Guides for developers for configuring and extending how Shotgun integrates with Digital Content Creation Software
Dynamic filesystem configuration
In the guide, you will learn how to configure dynamic folder creation, automate file naming, and automate saving files to the appropriate place in your filesystem. You will also learn how to add a custom entity to your project's configuration that facilitates adding a new folder to the supported filesystem and adding a new variable to the file naming configuration.
About the guide
We understand that one of the hardest things about managing a pipeline is keeping track of the myriad of files that are created. This guide will provide the knowledge necessary to modify a project’s configuration in a way that allows for Toolkit to automatically create the proper folder structure, name your files, keep track of versioning, and allow apps running on Toolkit to manage saving and retrieving them.
This Dynamic filesystem management guide will demonstrate how to edit configuration settings that Toolkit apps use to manage and track elements associated with a production set. The sample project depicted in this guide has several scenes: a dining room, a living room, and other outdoor scenes. The goal is to add an entity in the project’s configuration and use this entity to manage and name all the assets created for any identified set. This will enable Toolkit to dynamically build the folder structure you specify for the assets in the dining room, living room, or any set, and put the assets where you want them, automatically naming them according to the format you choose. It’s important for large productions to organize 3D elements in a way that makes sense for that specific project. This exercise will create a separate folder structure for the 3D elements in the dining room, distinguishing them from elements in the living room or any of the outdoor scenes. The name of the file will be dynamically created using the set entity as a way to distinguish files for the dining room from files used in other sets. You will edit a pipeline configuration that allows a Maya Shotgun integration to dynamically do all of that.
www.amd.com White Paper ATI FireGL Workstation Graphics - Automatic Application Detection and Configuration
IntroductionToday’s workstation-class graphics processing units (GPUs) have surpassed CPUs in terms of complexity and, in some cases, raw processing power. This processing power has enabled software developers to create algorithms that were once thought to be too computationally expensive. Software applications that have taken advantage of these operations provide intensive visualization capabilities and realism that was not possible only a few years ago.
Problem Despite the best efforts, software developers put forth to ensure software applications achieve the maximum performance possible from system hardware, application performance ultimately rests in the hands of the end user. To achieve the highest level of performance possible, the end user must consider 3 factors: 1. Raw workstation hardware performance 2. Application software performance 3. Workstation configuration
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With respect to 3D graphics software, the end user must configure the graphics driver to achieve the greatest performance possible from the GPU. Typically this requires the individual who is configuring the driver to thoroughly understand the graphics features, recognize what the performance factors are for each feature, access the graphics driver display control panel and manually manipulate the settings as required by each application. Given the constantly increasing number of features provided by modern GPUs and software applications, configuring the graphics settings by hand can be a daunting task. For large enterprises, manually replicating these settings on numerous workstations can be a significant undertaking and expensive proposition.
Previous Options GPU vendors have attempted to address the problem of configuring the graphics driver for optimal performance. Initial efforts consisted of documenting detailed information for each graphics feature of a given application and relying on the end user to configure the graphics driver for that application. Every time the user switched to a new application they would have to reinstate the configuration process. While it was possible to achieve good application performance, the burden of driver optimization placed on the end user was significant. The most recent attempt to address this issue is the concept of graphics profiles. With this technique the graphics driver manufacturer provides the user with a set of pre-defined graphics profiles, specific settings that will optimally configure the driver for a given application. To take advantage of this feature, end users would configure the graphics by selecting the graphics profile, which corresponds to their specific application. This solution provides an easier method for end users to achieve optimal graphics performance for a specific application. The IT burden is eased for enterprise deployment as well, but only if the deployment is for one application. It is quite common for end users to run more than one application simultaneously. If an end user wants to run more than one application this method requires them to either constantly switch profile settings, or to compromise performance by configuring for all the applications and not optimize for any specific application.
So, while providing a better solution, the concept of graphics profiles does not address the problem completely. To provide a more complete solution, the burden of optimizing performance while concurrently running multiple applications needs to be addressed.
ATI FireGL™ Solution With the release of the ATI FireGL 8.263 driver, AMD introduced the concept of Automatic Application Detection and Configuration. This feature enables the graphics driver to detect an application when it is launched and automatically configure the graphics driver to provide the optimal performance needed for that application. If another application is launched the graphics driver detects that application and configures the driver appropriately. This happens every time a new application is launched, even when multiple applications are running simultaneously.
