Viz Engine 5.3.0 

Release Date: 2024-10-17

These are the release notes for Viz Engine version 5.3.0. This document describes the user-visible changes that have been made to the software since release 5.2.1.

Note: Viz Artist maintains its release notes in a separate document starting from version 3.12.0.

Installer Notes

General

The Software ships with a bundle installer containing all necessary components. It is recommended to use the bundle installer when setup needs to be done manually.

  • The Setup application (both MSI and Bundle installer) must be run in Administrator mode.

  • Visual C++ Redistributable files are no longer part of the .msi setup file. These files are now installed with the bundle setup application (VIZENG-13210, VIZENG-12629, VIZENG-12701).

  • The bundle setup application installs or upgrades Viz Artist together with its required Visual C++ Redistributable files (VIZENG-12936, VIZENG-13804).

  • All files contained in the bundle setup application can be extracted using the /dump command line option. This creates a sub-folder where the files are extracted (VIZENG-13020).

  • Multiple installations of Viz Engine are not supported.

  • The installer automatically upgrades (replaces) any existing Viz Artist/Viz Engine 3.x installation. However, downgrading is currently not supported (VIZENG-7098).

  • If Adobe After Effects is installed after Viz Engine, then the Viz installer needs to be executed again to install the AE plug-in (VIZENG-7876).

  • The user account must have SeCreateGlobalPrivilege (SE_CREATE_GLOBAL_NAME) enabled.

  • The configuration profiles shipped with Viz Engine guarantee a correct Audio/Video delay to have a proper lip-sync setup or a correct video wall installation. A manual configuration (for example, number of inputs, clips, etc.) is still necessary after applying these profiles (VIZENG-18861).

  • To use Global Illumination in Viz Artist/Viz Engine, at least Direct X version 9 is required. An installer can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 (VIZENG-19983).

  • The Basic, Viz DataPool, Viz PixelFX, Viz Maps, Viz Extension and Viz Socialize plug-ins are released together with Viz Engine starting with version 4.0.0 and are included in the bundle installer. The basic plug-ins are installed by default.

Note: In case of installing Viz Engine with the individual MSI installer and not the Viz Artist Bundle installer, ensure that all runtime dependencies are up-to-date (for example, Viz Engine won’t start with an outdated Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64) version). The minimum required version is 14.40.33810 (https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe).

If Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64) - 14.40.33810 is already installed and Viz Engine is not starting, the runtime installation could be damaged. Reinstall the runtime redistributable in this case. The related installer is part of the Bundle installer.

Windows

  • This software has been tested to run on Windows 10 (LTSC 1809, 21H2), Windows 11 and Server 2019 and Server 2022.

Support for Windows 11 LTSC can not yet be announced officially as long-term stability tests are still ongoing.

  • Windows transparency effects should be turned off (former known as Aero). In Windows 10 set Show transparency in Windows to Off in Settings > Display and Transparency effects to Off in Settings > Personalization > Colors > More options.

  • Power management and hibernation mode must be turned off under Windows. You can execute powercfg -h off to remove hiberfil.sys from the hard disk.

  • It is recommended to install the latest Windows Security Updates and Patches, except NVIDIA updates.

  • Installations on Windows 10 are only supported on their respective supported hardware (see Supported Systems).

  • .NET framework 4.5 or higher is required (VIZENG-6036).

  • The minimum Windows Installer version is now 5.0.0 (VIZENG-10146).

To run Viz Engine without Administrator privileges, you need to grant the following permissions:

  • SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege

  • SeCreateGlobalPrivilege

  • SeCreatePagefilePrivilege

  • SeIncreaseWorkingSetPrivilege

UAC

  • Viz Engine is UAC aware. Configuration files, profiles, log files, and additional files are stored in %VIZ_PROGRAMDATA%, which defaults to %ProgramData%\Vizrt\VizEngine. Temporary data is stored in %VIZ_TEMPDATA% which defaults to %TMP%\Vizrt\VizEngine. The default value can be changed in the command line of viz.exe.

  • Existing Lens files are copied from %ProgramFiles% install folder to the new UAC aware %ProgramData% folder during installation (VIZENG-8757).

  • Existing Viz configuration files are copied from %ProgramFiles% install folder to the new UAC aware %ProgramData% folder during installation (VIZENG-7472).

Cinema 4D

  • Cinema 4D LiveLink Installation: The installer searches the following location first: %ProgramFiles%\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R16\plugins (VIZENG-7965).

