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Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Please!

Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2016 8:37 pm
by Headcase Dublin
Hi guys,

I was hoping people could help me out.
I have had a number of issues, which have meant Ive not yet got to experience the magic of Aerorums.


Spec wise, I am running on Macbook Air 2015 1.6ghz Intel Core i5..
I link to a sound bar via bluetooth

So, I bought the bundle Aerodrums + PS3 Eye camera.
The Eye camera never arrived, so the guys refunded me, and I bought one in CEX (at their recommendation).
It was refurbished, and I have no experience of a PS3 eye camera.

I followed the set up and here are the things I have found.
I have put the issues in sections:


>>>CAMERA ISSUES
- Mac recognising the Camera
On initial setups, The PS3 Eye camera was not recognised by my Mac.
I read online that I have to download MacCam to instal drivers?

- Quality of picture & Focus
When eventually the eye camera is recognised and fitted with the lamp, the picture is extremely out of focus. Is there something that needs to be done here?

- Set Up and sitting position
When I attempt to set up the chair and sitting position, it is nearly impossible to get this to line up. I need to put my chair apx 2.5 metres away from the camera table (at the suggest 1metre I am far far too large on the screen)


Despite the camera issues, I set up (sitting 2,5 metres away)


>>> LATENCY ISSUES
- Test via Laptop
On initial tests, even with latency setting at minimum value, there is still a notable latency

- via Bluetoot speakers
I use bluetooth speakers from my laptop. This results in higher latency.

What can I do to improve this?




>>>PLAYING / GRAPHICS ISSUES
- Graphics problem messages

I am unsure if this is related to the CAMERA ISSUES above, but I would get consistent messages saying that something about the graphics not being able to support correctly. And to press 'ctrl and something' to help resolve. This does nothing however.
Can anyone advise (again for Mac spec above)




I would really appreciate some advice on the above.
Im disappointed that there are so many issues to get through and I had a weekend of jamming planned with a friend :( but would really like to give it a shot again

Thanks so much for any advice.

Andrew

Re: Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Pleas

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:50 am
by Richard
Hi Andrew, I'm sorry you haven't got off to a good start. Here's some advice that will hopefully help.

CAMERA:

Do you mean that when you plugged in the PS Eye Camera and ran Aerodrums, it didn't recognise the camera? If so, can you tell us what version of OS X you are running and what you did to fix the problem?

It is normal for the camera image to be a bit blurry. Regarding the sitting position, it sounds like you have the Playstation Eye camera set to the narrow field of view setting (the red dot setting). It is crucial that you set it to the blue dot setting by rotating the lens clockwise when facing towards you. Aerodrums won't work correctly if the camera is on the wrong setting.

LATENCY:

We recommend that you don't use Bluetooth speakers. Doing so will almost certainly add an unacceptable amount of latency. Even wired speakers will add latency that can be perceived due to the time it takes sound to travel through air. I recommend trying it again with wired headphones and seeing if the latency becomes imperceptible.

PLAYING:

The graphics warning suggests that your graphics card is having trouble keeping up with Aerodrums. Is it the case that the performance indicator (the small coloured rectangle) in the top left corner of the drumming screen is always green? If it sometimes appears red then there is a problem that needs to be fixed before you can drum properly.

I would first suggest pressing the button in the lower left corner of the drumming screen that toggles between full-screen and windowed mode to see if the performance improves in one or the other. If that doesn't help then I would try pressing the control+g key combination on the drumming screen that will cycle through a number of higher performance/lower graphics quality modes. The goal is to get the performance indicator showing green 100% of the time.

Let us know how you get on. I'll be happy to give you a call next week to talk through the issues if you're not having much luck.

Re: Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Pleas

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 12:39 pm
by Headcase Dublin
Many thanks Richard

Im going to set up again today and try all of your suggestions.
At least some of your responses seem like they are going to have an impact

Quick one:
Richard wrote:
I would first suggest pressing the button in the lower left corner of the drumming screen that toggles between full-screen and windowed mode to see if the performance improves in one or the other. If that doesn't help then I would try pressing the control+g key combination on the drumming screen that will cycle through a number of higher performance/lower graphics quality modes. The goal is to get the performance indicator showing green 100% of the time.

Does the above factor in that I am using a Mac??

I seem to recall control + g doing nothing on first effort...

Thanks again,

Andrew

Re: Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Pleas

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 6:58 pm
by Richard
Yes, control+g should work on Mac as well. It will only work from the drumming screen however.

Re: Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Pleas

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2016 7:16 pm
by Headcase Dublin
Hi Richard

Updates

CAMERA
-is now recognised. Not sure what happened the first time. Im on latest osx.
-you were right I was on the red dot. Setting to blue dot fixed it.
-setup now correct


LATENCY
-working fine via headphones
-my expectations were that I would be able to use via speakers to jam. A bit disappointed with this but understand.


GRAPHICS
-Tried the ctrl + G on all settings, but all experience some level of red
- There seemed to be only 3 settings + 1 setting with no graphics. The experience was quite good though


I Had a nice play (including along to a few songs) . Struggled to get a really good sitting position where I could reach and accurately locate each drum though.
I guess this comes with practice

Thanks for your feedback.

Hopefully if there are updates, you will keep these free of charge for existing customers.
Andrew

Re: Series of Setup Problems on MacBook Air - Advice Pleas

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 12:30 am
by Richard
Thanks for the update. Speakers should be alright for jamming, just not Bluetooth ones. I'm a bit surprised you still see red when on the alternative graphics modes - if you have other applications running at the same time, you should close them and see if that helps. And as for your ability to hit the drums reliably, you're right that this will improve with practice but you might also want to try cloning one of the preset kits and re-positioning the drum pieces exactly where you'd like them. There will be more free updates coming during the year that will bring some new features and improvements.