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Does anyone have strong opinions either way on what the best system components or off the shelf workstations are for C2? I’ve heard good things re. Videopump, and DPS Reality cards, also Max Black new Wildfx system. I am looking for a system capable of longform and commercials projects, possibly able to cope with higher than PAL res.
Any input appreciated….cheers. [img]images/forum/smilies/icon_smile.gif[/img]
[addsig]Hmm. I am wondering about this issue too. Actually I want to get a C2 system and I do not really know what to choose. Looks lilke Bluefish444 or Media100 844/x Hmmm bye
Hi!
You are looking for a good C2 machine?
Ready to handle more then PAL – then You need a dangerous weappon 🙂
You can buy one from BOXX Technologies or Alienware (for example)- or build Your individual system.
Some key specs to look at:
CPU: DUAL XEON or Athlon MP (only the top versions, because it makes no sense to use two slow cpu’s if you can get one fast…)
RAM: 4GB DDR-Ram PC266 is ok
HD: If You are working only with RAM a normal drive is ok – otherwise use a RAID array (Promise 4x WD 200GB = 800 GB with about 100 MB/s – or LVD-SCSI if You really need power)
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 4 driven boards are ok for multi monitor support and GL rendering. (Nvidia Detonator driver working fine for me)
BE AWARE OF THE HARMFULL NOISE that such machines produce!
Use a dedicated server room or an advanst fluid cooling system…
I’m using a Dual Athlon MP 2000+ with 2GB RAM Segate Barracuda drives and GeForce II Ultra Graphics – this machine is damm fast and working is a joy 😉
greetings
nw42Discreet Combustion and your Computer: A Hardware Primer
Written by Jack Pfeiffer, MCI-Videotronic, Denmark
September, 2002Many people ask questions about which Computer and what video hardware should used to run Discreet Combustion Version 2.0 software. Specifically, there are three primary issues: the Computer CPU and RAM, the graphics board and the video engine (frame buffer.) This paper will address each of these hardware alternatives, and, at the end, include some basic and helpful background tips and tricks. Please note that the technical information, comments, specifications and notes listed below are assumed to be accurate at the time of writing, but are subject to change, modification, or alteration without notice at any time by any of the listed manufacturers.
Combustion runs on either Windows or the Mac platform, and the individual Combustion licenses are dedicated to one platform by an included hardware lock, also known as a dongle. The PC version uses a parallel port lock and the Mac a USB lock. As for using Combustion, the GUI (graphic user interface) is virtually the same on both platforms, as well as jobs or projects (known as CWS files – Combustion Works Spaces) can be loaded and opened on either platform. Note: there may be additional limits with regards to certain codecs that are specific to each of the computer platforms.
This paper is divided in to two sections: the Windows platform, and the Apple Mac Platform. This will allow users to study the sections that pertain to their specific platform interest. Note: is can be helpful to read both sections so that you better understand the hardware differences.
First, we should understand the elementary workflow of combustion: Discreet Combustion is a compositing program that can take your existing video, still or media files, and allow you to mix, modify, assemble and output them. Combustion is resolution independent which allows mean it will work with both film and video resolutions, even mixing all resolutions in the same project. Combustion supports bit depths up to 32 bit (float) depths. In any project, you can add text, various visual effects, color corrections, chroma keys, as well as add particle effects and position items in 3D space. Within 3D space, you can add lights and create shadows, as well as manipulate a virtual camera. Your finished project will then be rendered out (and you can use the included RenderQueue network renderer) at a variety of file formats, pixel sizes and bit depths, at qualities ranging from high-end Film and HDTV files all the down to low resolution web-capable formats.
Graphics Accelerator Card, or Display Board
The Display Board is what displays your GUI (graphic user interface) on your computer screen. Combustion v2 takes advantage of the newest technology of display cards that use OpenGL. OpenGL is a graphics API that was originally developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) for use on professional graphics workstations. OpenGL subsequently grew to be the standard API for CAD (Computer Aided Design) and scientific applications and today is also extremely popular for consumer applications such as PC games. Note that API stands for “Application Programming Interface†and is a standardized programming interface that enables developers to write their applications to a standard and without specific knowledge of hardware implementations. The benefit is that a single application can run on a wide range of hardware platforms instead of needing to be rewritten for each of those hardware platforms. The software driver for the hardware intercepts the API instructions and translates them into specific instructions tailored to specific hardware. APIs such as DirectX and OpenGL can also emulate hardware functions in software to ensure that the application will run even if the hardware platform is missing a desired feature.