  • Cinema 4D LiveLink package can be installed any time later by using Viz Artist Installer in Repair mode. Its installation folder is not selectable anymore (VIZENG-8996).

  • Cinema 4D R23 or newer: LiveLink plug-in is available at %ProgramFiles%\Vizrt\VizEngine\CINEMA 4D LiveLink\R23 (VIZENG-25344).

Driver Versions

These are the recommended driver versions for various hardware components:

Vendor

Driver Version

NVIDIA Ada Lovelace

552.22

NVIDIA Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal and Maxwell GPUs

552.22

NVIDIA Kepler GPUs

473.47 (419.17 for older boards)

Matrox Topology based boards

10.4.102.1342

Bluefish

6.5.1.22

Bluefish Supernova Firmware

162

AJA

16.1.0.3 (Firmware 2021/06/23)

Codemeter Runtime Kit

8.10a

AV PCL/PCI Plura Timecode Reader

5.34

NVIDIA Drivers

Information: Please refer to https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4777/~/nvidia-dch/standard-display-drivers-for-windows-10-faq for information about the DCH and Standard driver versions and how to install a missing NVIDIA control panel.

NVIDIA driver 552.22 is recommended for GPUs with Ada Lovelace Technology. Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal or Maxwell Technology cards have been tested with 552.22 only. A driver upgrade is not recommended in general. Kepler GPUs are not recommended anymore, however they might still work using older driver version 473.47. Boards that do not support this version of the driver should use rev. 419.17.

NVIDIA Driver Configuration (Manage 3D Settings):

Setting

Vertical sync

Force Off (except Videowall and systems without video hardware).

Unified Back Buffer

Off

Power management mode

Prefer maximum performance

Antialiasing mode

Enhance the application setting

Antialiasing setting

4x (4xMS)

Profile

Workstation App - Dynamic Streaming profile (for systems with video hardware)
3D App - Video Editing (for systems without video hardware)

Important: Viz Engine will not start if an outdated driver is used. 

Matrox Drivers

  • For Matrox video cards, driver version 10.4.102.1342 is required. This version is mandatory. Pre-release versions are not supported.

  • Uninstall previous versions of Matrox DSXUtils prior to installing this driver.

  • Install drivers (DSX-TopologyUtils.exe) only from a local drive.

  • Reboot between uninstall and install of drivers, and another time after the installation has finished.

  • The VfW codecs are included in this driver, so uninstall previous versions of the Matrox VfW codecs and do not install any Matrox VfW codecs over the regular driver installation.

Other Drivers

  • The latest firmware for Supernova and Supernova S+ is 162.

  • The latest firmware for Neutron is 1i2o 35. There is no longer 1in1out firmware.

  • The recommended firmware for AJA IO4K+ devices is 2021/06/23.

  • The recommended driver version for Plura AV timecode reader cards is 5.34.

Please refer to the Viz Engine Administrator Guide for which drivers and driver settings to use.

Given that a supported Matrox device is installed, the following codecs are supported for post-rendering with MatroxFileWriter and the ClipOut channels:

  • RLE (animation), playback only

  • H.264

  • Apple ProRes

  • HDV

  • XDCam

  • DVCPro

  • DNxHD (4849)

  • XAVC (UHD requires M264 board)

Upgrade Notes

  • All plug-in installers are installed per-machine starting with 5.2.0. Uninstalling all previous per-user plug-in installations before upgrading is recommended to avoid duplicated installer entries.

  • The configuration file for Viz Engine has a new naming scheme starting with version 4.0, and can be found at %ProgramData%\Vizrt\VizEngine\VizEngine-{instance}.cfg.

  • Existing Viz 3 configuration files, Genlock and IP configuration settings are migrated automatically by Viz Engine.

  • Viz Engine version 4.x and later no longer support Viz IO.

  • GPU Direct is no longer needed.

  • The old Shared Memory output is not supported on the Viz Engine Pipeline. 

  • Scenes using the BrowserCEF plug-in automatically migrate to use the new Browser plug-in.

  • The command interface is not locale-aware. Therefore, special regional settings like a semicolon within float numbers will not work. You need to use a regular "." 

Information: Viz Engine is not forward-compatible. Opening scenes created in this version of Viz Engine might drop warnings when opening in previous versions. A scene saved with this version might look different if you open it in a previous version. This affects scenes containing more than four streaming channels.

