How to get Isadora to always assign the same projector to the same stage?

mark_m

My current show uses three identical 1400 x 1050px projectors, which are attached to my Windows laptop: 2 via a Dell docking station (MST device) over HDMI, and the third directly to the laptop's HDMI output

Windows 10 always recognises the same projectors in the same place: Projector 1 is Display 2 and is attached to the laptop's HDMI (the laptop screen is display one), Projector 2 is Display 3, Projector 3 is Display 4. (projectors 2 and 3 are attached to the docking station). Windows is 100% consistent in this order, and always sees the three like this when I start up Windows.
In Isadora I want Isadora to see Projector 1 as Stage 1, Projector 2 as Stage 2, Projector 3 as Stage 3.
However, Isadora is totally inconsistent as to which stage she assigns which projector to. I have to have an opening setup scene which projects the stage numbers to the three projectors so that I can go into the Stage Preferences and assign the correct projector to the corresponding stage, and I have to check this each time I open Isadora. Which is all very well, until Isadora crashes mid-show... Thanks to the wonderful techniques and user actors that @Michel shared at the 2016 Werkstatt I can automate Isadora getting back up and running quickly and returning to the same scene, but this inconsistency in which stage she chooses to assign to which projector can really ruin my performance :-)

Is there a cure for this?
Is there a top tip or trick that I'm missing?
Does this happen on the Mac or is it just a Windows thing?
Has anyone else experienced this, or is it just me?

Cheers

Mark (not that one)

bonemap

Hi Mark,

You should look at this thread from a few years ago.

It definitely happens on Mac and is one of the most frustrating things ever! I have had large venue shows with numerous blended projectors that are hard to see from a single control point. In the end I had to build a touchOSC patch so I could walk around the venue and try to correctly assign all of the projectors by adjusting the stage input on all of the Isadora projectors.

I have not attempted so many blended projectors since 2014 so perhaps things have changed in this respect with Isadora for Mac.

regards

bonemap

Skulpture

Yes I have had this too. I believe it's more of a computer issue than an Isadora one. Like the conversations above my experience with this was many years back at Glastonbury (2014) so I am not sure how the new GPU's handle this.... I don't really have a way to check this. I do have a 4 output machine, but no space to set this up and run it long term. Not yet anyway.

mark_m

@Skulpture

Hi Graham, thanks for your reply. I'm not sure that I agree with you about it being a computer issue: as I wrote, Windows is 100% consistent is detecting the projectors and consistently giving them the same display number.
I presume that's because Windows is reading the EDID information from each projector. EDID includes the serial number of the display, hence Window's ability to identify each one uniquely.

I don't know how Isadora gets the EDID information. Isadora accurately reads the resolution of the display. Does she query the display itself, or the OS to get this information? It seems pretty simple to read the EDID information: EDID readers are available. It would be wonderful, and solve this problem for everyone, if Isadora was able to read the manufacturer / serial number EDID information and identify each device uniquely.

Ah, but now I read the thread that Bonemap refers to, and I see that in the last post @mark says that he can do this with Isadora, but that the unique ID is not always implemented. I'm going to check what EDID info my displays and projectors give at the next possible opportunity!

Cheers

Mark

Skulpture

Maybe it was because I was using a datapath x4 at the time too?

mark

@mark_m

I can tell you that on Mac OS it was absolutely an operating system issue. There was no way to reliably get the monitors to show up in the expected order unless you followed the procedure in that thread. But on Mac OS, the actual display numbers would change.

@DusX can you confirm you've seen this problem on the PC? (I think you have, but please just remind me here.)

@mark_m Please file a bug report on this problem. We'll look into and see if there is a way solve it.

Best Wishes,
Mark

Skulpture

@mark said:

@mark_m
I can tell you that on Mac OS it was absolutely an operating system issue. There was no way to reliably get the monitors to show up in the expected order unless you followed the procedure in that thread. But on Mac OS, the actual display numbers would change.
@DusX can you confirm you've seen this problem on the PC? (I think you have, but please just remind me here.)
@mark_m Please file a bug report on this problem. We'll look into and see if there is a way solve it.
Best Wishes,
Mark

Ah, Yes I was on mac on the 2014 event. That makes sense now.