Another benefit to this feature is that it can detect what window is active. If a user is switching between software applications the graphics driver will automatically load the driver settings that will deliver the optimal performance for the application that is running in the active window. The feature is completely automated and there is no interaction required by the user eliminating the burden of manually configuring, or manually choosing a graphics driver profile.
As a user moves between applications or opens new ones, the graphics settings are automatically configured for maximum performance.
Using the Automatic Application Detection and Configuration Feature When the graphics driver is initially installed the “Default” settings are set to enable the Automatic Application Detection and Configuration (AutoDetect) feature. The user doesn’t have to interact with the driver to take advantage of the AutoDetect feature. If the “Default” settings have been changed simply follow the instructions below to use the AutoDetect feature.
Right click your mouse anywhere on the desktop background and select “Properties” from the drop down menu to bring up the Display Properties control panel. From the “Setting” tab, select the “Advanced” button to launch the ATI FireGL Properties control panel.
From the “Configuration” tab, select “Default” in the “Configuration Profiles” section. Click the “OK” button on the ATI FireGL control panel to close it, and again on the Display Properties panel. Automatic application detection and configuration is now enabled.
The AutoDetect feature (Automatic Application Detection and Configuration) currently supports the professional applications and the game applications that are listed below.
Table 1: Professional Applications Automatically Detected
3D Studio Max
CATIA
Microstation
Adobe After Affects
Discovery Studio
MSC.Patran
Alias Studio
FreeForm Modeling Plus
OneSpace Designer Modeling
Altair HyperWorks
Houdini
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire
ANSYS
ICEM Surf
SOFTIMAGE|XSI
ArcGIS
I-DEAS NX
Solid Edge
AutoCAD
IronCAD
SolidWorks
Autodesk Inventor
LightWave 3D
UGS NX
Autodesk VIZ
Maya
Vitrea
Axiovision
Table 2: Games Automatically Detected
Chronicles of Riddick
Jedi Knight II
Quake 4
Doom 3
Quake 3
Return to Castle Wolfstein
As AMD continues to work with commercial software vendors, AutoDetect may become available for additional applications. Please check the release notes and control panel for your specific driver to obtain the most current list of applications that can be automatically detected. If the end user starts an application that is not on the list of supported applications, the “Default” profile settings will be used for that application.
Summary The AutoDetect feature included in the latest ATI FireGL drivers frees the end user from the burden of configuring the graphics driver in order to obtain optimal application performance for many applications. These are automatically detected when started by the user and graphics driver settings are automatically configured. The issues with optimally configuring the driver when running multiple applications simultaneously are also eliminated. The automatic detection feature can recognize applications when launched and configure the graphics settings as users switch between multiple applications. Because of the “Default” settings this powerful new feature also simplifies enterprise deployment, as there is no need to manually configure systems across the enterprise for software applications supported by the AutoDetect feature.
DISCLAIMER The information presented in this document is for informational purposes only and may contain technical inaccuracies, omissions and typographical errors.
The information contained herein is subject to change and may be rendered inaccurate for many reasons, including but not limited to changes to product roadmap or software development schedules. AMD assumes no obligation to update or otherwise correct or revise this information. However, AMD reserves the right to revise this information and to make changes from time to time to the content hereof without obligation of AMD to notify any person of such revisions or changes.
AMD MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE CONTENTS HEREOF AND ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS THAT MAY APPEAR IN THIS INFORMATION. AMD SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT WILL AMD BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN, EVEN IF AMD IS EXPRESSLY ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Trademark Attribution
AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, FireGL, and combinations thereof are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Other names used in this presentation are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
An online movie studio powered by a social network where filmmakers can connect, collaborate and get paid for projects.
Product SpecificationFor Studios Controls and Permissions for Projects, Shots, and Takes
Roles and Permissions (See Member Levels for details on different member
access) Roles and Permissions determine who can Managespecified aspects of a Project.
A Producer is the only one who has authority to: ●Set View Permissions ●Create Shots ●Open, or Close a Shot ●Manage Crew/Team ●Final a Shot
Project Permissions allow specified users to view a Projectand comment on a project. Need [Help?] link
Project Permissions consist of
Only
You
Only
Your Crew Only
the Crew of This Project can see it.
All of
Your Friends
Your
Friends and The Crew can see this Project.
The
General Public Everyone,
even your mom can see this Project.
Shot Permissions allow specified users to view a Shot, upload Assets to a shot, upload Takes to a Shot and comment on a shot, Asset, or Take associated with a Shot. Need [Help?] link
Shot Permissions consist of
Only
You
Only
Your Team
Only
Team members can see this Shot.