Licensing Model

  • The CodeMeter Runtime (installed with the bundle installer) is required to use the WIBU license system. Details can be found in the manual in section "WIBU-based Licensing System". Please refer to the Vizrt Licensing documentation on how to apply a license container.

  • Cloud-based installations require a license server; standalone cloud installations are not supported.

Other Upgrade Notes

  • NVIDIA Tesla Grid K2 Support was removed because no up-to-date drivers are available anymore.

  • Viz Engine does not support half-height rendering anymore.

  • Lens distortion uses a slightly different norm since revision 54263. If you need older lens files, please use use_lens_compatibility_mode = 1 in the config file.

  • Viz Artist is now being started by the Viz Engine process and not by command file anymore. If you start viz.exe and VizGui.exe independently, the Restart Current option fails.

A 64-bit version of each codec must be installed to work with Softclip64. Most codecs come with an installation manual on how to install them correctly.

Softclip64 has been tested to work with the following 64-bit codecs:

  • HuvYuff Version 2.1.1

  • Lagarith Version 1.3.27

  • Newtek SpeedHQ

Virtual Environments

The following GPUs have been tested in virtualized environments, the listed driver version is the one being used. The following GPUs are currently supported (Kepler are only supported in the Classic Render Pipeline):

Model

Driver

Platform

NVIDIA L4

552.55

AWS (g6 instances, gr6 instances)

NVIDIA A10G

552.55

AWS (g5 instances)

NVIDIA A40 (2)

538.67

vSphere 8.0.2.00000

NVIDIA RTX6000

538.67

vSphere 8.0.2.00000

NVIDIA T4 Tensor Core

552.55

AWS (g4dn instances)

NVIDIA Tesla V100

431.79 GRID

AWS (p3 instances)

NVIDIA M60

462.96

AWS (g3s instances)

Viz Engine has been tested to run in the following virtual environments:

Viz Engine Render Pipeline

Classic Render Pipeline

Amazon Cloud (AWS)

(tick)
(tick)
(tick)

(tick)

Microsoft Azure (1)

(tick)
(tick)

(tick)

fra.me/nutanix (1)

not tested

(tick)

VMWare ESXi (6.0(1), 6.50(1), 7.02, 8.0.2)

(tick)

(tick)

Alibaba Cloud (1)

not tested

(tick)

(1) Tested with Engine 5.0.0 only

Note: Backup and Restore on Azure systems are currently not supported.

New Features

Key Features

Key

Summary

VIZENG-31333

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Container/Scene based Clip Playback - Clip Player Texture Renderer

VIZENG-31324

VizEngine-5.3.0 - HDR Window Support

VIZENG-31253

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Support Matrox DSX LE 5 SDI LP /4

VIZENG-31246

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Unreal Engine 5.4 Support

VIZENG-31218

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Viz Engine Renderer Improvements

VIZENG-31213

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Full Interactivity Support for Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-31204

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Enhanced Viz Engine Renderer - Classic Compatibility

VIZENG-31201

VizEngine-5.3.0 - NDI 6 Support

VIZENG-31199

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Viz Engine Renderer Extrusions Preparation - Geometry Base Work

VIZENG-31190

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Graphic Hub Connection Switch

VIZENG-31185

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Particle System for Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-31183

VizEngine-5.3.0 - GPU Accelerated Clip Decoding for Clip Player Pro

VIZENG-31182

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Renderer Migration

VIZENG-31168

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Upgrade to C++ 17

VIZENG-30963

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Video I/O Enhancements & Fixes

VIZENG-30873

VizEngine-5.3.0 - VML Clip Player Improvements

VIZENG-30440

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Viz Engine Renderer Sports Sequences - Stage 2 / Libero

VIZENG-30435

VizEngine-5.3.0 - New Audio Pipeline - Stage 3

VIZENG-30434

VizEngine-5.3.0 - UX Improvements

VIZENG-28979

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Parallel Outputs - Stage 2

VIZENG-28792

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Security: Upgrade Dependencies

VIZENG-27892

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Additional HDR Workflows - S-Log3 Support

VIZENG-26680

VizEngine-5.3.0 - Front- and Backlayer compatibility for Viz Engine Renderer

New Features: General

Key

Summary

VIZENG-31813

Adaptive Graphics: scene.GetCurrentFormat() for Viz Scripting Language

VIZENG-31803

Add RTX 5000 Ada Support

VIZENG-31267

Add support for configurable shortcuts

VIZENG-31488

Adobe Photoshop Import: disable gamma correction

VIZENG-31469

Batch Commands support (BATCH START, BATCH STOP)