Do you HAVE to have an Open GL card to run Combustion? The answer is NO. Combustion has a preference setting to be able to use “software only†to run OpenGL functions. You simply set this preference and keep working. However, when you use a compatible OpenGL card, you can appreciate improved performance with the specific Combustion tools that are optimized for OpenGL and work faster overall. Combustion has two operators that are OpenGL enhanced: the particle operator and the composite operator.
Video Signals and Your Computer:
To start with, if you do not have your video files in your computer system, rather they are on a videotape, you will need to capture them. Capturing is the process of converting a video stream to a media file using a codec (Compressor-DeCompressor) hardware chip that is built-in on the frame buffer. The type of frame buffer you choose is based on the quality of video signal you have and the quality input and output expectations, as well as your budget.
Composite Video: Analogue video used with both B&W (CCTV) and color. Uses a 75 Ohm coaxial cable with either a BNC (bayonet net coupler) or RCA connector. Lowest quality, typically consumer.
Y/C (also called S-VHS or Super VHS) via 4 pin DIN connector: the analog composite signal is split into two parts: Y= Luminance and C= Chrominance, which improves signal quality ~ 2 db over Composite
Component Video: Professional analogue signal as known as YUV, or (Y, R-Y, B-Y) or (Y, Cb, Cr.) True color encoding that uses one luminance value (Y) and two chroma values (UV.) Basically, this separates the signal into three components, similar to RGB, for superior signal quality. The Y=luminance, R-Y = Red-Y and B-Y=Blue –Y. Note that if we know two of the parts, we can always extrapolate the third. On professional Betacam recorders, 2 parts are recorded.
DV Family of video signals:
• DV Consumer is 25 Mbit/second: PAL countries, 4:2:0 sampling , NTSC countries, 4:1:1 sampling
• DVCAM is 25 Mbit/second: PAL countries, 4:2:0 sampling rate, In NTSC countries, 4:1:1 sampling
• DVCPRO is 25 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:1:1 sampling)
• DVCPRO50 is 50 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:2:2 sampling)
• Digital-S – D-9 is 50 Mbit/second in both NTSC and PAL Countries (4:2:2 sampling)
Definition of Video Sampling: Video Sampling is process where we compact and compare the signal elements: for example, a sample of 4:2:2 describes the luminance (Y) resolution of 4 times subcarrier and both of the color difference channels (R-Y and B-Y) digitized at 2 times subcarrier. For example, the highest quality is 4:4:4:4 -1st Number = Luminance; 2nd Number =Chroma 1; 3rd Number = Chroma 2; 4th Number= Alpha. Note that any signal with the third digit as 0 is very difficult to perform high quality Chroma-keying, due to the lack of Chroma information. The last number, Alpha Channel, is NOT a normal part of everyday video streams.
SDI (Serial Digital Video): The digital standard, also know as ITU-R 601 or CCIR 601 ITU-R 601 is the international encoding standard for digital television, for PAL, NTSC or SECAM. The standard covers colour difference and RGB video, but the colour difference version is more popular, because colour difference video in general is more popular. Colour difference ITU-R 601 is referred to as a Y, Cr, Cb format – it digitises luminance, R-Y and B-Y. Luminance is sampled at 13.5MHz, and the two colour difference signals are each sampled at 6.75MHz. This sampling is referred to as 4:2:2, but the A:B:C format for describing digital video sampling modes is internally inconsistent and leads to lots of confusion. ITU-R 601 video is uncompressed, and has a continuous data rate of 21 megabytes per second. The samples can be either 8 bit or 10 bit, giving theoretical maximum numbers of unique colours of 16.8 million and 1.1 billion, respectively. Black is actually defined as level 16 and white at level 235 (on a 0 to 255 scale.) An SDI signal can included embedded audio in which, over the same connector, up to eight tracks of 48 bit AES/EBU digital audio is included. This must be read by the Digital device, or, one must use a de-embedder and/or audio converter to get analog audio.
