lock Screen.
  • New Added new Buttons screen that displays the user-designed “soft keycaps”.
  • New Added new Utilities screen that contains options for getting System Information and for returning to the Lock Screen.
  • New Added new System Information screen that displays a myriad of current operational information about the device including hardware settings, software versions, network configuration, CPU statistics, and more.
  • New Added configurable inactivity timeout that returns the display to the user-defined Home screen.
  • New Added ability to place PIN numbers on the Lock Screen, main menu items, or ability to exit the Buttons screen.
  • New Added ability to individually disable any of the main menu items.
  • Bug Improved noise cancellation to prevent phantom touches in electrically noisy environments.

• Network Settings
  • New The new default state for the built-in IGMP Querier is now “off”.
  • Bug Fixed an issue that could cause a device to report its second LAN as having IP Address “0.0.0.0” when that device is using dual-LAN mode, and the cable for LAN B is disconnected.

• Time Settings
  • Bug Addressed an issue where the root filesystem may be left in a writable state after setting the timezone on a CueServer 3.

• Web Server
  • Bug Addressed an issue that could cause fixture patch changes to not appear in the stage view on CueServer 2 models.
  • Bug Addressed an issue where environment variables were not being substituted by Server Side Includes (SSI) on CueServer 3.
  • Bug Fixed a configuration problem that was causing unnecessary internal warning messages, and negatively impacting performance.

• JavaScript Interpreter
  • Bug Fixed problem with getChannelLevel() function not returning input channel values when source = -1.

• General UI
  • New Updated application framework provides general speed improvements.
  • Bug Icon buttons in the UI no longer activate their function if the mouse is clicked on the button, dragged away, and then released outside of the button.

• Windows Build
  • New The Installer now instals the Source Sans 3 font as it is used by the Soft Keycap feature.

• Application Assets
  • New Added several Lock Screen example images.

• Firmware Updater
  • New Prevent the user from accidentally downgrading a CueServer’s firmware to a version that is earlier than the first supported version for that model.

• CueServer 3 OS
  • New Display different Power LED colors depending on power source. DC Input = Blue, PoE = Green, PoE+ = Cyan.
  • New When set to get an IP address via DHCP and the DHCP server is unresponsive, fallback to using a self-assigned Link Local address in the 169.254.x.x range.
  • Bug Addressed a problem that prevented some Windows configurations from being able to auto-discover CueServer on a local network.
  • Bug Fixed a problem that could cause the wrong IP address to appear on the LCD menu or the Network Settings dialog after DHCP changes the device’s IP address.
  • Bug Optimized the boot sequence to remove unnecessary processes, conserve resources, and improve performance.
  • Bug Corrected a problem that could cause resources of various types to disappear from Studio when their IDs are changed.