VIZENG-31533

Configurable Shortcut Improvements

VIZENG-31726

Convert animations of Classic Objects

VIZENG-31215

Expand mouse simulation feature over command interface for middle and right mouse button

VIZENG-31155

Expose and serialize "delay after inputgraph" setting

VIZENG-31560

Extend Scenetree Container Search to Support Regular Expressions

VIZENG-31116

External linear keying functionality for Multi-Layer VS sequence

VIZENG-28610

Image Preview Editor improvements

VIZENG-32201

Make old icons still available via config or workspace

VIZENG-31239

Merged object renderer version attribute information

VIZENG-30832

Mouse callbacks missing/broken in Viz Enginer Renderer

VIZENG-31738

New Frameserver Core License

VIZENG-31302

Parallel Outputs: Send MatteScene signal and/or AUX output to predefined SDI outputs on Matrox

VIZENG-30559

Provide plugin API to replace commands used by Presets plugin

VIZENG-30619

Script Button triggers OnParameterChanged every frame if it has an animation track

VIZENG-30908

Script command to show the exact location/Scene path of a linked Scene

VIZENG-31924

Scripting: Add display name to OnInitPlugin

VIZENG-31999

Set display name for merged geometries

VIZENG-31189

Support RTX 4500 Ada

VIZENG-30935

TransitionShader: Use linear animation for TransitionTime channel by default

VIZENG-27672

Tree search for Material Definition

VIZENG-27772

Treesearch for Viz Engine Renderer Fonts

VIZENG-30470

Undo Redo: Expose UNDO/REDO Stack

VIZENG-30954

Upgrade Nvidia driver version to support vGPU 16.x and ESXI 8.x

VIZENG-31146

Upgrade recommended Nvidia driver versions

VIZENG-31080

Upgraded OpenSSL version

VIZENG-31214

Viz Engine Renderer Multitouch plugins support

VIZENG-31292

Viz Engine Script: new OnScenePreSave, OnScenePostSave & OnSceneClose callback functions

VIZENG-31192

Viz Script: Access to MaterialDefinition Plugin Instance

New Features: Renderer

Key

Summary

VIZENG-31983

Add command to reset kerning property for geom text

VIZENG-31269

Add getter/setter for draw mode in expert plugin

VIZENG-31488

Adobe Photoshop Import: disable gamma correction

VIZENG-31005

Ambient light intensity for lit Phong Materials

VIZENG-32162

Color LUT support for DVE GFX Channel

VIZENG-31125

Control drawing point size in the Expert plugin

VIZENG-30695

Extend Color Correction and Tonemapping nodes to support LUT textures

VIZENG-31116

External linear keying functionality for Multi-Layer VS sequence

VIZENG-28972

Implement Libero render sequence in new Viz Engine renderer (Stage 1)

VIZENG-20500

Increase Post Render performance

VIZENG-31310

Keyed Preview for Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-31119

LUT support for Unreal Engine AR graphics

VIZENG-31072

New geometry type to support Vertex Pulling

VIZENG-31230

Performance table naming and colors

VIZENG-32170

Renderer: add GBuffer option to EXPERT plugin

VIZENG-30069

Renderer: Bilateral Blur for SSAO

VIZENG-31196

Renderer: runtime/plugin material api extension

VIZENG-31203

Scene View: disable self draw

VIZENG-31535

Scenetree performance optimizations

VIZENG-30231

Support .cube as image import

VIZENG-30647

Support creation of a 3D texture for LUT files

VIZENG-31219

Unify DVE and SuperChannel-as-Texture rendering

VIZENG-31242

Unreal Engine 5.4 Support

VIZENG-27861

Unreal Engine Integration Multi GPU Support

VIZENG-31070

Unreal Engine: Multilayer Sequence rendering

VIZENG-31681

Unreal Engine: Use RGBA texture directly in the Compositor

VIZENG-31137

Update empty geom vertex count via plugin API

VIZENG-31035

Update Material Definition API and plugin API for storage buffer usage

VIZENG-29369

Upgrade LunaSVG for SVG image import

VIZENG-30866

Upgrade to Freetype 2.13.2

VIZENG-26083

Viz Engine Renderer Particle System

VIZENG-31278

Viz Engine Renderer: Antialiasing support in GFX Channel (Classic Scene)

