Change Release Notes
This is a small release with one new feature for the camera control
- new Camera Variable: $IsCameraActive which returns the status of the camera. Can be configured to a custom variable name in the camera config dialog
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The variable is set here:
If using the latest ARC, the variable is set soon as the camera is loaded. does not matter if the camera has been activated or not, the variable is set. Never, ever set a variable that is automatically set by a control. The variable is set by the control, not by you.
I knew about where to find the list of various control variables, but thanks for letting me know not to mess with setting them via initialization type scripts... Good to know... thanks
Have you added any delay prior to the IF to make sure the camera control is loaded before checking if it's running? As DJ said, the variables are there on the control being loaded.
That's a really good point @Rich.... Some complex controls I assume need extra time to load... ARC being a multi threading program means that running scripts may not wait for those controls to load...
Yes, there is several seconds of delay throughout my initialization script, and I was attempting this on the last step.
I have figured out the sequence of events that causes the issues.
If I start ARC and open my project before starting Roli, the camera fails to initialize, so the variable is not initialized (none of the camera variables appear in variable watcher, and the script using the IF statement fails).
If on the other hand, Roli is started before opening the project, the camera initializes and starts, but if I run ControlCommand("Camera", CameraStart) and the camera has already started, then ARC intermittently crashes.
There does not seem to be a way to use the variable to check the camera status if the camera has not already been run at least once in this session.
However, I think I found a solution.
Running ControlCommand("Camera", CameraStop) when the camera is not running records errors in the log, but so far has not crashed ARC, so I will add this to the end of my initialization script:
ControlCommand("Camera", CameraStop) sleep(1000) ControlCommand("Camera", CameraStart)
That way, if the camera was not running, it will start, and if it was running, it will stop, wait a second, and re-start. Avoiding the issue with the variable.
Alan
From memory (which is fuzzy at best right now) is there a toggle for the camera start/stop? Possibly use the ControlCommand for toggle twice in quick succession may kick the variables in for the camera and allowing the IF to work and avoiding stopping a stopped or starting a started camera control.
There is not a documented CameraToggle (there are toggles for tracking, recording, etc). But now I can't find where CameraStart and CameraStop were documented other than forum posts by DJ and others. They aren't in the list of ControlCommand parameters in the script reference.
Alan
Alan, certain you have the most recent version of ARC?
I'm unable to reproduce similar results. The code initializes the variables when the camera control is added to the project - whether active or not...