Snapshots

A snapshot recaller for your lighting console — store fader, group, executor and master positions as named snapshots, then recall them (with optional fade) from a GUI or a command.

Program your looks once at 100%, then during the show drop groups, executors and masters into different positions — Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, Breakdown — semi‑automatic and repeatable. Recall a snapshot from the manager, a macro and the assigned fader values move to their stored levels with a optional fade. It's the missing semi-auto "mix it live" layer for a grandMA3 show.

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⚠️ Alpha — UNTESTED and "vibe coded"

This is early, work‑in‑progress software that is UNTESTED in production, and it was "vibe coded" — built largely through conversational AI assistance rather than careful hand engineering. That means:

• It has not been road‑tested on a live show. Expect rough edges and bugs.
• No guarantees. It may misbehave or break on a firmware/version you're not expecting.
• Try it on a scratch show first — never on a live production showfile you can't afford to lose.

Shared in the hope it's useful and that the community can help improve it. You've been warned. 🙂

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What it does

From inside grandMA3 you can:

• 🎚️ Store the current position of executors, group masters, special masters and datapool objects (sequences / presets / groups) into a named snapshot — the tick in the Object pane is the assignment.
• ▶️ Recall a snapshot and have every assigned fader move to its stored level, with a fade (or instant, via the Fade/Snap toggle).
• 🧱 Breakdown — recall a snapshot's targets to a breakdown state (a separate playback intent for stripped‑back moments).
• 🗂️ Organise by a 3‑pane drill‑down — Snapshot ▸ Type ▸ Object — with objects grouped under Executor masters · Datapool (Sequences / Presets / Group masters) · Global (Special) masters.
• 🔍 Search live — filter the Type and Object panes by name as you type.
• ⏱️ Automate — drive Recall / Store / Clear from a macro or timecode with a simple keyword command (same engine as the GUI).
• 💾 Persist — snapshots live inside the showfile (a shared GlobalVar), so they survive reloads and reboots and travel with the show.

Everything runs inside the console — no companion server, no browser.

Requirements

• grandMA3 onPC (macOS or Windows) or console — developed against firmware 2.4.2.2.
• Nothing else to install. The optional feedback form uses the HTTP tool already on your platform (curl on onPC, busybox wget on the console).

Install

1. Download / clone this repository.

2. Copy the plugin folder into your grandMA3 plugin DataPool:

   • macOS: ~/MALightingTechnology/gma3_library/datapools/plugins/Snapshots/
   • Windows: %PROGRAMDATA%\MALightingTechnology\gma3_library\datapools\plugins\Snapshots\

   Keep the lib/ subfolder structure intact — the manifest references those paths.

3. In MA3, import it from the Plugins pool (or it's auto‑discovered on the next show open), then run it.

A small deploy helper for onPC development lives in scripts/deploy.py (copies the tree into your local plugin DataPool). For multi‑file plugins, restart onPC after deploying so sub‑module changes are picked up.

Usage

The manager (GUI)

Press the plugin tile to open the manager.

1. ＋New a snapshot in the Snapshot pane (rename / duplicate / clear / delete from the button bar).
2. Pick a Type, then tick the objects in the Object pane to assign them — the tick captures their current level.
3. Select a snapshot and press Recall (or Breakdown) in the playback bar. Toggle Fade / Snap and set the fade time there.

Macros & timecode (keyword command)

The plugin also takes an argument string, so the same actions run from a macro line or a timecode event. Empty argument → opens the manager; a non‑empty argument runs the command.

Grammar: <verb> <name> [key=value ...] [flag ...]

• verb — recall · store · clear
• name — the snapshot name (quote it if it contains spaces)
• fade=N — fade time in seconds (recall)
• breakdown — recall to the breakdown state

Examples (as macro lines):

Plugin "Snapshots" "recall Verse"
Plugin "Snapshots" "recall Chorus fade=3"
Plugin "Snapshots" "recall Breakdown breakdown"
Plugin "Snapshots" "store Solo"
Plugin "Snapshots" "clear Verse"
Plugin "Snapshots" "recall ""Guitar Solo"" fade=1.5"

Support this project 💛

If Snapshots helps your show, consider chipping in — it genuinely helps:

→ community.smidn.com/donate

You can also reach the donation QR any time from About → Donate inside the plugin (scan it with your phone), and send bug reports from About → Feedback.

How it's built

• grandMA3‑bundled Lua 5.4, multi‑file ComponentLua plugin (global‑namespace pattern).
• Native MA3 UI — the manager is a ScreenOverlay / BaseInput window of MA3 Lua widgets (no web view).
• Persistence — the whole snapshot collection is one JSON string in a show‑file GlobalVars() blob (shared, survives reload/reboot, last‑write‑wins).
• Recall engine — a plugin‑owned uniform fade (a single 0→100 value animation) drives assigned faders; the GUI and the macro command share one engine.
• Feedback goes over the platform HTTP tool via a single io.popen boundary (curl on onPC, busybox wget on the console); the donation QR is drawn by a small pure‑Lua QR encoder (lib/qrcode.lua).
• Host‑side unit tests run under a self‑contained Lua runner: lua tests/run_all.lua.