VIZENG-31323

Viz Engine Renderer: Back+Front Layer rendering and composition support

VIZENG-30950

Viz Engine Renderer: check for CUDA availability before DLSS init

VIZENG-31935

Viz Engine Renderer: disallow self-scene rendering because of better alternatives (GFX Channel, Scene View)

VIZENG-31308

Viz Engine Renderer: improved Media Asset Channel compositing with DVE rendering

VIZENG-31872

Viz Engine Renderer: instancing support for runtime and plugin materials

VIZENG-31193

Viz Engine Renderer: Multilayer XR sequence

VIZENG-30867

Viz Engine Renderer: Plugin API for buffer objects

VIZENG-31704

Viz Engine Renderer: Plugin/Material API extensions

VIZENG-31380

Viz Engine Renderer: quality difference when using Front Layer vs DVE GFX Channel

VIZENG-31195

Viz Engine Renderer: Runtime/plugin material picking and shadow

VIZENG-31583

Viz Engine Renderer: Spritesheet support and general improvements in Particle System plugin

VIZENG-30868

Viz Engine Renderer: support compute shader from within plugin/Runtime Shaders

VIZENG-29945

Viz Engine Renderer: Support floating point pixel format on window context creation

VIZENG-29018

Viz Engine Renderer: support hot-reloading of textures when they change on the Graphic Hub

VIZENG-28010

Viz Engine Renderer: support Shadow Light

VIZENG-29656

WindowMask within nested Scene changes when GFX Channel gets cropped

VIZENG-31270

WindowMask: new function to reference previous / next Container

VIZENG-31171

Workspace: improve texture update handling

VIZENG-31147

XR Draw - 3D Line drawing plugin

New Features: Video IO

Key

Summary

VIZENG-32299

Support timed command with ClipPlayerTextureRenderer

VIZENG-32190

Improve fallback behavior of Matrox SDI/IP output

VIZENG-31972

Can't select 2160p as live input when running in Tricaster mode

VIZENG-31967

Matrox: Set default genlock HV phases to 0 0

VIZENG-31824

Detect new audio devices

VIZENG-31440

Add additional output types for Parallel Outputs

VIZENG-31357

Remove configuration setting FrameBufferDelay because DVE effects are in sync with Textures now

VIZENG-31342

Allow alternate mapping of legacy Stream Channels

VIZENG-31338

Implement basic Softclip replacement using TextureRenderer for Viz Engine Renderer workflow

VIZENG-31316

Add connector mapping for DSX LE5 12G LP/4

VIZENG-31315

Integrate NDI 6

VIZENG-31302

Parallel Outputs: Send MatteScene signal and/or AUX output to predefined SDI outputs on Matrox

VIZENG-31288

NDI 6 HDR HLG Output support

VIZENG-31287

NDI 6 HDR HLG Input support

VIZENG-31282

Add UHD (2160) config profiles for different modes and frame rates for X.mio5

VIZENG-31280

HDR S-Log3 Color Space support

VIZENG-31133

Rework timing of main thread and output with software IO mode NDI

VIZENG-31131

Rework timing of main thread and output with Matrox cards

VIZENG-31126

Use Matrox advanced delay feature for DVE delay

VIZENG-31097

New Audio Backend

VIZENG-31076

Optimized VP8/VP9 decode in VML clip player

VIZENG-30621

ST352 VPID for 1080i

VIZENG-30003

Color labels for Live Media Types

VIZENG-29614

Use time stamp based mechanism for timed commands with Matrox

VIZENG-28545

Improve output delay configuration

Fixed Issues

Fixed Issues: General

Key

Summary

VIZENG-32296

ActiveX preview isn't correct with merged GEOM workflow

VIZENG-32056

IMAGE IMPORT on Photohop file returns wrong result

VIZENG-32006

Abort signal handler does not create a dumpfile anymore

VIZENG-31826

OnTouchTrace script event causes crash

VIZENG-31781

Rectangular Selection in Scene Editor not working

VIZENG-31765

Material Definition Position U and Scale U&V in separate directors do not work

VIZENG-31755

Difference in Action Keyframes execution with Transition Logic

VIZENG-31751

Setting RightInterpolationMode doesn't work, instead it sets LockMode on a BezierHandle object.

