Isadora 2.0 - Responses and Reactions from the Community

mark

To answer your questions:

**_ To get the best out of h264 decoding and general playback, should a CI Movie Player be used?_**

No, the CI Movie Player is not your best choice.

You should use the new Movie Player. (The old, CPU based Movie Player should now appear as "Classic Movie Player" in your patches.) You can identify the new Movie Player because it has an input called "optimize." On Mac OS X, when using v10.7 or later, if you choose "performance" for this input, all movies that can be played by AVFoundation (H264, Apple Pro Res, Photo JPEG) will be played using that system. The biggest gain you'll see is when playing H264\. The results are incredible, because AVFoundation decodes H264 directly on the graphics card.

****IMPORTANT POINT **** if AVFoundation _can't_ play the codec for the movie you've chosen, then playback will be handled by QuickTime instead. (For example, the Animation codec, which AVFoundation does not support.)

Currently, the system being used is not obvious... I plan to do something about that... probably I will add an output that says "AV" if AVFoundation is playing, "QT" if it's QuickTime, and "WN" when DirectShow plays the movies natively under Windows.

In addition, you'll see that the Movie Player has a mutable video output. The default format is **vid-gpu**, which is a GPU based video stream. But if you connect it to an old Isadora effect, it will change to **vid-cpu**, which is the cpu based (bitmap) video. Likewise, if you connect it to a CI actor, it will change to a **vid-ci** output. Take note that there is a performance hit when you use **vid-cpu** because the GPU image must be converted to a CPU based, bitmap image. This is costly and should be avoided.

**Are there also gains in terms of encoding performance, as in when recording to disk?**

No, not yet. I want to do address this in a future version, but for now, the gains are all in playback.

**I assume the CI Projector will be the most efficient for complex mapping... however on my side the mapping only works on the Classic Projector (on CI it launches but has no effect)**

Because of some complexities with converting the **vid-gpu** image stream to **vid-ci**, the CI Projector does not yet offer mapping. I'll get that done soon, but in the meantime, the most efficient path is to stick with **vid-gpu** throughout.

I hope that helps!

Best Wishes,

Mark

vanakaru

Run quick test with 3 MoviePlayers fullHD ProRes movies on my old (2008) MBP. I can't believe this - 30.2fps!

Now I have 3 weeks to prepare for the show in London. Looks very promising.

mark

Dear @vanakaru,

Very very happy to hear

Btw, I'll be in London from Sep 21 onward, preparing for a show that opens at the end of September. If your show is on or after that date, please let me know.. I'd be very happy to meet you in person finally.

Best Wishes,

Mark

Skulpture

@vanakaru great to hear.

Bill Cottman

Isadora 2.0 up and running!

Six standard definition movie files running simultaneously; cross faded to three projectors via TH2Go.

Performance: Cycles 120.2 FPS 28.2

Switching from MBP to MacMini gave me this performance on 1.5.3f27 but I AM EXCITED TO HAVE 2.0 and begin learning projection mapping!

Thank you for your creativity, excellence & intelligence!

Isadora and the Isadora team are superstars!

mark

Yes, let's do hear it for the team: Michel, Graham, Jamie and Ryan have been incredible these last weeks. I couldn't have done it without them. We in the community, and I especially, owe them a big round of applause.

-- Mark

mockej

@mark thanks for the detailed feedback!

Sticking with vid-gpu seems then to work only with the Texture Projector, otherwise it switches the movie player to vid-cpu upstream when using the Classic. (maybe I am missing something - will there be a "Projector" without any prefix, like with the Movie Player?)

A lot to learn still, and it is reasonable to assume that documentation will still take a while - as it should!

... so patience appreciated.

Many thanks as always

m

crystalhorizon

Regarding the codecs: for best performance without scrubbing or looping, which codec is now the one to go: HAP, H264, AppleProRes or still like it was till now PhotoJpeg?

Skulpture

@feinsinn I would say h264 at the moment but HAP is pretty rapid also.

crystalhorizon

@skulpure thanx for the quick response!

crystalhorizon

When hovering over the string connection between the new movie player (vid-gpu, performance mode) and the texture projector and dont see the little thumbnail (where the resolution is shown) as in the previous versions.

Skulpture

I think that needs to be added - its not been in any of my beta's.

jorisw

Ok have paid upgrade to our 10 license seat... waiting for confirmation. Hope to start experimenting today!

crystalhorizon

Is there a vid-gpu Video In Watcher or do I have to use a Video to Texture Actor?

mark

Nope, adding a vid-gpu actor is on the list. For now, you'll need the video to texture.

Best Wishes,

Mark

crystalhorizon

Ok, thank you for the quick response

All the best,

Alex

dbini

although i'm excited to get my hands on Izzy2, i've got a few dates left on a tour where everything is built in Izzy1, so i'll have to wait until December before upgrading. still enjoying reading about everyone's experiences with 2 and looking forward to joining in later in the year.....

Finally got round to really testing 2.0b in a practical setting today: mapping setup test with edge blend with 4 short throw projectors, 3 being fed by a triplehead. I didn't have tons of time to dig really deep but there were a couple of things which might be improving the already fantastic workflow.

1\. when in stage edit mode, it'd be great if there were a keyboard shortcut to switch between inputs (maybe there is, though, and I just didn't look/try hard enough). Now I just went back and forth with the mouse between the desktop of the macbook to select stage 1, live adjust it with the mouse, go back to the desktop, select stage 2, drag the mouse over to stage 2 etc etc.

2\. again; maybe it's there and I just plain missed it (so much to discover with the new interface and so little time in a day) but a "reset" of the mapping parameters would be fantastic. It's no real hassle to zero everything out manually, but a reset would be cool.

*applause* for the team, well well well done all! I'll hang on to my Madmapper and Blendy licenses for a bit longer, but I think in the foreseeable future they will be shelved. Having Izzy run all that stuff is just plain great instead of switching between apps. I haven't even gotten around to testing videos, looking forward to that

cheers!

Bart

mark

Dear @BartvanG,

Thanks for the report; I look forward to hearing more about how you get on with the new system, but I'm glad it's going well initially

If you submit these feature requests (please be as clear and detailed as possible) we'll do our best to roll them into a future version.

All the Best,

Mark

Mowgli

@Mark

You seem to be referring to a Movie Player with mutable output, but I can only find the Classic, Movie player Direct and Movie player VR. I'm running the 2.0.0b2 on a windows 7 machine.

Other than this confusion I'm thrilled with all the new mapping possibilities.

Greetings,

Job