Client Software Requirements

The Graphics Plugin has been tested with the following software:

Server Software Requirements

The server components used by Graphics Plugin have different system requirements. A summary is provided here, but refer to the individual release notes and manuals for details. Please note that it is not recommended to install all components on a single server.

• Connection Broker 4.0

  • Optional, it is still possible to specify a specific Viz Engine directly.

  • Requires Microsoft .NET 4.5.

  • It can be installed on the same server as a Media Sequencer or a Viz Engine, or on a separate computer.

  • Connection Broker 1.0.0 can be used, but some of the new features in Viz Engine 3.5 will not work. This may impact performance.

  • Connection Broker 1.1 can be used but some of the new features in Viz Engine 3.7 will not work.

• Media Sequencer 2.0.3 and 3.0.0

  • Requires Microsoft .NET 4.0.

  • Connecting multiple Graphics Plugin workstations to the same Media Sequencer makes it easier to share graphics elements between Graphics Plugin clients.

  • Elements saved to an MSE from Viz Trio on Windows can be used from the Graphics Plugin Editor for Mac OS X, and vice versa.

  • Installing it on a Viz Engine server is not recommended since high memory usage can interfere with Viz Engine performance.

• Viz Pilot 6.0.0, Pilot Data Server 6.0.0

  • Used by Graphics Plugin Editor (the Mac OS X editor) as a source for images to be used in graphics.

  • The components are optional. If they are not used, Graphics Plugin Editor can still use images from the Viz Engine.

• Viz Engine 3 / Viz Artist 3

  • Viz Engine 3.7.0 and 3.8.0.

  • If you need to use older versions the recommended versions are 3.2.8, 3.3.1 and 3.5.1

  • Viz Engine 3.7 or newer is required to take advantage of the new aspect independent frame fetching.

  • Viz Engine 3.5 or newer is required to take advantage of the new custom resolution frame fetching and anti-aliasing.

  • Viz Engine 3.5.0, 3.3.0, and 3.2.7 or earlier have some known issues that can cause (rare) rendering artifacts when multiple NLE clients are using the same engine. We recommend Viz Engine 3.2.8, 3.3.1 and 3.5.1 or newer.

  • It is highly recommended to have a fast (Gigabit) network connection between each NLE workstation and Viz Engine.

  • This version of Graphics Plugin only supports UTF-8 encoding for the Viz Engine.

Software Limitations

There are limitations to what a Graphics Plugin solution can do compared to a full SDI in-and-out Viz Engine renderer.

These are the general Graphics Plugin limitations on both Windows and Mac:

• Media Sequencer 1.19 and later, Viz Engine 3, and Connection Broker 3.0 and later, do not announce their presence on the computer network. The Graphics Plugin configuration tool will therefore not automatically discover these services.

These are the specific Graphics Plugin limitations on Windows only:

• For Avid installations, not all Graphics Plugin versions prior to 1.5 are automatically removed when upgrading.

These are the specific Graphics Plugin limitations on Mac only:

• It is only possible to input text, change numeric values, and select images/geometries/fonts/materials. There is no support for input of boolean values. There is no support for editing ControlList/Tables or Scrolls. However, the editor can pick up Viz Trio pages created using a regular Viz Trio, and render them, even though they may have these field types.

• The Graphics Plugin Editor cannot create shows and import scenes, so you must use Viz Trio 2.6 or later to create shows and import scenes for the Graphics Plugin Editor to use.

• It is not possible to select images from a local path in the Graphics Plugin Editor.

Viz Trio are considerably slower on Windows 10 systems when connecting to a Graphic Hub which contains many scenes.