Digital Betacam: Digital video tape format using the CCIR 601 standard to record 4:2:2 component video in compressed form on 1â„2″ tape. For Professional broadcast use.Combustion running on Windows Platform:
The Windows Computer: DUAL CPU is where it’s at:
Combustion takes full advantage of dual processors, therefore, in all cases you should plan on such a dual CPU. There has been much discussion about Intel versus AMD CPUs. It is interesting to note that AMD uses a Model naming convention rather than using clock speeds to differentiate among their processors. This can be confusing and somewhat misleading: For example, the AMD Athlon XP 1800+ actually runs at 1.53 GHz. Because both AMD and Intel have used processor speed to identify their products in the past, you can easily mistake the 1800+ for a 1.8-GHz processor. With AMD shifting from processor speeds to model names, they hope to change the way the industry rates processors. Although AMD CPUs have slower listed clock speeds than Intel CPUs, remember that AMD uses QuantiSpeed architecture that allow for shorter pipelines and less cache latency, enabling the chip to do more work in a single clock cycle than a “faster†Intel chip. Another feature of AMD’s QuantiSpeed architecture is the enhanced hardware data pre-fetch, which allows the processor to predict and store commonly used data in cache rather than having to access system memory every time the data is needed. So, a listed CPU clock speed is NOT everything! AMD has enhanced its 3DNow! instruction set, used in multimedia applications, to include support for Intel’s SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions), which is used in many 3-D games as well as in MP3 compression, DVD playback and other digital video and audio applications. As with earlier Athlon chips, the XP family of processors supports DDR (double data rate) memory rather than the RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic RAM) which is favored by Intel for its Pentium 4 chips. In a variety of industry test, the Athlon XP has performed as well as the Pentium 4, even out-performing the Pentium 4 in some comparisons, particularly the 3D Studio Max rendering test. So, with that said, the choice is yours.RAM: Combustion includes a Render to RAM feature that can prove invaluable in your creation process. This mean you can render to RAM and playback segments of your composite. Therefore, it is advisable to install at least 2GB of RAM in your PC. I suggest installing up to 2.5 GB RAM, since the system processes will run just fine in that last half gig, as system processes are excluded from that 2GB windows limit. The fact is that Windows will only allow an application to use up a maximum of 2 RAM, so there is a “virtual ceiling†on the amount of RAM for any system.
Combustion (Windows) Open GL cards:
As for which OpenGL card to use, Discreet has tested a variety with combustion v2 running Service Pack 1. As for other OpenGL cards not on the list, Discreet mentions that they may, in fact, work but they may have certain functionality, performance or stability problems when regards to running Combustion. See the notes listed below.For the Windows Version of Combustion, Discreet has tested these Windows OpenGL Display Cards:
• NVidia Quadro 4 900 XGL, NVidia Quadro 4 750 XGL, NVidia Quadro 2 Pro, NVidia Quadro 2 MXR Dual Head, NVidia Quadro DCC; driver version 28.32. For info see: [url=”http://www.nvidia.com.”%5Dwww.nvidia.com.%5B/url%5D
• 3dLabs Wildcat II (5000, 5110) and Wildcat III (6110, 6210). High end and quality, excellent card, very useful for OpenGL, though can be expensive. The 3DLabs company was bought by Creative Technologies in May 2002. info at [url=”http://www.3dlabs.com.”%5Dwww.3dlabs.com.%5B/url%5D
• Matrox G400 or G450 (limited performance). Presently, the tested drivers are v.5.72.021, available from Matrox. Note that there are different models of the G450: variable RAM and dual head display. Info at http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/home.cfmImportant notes about the above supported OpenGL Graphic Cards:
For some OpenGL cards, such as the Matrox G400/G450, you can speed up the display of background images by using texture RAM. Users of these cards should enable Use Texture RAM to increase performance in the Particles operator. By default, Use Texture RAM is enabled. With nVidia Windows hardware, make sure you sue the Detonator Reference drivers from nVidia, version 23.11 or later. Make sure you set the “3D Anti-aliasing Settings” tab of the Additional Properties control panel to “Allow applications to control the anti-aliasing mode”, and under the OpenGL Setting tab make sure “Use unified back/depth buffer” is disabled.
As for Laptop computers, Windows-based laptops should have a good OpenGL card installed, such as the GeForce 2 Go, Quadro 2 Go, or the GeForce 4 equivalents, which have proven to be in the same class as the standard GeForce cards (GeForce 2 MX, Quadro 2 EX, GeForce 4MX 420/440.)
Discreet mentions that users may experience different results using OpenGL acceleration on different OpenGL hardware cards, and this is simply due to the supported capabilities of each card. For example, some cards may support full anti-aliasing, while other cards may have limited anti-aliasing support or no anti-aliasing at all. A suggestion is to always make sure your OpenGL hardware supports the features you need for your project before attempting to use OpenGL for final rendering.
For this reason, Discreet recommends that you use OpenGL to speed up the preview of your work, but then always use software rendering for your final renders, much as you would in any other 3D application. In fact, some hardware/software combinations may result in corrupted renders using Software OpenGL. Therefore, with unsupported graphics cards, you should always use the Software Renderer.Discreet also highly recommends that you turn OFF OpenGL rendering when submitting network renders. Use software rendering for any Composite operators in your workspace because the presence of unsupported OpenGL hardware on any render workstation on your network may cause visual differences between the frames of your project. In other words, if you have different cards on the PC on your network, each card might give you different results. Some advanced composition attributes such as ambient lighting, spotlight falloff and reflections will not produce the same results as they would in software rendering mode. Again, remember that software rendering is always recommended for final rendering.
