f-log

And this is the resulting animation



what a waste of resources!

So Blender outputs the frame render times into the console (when you run from console), like so
Append frame 1
Time: 00:56.94 (Saving: 00:01.60)

Append frame 2
Time: 00:57.54 (Saving: 00:00.10)

Append frame 3
Time: 00:59.59 (Saving: 00:00.11)

...

Append frame 248
Time: 04:05:54.73 (Saving: 00:00.08)

Append frame 249
Time: 04:22:13.75 (Saving: 00:00.09)

Append frame 250
Time: 04:02:46.96 (Saving: 00:00.08)

Executing command:
/usr/bin/blender -a -f 24 1.0 -s 1 -e 250 -j 1 /tmp/e_4fullc_0001-0250.mkv

or something similar and with all the frames listed.

I copied all the Append and Time lines into a separate file and ran
egrep -o "Time: ([0-9]{2}[.: ])+" rendertimes.txt | cut -d ' ' -f 2 | cut -d '.' -f 1 > rendertime.dat

That collected all the Time values, stripped out the Time text and any decimal values on the end of the time values.

There was an odd problem with the resulting file that GNUPlot really didn't like. Any time value that had a value less than 1 hour was missing an hour part. Which meant I had to pad it with 00 via
sed -E 's/(^[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}$)/00:\1/gi' rendertime.dat > rendertimepad.dat

which made the file go from
00:59
01:00
01:03
...
04:05:54
04:22:13
04:02:46
to
00:00:59
00:01:00
00:01:03
...
04:05:54
04:22:13
04:02:46


by looking for a pattern of
^ = line start
[0-9]{2} = two digits
:[0-9]{2} = colon and two digits
$ = line end
wrapped in a group with brackets. Then when a match is found the 00: is prepended. Sed naturally outputs unmatching lines unaltered.

Now I spent hours trying to get GNUPlot to plot this as a graph and I even tried adding line number with nl to act as an extra defined axis with
nl -n 'ln' -s ' ' rendertimepad.dat > rendertimeln.dat

But in the end the magic incantation was
set timefmt "%H:%M:%S"
set ydata time
set ytics format "%H:%M:%S"
set grid ytics lc rgb "#bbbbbb" lw 1 lt 0
set xlabel 'Frame No.'
plot "rendertimepad.dat" using ($0+1):1 title 'Render Times' with lines

which breaks down as
set timefmt "%H:%M:%S" = define the format of the time data in our file
set ydata time = tell GNUPlot we are using time data for the Y axis
set ytics format "%H:%M:%S" = set out how the Y axis should be formatted (it wants to add the date normally)
set grid ytics lc rgb "#bbbbbb" lw 1 lt 0 = only set a horizontal grid line
set xlabel 'Frame No.' = set the X axis label
... using ($0+1):1 ... = and this is the magic that allows GNUPlot to use a single data column as input

to result in



now I have to finish compositing the video and upload it. It was only supposed to be a 1/2hr side project, he says a week later.

I have been waiting for a Blender animation to complete rendering and in the end it took over four days. Now I know that the best way to render animations with Blender is to output an image sequence and then combine it as a video file. This allows you to cancel and resume at any point.

But this time I had been rendering lots of 25% animations and they were taking less than 10mins each in total. This was simply setting the render size to 100% and it started off fine at 1min per frame on average.

Check out this graph



as you can see, when we get to frame 228 (out of 250) it shoots up to 1hr+ and then averages 4hr per frame. Maxing out at 05:54:05 on frame 230.

No idea why this has happened. As I am using a Hair particle system, I wonder if the resolution allowed a complex interaction of hair strands. I did bake the simulation before rendering to avoid that sort of thing. It also could have been the NVIDIA driver updating, but Linux usually allows files to be updated without effecting anything running!

Bored with that now and before I post the final video to YouTube I will enlighten you about the GNUPlot code to create that graph, because you deserve it :D

I love my new cord cabled Logitech G502SE Hero mouse, fits in the hand nicely and just works...

Until it went into hyper speed mode. I could not even click menu items the mouse was so fast. This is a many buttoned mouse and I remembered that some of the buttons should be for A:switching profiles and B:changing the DPI. But try as I might, no amount of button pressing affected any function of the mouse and it kept whizzing around the screen.

There were a number of people affected by this issue on internet and the #1 solution was to use Windows or install Windows in a VM and just use the Logitech software. The settings are then saved on the mouse.

Was I going to install Windows, even on a virtual machine? Not on your life!

Luckily there is an open source solution Piper but ... it's not unmasked on Gentoo and requires SystemD for full functionality.

a bit of unmasking as root in /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
app-misc/piper ~amd64
dev-libs/libratbag ~amd64

emerge -av app-misc/piper

and

ratbagctl -vvv list

showed

hollering-marmot:    Logitech G502 HERO SE

so we are all good ?

NO!

Root cannot run the piper GUI app and my standard user can run piper but reports no devices.

After a lot of to-ing and fro-ing adding the user to the plugdev,input & games groups, I found a way of cheating and getting root to run GUI apps.

After running

xhost +local
(as the standard user)

and then creating a new shell for root I can finally run piper as root and change the DPI!

I then spent ages trying to configure the buttons to switch profiles and change DPI up and down. Then after that failed, I tried 101 ways to get the command line ratbagctl programme to change various settings to no avail.

The conclusion was; I can set the DPI as root in piper and that does get saved in the mouse and I can finally use the damn thing at a reasonable speed!

