Recovering after a crash or a power cut

If DreamShow stops abruptly (crash, forced shutdown, power cut), it offers on restart to pick up exactly where it stopped: same show, same scene, same second of the timeline. In the middle of a performance, you relaunch DreamShow, answer Yes, resume, and the cue list starts again.

To open it: nothing to do. The offer appears by itself at the start-up that follows an abnormal stop.

How it works

While DreamShow is running, about once a second it notes a small resume marker: the open show, the scene, the position in its timeline, and whether it is a performance (cue window open) or editing work.

• During a performance (cue window open, see Show mode and the cue window): it is the scene actually being played and its position that are noted.
• When editing: it is the scene selected in the Scenes panel that is noted, with its position if playback is on that scene (otherwise the start of the scene).

The marker is erased when DreamShow closes normally (after your Yes answer to “Quit DreamShow?”). It is also erased when you close the cue window or open another show. Only an abnormal stop leaves it in place.

Writing the marker never slows the show down: if it fails, DreamShow carries on without saying anything.

On restart

Once the main window is displayed, if a marker less than 6 hours old is found, DreamShow opens the Resume after an interruption window, always on top (it comes in front of the other open programs). It shows:

• “DreamShow stopped during a show” (or the equivalent message for an editing session), with the time of the last point noted;
• Show: the file name of the show;
• Scene: the scene number;
• Position: the position in the timeline (for example “1:12.50” for 1 minute 12.5 seconds, or “8.20 s”);
• the question “Resume exactly at that point?”.

The buttons:

• Yes, resume (Enter key):
  1. DreamShow opens the show concerned if it is not already open;
  2. selects the scene;
  3. opens the cue window;
  4. places playback on the scene and second noted and plays from there. The light and the sound are recalculated for that moment: a sound in progress resumes at the right place in its file.
• No (Esc key): the marker is erased and DreamShow starts normally.

The resume comes before the Welcome to DreamShow start screen.

If the scene noted no longer exists in the show (the show has been modified and saved since), the resume is abandoned and the Log says so: “Cannot resume: the scene no longer exists in this show.”

A marker more than 6 hours old is ignored and erased: a crash from the day before does not ask you a question the next day. An unreadable marker is also ignored. These cases are noted in the Log.

What is resumed, what is not

Resumed:

• the show, the scene and the position in the timeline;
• everything the timeline produces at that moment: light, effects, sound, video;
• a wait in progress (a time, a date, sunrise or sunset, a key): it is replayed, and if its time went by during the interruption, the show carries straight on (the Log says so).

Not resumed:

• changes to the show that had not been saved: the show is reopened from its file. Save often (Ctrl+S);
• adjustments made by hand live during the performance, which are not part of the marker:
  • channels forced in DMX faders;
  • the general BLACKOUT: the light comes back on restart;
  • parallel sequences in progress;
  • moving heads driven from the follow-spot tablets (the follow-spot server is restarted from the menu);
• a sound started in a previous scene that was still playing: only the sounds of the resumed scene are restarted;
• the pan and tilt of moving heads set by a previous scene, if the resumed scene does not set them: these moving heads go back to their rest position;
• a sound level set by a previous scene.

The manual controls, on the other hand, are kept: they are saved in the venue at each gesture and reapplied at start-up.

Step by step

Resuming a show after a power cut

1. Switch the PC back on and relaunch DreamShow.
2. The Resume after an interruption window appears: check the show, the scene and the position.
3. Click Yes, resume (or press Enter).
4. The cue window opens and the show restarts at the position noted. Carry on with the cue list as normal with GO.

Starting from scratch anyway

1. In the Resume after an interruption window, click No.
2. DreamShow starts normally, on the last show opened.

Good to know

• A Yes always restarts playback in the cue window, even if DreamShow had stopped during editing. If you were preparing the show and do not want it to start playing, answer No.
• An error in the interface does not stop DreamShow: it is noted in the Log and the software carries on, so that the stage keeps its light.
• The marker is stored in the file recovery.json in the DreamShow folder of your Windows account's local data (%LOCALAPPDATA%\DreamShow). It is shared by all the copies of DreamShow launched by this account on this PC. A copy launched with the --no-recovery option neither reads nor writes this marker (useful for a test copy next to the control PC).
• If crashes keep happening, note the version (? > About DreamShow…) and copy the Log (the panel's Copy button) for support. See Troubleshooting.

See also

• Show mode and the cue window
• Shows, files and projects
• Log, Audio and Clock
• Troubleshooting