In hardware and software OpenGL mode, zoom levels of greater than 100% may result in decreased performance. In some cases, an OpenGL viewport may update incorrectly. If this happen to you, then to refresh the screen, under the Combustion Preferences, click and toggle the “Use OpenGL” setting in the viewport context menu to cycle it off and then on again. When working with two or more viewports, with one set to an OpenGL display, deleting an operator via the non OpenGL viewport will not refresh the OpenGL viewport. Remember that OpenGL viewports do not support non-square aspect ratio previews with the “Use Aspect Ratio” option. So, switch the view to Software mode to preview non-square aspect ratio images. As for View LUTs, Safe Zones and View Modes: remember that OpenGL viewports do not support any of those.
The colour plot and colour values area at the bottom of the screen also report the colour of UI elements in OpenGL viewports. If you have an untested card installed, there may be a list of unsupported composite features in OpenGL. Select the “About OpenGL” option from the Help menu on Windows, the Apple menu on Mac OS 9.x, or the application menu (“combustion”) on Mac OS X.Combustion (Windows) Video Frame Buffers:
A note about Combustion on Windows with DV via Firewire: The support for DV and 1394 that is built into Windows uses Microsoft’s DirectShow media system. Combustion windows version does NOT support DirectShow, and therefore, will not work. Combustion only supports Video-for-Windows and QuickTime. Therefore, a work around is required. There are two possible solutions:
1) Simply use a third party software, such as Movie Maker, Vegas, or Premiere 6, you first capture and save the video files as Type-1 OpenDML DV AVI files using DirectShow. Again, Combustion can not read these as it does not read the DirectShow DV codec. Next, you export from Premiere or Vegas Video using either QuickTime (which includes a DV codec) or a third party Video-for-Windows-compatible DV codec, such as the one from MainConcept. Note: if you use the Video-for-Windows AVI route make sure you generate non-OpenDML AVI files. QuickTime 5 is probably the easiest route since you won’t have to buy a codec. But, tests have proven that the MainConcept DV AVI codec performs very well. As for exporting still frames, it is easy to generate these from Vegas Video (using save snapshot) or Premiere (using export image). Some DV capture applications will also save stills directly to image files.
2) An fast alternative to importing Type-1 Open DML DV AVI files (without re-encoding) is to use QuickTime Pro 5 or 6. Note: QT Pro is not the free version, rather the Professional Upgrade. First open the DV AVI file in QuickTime Pro Movie Player. By default the preview in the QuickTime Pro Movie Player will look poor quality with low resolution and blocky pixilation: This is just QuickTime’s default DV playback mode. Your final import to combustion will not reflect this low quality. Combustion doesn’t require for the QuickTime “high quality” settings in order to get full resolution DV decoding, unlike many other applications such as Photoshop’s ImageReady. Next, save the clip as a QuickTime “reference movie” using the File->Save As command. In the “Save As” dialog you should change the file extension from .AVI to .MOV and make verify that the “Save normally (allowing dependencies)” is selected. This will create a small file with the same name as the original AVI file, but with a QuickTime .MOV extension. This file just references the original AVI file and they act as a “pair†together and they should not be separated. Should you move the .AVI files to a different folder, remember to also move the .MOV file. Next, you can open the new QuickTime .MOV file directly in Combustion, which will bring in the AVI file. HINT: For this step, always use “List View” in the Combustion File Open dialog (rather than Thumbnails) due to the fact that Combustion may occasionally crash when it tries to make a thumbnail for any Type-1 DV AVI files. Side Note: Even though Type-1 DV AVI files can be larger than 2GB this method will not allow you to bypass the 2GB file size limitation of Combustion. There are still file size limitations in QuickTime for Windows and Combustion. The technique is only recommended for short clips below 2 GB in size.
Lastly, Combustion has a built-in Quick Capture function, which requires a QuickTime DV capture device driver, and, as far as I know, there are no such tools for Windows users at this time. So it is specific to only MAC users who have the required hardware only.Capturing your Video: Once you have a frame buffer installed, as well as some additional hard drives for A/V storage, you can proceed with capturing your video. Except for the above mentioned Quick Capture function, Combustion will require a third party capturing software. Depending on the frame buffer you choose, there may be an included capture utility. For example, all Matrox DigiSuite cards always come with a program called DigiTools, which allows for basic video capture and playback. If there is no utility included, it can be as simple as installing and using Adobe Premiere to perform your capture. Once you capture and save your video, you create media files that can then be opened in Combustion. Note: If you have a professional VTR with RS-422 and SMPTE Timecode, you may need additional equipment, such as a RS-232 to RS-422 converter cable and perhaps software to control the VTR. This may vary, depending on the board and video deck you use.