Your
Crew Only
the Crew and The Team members can see this Shot.
All of
Your Friends
Only
Your Friends, The Crew, and The Team can see this Shot.
The
General Public
Everyone,
even your mom can see this Shot.
“Open/Closed” status sets permissions for uploading Takes to a Shot: Need [Help?] link
If a shot is “Closed” then only a member of the Team can post Takes. Users who have permission to view the Shot can make comments on the"Closed" Shot.
If a Shot is “Open” then any user who has view permissions can post takes and comment on the "Open" Shot.
●(V2.0?) For future release, there may be the ability to set more
granularity for comments - Only You, Only Your Team(s), Only Your Crew(s), All
of Your Friends, General Public
Only the Producer can set if a Shot is Open, or Closed. The Team on a Shot, or a user who commented, can receive a Beer if a Shot is Closed.
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When a member post a Take to an Open Shot (on which they are not a Team member, or Crew member), all updates related to this Shot become
visible to them (They can see updates on their Dashboard Timeline), but it’s
not one of their Gigs.
When that Shot is Closed, a member who isn’t part of the
team can’t see updates related to that Shot anymore, or any Comments, or Takes
that they added.
Notify the producer when they “Open” a shot
●“<Shot Name> is now “Open” Everyone you have
invited to view this Shot can post comments and upload takes.”
[Cancel]
[Continue]
●Include a check box that states “Don’t show this
message again”
Notify the Producer when they “Close” a shot
●“<Shot Name> is now “Closed” for members not on
the shot Team. These members won’t be able to see any Comments, or Takes, even
ones they uploaded.”
[Cancel]
[Continue]
[Continue
and add all contributors to the <Shot Name> Team]
●Include a check box that states “Don’t show this
message again”
*Privacy settings are initially inherited from a Project to
a Shot, but can’t be inherited from a Shot to a Project. A Project could be
more private, but not less private, than a Shot. The Producer can set a Project
to “Crew Only”, but for a specific Shot a Producer might want to set a Shot to
“Public” making it accessible to users not in the Crew and leave it Open, so
anyone can participate. In this case there might be a color corrector who is
not a Crew member of the Project. The color corrector can only see details of
the Shots that are set to public and can only participate on Shots that are
Open. In this scenario the Colorist becomes a Team member, but not a Crew
member.
If a Shot is set to “Team Only,” and a member isn’t part of
that specific Team, but on the Crew of that project, they can’t see the Shot. Need [Help?] for this explaining what being on “Crew
Only” is and what being on a “Shot Team” but not on “Crew” is.
If the user wants the same team on multiple shots they would be able to copy that team, creating a new team for another shot, or part of a team.
Auto populate the team of a shot based on another shot.
Only current information in the timeline, date based, if the
user left any part of the project, then was added back on that same part, all
the information that was available to them before will be available again. They
will not get a digest of everything they missed, but can go back and look at
old comments, takes, assets, etc...
Roles: Members of a Project
Members who are associated with a Project.
●Producer - A member that created the Project
●Artist - A member contributing to a Take
●Commentator - A Member who commented on a Project, Shot
or Take
●Observer - A non-member, or a member observing a
Project, Shot or Take
A Member of a Project can be an Artist on the same project
they are the Producer for, or an Artist, Producer, Commentator or Observer on
other Projects, or Takes simultaneously. A Member of a Project can participate
as an Artist, Commentator, or an Observer.
(V1.0) A Member of a Project can remove themselves from a
project which will remove them from all Teams on that Project. The Member can
also remove themselves from a Shot on a Project and if they are only on one
Shot on that specific Team, this will remove them from the Team, but not the
Crew, if they are on more than one Shot on that Team, they will remain on the
Team.
●“Are you sure you want to be removed from <Shot
Name>?”
[Cancel]
[Continue]
[Continue
and remove me from the <Project Name> Crew]
●Include a check box that states “Don’t show this message again”
If a Member is removed from a Project, or Shot, or a
Project, or Shot is set to Closed make it easy to add someone back, or Open a
Project, or Shot giving the Members, who had access previously, access to
anything they had permission to view before, or participate in before they were
removed.
See here Adding a Members and Non-Members to a project
Final a Take
When a Take is “Finaled” the shot and all takes are removed
from Gigs and that Take becomes the Final Shot. All the Shot information and
Takes are available on the Producers storage and still visible in their
Profile, but set to Private and cannot be changed. The Final Shot is
automatically added to the Assets in the Producers Portfolio and set to Not
Visible.
