What i’m suggesting is that a pattern command controlling a macro should be able to set a macro to 50 not just 49.8 and 50.2.
When you for example want to control the pitch of an instrument (where 50 is the basenote pitch) it’s pretty lame that you can’t use pattern commands to reset it. 
Does no one care about this? 
How do you work around this problem?
Precision of pattern commands controlling DSPs and meta-devices is a general “issue”. I guess it’s not changed because of compatibility to older XRNS. If you need more precision, you’ve got to use the automation. Just set it to points.You could also setup a (static) LFO with your precise settings and just trigger the LFO reset via pattern command.
Automation is always an alternative, but it’s a lot less practical than to just a simple right click.
LFO is a solution, but there are no reset slider in the LFO, so it kind of takes away some of the flow. I can live with having to type 8 in a field though, so it’s not like i switch to Reason or anything. 
The instrument macros are completely new, so i can’t really see how this can affect older files? I know there are only 256 commands, but wouldn’t it be better to make a slight curve in the mapping maybe? Even out the 0.2% offset in parts were precicion is not that important, like between 40 -> 50 and 50 <-60?
Maybe a new pattern command all together could be a solution? I imagine for instance if you right click on any even number, then renoise could write another prefix than the usual? The old mapping could be as before, but a whole new command set controls only the even numbers? That would even make things much easier if you wanted to write the commands manually as well.
This last solution should not affect the old tracks either, as it is only an additional feature?
I must admit that i’m getting more and more against the whole backwards compatibility. It’s nice to be able to load old files, but i’m not shure it’s worth it in the long run.
The LFO trick will do for now i guess, but it’s not really very intutive to make an LFO into a non clickable slider just to control another clickable slider, i doubt that this is something that newcomers will pick up right away.
At least it is precise, which cannot be said of pattern fx commands. (7F could set a value 49.5% while you actually had the slider on 50% when you rightclicked it)
That’s kinda what i’m suggesting to do something about. 
Is my suggestion so far fetched? Make a new prefix for all the even numbers, as in 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8…and not 1,02 - 2,05 - 3,10 - 4,13 or whatever that is the case with the mapping as it is now? 
Maybe as simple as if 147F is the command for an LFO offset value of 49.8, then S47F could snap to the closest decimal, which in this case would be 50?
And then if you right click your slider at 50, then it will write the S4 prefix instead of 14.
Maybe i should make a new topic about this suggestion as i didn’t think of this when i started the thread. Is this suggested before perhaps?
That should have been done in the early days. (you also have the problem of requiring another compatibility level in the play-engine just for the older modules which is imho not worth the effort).
You can easily also rightclick to store the parameter into the envelope and then you have the exact value.
Pattern effect commands imho still suffice fine if you don’t need exact values, at least if translated stuff doesn’t really matter decimal wise. And if a trigger is applied according if a value is < 50% or >=50%, then simply make the pattern fx value <%50 or > 50%.
I don’t think you understand what i’m talking about here, we can still have the old pattern commands 147F will still be 49.8, but we add another optional prefix. Old tracks won’t be affected by this.
Now i have no idea how this programming thing works though, but you seem to be adding a lot more complex stuff than a set of pattern commands?
I think this is indeed a problem. Default value of macro rotary is 50 and you cant set it via pattern automation. It’s time for higher precision in pattern automations. This would be much better than a new command or prefix. Why not add a switch above the pattern fx column, which convert it to a 6 or 8 digits long pattern fx column? It could be a simple plus/minus button. Each fx command would have at least one or two digits more for the value. This shouldn’t break anything, because the old 4 column pattern fx would be still available. It’s just a new pack of fx commands with higher precision’s.
I’ve an additional idea:
There would be also some space for the interpolation type. Default is point next to the known line and curved mode. This interpolation could be applied to non tracker fx commands, so mainly automations of fx parameters. So i could programming high resolution automation directly in the pattern editor.
So i could set a pitch value (instrument macro) on first line and a second lower one on the last line, and renoise will automate this like in the automation editor depends on what mode this fx pattern is working (point mode, line mode, curved mode).
Yeah, automatization of LPC in LFO has same problem. It is very annoying bug so i sometimes work with unprecise values (i know about env. mod. workaround but there are different problems…)
I think i’m getting you just fine here.
Even though old songs may not be affected, they still need their own engine level for 100% old playback and in particular: saving;
Because you can edit a song in an old-skool engine, you can also save it in the old-skool engine if you decide not to upgrade it. At that moment, no new features or options are allowed to be saved along, so the extra prefix should then not be saved along and specific rounding should not take place either.
If it should be a change on this area, i rather have it in the magnitude of vertical envelopes inside the track where the effect column used to be with a dropdownbox above and below which enveloped parameter to show, then you can have everything on the exact perfect value 