For Windows, Discreet has tested some of the following list Video for Windows Video Cards
(Side Note: The BlueFish card has NOT been tested nor supported by Discreet, as it is not yet released.)• DPS Hollywood, Perception and Reality MJPEG compression boards that are typically used in non-linear editing applications. The DPS Perception and Hollywood are both discontinued. Note that the Hollywood was a high quality 8/10 bit uncompressed board. You still may be able to buy used cards. Note that the DPS Reality is the replacement for both of these lines, and supports both MJPEG compressed and uncompressed. With a software expansion, the Reality becomes the Velocity, with dual-stream editing capability. Digital Processing Systems was purchased by Leitch. Prices start at about Euro: 3000 and up, info at: http://www.dps.com
• ViewGraphics VideoPump (only cards presently supported for capture on PC) This is a high quality and reasonable cost boards that runs SDI video. ViewGraphics was purchased by Optibase in 2000, and recently Optibase announced that they plan to sell off the VideoPump product by next year to better focus on their MPEG1/2 product line-up. This leaves an uncertain future for this board. Prices start at about Euro: 3000, More Info at : http://www.viewgraphics.com
• Matrox Full DigiSuite: a Matrox MJPEG codec, double board-set that has uncompressed-quality using a mathematically lossless encoding process of data compaction. Typically used in non-linear editing applications, due to the dual video stream abilities. The SDI Option is yet a third board. A side benefit is that Matrox has a free software MJPEG codec available. An expensive solution at about Euro: 13,000, Info at: http://www.matrox.com/video/products/ds/
• Matrox DigiSuite LE a baby-brother to the Full DigiSuite, this is a single Matrox MJPEG board that has 1.3:1 compression. Typically used in non-linear editing applications, due to dual video stream abilities. SDI Option is a daughter board. A side benefit is that Matrox has a free software MJPEG codec available. Prices start at Euro: 5200, Info at: http://www.matrox.com/video/products/ds/
• Matrox DigiSuite LX a cousin to the above two DigiSuites: But, it replaces the MJPEG chipset with CCube MPEG chips with a maximum 25mb stream. A single board, this is typically used in non-linear editing applications, due to dual stream abilities. Includes firewire card, with SDI Option as a daughter card. Prices start at about Euro: 5200 http://www.matrox.com/video/products/ds/
• Matrox DigiSuite DTV a big brother to the above DigiSuite LX, as it has the CCube MPEG chipset and accepts up to 50mbit streams (for use with DVCPro50 systems.) A single board, this is typically used in non-linear editing applications, due to dual stream abilities. Includes a firewire card, with the SDI Option as a daughter board. Prices start at Euro: 7800 http://www.matrox.com/video/products/
• Matrox DigiMix is the Video Buffer/Mixing Board portion of the Full DigiSuite Product listed above. It has NO codec chipset, but is just a video buffer. For SDI I/O, an optional second board is available.
• Pinnacle Systems TARGA 2000 family: Includes the TARGA 2000 RTX, DTX, and SDX. These are discontinued MJPEG cards that were originally made by Truevision. Pinnacle bought Truevision in 2000. It may be possible to buy used cards, but the new replacement solution is the Pinnacle Systems Targa 3000 (see below.) 2000- Series boards lack W2K drivers. For info on the old Targa 2000 series boards, see the Pinnacle Systems Support website.
• Pinnacle Systems TARGA 3000 provides 3 streams of true uncompressed video playback and 6+ animated graphics layers. Includes DV1394 I/O. Typically used in non-linear editing applications, due to its multi-stream abilities. A T3K Package typically includes Adobe Premiere 6, etc. and requires a mandatory optional breakout box: either Analog or Digital. Expensive solution with prices starting at Euro 8000. Info at: http://www.pinnaclesys.com/ProductPage.asp?Product_ID=91&Langue_ID=7
• BlueFish444 WildBlueAV From the same Australian company that makes the DigitalVoodoo (see the Mac section) comes a new high quality uncompressed board. Although behind their scheduled release date as well as their commitment to Combustion support, this board promises to be high quality as it provides SDI I/O. Prices for the Input/output cards start at about Euro: 3700 and up. Perhaps this will replace the VideoPump? More info at: http://www.bluefish444.com/Frame Buffer Support: Discreet provides Frame Buffer support for certain video cards. Buffer support means that you are able to view your work live on a video screen. For example, as you paint on a video layer, you will be able to simultaneously see the picture on a video monitor. This is tremendously helpful, especially in cases of functions like color correction: Remember that colors on a Computer monitor are very often NOT the same as they are on a video monitor.
