Input Mapping Howto

This howto document tells you how to patch input plugins and their input lines (physical input devices) to QLC's internal input universes.

Input Manager

Click the Inputs item from the main window's Manager menu.

A window is opened with the title "Output Manager". There's a list of internal input universes, plugins and input lines, with a toolbar on top of the list with just one button:


Edit Mapping


Each of these internal universes can have one input plugin and one input line from that plugin assigned to them. In other words, the input control data that you create with an external input device (like a slider board) is first caught thru some plugin's input line, which is then sent thru the plugin to the main QLC application. This data is then made available thru an input universe that you can use to connect to from various virtual console elements and editors. The flow of data is basically just the opposite compared to Output Mapping.

Each universe can also have a special Input Device, which basically tells you, what kinds of controls your input hardware contains. For example, the Behringer BCF 2000 slider board contains multiple sliders, knobs and buttons that are seen just dumb channels by QLC. An Input Device can tell you, which channel is which slider, button and knob so you don't have to memorize them. You could think of an input device as an input-side equivalent to an output-side fixture definition.

One of these universes is also set to act as the Default editor universe. This ability is used by scene editor and fixture console to get direct input from your slider board and ease channel value setting.

Mapping Properties

Select universe 1 and then click the edit button to edit the first universe's mapping properties.

A dialog opens with a list of available plugins. If you open these plugin nodes (click the little "+" sign) you can see a list of physical input lines that each plugin provides.

Below the list is a text field that displays some information on the selected plugin and/or input line that you have currently selected.

Right next to the text field is a configuration button that lets you access a dialog with which you can configure the selected plugin. Each plugin's configuration window differs slightly from one another because different plugins require different kinds of options and it has been left to the plugin developers to decide the configuration dialog layout. Note that not all plugins necessarily provide this option.

Some plugins might require configuration before they can be used so you might not be able to see all inputs at first.

You can also set the currently selected universe to act as the Default editor universe. Since one of the universes is always the editor, you cannot uncheck the option.

Patching

To patch a plugin's input line to the selected universe, you need to place a checkmark on that particular plugin's input line. You can have only one line assigned to a universe at a time, so when you check another line, the checkmark will move from its previous position to the one you checked. If you can't see any input lines, you don't have any input devices that QLC understands and you're left with the one and only choice: None.

Place the checkmark on one of the available input options and click OK to close the dialog and accept the mapping.

Back in the Input Manager

Now you should see the input device mapping in the Input Manager. If you assigned a valid input device to the universe, wiggling its controls will now flash a small icon in the universe column to show that QLC receives input data from that device.

Input Devices

There is another howto for input devices.