Video Architect
Joined: 10 Jul 2004
Posts: 1094
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hi dco-
you sure can. i've uploaded version 1.0 of the GridPRO SDK. i'm not really sure if you can call it an SDK or not; it's just a couple max objects that let you make stuff that works better with gridpro. you can find it here:
http://www.vidvox.net/download/GridPRO-SDK_1.0.zip
place the contents of one folder in your "max-startup" folder, place the contents of the other folder in your "max-help" folder. really, the SDK consists of just four objects: vvFXPanel, vvslider, vvPreset, and vvHSLColorPicker. once these are installed, they'll be available for creation from the menu bar in an open patcher widow (the row of icons below the window's title bar in an unlocked patcher). briefly, this is what they do:
vvFXpanel- this is in the background of all the fx, and is what allows them to function as chains. video from the previous effect comes out the left outlet, video to the next effect goes in the left inlet. you'll have one (and only one) of these in every effect you make.
vvSlider- this is the crazy little slider that you see everywhere in gridpro.
vvPreset- this is the custom preset object we use. it works somewhat similarly to the standard max preset object, with a couple noticeable exceptions. first of all, it doesn't save preset data with patchers- you can only load/save presets from and to disk. look at a couple standard fx to get a handle on how we load/save presets automatically for fx- you can even just copy the vvPreset and connected objects from a standard effect. the second big difference is that while the max-standard preset object communicates with all UI objects, vvPreset saves the presets of all objects that are *named*. to name a max object, right-click (ctrl-click on mac) on an object, and choose "set name" from the pop-up menu. if you're wondering why a slider's preset isn't getting saved/restored, it's probably because you didn't name it.
vvHSLColorPicker- this is the color picker we use. i threw it in the pile because it seems like a flexible color picker would be a useful thing to have for doing lighting. outputs RGB, YUV, and HSL colors, you set the input by specifying the location on a color wheel (either cartesian or polar coordinates).
as far as video handling goes- gridpro is built using the softVNS video libraries for max because they're optimized specifically for video, and are therefore a bit faster than jitter. fortunately, bridge objects exist for converting video between VNS and jitter; open the standard effect "mosaic" for an example of using v.jit to convert VNS to jitter and jit.softVNS to conver jitter matrices to VNS. if you don't have vns/are missing the v.jit/jit.softVNS objects (you'll see errors in the max window when you open the 'mosaic' effect)- just create blank patches with 1 input and 1 output called "v.jit" and "jit.softVNS", and save them somewhere in max's search path. this tricks max into thinking that the objects exist, so you'll be able to create/edit patches with v.jit/jit.softVNS, but they won't actually work (if you're running jitter, you won't need them anyway).
the fx chains handle video right now, but that's only by convention- they were made to send/receive any kind of data. one of the next improvements in gridpro will be to replace the current LFOs with number-based fx chains, which allow you to manipulate a stream of numbers mathematically in a manner that should be familiar if you've spent any time with fx chains- once we get that tricked out, DMX support would be something we'd consider adding. this'll take a while, so feel free to make your own DMX fx. just stick some sliders in there, and you should be good to go. as far as troubleshooting your fx goes, you should create a rough patch first, and put it in gridpro's fx folder, then launch gridpro. you can test the patch in gridpro while you're editing it in max; just delete the effect and re-create it in gp after you've saved changes in max.
feel free to drop us a line if you've any questions...
peace
: : ray |
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