Discreet provides Framebuffer Support for the following Windows video cards:
• Matrox DigiSuite family (including full DigiSuite, LE, LX and DTV models). See complete definitions and web-links above
• DPS/Leich Reality. See complete definitions and web-links above
• ViewGraphics Videopump and VideopumpHD. See complete definitions and web-links above
• Pinnacle Systems Inc. Targa 3000. Important Note: Discreet has officially stated that combustion v2 does not support the use of the Targa 3000 as a framebuffer with the current Targa 3000 drivers, known as Animation Recorder v1.0. The performance with these drivers results in very slow performance. It is reported that the next update of Animation Recorder, version 2.0, should include improvements to Combustion v2.0; delivery of this update has not been promised: We are still waiting.Combustion running on Apple Platforms:
The Mac Computer:
Combustion takes full advantage of the Mac PowerPC G4 dual processors, therefore, in all cases you should plan on using dual CPUs. Also, remember to enable “Multi-Processing” option setting in your MAC.RAM: Combustion includes a Render to RAM feature that can prove invaluable in your creation process. This mean you can render to RAM and playback segments of your composite. Therefore, it is advisable to install a full 2GB of RAM in your Mac. Under the Mac OS X, you are now finally able to access a full 2GB RAM. Note that a good tip is take the total amount of RAM you have, subtract 15% of this number and allocate the rest to Combustion. Also, MAC will not allow you to assign more than 70% of your RAM to Combustion.
Combustion (MAC) Open GL cards:
Do you HAVE to use an Open GL card to run Combustion? The answer is NO. Combustion has a preference setting to use only software to OpenGL functions. You simply set this preference and keep working. But, when you install a compatible OpenGL card, you can appreciate improved performance with the specific Combustion tools that are optimized for OpenGL and, with regards to those functions, work faster overall.
For the Macintosh Combustion, Discreet has tested the following OpenGL Video Cards:
• ATI Radeon and ATI Rage Pro. Info at http://mirror.ati.com/products/builtdesktopmac.html
• nVidia GeForce2 MX, nVidia GeForce2 MX Twin View and nVidia GeForce3 . More info at [url=”http://www.nvidia.com.”%5Dwww.nvidia.com.%5B/url%5DAs for which OpenGL card to use, Discreet has tested a variety with combustion v2 running Service Pack 1. As for other OpenGL cards not on the list, Discreet mentions that they may, in fact, work, but they may have certain functionality, performance or stability problems when running Combustion.
Discreet mentions that users may experience different results using OpenGL acceleration on different OpenGL hardware cards, and this is simply due to the supported capabilities of each card. For example, some cards may support full anti-aliasing, while other cards may have limited anti-aliasing support or no anti-aliasing at all. A suggestion is to always make sure your OpenGL hardware supports the features you need for your project before attempting to use OpenGL for final rendering.For this reason, Discreet recommends that you use OpenGL to speed up the preview of your work, but then always use software rendering for your final renders, much as you would in any other 3D application. In fact, some hardware/software combinations may result in corrupted renders using Software OpenGL. Therefore, with unsupported graphics cards, you should always use the Software Renderer.
Discreet also highly recommends that you turn OFF OpenGL rendering when submitting network renders. Use software rendering for any Composite operators in your workspace because the presence of unsupported OpenGL hardware on any render workstation on your network may cause visual differences between the frames of your project. In other words, if you have different cards on the PC on your network, each card might give you different results. Some advanced composition attributes such as ambient lighting, spotlight falloff and reflections will not produce the same results as they would in software rendering mode. Again, remember that software rendering is always recommended for final rendering.
In hardware and software OpenGL mode, zoom levels of greater than 100% may result in decreased performance. In some cases, an OpenGL viewport may update incorrectly. If this happen to you, then to refresh the screen, under the Combustion Preferences, click and toggle the “Use OpenGL” setting in the viewport context menu to cycle it off and then on again. When working with two or more viewports, with one set to an OpenGL display, deleting an operator via the non OpenGL viewport will not refresh the OpenGL viewport. Remember that OpenGL viewports do not support non-square aspect ratio previews with the “Use Aspect Ratio” option. So, switch the view to Software mode to preview non-square aspect ratio images. As for View LUTs, Safe Zones and View Modes: remember that OpenGL viewports do not support any of those.
