Trigger a socket call during playback based on markers

Report · Apr 26, 2024

Hi,
I am prototyping an interactive installation and need to trigger a local server over TCP/ Socket.

I'd like to use layer markers to set the point in time when this call is happening.

I managed to bild a script that compares current time and marker time, but it only works when manually placing the playhead and not during playback. I also looked into using expressions to track the markers with the same result.

Is there any way to monitor and trigger during playback eg. pulling the previewtime as reference?

Appreciate any thoughts or ideas!

Report · Apr 26, 2024

Nope. AE is the wrong tool for such stuff. Use a proper VJ-ing/ projection software or whatever.

Mylenium

Report · Apr 26, 2024

i think you can get idle_hook calls during playback, and operate within them. you wound't want, however, to do lengthy opration on these slots while playback is running and it would block the UI thread until your plugin returns from that call...

during playback i only see the display time in the comp window changing. i highly doubt it, but maybe AEGP_GetItemCurrentTime would change during playback? it doesn't change while rendering...

another long shot would be to implement an effect with a custom UI. there's a UI event called PREVIEW, which should update during a, well, preview. alas, i've never seen it implemented.

trying to think outside the box, perhaps an EMP plugin (a plug in that receives the comp buffer to display on some external monitor) receive a timecode for the displayed frame... if they dont' receive a timecode, perhaps you could render some parsable timecode with the frame that your emp plugin can analyize to deduce the currently displayed frame.

sorry, not much good news from me...