Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

I am excited about QuartzBuilder but it is not working for me. For each composition i try and build it presents a window with random peices of some graphics buffer, but not the image in the composition. Each one of these were small compositions that used only the basic patches (and of course until i pay for it) fewer than 50 patches. Are there instructions that go with it that would help me? Also, i tried adding the image as a resource and it made no difference.

i attached one example.

.m

PreviewAttachmentSize
QBBefore.jpg
QBBefore.jpg38.38 KB
QBAfter.jpg
QBAfter.jpg94.7 KB
UnderarmSpritz.qtz2.3 MB

cwright's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

you need a clear patch.

You'll get color garbage when the color buffer isn't cleared (some of what you're seeing), but more dangerously, you'll get Depth Buffer garbage if you don't clear, which means some places won't render at all (because the garbage makes the depth buffer check always fail), ever.

QuartzBuilder's runner environment doesn't automatically clear because there are cases where you won't want it to -- thus, you have to tell it to do so explicitly.

(in a future version, we may clear it on startup so at least you won't get crazy stuff)

ml's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

super. it works

.m

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

I'm going to go ahead and figure that this is a good thread for testing apps that may/may not work (as opposed to the template discussion thread).

Psonice is conveying to me that he's just getting a color flash back and forth on this...

Is that happening for everyone, or ...?

I'm going to attach the application below. You should basically see a liquidy looking audio visualizer, with transparent window background.

It works OK for me (I did test it extensively).

If the actual composition is needed, I will send it via email... but I'm thinking it must be more of a runner/plugin/patch issue?

Thanks!

PreviewAttachmentSize
Liquid.app_.zip606.27 KB

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

I have another app that I would really like someone to run on another computer, so I can see if it works or what... but it weighs in at 26.4mb, pushing it over the 25mb cap (I can't email it, and it seems to not upload to the site... it doesn't need people burning up your bandwidth either).

Can anyone think of a decent way to transfer this for a bit of testing, aside from setting up an ftp or my own website?

cybero's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Bit Torrent.

Give me a link and I'll download and give it a fair old testing time :-), no worries.

You could always publish it to a website on your mac and open up that site temporarily for one to download from - use dynalias.org or similar to give you a domain name to run with.

What about exploiting one of the many free hosting providers? [just temporarily]

In the long run, as part of my recent upheaval, I have loads of room, so maybe making some ongoing arrangements with me might well work.

Balls in your court, bud :-)

cybero's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Oh man, just remembered, I can set you up with a sub domain on my site.

Give you a log on and password.

You upload, you create web page - or I can do so and well the rest will follow suit.

Build it and they will come

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Nah, that's ok, I'm already in the midst of setting something up, so I will wait on that. Thanks though!

I will likely provide a link in a bit, I was hoping that since it's debugging QBuilder that I could upload here.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

mmm, but I JUST remembered :) Did you happen to dl/open the "liquid.app"? Does it work or not? I guess that would be the first step. I was getting a bit ahead of myself on the 26mb-er maybe.

cybero's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Actually answered that elsewhere. Did download. Did run. Did report - pretty much as follows below ---->

Works well enough for me , I can see sort of ghostly shapes and such [pretty] , but that is possibly down to my determinedly using a boring gray screen background as default. Due to the translucency of the application, any strong colour behind , especially complimentary or similar, will cause a lowering of the presentation's definition and effectiveness. I think you can see that quite clearly with psonice's screen grab - loved his cartoon backgrounds by the way.

dust's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

just bought QC builder. i didn't get anywhere near close to the advertised un registered exports ;)

seems like it will be a great tool for sharing things, im a bit more open source myself but at the same time im all for protecting content and plugins etc.. sometimes you got to protect things, you know keep the magic magical.

chris puts some hard work into QC for all of us so i hope QC builder does well for him. at least that way there will be some sick revisions and updates that will save all kinds of time.

i know people have been throwing this qc builder idea around for some time and its finally here.

to me the ultimate QC builder would actually make an xcode project for but instead of loading a QC comp into a qcview on auto or what ever, but would actually generate the obj c for you. i guess add the resources, frameworks and what not to the project but make the class files for all the QC stuff. im thinking more generate the equivalent objc gl, qt stuff for you.

that would more than likely be a pretty daunting task, might not even be able to be done but for some reason it seems like it would be very useful to me. at least for rapid development etc...

honestly QC does pretty much everything i am interested in (with the help of kineme) but there is some maybe lower level stuff that qc doesn't do that would make something like that useful.

either way look forward to qc builders updates.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Two major QC Builder desires... nah, three.

  • a way to handle basic file input, and make some controls.