A “Finaled” shot is a clip that cannot get a Beer, or have
comments associated with it. This clip resides only in the Producers database
until a recommendation is made then a copy of this Asset is placed in the
database of the Team Member that receives the recommendation. The Producer can
choose to recommend a Team Member on a Shot, but can’t delete it until it’s 90
days old and all recommendations have been resolved. (Apply this to the
Projects too, can’t delete until the payment is made) This will allow for all
Team Members to inquire about recommendations. If the Shot is removed from the
Producers Finaled Shot database, it’s not deleted from the Producers Portfolio.
(These actions needs to be documented)
This scenario will need a holding tank for unlimited Assets,
up to the storage limit. These assets can be visible in the user's Portfolio,
or Not Visible. When there are more than 6 Assets, including 1 Hero, the Asset
display utilizes a carousel to display all visible Assets.
When a Take of a Shot is Finaled an asset is created, but
the Shot and all its assets still remains in the Teams Gigs and the Producers
Projects.
If a recommendation is given to a Team member on a Shot the
Final Clip of the Shot is added to the Team members Portfolio in their assets
and set to “Not Visible.” The clip takes up space on that specific users
Account, even it it’s not displayed. If the user sets the recommendation to
“Visible,” when the Player is displayed the recommendation is visible inside
the Player window.
Online Tutorial Shout Motion Picture Film Restoration Software
Introduction Before starting the
lessons, read through this Getting Started section to become familiar with the
tutorial configurations and the typographic conventions used in the text.The only prerequisites for
using this tutorial are a familiarity with an SGI workstation and a basic
understanding of how to work in an IRIX environment.
Shout Overview Shout is a resolution independent, software-based image restoration toolkit. It uses unique image analysis, defect analysis and repair algorithms specially designed for use with high-resolution image data originated from film.
With Shout, you work on an
entire scene at once. The interface walks you through the process of analysis, repair, retouch and render.
Shout is unique in
offering an automatic analysis of any defects in the image, and proposing repairs for those defects, which can be subsequently confirmed by the operator.
Setup Refer to the customer manual for the minimum suggested requirements to run Shout and the installation guidelines.
Tutorial Configurations
This tutorial includes four clips that are used in the
lessons. These clips are copied to the system when the tutorial is installed.
When the tutorial is launched a link to these clips is created in your home
directory, the Shout software is automatically started and configured to find
these clips. Any images you render will be created inside your home directory.
Conventions Each lesson
is divided into sections that are listed as navigation links at the top of each
page when a lesson is opened. The lessons should be performed in the order
listed. Bullets
indicate when a task is to be performed. For example:
Click the left mouse button
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When using some features
in the Shout application the tutorial window will get pushed behind the Shout application. To bring the tutorial back to the front use the IRIX hot keys (Alt F3) while your cursor is over the Shout application
window.
When a new
term is introduced a definition follows the sentence in which the new term is
used. The word appears in BOLD in the sentence and in the definition that
follows.If there is a
keyboard command used it will be displayed in parentheses. For example: (Ctrl)
Keyboard
shortcuts, hot keys, will be displayed in parentheses and in bold following a
command. For example: Use the left mouse button to click on the brush tool (Hot
Key;F5).
Shout Basics In this lesson,
you will explore the basic concepts of Shout and discover the graphical user
interface.
Shout is a
4-step process as illustrated below:
The Shout Workflow Setting
Parameters First you
view the defects in the scene and set the parameters that will AUTO DETECT and
REPAIR the defects.
AUTO DETECT -
Shout looks for inconsistencies from one frame to another and identifies these
areas.
REPAIR -
Shout calculates a suggested repair by analyzing the frame before and after the
frame in question.
Motion
Analysis and Defect Analysis Once you have
set the parameters, Shout analyzes the entire scene based on the parameter
settings. Shout analyses the scratches and builds repair suggestions for the
scratches then estimates the motion from one frame to the next, detects dirt
and builds repair suggestions for dirt.
Vertical
Scratches are detected by using frame-by-frame spatial analysis. Repair
suggestions are created by extracting information from the scratch and the
pixels neighboring the scratch. The motion estimation, along with other
calculations, is used to create repair suggestions for random dirt. The repairs
are placed on a Repaired Layer and not applied directly to the image.