The colour plot and colour values area at the bottom of the screen also report the colour of UI elements in OpenGL viewports. If you have an untested card installed, there may be a list of unsupported composite features in OpenGL. Select the “About OpenGL” option from the Help menu on Windows, the Apple menu on Mac OS 9.x, or the application menu (“combustion”) on Mac OS X.Combustion (MAC) Video Frame Buffers:
For a background on the different video streams, please see the introductory section at the start.
For the Mac, Discreet has tested the following list of QuickTime Compatible Video Cards:
• Apple Built-in Firewire – New Macs today include Built-in Firewire, which makes using Combustion very easy and simple. Apple info on firewire at: http://www.apple.com /firewire/
• Avid MCXpress for Macintosh If you already have an Avid MCXpress, then it is easy to add Combustion. For info, see: http://www.avid.com
• Avid Media Composer Series If you already have an Avid MCXpress, then it is easy to add Combustion. For info, see http://www.avid.comCombustion (Mac) has built-in Quick Capture: If you have QuickTime-supported video capture hardware installed on your workstation, or have a capture device (such as a DV camera or Sony converter box) connected to your Macintosh FireWire port, you can capture video footage directly into combustion with the Quick Capture feature. Quick Capture provides a simple way to capture from supported QuickTime hardware cards and devices. The footage is captured as a QuickTime clip. You specify the software codec (compressor) applied to the clip, such as Motion JPEG A or Sorenson Video, and the codec’s related image and quality settings in the Video Settings. Note: Quick Capture does not digitize frames, only single-file QuickTime clips. You can capture audio associated with the footage, or capture audio from a source other than the video at the same time. For example, you can simultaneously capture audio from the internal CD player and footage from a DV camera. In general, use Quick Capture to quickly get material into your computer to use for pre-visualization or as a “scratch” track. You can also grab a single image off video and immediately use it. For example, you can take a “frame-grab” and then start painting with it using the Clone feature in Paint. For motion graphics projects, Quick Capture is a handy way to capture video intended for use as a texture or background.
If QuickTime is not installed on your Windows system, the Quick Capture feature is not available. QuickTime is installed with all Macintosh operating systems. The first time you open the Quick Capture dialog, you may get a message that the QuickTime Sequence Grabber cannot be opened, or that you are missing other QuickTime extensions. This means that you do not have the latest version of QuickTime installed on your system. Follow the on-screen instructions to download the necessary QuickTime component.Capturing your Video: After you install a frame buffer, as well as some additional hard drives on which to store your media files, you can proceed with capturing. Except for the above mentioned Quick Capture function, Combustion may require a third party capturing software. Depending on the frame buffer you choose, there may be an included capture utility. If there is no utility included, it can be as simple as installing and using Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro to perform the capture. Once you capture and save your video, you create media files that can then be opened in Combustion. If you have a professional VTR with RS-422 and SMPTE Timecode, you may need additional equipment: a RS-232-RS-422 converter cable and perhaps software to help control the VTR. This may vary, depending on the board you use.
Frame buffer support Certain video cards include full Frame Buffer support: This means that, as you paint on a video layer, you will be able to physically simultaneously also see the picture on a compatible video monitor. This is tremendously helpful, especially in cases of functions like color correction: Remember that colors on a Computer monitor are often NOT the same as they are on a video monitor.
The following Cards have been tested by Discreet and have full frame buffer support:
• Apple Built-In FireWire. New Macs today include Built-in Firewire, which makes using Combustion very easy and simple. Info at: http://www.apple.com /firewire/
• Digital Voodoo D1 Desktop. Made by an Australian company, the Voodoo card is a high quality uncompressed 10-bit SDI QuickTime capture and playback video card. Low cost and high quality. Info at: http://www.digitalvoodoo.net
• Pinnacle Systems, Inc TARGA 1000, TARGA 2000. These are discontinued MJPEG cards that were originally made by Truevision. Pinnacle bought Truevision. It may be possible to buy used cards on e-Bay, but the new standard is the Pinnacle Systems Cinéwave (see below.) For info on the old Targa 1000/2000 cards, see the Pinnacle Systems Support website.
• Pinnacle Systems TARGA CinéWave – Newest Mac based editing card, often used with Final cut pro. Has horsepower and realtime effects, and an upgrade path to HD. Cons: No 10-bit codec. info at: http://www.pinnaclesys.com
• Media 100 v4.0 – If you already have a M100 v4 product, then it is easy to add and use Combustion. If you don’t, then there are other buffer choices. for info, see: http://www.media100.comPlease note that the information, comments, specifications and notes contained herein are assumed to be accurate as of the writing, but are subject to change, modification, or alteration without notice by any and all of the manufacturers.
