guitarnerdswe
Fractal Fanatic
Been away from the box for a long time, can I open presets with Axe-Edit without having the Axe-FX II connected?
It would be a nice feature to save downloaded state from AxeFX, then be able to open AxeEdit offline and edit or at least take screenshots of layouts.
You are [probably] not wrong.. I have written lengthy explanations on this topic in prior years, but it's really pretty simple.I'm sure I read somewhere that this was "never going happen" but I could be wrong, I hope I am..
so those definition files had to updated with every new release. That delayed new AE releases, made it a s-l-o-w load, and created other challenges
That is your opinion... it's also possible that I may actually KNOW the reason for the removal of offline editing, and that my post was accurate. HINT: Look at my sig!IMHO that's not true. The real reason is it's more work and there is only a small team of devs to do said work.
sounds like you could write a better Axe-Edit program than the current one. we're waitingIMHO that's not true. The real reason is it's more work and there is only a small team of devs to do said work.
Really having the block definitions around to match up with preset files is a matter of caching. You could keep the block defs from any firmware that the user has connected to in a cache folder somewhere. Or you could pull them from a webserver owned by fractal on demand. Because it's not bundled with the installer it doesn't impact the software's download size.
Slow loading time? Really... don't make me laugh. AxeEdit doesn't need to scan through all the block defs for every firmware/product combo on startup. So whether there is 1 or 100 it doesn't change the load time unless the devs are doing it wrong. Probably the only time they are needed is when interpreting a preset and if you name the block defs with the right file name it should just be a matter of constructing a path to said cache and load the right file.
Just because it doesn't seem easy in the current architecture doesn't mean there isn't some other architecture that wouldn't support offline mode without any of the downsides you mention.
Thanks for clarifying this! I was wondering about this myself (if you could open a preset in Axe-Edit without connectivity). Admittedly, I don't use AE that much, but I've been using it more lately. The other day, I tried to view a preset in AE without being connected and found that, while navigating around the program, there wasn't a way to load presets. I kinda figured this was due to the major changes made to AE a while back where it reads block defintions from the Axe-Fx unit.You are [probably] not wrong.. I have written lengthy explanations on this topic in prior years, but it's really pretty simple.
AE v3.* stores the firmware block definitions locally - you'll note that it updates them when you first open it after a new firmware is installed. The definitions contain parameters/features for blocks in the current firmware and as most know, CAN change quite a bit from release to release.
If you run AE offline.. which firmware version should it emulate? The f/w that matches the current local blocks definitions?
OK.. sounds great.
What if the preset you are loading offline into AE is from a different f/ware version than that currently emulated? You can't use the latest blocks because they may contain features that were not present in the firmware under which that preset was saved. Setting those to default values, may alter the sound of the preset under the newer firmware.
Do you want to shut AE down, pick an offline f/ware to emulate upon re-opening then open that preset to view?
IMHO - that's very user UN-friendly. Can you imagine your frustration if you had to do that for every preset you wanted to preview/look at???? Ughhhh!
It's a logistics problem really, and why AE 3.*.* no longer supports offline editing.
FWIW- the Std/Ultra and AF2 versions of AE (0.9.* thru 1.*.*) used to support offline editing/viewing and contained a lot of code to support that functionality. It did this by reading external defintions of blocks that were firmware specific.. so those definition files had to updated with every new release. That delayed new AE releases, made it a s-l-o-w load, and created other challenges. In AE v3 (which I worked extensively with the developers + Matt on) the decision was made o remove this functionality. The install package size dropped from 9MB to about 3MB !!
To return to that model would require a local definition of EVERY firmware version supported by AE for EVERY device! Not really a valid application architecture.
I can't say with absolute definition that it will never happen - that's up to FAS - but IME don't hold your breath!
sounds like you could write a better Axe-Edit program than the current one. we're waiting