There are
three things that result from the analysis:
1. A Defects Matte, which identify the defects.
2. Repair suggestions, which fix the defects.
3. Motion vectors, which illustrate the motion from one frame to the next.
Interactive
Repair Session
During the interactive repair session, you review the suggested repairs that were produced
from the Motion Analysis and Defect Analysis and you have the opportunity to
verify the repair suggestions. With a palette of several repair and paint tools
you can modify the Defects Matte to add defects that had not been detected
automatically, or you can remove (UNREPAIR) defects that were over-detections.
If you want to manually paint the image, a RETOUCH tool is available.
UNREPAIR -
This action edits the Defects Matte so the suggested repair or retouched area
is not used.
RETOUCH -
This action clones pixels dynamically and is applied to the Repaired Layer and
Defects Layer but not the original image.Render
When all repairs are set, the final scene is rendered and a new repaired scene is
rendered. The original scene is never touched.
Shout Workflow Diagram Put your cursor over each step in the workflow to view how the system is utilized.
Shout Workspace Tour the
Shout Workspace
Study the workspace layout and note the different sections as labeled in the image below.
Shout
Workspace Continued...
Browser Panel The Browser
Panel allows you to browse and manage clips on your network and queue
processes. By default, Shout lets you work with clips that are stored on the
Shout workstation under a directory called the Project Base Path. Shout also
uses DFALink to access clips on other systems that are running DFALink server
software. The DFALink lets you manage clips on other systems as easily as if
they were local to your Shout workstation, without having to make local copies
of the material.
For this tutorial,
you will be working with clips on the Shout workstation.
If Queues is selected, the Browser Panel is used to queue jobs when analyzing or rendering a
scene and manage queued jobs.
Use the left mouse button to double click on the Clip1 folder to select the clip and view its contents.
Use the left mouse button to double click on the thumbnail to open Clip1 and view it in the Image Viewing Area.
Shout Motion Picture Film Restoration Software Shout 2.1 Linux GUI Support
Overview With version 2.1, the Shout GUI can now run on properly configured Linux PCs. This document covers hardware and software requirements for the Shout Linux GUI and includes specific steps for configuring a Linux system for optimum Shout GUI performance. Note: Shout 2.1 for Linux is in Beta and is not a full release version.
Hardware Requirements CPU: Pentium III or better (Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon recommended)
RAM: Minimum 512MB for GUI only; 1024MB for GUI and single server thread on the same machine
Disk: No special requirements
Graphics: X server with accelerated OpenGL support required;
nVidia GeForce or Quadro chipset recommended.
At least 128M of RAM on the graphics board is recommended. (GeForce4 Ti 4400 w/128M RAM is a good, inexpensive choice.)
Screen size: 1280x1024 or larger
Tablet (if desired): Wacom Intuos (same hardware as SGI); no additional driver software required. Software Requirements
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OS: RedHat Linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 or 8.0 8.0 has some window management bugs and 7.3 has some graphics bugs. Other flavors of Linux may work but haven't been tested. See release notes for known bugs. Other: Open Motif 2.2, hardware accelerated OpenGL. Other Linux distributions (e.g. SuSE, Mandrake, Debian) are untested. Distributions that are similar to RedHat 7.x or 8.0 (RPM 4.0, glibc 2.2, kernel 2.4.x) may have the best chance of working. System Configuration Notes Open Motif Installation Open Motif 2.2 is required by the Shout GUI. It is installed by default in RedHat 7.3 and 8.0. For RedHat 7.1 and 7.2, it can be downloaded from www.openmotif.org and installed separately.
When installing Open Motif on a RedHat 7.1 or 7.2 system, it may first be necessary to remove any prior installation of the ‘lesstif’ package using
# rpm –e lesstif
If this command fails because some other installed packages depend on lesstif, then it will be necessary to force lesstif to be removed. The Open Motif package being installed will provide similar capabilities as lesstif, so it is likely that the other packages will continue to function with Open Motif, but if the conflicting package is a critical one, you may not want to risk it. By default, the only known RedHat package to depend on lesstif (other than the ‘lesstif-devel’ package, which should also be removed) is the ‘ddd’ graphical debugger front end, which is probably not critical on a Shout workstation. To force the removal of lesstif, use
# rpm –e –-nodeps lesstif
Following this, install Open Motif as follows:
# rpm –ivh openmotif-2.2-xxx.i386.rpm
specifying the name of the rpm package you downloaded.
OpenGL configuration Linux distributions typically come with the Mesa OpenGL-compatible library, which does not take advantage of the hardware capabilities of recent PC graphics chipsets. To obtain acceptable performance from the Shout GUI, it is necessary to install and configure OpenGL drivers that take advantage of the PC’s graphics chipset.