But, without SystemD integration none of the buttons worked to dynamically control the Profiles or DPI and for some reason the LED had switched from solid colour to rainbow.

So.... a win?

I had a plan back before Halloween to sculpt a Skull in Blender Originally this was going to be one attempt per day. This was then changed to 2-3 skulls a week and then ... I spent about 4-5 hours over a number of sessions to create this.



Not bad a my first real attempt at sculpting.

The idea was never to all this *done*, but instead to start from scratch regularly and learning from each attempt.

I have already gathered a number of reference images and want to start attempt 2# soon.

See the next post as to what has been distracting me in the meantime.

After having such a unexpected and bad experience last time, I was not happy to find my family fighting Amazon again!

My son's Xbox One controller had broken and after a number of attempts to fix it we had determined it was *dead*. It had had various issues that had got steadily worse and we had disassembled and cleaned it repeatedly.

Went on Amazon and searched for "Xbox One controllers" ...

1st problem: Results either had no price or were twice as much as we wanted to pay or ...
2nd problem: Unbranded knock-offs. We wanted something we knew would work for a reasonable amount of time.
3rd problem: Things that were not "Xbox One controllers", like buttons covers or skins dominating the results.
4th problem: Filtering the search produced very strange results, making things progressively worse.

Going back to problem 1#. Clicking on the Microsoft branded controllers showed the details with no price. You had to choose "Buying options" and in there the prices were x2 the RRP AND they were not *new*, but second-hand.

Something screwy is going on. I cannot believe that no Amazon seller had stock at the RRP or close to.

So forget Amazon, lets try the local Currys PC World. Get to the parking lot, which is full and spy the 30 person queue outside the store *slaps head*. Put on a mask and queue up ... then realise I am missing my wallet *slaps head*. Back home, grab wallet, drive back, park. The queue is now down to 7 and we queue up again in the freezing cold.

Eventually get in and head for the gaming area ... No sign of any controllers, but also not much sign of anything other than Xbox Live cards. Find someone to ask, but they only work in the Phone section and can only try and check stock on a Chromebook, which does not seem to work the way they are expecting. So we shadow someone else until they become free and ask again. They ask someone on the desk who reports "They haven't got any stock, haven't had any stock and do not expect any stock for at least a couple of weeks". We thank them and leave.

We got half way across the car park before we hear the Phone guy calling us. He has talked to his friend in the stock department and thinks he has found one! We head in and sure enough there is a brand new Xbox One controller and they want RRP for it!

Son really happy, thanks Currys!

I think my new years resolution needs to be to disconnect from Amazon. But it is so damn convenient! *sobs*

READ THE SMALL PRINT

We have all been told that before, but somehow I missed the details of renting a film from Amazon Prime.

First of all I have rented from Amazon Prime before, but always watched the film then and there, in it's entirety. Not a problem.

This time I glanced across the usual text "30 days ... blah blah", rented the film and started watching. Got half way through and had to stop. A few days later I went to continue watching to find it was not there. No reference to me having hired it or being part way through. It was only when I opened the Prime app on my phone it showed the movie as half watched, but no "continue watching" option.

I was ready to contact customer service to find out what had gone wrong when I re-read the terms of the rental...

"30 days ... to START watching ... 2 days to FINISH watching"

wait, what?

Why?

In the end it was cheaper to order a brand new Blu-ray of the 2010 film than hire it again just watch the end.

I cannot fathom what benefit this gives Amazon. I will certainly double think renting from them again.

Bottom line, I feel stupid and will "READ THE SMALL PRINT" next time.

Back around Xmas 2015 we got a Xbox one with the Rare Replay bundle and Ori and the blind forest. Ori is a platformer for hardcore gamers. Lots to learn and perfect.

I played it quite intensely and enjoyed it's story and Metroid style dungeons. But I stuck, really stuck, on an "escape" sequence. This was an pressured section where tricky jumps were required to escape rising water. I played in many times but never made it to the top.

So ... I was sceptical when Ori 2 (Will of the wisps) was available on Game pass. I gave it ago and immediately fell in love, playing many hours that I did not have spare to obtain 100% completion. Which I did and was very proud. Could I now revisit the original Ori?

Yes! and although that escape sequence was hard, I managed to beat it in a few goes and again got 100%

Each game was around 15 hours, but I was aiming for 100%. There are speed run bonus achievements for both if you can complete the game in under 4 hours. Personally I enjoy taking my time and as for the no deaths achievement there is no chance!

Both games have their strengths and weaknesses, but each has a solid story and characters. Some of the controls, abilities and features are different, with a joint universe that feels complete. Ori 2 is a lot harder than 1 and contains a lot more "escape" sequences and boss battles.

Heartily recommended if you like solving puzzles in a Metroid styled platformer.

I love my Cooler Master Devastator keyboard and mouse pack. Had some slight issues in the past with melting grips and the keyboard really needs to be a bit brighter.

Recently the scroll wheel has been giving me grief. Sometimes scrolls are not registered and other times the screen/list scrolls but then scrolls back. Quick search online and this seems to be quite common.

Took apart the mouse cleaned the scroll wheel and ... Well, it's a bit better but ...I cannot get the rubber slide pads reattached to the bottom, so now it scraaaaaaps across my mouse mat :(

Amazon says my ordered replacement is on it's way, but there are no updates and no sign yet. *sigh*

Not sure how long I have had this mouse, but it must be at least 5 years, so not too shabby.

It is the end of an era. We said goodbye last month to Minkey.

Yet to scatter his ashes, I have so many great photos on my phone, he will be missed.