Tips and Tricks: Speeding Up your Work:
“Render to RAM†Tip: If you find that you don’t get “real-time†RAM Playback, despite your fast CPU speed and high amounts of RAM. Remember that real-time RAM Playback can be dependent on not only your computer CPU speed and graphics card, but also your preference setting. Note that some computers are not able to play back from RAM in the viewports at the full frame rate because the graphics card simply does NOT have enough 2D performance. In other words, a better graphics cards will deliver faster playout. As for the playout: It has nothing to do with the number of video or graphic layers, because once something is rendered to RAM, the images that are stored are independent of the processing that was required to create those images. The best idea for improved RAM playout is to optimize your Rendering Settings: Under your Composite Preferences, set your output to the “Color” option and NOT the “Color+Alpha”. This is because Color creates a 24-bit images in RAM, whereas Color+Alpha creates 32-bit images (RGBA.) Obviously, 32 bit will play slower in the viewport due to the extra data! (Note that “Color+Alpha” is the default option.) Another big tip is: if you are have a supported video frame buffer installed in you Combustion, and use the live buffer display, you should size-down your viewport and rely on your video monitor for playback. Or, conversely, switch OFF the “Update Dynamically” option in the framebuffer preferences, and this will give full rate playback in the viewport.
Speed Up your Work: A popular and easy Tip is to set your screen resolution to “medium,†which will speed up your overall workflow. Also, if you have a composition with several operators, remember that Combustion has a “commit to disk/switcher” feature. This feature can really speed up your work on complex jobs.
To RESET your Combustion User Interface/Display Panels: If you have “lost” a menu panel or are having any problems with the user interface of Discreet Combustion, you do NOT need to re-install Combustion. There is a quick and easy way of restoring the GUI interface to the factory default settings: Simply go into the root directory of Combustion and delete the filed named: “Host.ini.” After deleting that file, simply launch Combustion again and the panel settings of the user interface will all be reset to the default. (Applies to both MAC & PC.)
Tips on Audio Playback in Combustion: Combustion supports one audio track (Wav or Aiff) which can then be locked to a layer in your timeline. When you move the layer, the locked audio will move with it. When you want to playback your timeline with audio, remember that Combustion loads audio into your RAM AFTER it loads the video. For example, if your video clip has used up 90% of your RAM, there is not enough RAM left to load the entire audio file. In that case, Combustion will only play as much of the audio file as possible with the remaining RAM. A good suggestions is use the “Commit to Disk” feature and then flush your RAM cache to free the RAM for audio. Other notes: The supported audio file types are WAV (for uncompressed Microsoft Windows audio) and AIFF (for uncompressed Macintosh audio). Combustion also supports audio files that are embedded in Video for Windows (AVI) or QuickTime movies (MOV). When the audio file is loaded, the audio is copied to the workspace and cached to RAM. You can also use QT streaming format for audio. As for Supported Sampling Rates: combustion supports most audio sampling rates and bit depths. You can use 8- or 16-bit audio, and sampling rates from 1 KHz up to 48 KHz. Note: 44.1 KHz is considered standard, as this id the rate for music CDs. NOTE: if you are producing SDI Video or DAT recordings, you should ONLY use 48 KHz as that is the standard.
Audio Playback: You can play the audio from the audio controls. When you switch to another controls panel, the audio playback stops; click the audio tab again to resume playback. When you load an audio file into your workspace, it is automatically cached to RAM. However, synchronized playback of both audio and video from the RAM cache is dependent on your system’s video card performance. In other words, if the card can NOT play the cached video at the full playback rate, then the audio WILL drop out! If this happens, you can either switch to a viewport that has a smaller size so that the playback can handle the faster rate, or, simply Render To RAM. The RAM player drops video frames, if necessary, to maintain both the video and audio playback rate, whereas the viewports always display all the frames.
Here is how to calculate the RAM Required for an audio File: The formula for RAM space required for a mono (one-channel) audio file is: Sample rate x 2 x number of seconds. For example, one minute of mono 16-bit, 44.1 KHz audio would require 5.2 MB. Simply double that number if you use stereo files.
Scrubbing audio: Once your video is cached (or if your system is fast enough to scrub through your project interactively), you can scrub the audio to hear it play along with the video. This helps to align your animation and video events to the audio scratch track. So, if you are having problems with audio playback due to not enough RAM, then you should consider rendering the audio, along with your video. See the Cv2 User Guide page 610.You may forward any corrections or comments to the author at: [email protected]
Written by: Jack Pfeiffer, MCI-Videotronic – Denmark, September, 2002
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