(You can use any OpenGL program to verify proper operation of he OpenGL drivers you install. The “Tux Racer” game can be installed from the RedHat CDs and serves as a good test. Using the default Mesa libraries, it will barely manage to update the display about once per second, while with accelerated OpenGL libraries it will be quite playable.)
The remaining instructions in this section pertain to the GeForce and Quadro graphics chipsets from nVidia.For other PC graphics chipsets (e.g. Matrox or ATI), refer to the chipset manufacturer’s web site for information on Linux support.
Linux OpenGL drivers for nVidia chips can be downloaded from www.nvidia.com. Carefully follow the nVidia instructions for installing the software (both the NVIDIA_GLX and NVIDIA_kernel packages) and editing the XFree86 config file.
The remaining steps in this section are not strictly necessary to get Shout up and running, but are intended to maximize its performance by taking full advantage of the PC’s AGP interface.
After the nVidia software is installed and Xfree86 is running properly, check to see whether it is taking full advantage of the PC’s AGP interface by displaying the contents of the file /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status:
% cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: AGPGART (inactive)
AGP Rate: 2x
Fast Writes: Disabled
SBA: Disabled
If this simply returns ‘Status: Disabled’, then check the contents of /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge:
% cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge: Via Apollo Pro
Fast Writes: Not Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000203:0x00000102
If the host bridge chipset is unknown, the Linux AGP driver will not enable AGP by default. You may override this behavior by adding the following line to /etc/modules.conf and rebooting. Note that, depending on your PC hardware, this may work fine or it may cause the system to be unstable. If the system is unstable, it will be necessary to remove this option.
options agpgart agp_try_unsupported=1
Once AGP is enabled, check the status file again to see whether Fast Writes and Side Band Addressing (SBA) are enabled. Enabling these may slightly improve AGP performance. If they are not already enabled, then check both the host-bridge capabilities (see above) and the capabilities of the graphics card:
% cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Not Supported
AGP Rates: 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000013:0x1f000102
Both the host bridge and the graphics card must support either Fast Writes or SBA before that feature can be enabled. If both indicate support for the feature, then you can force the nVidia driver to enable that feature by adding one or both options below to /etc/modules.conf and rebooting:
options NVdriver NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 \
NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1
Note that some PC chipsets may have problems with these features resulting in system instability, in which case the feature should be disabled.
Gnome Desktop Configuration RedHat comes with two Linux desktop environments: Gnome and KDE. In its current version, Shout works better with Gnome.
It is best not to configure the Gnome toolbar to auto-hide. Doing so may cause it to appear in front of the Shout window at inappropriate times.
There are still some issues with the desktop environment in Linux version 8.0.
By default, the Gnome window manager uses Alt-left mouse button to move windows. This conflicts with the overview scrolling feature of the Shout GUI, causing the entire Shout window to move instead of just the image. To modify the Gnome window manager settings and remove the conflict, do the following. From the desktop menu, select Settings > Sawfish window manager > Shortcuts. (Depending on the Gnome version, this might be Programs > Settings > Sawfish window manager > Shortcuts.)
Select the Window context.
Examine the entry for the Move window interactively command. If it is “W-Button1-Move”, then check the field at the bottom of the dialog labeled Modifier key(s) used for default window manager shortcuts. If that field says “meta” then modify it so that it says “meta control” and select OK. This will modify the window manager behavior so that its shortcuts will be active only when both the Ctrl and Alt keys are held down at the same time, which will not interfere with Shout.
If the Move window interactively command does not start with W, and instead is bound to “M-Button1-Move”, then edit that entry to be “C-M-Button1-Move.”
Wacom Tablet Configuration To configure a serial Wacom Intuos tablet, edit the XFree86 config file (/etc/x11/XF86Config-4) as follows:
In the ServerLayout section (between the Section “ServerLayout” and EndSection lines), add the following line after the InputDevice lines for the keyboard and mouse:
InputDevice “wacom”
In the Module section, add the line
Load “wacom”
After the InputDevice sections describing the keyboard and mouse, add the following section:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "wacom"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1"
Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Option "AlwaysCore" "on"
EndSection
Note: the second argument of the Device option line shown is for a tablet connected to the second serial port interface (called COM2 in the DOS world). For the first serial port (COM1), this should be “/dev/ttyS0”.
