@bonemap

Always happy to help :)

@webmammuth

Have you tried the same thing in Isadora 4.0.9?

Isadora 3.2.6 was released in December of 2022, so there's been quite a lot of changes since then and it's possible that what you're running into has already been addressed in a more modern version of the software.

@obx

Ah, I think you misread just "actors" as "User Actors". 

There is indeed a warning you'll get when opening an old file that contains what are now considered "classic" (outdated) actors, and those actors are indeed red in color. Usually these actors have new versions and/or are now considered inefficient because they're CPU-based instead of GPU-based.

Hallo Hallo,

I am trying to export a stage with alpha channel and I am setting the codec to ProRes444.

It doesn't seem to work though. The file in the end doesn't have alpha. Does anyone know why?

Thanks

Elena

@jandraka

Thankyou! that totally works. I had tried adding different actors in that position, but not a Video Mixer. : )

@dbini said:

Media Thumbnail resolution up to 640px

 This resolution is created (when you use file/Rebuild Media Thumbnails). If you are using the 'Bin Picker' control, you will see an immediate update to the thumbnails, since the default of 48px is less than the default thumbnail size of the bin picker (64px). Of course if you set the preference to 256 and the Bin Picker thumb size to 256, you have large clear images.

I'm always happy if somebody wants to chime in here to correct me, add to what I have to say, but here's a summary of what I believe I know about this subject.

TLDR: As far as I know, using one computer with a single, powerful GPU in combination with display-extending hardware tends to be better than using a computer with multiple discrete GPUs (and also better than trying to synch multiple computers if you care about your outputs being frame-synched).

@armando said:

having multiple graphics cards is supported on Macs right now?

I should have been more specific. It actually says, "Computers with multiple discrete GPUs that have not been properly configured" and "Computers with external graphics cards (eGPUs)".

So yes, actually, Apple and Windows computers with multiple internal graphics cards are supported but only when configured properly. To the best of my knowledge though, there are very few recent Apple computers that support the use of multiple internal graphics cards. The only ones I know off the top of my head are:

The old, "cheese grater" Mac Pro towers (which at this point are more than a decade old).The 2013 Mac Pro (commonly called "trash cans" because of the shape), which are also over a decade old and also have the issue that few, if any, programs can actually make use of the dual graphics card setup. One of these has been my main show computer since 2015 and, while I've needed to get it repaired a few times, I found that the number of outputs it offers is usually enough, and when it isn't, one can use display-extending hardware or BlackSyphon + direct output to Blackmagic hardware to get more outputs.The newer "cheese grater" Mac Pro towers (which are so expensive I've never even considered trying one out).

Frankly, I believe there are better options. For Windows it's optimal to go with a single, powerful graphics card with as many outputs as possible then use display extenders like the Matrox TripleHead2Go DP Edition, Matrox QuadHead2Go, or Datapath fx4 (which has the added benefit of being daisychain-able) as this is (as far as I understand) is more efficient since textures don't need to be passed between multiple graphics cards. I've heard from other people, (who are more experienced with Windows than I am), that if you can figure out the proper configuration, using multiple discrete internal GPUs isn't an issue, but personally I still prefer the external display-extending hardware because it can easily be used with different computers for different projects, which I find more flexible than building a computer with multiple, discrete internal GPUs.

For macOS, I've heard that the Mac Studios are quite powerful and, again, you can use display extending hardware to get more outputs if needed. These display extenders can also make it easier to keep your outputs frame-synched (important when using multiple beamers or displays to create a larger, composite image) as the computer sees each display extender as a single, large display. So, with the example of a Datapath fx4 or Matrox QH2G, instead of sending four separate videos to four separate displays, your computer sends different parts of the same high-resolution video to something it sees as single display, resulting in all four displays connected to the display extender being frame-synched.

So overall, I personally think there's better, more efficient, options than trying to work with a machine that has multiple graphics cards. Again, though, I'm happy to be corrected if anyone knows more about this than me. I'm always open to learning, especially when it results in finding out about a better way to do something.