VIZENG-31651

Setting Color Keyframes via Script is broken

VIZENG-31613

OnParameterChange is executed in a loop on Adaptive Scene Design

VIZENG-31587

Unreal Engine: timecode provider time is negative

VIZENG-31578

Viz Engine crashes on invalid JSON access / inconsistent syntax validation

VIZENG-31554

Connection gets closed during initialization (Session Manager: Invalid session requested)

VIZENG-31551

Memory Leak on DSX Core with specific config file

VIZENG-31536

Flash frame of scene visible before playback

VIZENG-31531

Stage isn't rendered when using high resolutions

VIZENG-31471

Undo doesn't work for Keyframe positions

VIZENG-31442

VizScript Json .IsInteger() and .IsDouble() deliver wrong results

VIZENG-31353

Crash when using SCENE RELOAD command without Scene path

VIZENG-31317

"GH Access" message appear everytime when an image loads from disk after preloading to GPU.

VIZENG-31301

Transformations of hidden Containers get changed on Multiselect

VIZENG-31263

Viz Engine crashes when prefiltering DXT compressed images

VIZENG-31198

Scene.Map from subscene are not registered in parent scene

VIZENG-31180

Keep Aspect is not working in GFX channel if camera is orthogonal

VIZENG-31101

Subscene TL containing scripts doesn't work with custom Ticker scene

VIZENG-30951

System.MouseX and System.MouseY are not updated/working in Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-30856

Subscene Transition Logic creates duplicate Container

VIZENG-29139

Container selection when using 0, 0, Any Local Container

VIZENG-27832

No cursor shown in Trio local preview for Viz Engine Renderer scene

Fixed Issues: Renderer

Key

Summary

VIZENG-32259

GPU memory not fully freed for GFX Channels

VIZENG-32245

Crash when importing specific scenes in Trio

VIZENG-32226

Live Video Color Shifted When Passed Through Viz Engine using V210 input

VIZENG-32221

Engine crash when scaling container to 0.0

VIZENG-32203

Viz Engine Renderer: Scene Editor Zooming in orthogonal mode

VIZENG-32185

Fix BGR image rendering

VIZENG-32183

MERGE: Color LUT support for DVE GFX Channel

VIZENG-32147

GPU memory resource still used after pools cleanup

VIZENG-32143

Dynamic Scene plugin in Classic renderer with HDR causes wrong colors (Alpha not clamped)

VIZENG-32111

Classic HDR Rendering + Background forces drag operation to fail

VIZENG-32076

Geometry creation not happening during scene warm up

VIZENG-32058

Scene editor DVE transformation control shows wrong screen coordinates

VIZENG-32001

Degraded performance of Videowall scene in Viz Engine 5.2.1 as compared to Viz Engine 5.0.1

VIZENG-31976

Shininess and Alpha values are not reflected in real time for Material Previews of classic materials

VIZENG-31945

Engine crash when selecting container which contains Flag plugin

VIZENG-31941

Negative line height should not be allowed

VIZENG-31788

Instance Producer clone shares instancing buffer

VIZENG-31781

Rectangular Selection in Scene Editor not working

VIZENG-31776

Classic: poor interlace quality in NLE compared to progressive formats

VIZENG-31755

Difference in Action Keyframes execution with Transition Logic

VIZENG-31735

Texture cordinates XY rotation of the Texture Slot plugin has no effect when it's set to TextGen Mode Linear

VIZENG-31703

Viz Engine Renderer: Runtime/Plugin Material slots don't accept TextureRenderers

VIZENG-31697

Switching text render method doesn't work immediately

VIZENG-31695

Viz Engine crashes from invalid character in Classic Text

VIZENG-31667

Unreal Engine: PrecisionKeyer Synchronization issue on some GPUs

VIZENG-31623

Classic Scene playout shows different rendering behavior with transparent clips in 5.x

VIZENG-31621

Ada GPU tessellation with Classic scenes is different

VIZENG-31609

Lens distortion has the wrong distortion in GFX channel in comparison with the Main Layer

VIZENG-31608

Lens distortions disables the key signal of the Main Layer

VIZENG-31605

Area Lights with light texture flicker when playing Trio pages with Texture Slots

VIZENG-31599

Scenetree performance counters not working in Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-31587

Unreal Engine: timecode provider time is negative

VIZENG-31586

Gamma Correction is applied even though it's disabled in the Scene Settings

VIZENG-31545

Viz Engine Renderer: Disabling font backface via Visualize Backface option is not saved/restored properly