There are many other options for the Wacom driver. If you need to use any of those (for example, to attach a USB tablet), refer to the man page for the Wacom driver. If the man page is installed, the man 4 wacom command should display it. If not, you may find it online by going to http://www.xfree86.org/support.html, then select the link for your version of XFree86, then select the link for Manual Pages: Section 4: Drivers, then select the wacom link.
Hostname Configuration Depending on how the network was configured on the Linux PC, the PC may not have an appropriate entry for its hostname in its /etc/hosts file. This will cause problems with Shout’s client-server communication with Queue servers and DFALink servers. If the contents of /etc/hosts looks like this (assuming the hostname shoutpc in this example):
127.0.0.1 shoutpc localhost.localdomain localhost
Then the /etc/hosts file should be edited to look like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn shoutpc.yourdomain.com shoutpc
where nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn is the actual IP address of the PC and yourdomain.com is the fully qualified domain name for the PC. (If the PC has multiple Ethernet interfaces, the primary IP address should be the address of the interface used to communicate with Shout Queue Servers and DFALink Servers.)
License Generation For generating node-locked FlexLM licenses for Shout on Linux, the host identifier required for the license is the primary Ethernet address. To obtain this, execute ifconfig eth0 as shown, noting the HWaddr value returned.
% ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:AA:BB:CC:DD
inet addr:157.254.163.75 Bcast:157.254.163.255 …
Supply the 12 hex digits of the Hwaddr field (removing the colons) to Thomson for license generation. For the example above, the host id would be “0000AABBCCDD”
Shout Software Installation and Configuration The Shout software is supplied as a single file in RPM (RedHat Package Manager) format. This format is very common for use not only in RedHat Linux, but other Linux distributions and even other operating systems.
The package file is named ShoutGUI-2.1-ZZZ.i386.rpm, where ZZZ is the internal build number.
The rpm command is used to manage installed packages. Simple usage follows. (Note that all software installation must be done by root.)
To install the software, either for a new installation or to upgrade an existing installation, use:
# rpm –U [--force] rpm-file-name
--force is needed only to force installation over the same or newer version of the same package.
Upgrading the software in this way will preserve the contents of any config files that have been modified. However, if the RPM software cannot determine how to handle differences between the old config file and the new one, the old one will be renamed and the new one installed in its place. A warning message will be displayed if this is necessary. You will then need to manually edit the new config file to incorporate the necessary changes from the old one. Note that this is different from IRIX where the new config file will be renamed instead of the old one.
To uninstall the software, use:
# rpm –e ShoutGUI
To check whether the software is installed, use:
# rpm –q [-i] [-l] ShoutGUI
-q by itself will simply display the package name, if installed. –i will display more verbose information and –l will display all files that were installed as part of the package.
For much more detailed usage of rpm, see the man page.
After the software is installed, the configuration file in /usr/thomson/etc/config/Shout.config may need to be edited, but this may only be necessary to optimize the Shout configuration for the graphics hardware. The most common settings (for Project Base Path and adding Queue Servers) can be done by running /usr/thomson/bin/Shout –admin as root. (As described in the Shout user manual.)
Note: the ShoutGUI RPM file loads only the Shout GUI software. It does not include the Shout analysis/render Queue Server. For Linux, the server software is part of a separate Shout RPM. The server and GUI can be installed on the same PC as long as enough system memory is available for both the server and the GUI to execute at the same time. The same version must be installed for both Shout components.
Running the Shout GUI The Shout GUI installation will place an entry into the Applications sub-menu of the Gnome desktop menus. Select Applications > Shout or Programs > Applications > Shout (depending on the Gnome version). To run the Shout GUI from a shell command prompt, use:
% /usr/thomson/bin/Shout
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AJA Video Systems
www.aja.com Video Capture and Conforming Software, switchers and routers Release Notes
Release
Notes – AJA Windows XENA Software Version 4.2
General If
you are installing for the first time please read the “ReadMeFirst.pdf”
located on the installation CD. This software release adds new features and
improves the functionality of the XENA LS/LSe, HS, LH/LHe, LHi and 2K/2Ke cards, as
well as the Io Express from AJA.
Requirements
and Recommendations Before
running this installer, uninstall all previous versions of AJA XENA or AJA
Windows software.
Instructions
for Windows XP
Go into
Add/Remove Programs
Select the
XENA Retail software and click ‘Change’
In the dialog
box that appears, select ‘Uninstall’
Instructions
for Windows Vista/7:
Go into the
Control Panel and click ‘Uninstall or Change a Program’
Right Click on
the ‘XENA Retail’ software and select ‘Change’
QuickTime™ 7.6
or higher must be installed.