@tim_f Hi, ah, I just realized the frequency band actor works with the default mac device, not with a variable audio input. But you'll find quite some actors with audio input in the audio category of the actors list, such as all or most actors starting with AU on macOs, they come from the default Core plugins, at least on recent macOS versions), as well as audio plugins you might add yourself to your mac sytem (for example through the MPluginManager - opens quite a big range of possibillity). 

For example, I had a multichannel video and wanted to manage the gain and routing of each sound channel in Izzy. The movie player doesn't allow that, but using Blackhole as device for the MP and as input in the AU Input actor, I was able to do pretty much anything I wanted to the video´s sound. Have fun with that! 

Best,

Jo

@maria said:

The sensor lights red (connected to power source and via hub, because this Mac model doesn't have an internal standard USB port) Status output unit in OpenNI BETA actor says resolving uri. I tried to download the Kinect-test-macOS folder, found in the forum, but cannot run it because of security. I'll be very happy to hear a suggestion from you.

 Sometimes the order and configuration of things matters for finicky hardware like the Kinect, for example you can try:

Launching Isadora then plugging in the KinectQuitting Isadora, plugging in the Kinect, then launching IsadoraPlugging in the Kinect, restarting the computer, then launching IsadoraNot having the OpenNI Tracker actor in the very first Scene of your file so Isadora finishes all startup processes before you move into a Scene with the OpenNI Tracker actor.Trying with an unpowered hub (avoid putting anything else on the hub)Trying with a powered hub (avoid putting anything else on the hub)Trying with a USC-C converter instead of a hub (this is what I would personally recommend because it removes all the variables that come with using a hub)

You get the general idea, trying things in a different order or a different configuration sometimes has different results when it comes to hardware-specific issues.

@ril said:

- Have you noticed (or at least in my case) that if you draw quickly and furiously, certain glitches appear, like sharp lines that break or interrupt the stroke?

 Yes, we're aware of that

@citizenjoe

Perfect. We have identified the issue. Thank you for the feedback!

@oedipus said:

am I running too many concurrent sounds

How many Sound Player actors are you actually running at once? More than 16? If you look at the help text for the 'sampler chan' input of the Sound Player actor it says:

"The sampler channel on which the sound will be played. Isadora has sixteen audio sampler channels, numbered from 1 to 16. Set this value to 0 to play the sound on any sampler channel that is not busy playing another sound. If you attempt to play a sound on a sampler channel that is busy playing another sound, the current sound will be stopped before the new sound begins to play. If you play two sounds on two different sampler channels, then both can be heard at the same time."

(If you left the 'sampler chan' input on all the Sound Player actors at the default, '0', then you can ignore this paragraph.) If you specifically set the 'sampler chan' input on any two Sound Players to the same number, you could be running into the issue in the second underlined sentence above. For example, if you had a Sound Player for a looping sounds set to 'sampler chan' = '2' running, then triggered a Sound Player for the thunder that is also set to 'sampler chan' = '2', the looping Sound Player would stop. 

If you have any looping sounds that don't need complex audio routing you could also save them as .mp3 files and play them using Movie Player actors to avoid hitting the sound sample channel limit.

Alternatively, if you are hitting the sampler channel limit but need full multichannel audio routing capabilities, you could copy the Isadora application, run two versions of it, and use a Net Broadcaster actor on in Patch A (Isadora application #1) to trigger sounds via Listener actors connected to Sound Player actors in the Patch B (Isadora application #2). I'm not sure whether that would work, but it's simple enough to try.

Another option might be to run your looping sounds combined for a long time while using OBS to record your computer's audio output (or record a video with computer audio then convert the video file to an audio file), then use that longer loop of combined sounds in Isadora played through a single Sound Player actor to reduce the number of sampler channels you're using simultaneously.

Obviously I don't know enough about your use case to say which idea would be the best to try first, or if you even need to try any of them, but I just wanted to point out that there might be some possible solutions if the issue you're hitting is maxing out the sampler channels.