VIZENG-31485

Viz Engine Renderer: advanced blendmodes issue with key mode

VIZENG-31473

Fix geometry vertex/index update with an offset

VIZENG-31461

External images in TextureRenderer can lead to Viz Engine crash

VIZENG-31450

Viz Engine crash with specific Complex Script Font

VIZENG-31406

Moving multi selection group in Classic Scene Editor not working

VIZENG-31390

Jitter during Camera zoom animation

VIZENG-31341

Texture update issues with certain scene constructs

VIZENG-31340

Unreal Engine: camera data incomplete, creates NaN in virtual window if Unreal Projection Source is used

VIZENG-31312

Invisible Material Shadow Issue

VIZENG-31258

CreateGeometryBGL breaks post rendering in Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-31247

Classic Text Rendering performance impact with TextFX Write

VIZENG-30951

System.MouseX and System.MouseY are not updated/working in Viz Engine Renderer

VIZENG-30944

Viz Engine Renderer: crash with nested GFX Channels

VIZENG-30504

LookAt Container ignores axis center

VIZENG-27952

SHOW_BOUNDINGBOX does not work with Viz Engine Renderer scenes

Fixed Issues: Video IO

Changes

Upcoming Changes

  • In the next version of Viz Engine, an upgrade to VGPU 17 is planned. Therefore:

    • NVIDIA Tesla M60 VGPU support will be removed.

    • Windows Server 2019 VGPU support will be removed.

Changes: Renderer

  • NVIDIA Kepler GPUs were set as deprecated (NVIDIA isn't supporting Kepler boards in newer driver versions anymore).

Changes: VideoIO

  • Improvements in the IO sequence made GPU direct obsolete. The setting was removed.

Note: Support for SMPTE ST 2022-6 has been removed.

Known Issues

General

  • Saving a new scene with references that do not exist anymore fails. Those references need to be removed manually to save the scene.

  • Importing HDR images with special characters in its file name from a drive with 8dot3 disabled fails.

  • Transition Logic scenes require to have GeomAutoFree = 1 set in the Viz Config file. With inactive GeomAutoFree, system stability is not guaranteed.

  • Interactive Applications within a GFX channel only work in DVE mode in Fullscreen or if the GFX channel has an offset in Fullscreen. Scaled GFX channels or plug-ins that rely on screen coordinates (Graffiti) are not supported.

  • Bones and Skin live motion data tracking requires Tracking Hub 1.1.2 (released together with Viz Engine 3.11).

  • Viz Engine REST interface does not start if a user is Non-Admin (VIZENG-23386).

  • On Air output shows wrong field-of-view if AuxRenderer is enabled, PP in scene editor is disabled and Viz Engine is not in On Air mode.

  • Viz One Browser clip preview might fail on Viz One Versions >=7.0 

  • The Toggle plug-in can not handle the background loading of objects or scenes. 

  • Oversized snapshot requests (bigger than the configured output resolution) in the Classic Render Pipeline aren't supported. Use the Viz Engine Render Pipeline instead.

  • The clog command now includes all child processes. Upon abnormal end, all child processes are terminated before a restart is attempted (VIZENG-11361).

Key

Summary

VIZENG-29594

AEExport.aex is not copied to After Effects Plug-ins folder after a repair of the Viz Engine installation

VIZENG-27515

AJA IO: Embedded Audio only available if SDI Input enabled

VIZENG-26244

AJA/ Bluefish: Switching frequency results in output frame buffer issue

VIZENG-30876

Alpha support for WEBM with VP8/VP9 and MKV with VP8/VP9

VIZENG-29680

Change Audio Backend on EAS

VIZENG-31795

Clip inside the stage can only be played once with Matrox clip player

VIZENG-28452

Consolidation of logging settings and configuration

VIZENG-32015

Dynamic Scene plugin with Viz World scene - Abnormal behavior

VIZENG-27866

Enable individual volume control for tracks

VIZENG-32248

Engine issue when playing certain non-broadcast format ProRes clip via the Matrox