Operating
Systems Required: Windows 7 (64-Bit) is recommended for best performance.
Windows
XP 32-bit and Vista 64/32 Bit are also supported.
View more...
For
Additional Hardware recommendations and requirements, please see
www.aja.com/html/support_xena_rec_sys.htm
For
NVIDIA Quadro users, please see for recommended driver versions
www.aja.com/html/support_xena_rec_gpu.htm
For
Adobe Premiere Pro Users, the Premiere Pro 4.2 update is required.
For
Adobe Media Encoder Users, Media Encoder 4.2 update or later is required.
When
running this installer on Windows 7 orWindows Vista, AJA recommends running it
as an Administrator. To do this, right click on the installer and select ‘Run
As Administrator’. This ‘Run As Administrator’ option may not be present if
Vista User Account Control (UAC) is turned off.
New
Features
Io Express
hardware is now supported. This
includes
support for Machina, Premiere Pro,
After Effects,
Photoshop, Fusion, Combustion, and Vegas
Support for
Premiere Pro 4.2 update
Support for
Vegas 9.0c with XENA LHi, 2Ke, and Io Express
New Premiere
Pro player, with new ‘Playback Settings’ interface
New audio
device handling in Premiere Pro – Please refer to Page 82 of the Io Express
Manual for information on setting up the XENA card as your
audio device in Premiere Pro
Support for Fusion 6.0
XENA LHi and Io Express now have manual controls for HDMI
Output options in Premiere Pro.
Performance Improvements in DVCProHD Encoding
New AJA Transform Effect to Crop/Flip/Pan/Tilt
Resolved
Issues
Resolves
performance issues with large, long form projects in Premiere Pro
Improves
scaled video quality in the source monitor and program monitor in Premiere Pro.
Resolves
issues routing audio to multiple cards in Premiere Pro
Better
Performance when using nested sequences in Premiere Pro
Known
Issues and Limitations
HDMI output on
progressive projects needs to be set to ‘true progressive’ in most cases.
Many users are
used to setting up projects as progressive segmented frame or ‘psf’ for SDI or
component transmission. AJA Premiere
Pro projects
will default to ‘psf’ when 1080p project
settings are selected. To force progressive mode for HDMI monitoring, check the
‘disable segmented frames’ feature in the Premiere Pro Playback Settings.
XENA ASIO
driver is no longer used in Premiere Pro. The ASIO driver will still show up in
the Premiere Pro Audio Hardware selector, but users should instead select the
Premiere Pro default audio device. If the ASIO driver is selected, some audio
problems may occur. See Page 82 of the IO express manual for more information
on audio device setup in Premiere Pro.
Eyeon Fusion
32-bit is not supported using this installer. 64-bit Fusion is supported. For
XENA LS/LSe, HS, LH/LHe, 2K/2Ke users, legacy driver installers (XENA driver
version 3.5.x) must be used for 32-bit Fusion support. For XENA LHi and Io
Express users, 32-bit Fusion is not supported.
Io Express
currently is not recommended for use in Windows with a MacBook Pro and
Bootcamp. Io Express will work in a MacPro tower with Windows and Bootcamp.
‘Thin Raster’
formats such as DVCProHD, XDCamEX, and HDV will not be supported in RT when
using the XENA HS.
Exporting
QuickTime files from Adobe Premiere Pro should be done using AJA’s file
exporters. Using the QuickTime file exporter provided in Premiere Pro in
conjunction with AJA’s may cause Premiere Pro to crash.
AJA Device
Control dialog panel in Premiere Pro must be closed prior to closing the
Premiere Pro capture window. If the Capture window is closed while the device
control window remains open, Premiere Pro may crash.
XENA HS users using AJA XENA Presets in Adobe Premiere Pro
will need to change their device control to Adobe's serial device control.
The project presets will default to use AJA serial
control, but this is not available on XENA HS as the card has no built in
serial cable.
Time code is not stored in crash captured clips when the
time code source is RS-422. If this is required, use embedded time code instead
of RS-422 time code.
Jog and Step functionality may behave abnormally with some
Sony decks in the Adobe Premiere Pro Capture window.
Variable frame rates (VFR) with pull down added are not
adjusted for time code.
Crash capture and Print to Video will work on Varicam
frame rates over HD-SDI, but insert edit, in/out capture, and batch capture,
will not.