  • a way to incorporate plugin concepts that may have to use frameworks... some option to deploy frameworks/an install process for certain types of apps.

and three-

  • multiscreen support-

What would be IDEAL is to be able to have all of the published controls pop in a separate window that one could have on one screen, while full image is playing back on another. That is SO desirable, and would totally make life about one million times easier. It's not too hard to figure out how to do this via the standard projects, but then you don't have the QC builder "plusses", like plugin integration, elimination of the editor and the way that taxes the system, and also the obsfucation of the original qtz.

leegrosbauer's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

I'd like to stand in support of George's wishes for app user controls. Third party applications which offer such composition controls are few but those few are invaluable to their users. And to a great extent this is precisely because they do indeed offer one degree or another of composition controls. By contrast, without such controls their usefulness would be dramatically diminished.

cwright's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

I agree as well -- it was left out of 1.0 because programmatic NSView stuff is new territory for me (but then, so was QuickTime with QuartzCrystal, and OpenGL with Kineme3D, so that's not really a good excuse), and because it's actually fairly complicated. However, in the past 36 hours or so of poking around (mostly at curiosity stuff, actually) I've managed to work out the icky stuff that held me up in 1.0 (rather simple, in retrospect -- kinda embarrassing).

So I'm planning a parameter panel for 1.1 (along with some other added features, fixes, and tweaks).

leegrosbauer's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

That is a truly exciting announcement, Chris! Wonderful news!

As an aside; although my QC capable application of choice is purposed primarily as a video broadcasting app, I myself utilize it primarily as a palette and sketch pad for exploring composition assembly possibilities. While this usage is unconventional, it has proven to be quite effective because I can quickly manipulate and preview meaningful quantities of layered composition combinations that would otherwise be somewhat laborious to individually assemble together and observe in Quartz Composer alone.

That said, I would offer for your consideration the concept of a Kineme QC Sketchpad? I don't know how monetizeable such an application would be, but I'd pay for it if offered a few basic things such as composition layering, comp port controls and drag and drop composition insertion/removal.

cybero's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Wonderful, I have a QuartzBuilder workload ready to roll once I can devote some time to it. I am sure that a parameter panel would probably help.

Brilliant little application.

As is Quartz Crystal too.

:-)

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder: Dialogue Box

I'm really looking forward to using QBuilder when I have stuff to deploy "out there". Haven't started yet cause I have 4 QC projects I want to do first but I vote yes to George's list in that order.

One thing I've been kinda going to list as a separate feature request but could dovetail with QuartzBuilder is a Kineme Dialogue Box patch. Main envisaged use is to aid the Kineme write to file patch (which I'm planning to use soon) and locating different XML files for input and getting updates to new files I've made. Sure there are other uses too.

Would mean we can quickly navigate file locations with a GUI rather than goto finder make a new folder and copy the path via terminal then goto the write patch.

Not sure how it fits in the QC paradigm but it definitely works for Quartz Builder... "Save Game" Dialogue anybody? Or Input Dialogues at appropriate time in narrative or non-linear compositions. eg. adventure game.

If you are planning a parameter floating panel or whatever, cwright a neat thing might be the option to place a tiff as a panel background – given that this Inspector is kind of the Face of the composition and it's creator (from artist_id/marketing/user_friendly points of view).

dust's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

i agree a parameters window would be cool, even if it where just a drawbar i think its called the little thing that slides out of the side of your main window. i personally like the HUD window, like the advanced QC controls. i actually use a HUD window for pretty much everything i do in IB. i guess it just sort of looks better to me with opacity and stuff. i don't know about multi-screen or how useful that would be for me cause i could just open up two QC builder apps on different screens or even the same app twice. i guess the syncing would be an issue but could easily be solved i guess with various toolz maybe OSC broadcaster or something. maybe send out some sort of metronome beacon from app 1 and app 2 knows what signal its looking for and either restarts both compositions at the same time or syncs it self or something ? but yes most defiantly george a parameters HUD or something would be awesome. a few parameters yeah maybe no big deal binding but some sort of HUD window that resizes it self to the size of the published ports at root level would be slick.

[edit] just noticed the QC builder template in QC thinking there might be some features i over looked. [edit]

usefuldesign.au's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Post to a free i/o site like:

https://drop.io/

can be password protected if you desire.

"The current limit on the size of individual files is 2gb."

Is that big enough for us? Who pays for this stuff and what's the environmental footprint of having all your stuff sitting on multiple server locations? Hmmm...

rampitup84's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Hello all,

Just downloaded QuartzBuilder (QB) - free trial until I can figure out how to use it - as I will need to share QC compositions with individuals that do not have QC. I pasted the path of my .qtz on the Composition line of QB, filled out the App Name, App Version and other fields yet I cannot get the Export button to go live (to be clickable). I only have 10 patches so I know the free trial should work.

I appreciate any advice offered.

Best, José

ps: I attached a qtz made by Jay Thrash in case you all are wondering what qtz file I am working with

PreviewAttachmentSize
spybook.qtz2.21 MB

smokris's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

@rampitup84: Instead of pasting the file path, you can just drag the file to the box in the top right corner of the QuartzBuilder window.

If I do that with your spybook.qtz composition, QuartzBuilder shows the message "Unregistered version is limited to 55 patches". Your composition actually has 979 patches in it. (It uses a few Facebook Origami macro patches; each of the patches inside their macro patches is counted as a separate patch.)

rampitup84's picture
Re: Unsuccessful attempts at using QuartzBuilder

Thanks so much for your help @smokris. I tried a simpler QC and was successful in producing the app. Ill have to send it to a PC to see if it works on other machines.