General

• How do I contact Vizrt with my Graphics Plugin questions?

  • Before a question is forwarded, please read the questions and answers that are given in the sections below. For problem reporting, see the Reporting Problems section.

• Why are my start, stop and continue buttons in Viz Trio disabled?

  • When using an external Viz Engine, the start, stop and continue buttons in Viz Trio are disabled. This is the same for the Restart Viz Engine option that is available from the context menu in the Render window.

Using the NLE System

• Which video editing software works with the Graphics Plugin?

  • See the Supported NLE Systems section.

• Why am I seeing double-sized graphics?

  • There is a difference between broadcast and consumer resolution. Several of the plugins are confused by for example consumer HD, producing graphics of the wrong sizes. If the camera says 1080i and has a resolution of 1440x1080 or 1280x1080 it is consumer HD as opposed to broadcast HD of 1920x1080.

  • Check that the software versions are correct. For details, see the Requirements and Recommendations section.

• I have edited and saved a scene but I cannot see the graphics on the video. Why is this?

  • When editing a scene in Viz Trio, Viz Pilot or the Graphics Plugin Editor, select to see the scene with key turned on (available above the renderer window). If the scene goes black, there is a design flaw in the scene. Redesign the scene by adding key to it. For details, see the Scene Design section.

• Why does the preview in Viz Pilot only display VPreviewPanel?

  • This might be a network bandwidth problem. In most cases this happens when the Graphics Plugin’s compression is set to No Compression and there is a bandwidth mismatch between Viz Engine and the NLE machine. Usually this happens when for example the NLE machine is connected to a 1Gbps network and the Viz Engine is connected to a 100Mbps network.

  • Try to set compression to PNG Compression or configure both machines to use the same network with the same bandwidth. Remember to check that the network cards are compatible with the network it is connected to.

  • Viz Engine should ideally be connected to a fast network. If the NLE machine is connected to a slower network it should work fine.

• How do I set Viz Pilot’s preview aspect ratio?

  • The preview aspect ratio is set in Config’s Output Format section (Viz Engine’s configuration tool).

• Why is Avid locked while using the Graphics Plugin?

  • The architecture of Avid and most NLE systems is that they block whenever a plugin is executing, which includes when the user has pressed Edit, the editor is open and the plugin is waiting for a response.

• Why are the Graphics Plugin editors and configuration programs not closed when the NLE system is closed?

  • The NLE system is unable to handle a shutdown of the plugin itself (see previous question).

  • If the NLE system is accidentally terminated or closed this might cause the plugin process to still be running, and a manual and forced shutdown of the plugin is necessary. The latter can be obtained by restarting Avid or using the Task Manager.

Configuring the NLE System

• Which ports are used in a typical installation?

  • See Port numbers.

• On a Windows system, how do I configure the Viz Engine host and port?

  • For details about installing Viz Engine, see the Graphics Rendering section.

• On a Windows system, how do I configure the output from the Viz Engine?

  • Some settings related to the output from the Viz Engine are configurable. For example the image compression protocol (No, PNG or RLE).

  • If some of the Viz Engine settings are incorrect the preview will be disabled, and a message giving the reason will be displayed. Cases can be if the host is not found, cannot connect to the port, and so on. In addition if the Viz Engine connection is lost during runtime, the user will be notified.

    Note:

    Some GUI settings are only valid for Windows-based NLE integrations using Viz Trio and Viz Pilot.

• On a Windows system, how do I configure the user interface that the Graphics Plugin should use?

  • Open the Graphics Plugin configuration tool and set the Plugin user interface setting and set it to Viz Pilot or Viz Trio.

  • The setting ensures that the NLE application will send the extra data that the user interface needs. This includes, but is not limited to, the scene length in milliseconds.

  • All user interfaces will show an error message in case the NLE system is not configured properly. The log files will also show warnings for non-critical problems.

See Also

Graphics Rendering

Port Numbers

Tuning the NLE System

• How can I find out how much time is used between each call from the NLE system to the plugin?

  • Empty the log directory, and start a project, make an effect, render it and exit the NLE system. Go to the log directory (see the Log Files section) and run the following command:

    grep --binary-files=text PERFORMANCE viznle-log*.txt

• Disregard the first few numbers and you might find for example:

  14:42:03 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 397 msecs.

  14:42:03 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 170 msecs.

  14:42:03 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 394 msecs.

  14:42:04 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 161 msecs.

  14:42:04 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 157 msecs.

  14:42:04 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 411 msecs.

  14:42:04 [T:2689318816] [/Users/<username>/fcp-1.0/plugins/fcp/VizNlePlugin.mm,876] QUEUE PERFORMANCE: Time between renders 161 msecs.

See Also

Log Files

Tuning the NLE System

Rendering with Viz Engine

• Which Viz Engine version should I run for HD?

  • A standard-PC version for all HD output is recommended due to a number of issues in the INCA version.

• Can I include Datapool in the Graphics Plugin workflow?

  • When including the Datapool mechanism in the Graphics Plugin workflow, you are always working on a scene-copy. The built-in multiplexer functionality of Viz Engine will rewrite references to RENDERER to the scene-copy you are using. This means that if your scene has DataActions that refer to RENDERER, they will not be rewritten to the right scene, and they will fail fairly often. Referring to $SCENE will most certainly also not work.

See Also

• Graphics Rendering

Configuring Graphics Cards

• How do I configure my NVIDIA card with Avid and Graphics Plugin?

  • From Avid’s release notes: “In the Open GL Settings tab of the Windows Display Properties dialog box, the Multi-Display hardware acceleration should be set to Single Display mode. The default setting is Multi-Display Performance mode. This is the mode that appears if a new version of the NVIDIA driver is installed. If the setting is anything other than Single Display mode, the Avid application might drop frames during real-time playback of 3D effects.”

See Also

Graphics Rendering