Constraints Weirdness When Setting Events In Timeline

Q & A
#1

Greetings!

Not sure if this is an Aeon v3 bug, or if my .aeon file (converted from Aeon v2) is glitched so v3 doesn’t behave properly. I’m using v3.4.23 and shell 3.4.23. I also deleted the existing constraints (set long ago in v2) and remade them in v3, but weirdness persists.

First, I have a celestial event with start and stop times locked (that is the Event is locked in Aeon). The start of this event is 8:22pm.

I have a story scene that I want to end 2 minutes after the start of the celestial event. So I’ve set a constraint on the end of this story event: “End equals start of ‘Celestial Event’ +2 minutes”.

I scroll up to the start and stop times, and duration. I think 45 minutes duration is a touch shy, so I change it to 50 minutes. The end time changes, even though it is constrained. IMO because the end is constrained (tied to the celestial event) the start time should change.

Aeon shows the red danger icon and invites me to fix time by adjusting this event, adjusting the celestial event (which fails because it’s locked), or to remove the constraint. When I tell Aeon to adjust this event it moves the start time back 5 minutes, which leaves the duration to what I set, and corrects the end time to match the constraint. Exactly what it should have done in the first place.

Is this correct behavior for Aeon v3?

Also, Aeon attaches a complementary constraint to my celestial event. IMO this is wrong. I am constraining the story scene, not the celestial event. Constraints should be one way. This one-way constraint has nothing to do with the nature of the event, or that I’ve locked it, but that I did not set a constraint on the celestial event.

Again, is this some residue of an .aeon file converted from v2 to v3, or is Aeon v3 supposed to act this way?

Thanks a million.

#2

Hi @ScottyDM Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

I’ve chatted to the dev team about it, and we agree that in your case, it would be preferable for the start of your story event to move instead of the end when adjusting the duration.

We’ll factor it into our future development plans and work on improving how auto-resolve works across all the different scenarios.

#3

Hi, Rob:

Maybe this should go into Feature Requests.

Each event has a start time, stop time, duration, and optionally constraints on start or stop times. Additionally constraints can be exact, or before or after, plus a bunch of stuff about dates. With so many ways to set time, changing one thing can easily create conflict. IMO it’s a matter of what is soft (1st choice to modify), what is firm (trigger the “manually resolve” condition), and what is locked down (don’t change).

I was poking at my story and found this cluster of constraints: Constraints Example 1

Blue bars are the wolf’s POV, the red bar is the heroine’s POV, and the yellow bar is the sun. The sun is locked with the padlock icon, as sunrise happens at sunrise. I’ve got a touch of weirdness where the start of “Catalyst” is constrained to exactly 3 1/2 hours before sunrise, then I set a duration. The start of “Old Cabin” is constrained to exactly 10 1/2 hours after the end of “Catalyst” (my wolf has a loooong way to run, but he’s motivated), and again I set a duration. Finally “Cleans Up Good” is constrained to start 22 minutes after the end of “Old Cabin”, and I set a duration. The whole mess has to complete well before mom gets home work, so the heroine has time to fix dinner.

First, there’s a weirdness about how constraints are defined in Aeon v3. Here’s “Old Cabin”:

Constraints Example 2
Constraints Example 2457×1077 60.3 KB

“Start equals end of…” is what I entered, and is correct (I think it’s 2nd because I edited it).

However “End equals start of…” is wrong—it should not be a constraint. I entered that as a constraint on “Cleans Up Good”. Constraints should NOT be bidirectional. The start of “Cleans Up Good” needs to follow the end of “Old Cabin”. If I change “Old Cabin”, “Cleans Up Good” needs to track it. But nothing I do to “Cleans Up Good” should have any effect on “Old Cabin”. If I manually diddle the start time of “Cleans Up Good” then I should get “manually resolve” icon (maybe I need to change the constraint, or maybe not change the start time).

This is key: Constraints should not be bidirectional.

It’s been awhile, but I suspect the bidirectional nature is what triggered my question.

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#4

Thanks for that extra feedback. I’ve also passed that along to the dev team for consideration.

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