Isadora 2.0 - Responses and Reactions from the Community

I really should be finishing some animation work, but Isadora 2.0 came in today ;-) Works like a charm here. Can't wait to dig in deeper, thanks Mark and team it looks great, definitely worth the wait!

fifou

Testing it right now..
Mapping features are AWESOME ! I needed it for my next project.
Movie playing engine seems much better.. (didn't tried HAP yet)

So much to test and discover...

Thanks Mark, thanks all TroikaTeam. Great work !

Best
Philippe

DusX

@feinsinn
It could be loading your resolume fx if they are in the Isadora freeframe folder.

bruper

2.b02 Rocks!!

Skulpture

@feinsinn - pretty pretty sure they are Resolume effects: most of which we used at Glastonbury :)

Reinhard

Any sources here for FFGL that are fresh and free or not too expensive?

Got an empty folder.

mark

Dear @feinsinn,

Yes, it's likely that Isadora is loading your Resolume effects. The FreeFrame folder is at an agreed upon location -- it is not specific to Isadora. So if other programs have installed FFGL plugins there, you'll see them.

@Skulpture + @DusX: putting a list of where users can get free/useful FFGL plugins that don't belong to another software would be a priority at this point. Please talk together and put something together, OK?

Best Wishes,

Mark

mockej

Hi @mark and team, the mapping is absolutely astounding! ... I am tempted to put my whole life on hold to get my teeth into the new features, but will have to take it step by step. But this really looks like an unbelievable achievement.

A few questions (that will be answered in the documentation I'm sure, but I'm impatient hence the early adopting):

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

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

- 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). Have filed a bug...

Thanks again for the fantastic developments, will clock in more as I run tests

Take care

m

Skulpture

FFGL list - thanks to @gavspav for this :)

There is a [list already on the freeframe site](http://community.freeframe.org/plugindatabase?pluginDB_ff_version=FFGL+1.5x&pluginDB_license=All&pluginDB_OS=All&pluginDB_type=All) but it isn't ever updated!

Plus there are the [plugins bundled with the Resolume demo](http://resolume.com/download/)

[Bigfugs plugins are here](http://www.bigfug.com/software/freeframe/)

[Here are some from 1210 visuals](http://www.1210visuals.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=56)

[Various plugins free and commercial from the Mapio people](http://visution.com/downloads)

[Windows Openni plug in](http://vjfx.com/main/en/mmblog/mmblogintrinsicsrnd/item/3098-freeframe-depthcam-plugins-2)

[Some effects from Matias Wilkman](http://matiaswilkman.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/ffgl)

[A couple from hybrid visuals](http://www.hybridvisuals.nl/category/downloads/)

[Few more linked from the Resolume blog](http://resolume.com/blog/tags/FreeFrame)

[Nice looking triangle plugin - maybe windows only](https://vimeo.com/85140944)

mark

Dear @mockej,

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.