help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

prgrms's picture

hello there... been playing around in quartz today, GL tools plus an object loaded from 4d. lotsa fun, but noticed when i throw the qtz in vdmx it kinda loses its pop - its much more vibrant in Quartz, sharp etc. Getting into VDMX its all jagged, much duller etc...

any tips on how I optimize res? or short of throwing a luminosity effect on the layer - how do i keep tabs across both programs so what i'm creating in Quartz is what i get in VDMX? running vdmx at 720p at the mo -

here's a couple of pics, first one QC second vdmx

if this has been answered in a previous thread let us know

cheers!

matt t.

harrisonpault's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

@prgrms,

You will probably get more high quality information on the vidvox forums for vdmx questions.

Generally, quartz in an application such as VDMX is definitely different than quartz in the editor, or a standalone app, so differences are not entirely surprising.

As workaround, you might consider using syphon, which will allow a framebuffers from a quartz application to be picked up directly ready-for-the-screen in vdmx. Keep in mind, depending on your application, George Toledo's admonitions about the QC editor environment: it leaks and does other performance-killing things, so creating an app for your composition could be smart.

Finally, if you want help here, you need to provide some better information about the patch you have designed. Best to post the whole composition. Depending on your use of GL Tools, CI, OpenGL, OpenCL, etc., people here may be able to provide guidance on plausible causes of vdmx differences.

Paul

vade's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

Your blend mode in VMDX will effect the compositing of QC comps with alpha. Go to the VDMX forums, there are discussions there.

gtoledo3's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

Ooh, I'd say that's "suggestion", definitely not admonition @harrisonpault :-) just relating the conclusions I've drawn based on using qc.

prgrms's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

Thanks very much for all the suggestions, have to say the suport offered by qc users here and around the web is very generous, cheers

comboy's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

Hello, I wonder if it is possible to download the composition?

blackburst's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

This was getting to me too, but there's ways you can minimise it. QC draws directly to the screen. VDMX draws/rasterizes each layer and then also again onto the main canvas. This is what lets you have previews and apply effects. Think of it like, everything in VDMX is in a "Render in image". Firstly, make sure that EVERY layer AND master are at the same resolution, and that matches the output monitor res. Turn off any effects, in case one is downscaling the image. I discussed this with the devs of VDMX a while ago and they've since come up with a lot of rendering options. Try "skip canvas rendering", it has its limitations but can make qc comps look better. I would play around with all of the rendering prefs in vdmx actually, apart from multi-threaded rendering.

prgrms's picture
Re: help understanding how vdmx deals with quartz comps

yes, doing some of this did fix things. from what i could work out - the QC comp i had was what ever the Viewer was last set to. Is this common practice? Because once I changed the viewer to 720p, bringing it into VDMX was pretty much fine - as well as setting the 'clear's opacity to 100%. I guess my question now is, what is the native res of a quartz comp - or where do u set that? is that just whatever was last set on the viewer - because actually i tried to set the viewer to 1080, then save, then drag into a 1080 vdmx proj across all settings, and no love, it must have still been 720, since it was showing up all blurry/scaled