VIZENG-21755

Execution logic is not applied to a template created from Transition Logic scene

VIZENG-31127

Experimental: Reduce overall in-to-out delay in Fast Texture Mode

VIZENG-25687

GFX Video Output not working

VIZENG-28344

GH Sync: support main/replication setup

VIZENG-30569

Improve Undo/Redo performance on larger GI scenes

VIZENG-24017

Improve VizEngine startup time

VIZENG-31867

Internal image editor wrongly scale RGBA image

VIZENG-32266

Material Shininess wrong in sample scene after Scene Conversion

VIZENG-29589

Maya 2024 doesn't support Viz Maya plugin

VIZENG-31624

Optimize transform update

VIZENG-29001

Playback of audio clips without extension in VML Player

VIZENG-31946

Renderer: opaque materials affects key in overlay sequence

VIZENG-31191

Short freeze on Matrox output

VIZENG-21385

Stage: Startkeyframe gets set wrong when hitting keyframe button

VIZENG-29623

Text: global config for default font style

VIZENG-26964

Used lens distortion parameters not in sync with main scene

VIZENG-30672

Visible stall in live and clip in when arming another element in Videowall

VIZENG-31969

Wrong distortion in the UE Composite mesh with Stype distortion mode

Installation

  • Do not use the C4D Version 15R2 patch file(s) unless you are using this version. Otherwise, it prevents Cinema 4D R16 from starting up.

  • When uninstalling Viz Engine, the installer might report that links could not be removed. Please check that none of the desktop.ini files of Windows have write protection. For example, Skype seems to change the permissions of some desktop.ini files with every update.

Windows 10

  • Right-clicking on the Taskbar icon of Viz Engine starts a new instance. Starting an additional VizGui process is prevented on Windows 10.

  • Error message "Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler has stopped working while opening specific clips with Softclip x64". To fix open Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder options > View tab, and deselect Show preview handlers in the preview pane.

Videowall

  • It might happen that Viz Engine is running at half speed on videowall, but goes back to full speed if another window comes into focus. If so, start viz.exe -y -w, instead of the regular videowall mode viz.exe -n -w.

  • GFX channels with Alpha != 100% decrease render performance. On video wall setup, gfx_channels_antialiased = 0 should be turned off in the Viz Configuration section RENDER_OPTIONS.

  • Windows scaling can lead to unwanted side effects.

  • The maximum resolution on videowall setups is limited to 16392px by 16392px.

  • Enabling video output for audio setups is not recommended for performance reasons. It is recommended to grab the audio from one of the HDMI/DP outputs of the NVIDIA GPU and use an Audio embedder instead.

Configuration

  • Specifying a path in the configuration file including the # character is not supported. Such paths are cut before the # character.

Viz Engine Render Pipeline

  • Existing Scenes using Global Illumination might need a precompute again to enable debug views.

  • Background loading of external images (filesystem, network locations, etc.) is not supported. Images from Graphic Hub should be used.

  • Fonts using GEOM_TEXT may slightly differ between 4.2.0 and 4.3.0.

  • Flexbox labels in Scene Editor do not support Unicode characters.

Classic Render Pipeline

  • Scene Transitions within GFX channels or Superchannels are not supported.

  • Soft Shadow intensity is currently not working together with Global Illumination.

  • We recommend using a warmup scene showing all needed assets once. Under certain circumstances, video and clip surfaces can show up red the first time being used.

  • Playing Audio clips on systems with no physical audio hardware available stops the renderer. You need to turn off audio in the configuration file.

  • On some systems with hybrid graphics, like laptops, the dynamic swapping must be disabled in the BIOS and the stronger GPU must be assigned as default.

  • Stencil-based shadows (Caster/Receiver) do not work on rotated geometry.

  • When changing CurlAuthUnsafe = 1, Viz One Browser does not work anymore.

  • VGA Fullscreen Output is only active if offscreen rendering is turned off. Setting offscreen=0 in section RENDER_OPTIONS enables fullscreen output.

  • Blending cubemapped images are not supported.

  • Cubemapping with Browser plug-in is not supported.

  • Fonts need to be re-imported to use new Pathrendering or Razor fonts technology.

  • Masks are not supported on Path rendered Fonts (VIZENG-13737).

  • Do not send other commands than IS_RENDERER_READY and database connection commands before this command returns 1, otherwise the renderer and video output might not be initialized.

  • If you encounter stability issues with an NVIDIA driver or issues during driver installation, uninstall the old NVIDIA driver completely, delete the folder C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer2, install the new driver and select Custom installation, then check-mark the perform clean installation option and finish the installation.

  • Enabling background loading might decrease the render performance by up to 15 frames per second. This is due to OpenGL requirements.

  • M-Zone keyer only works with HD when rendering with full frames.

  • Decreased render performance in HD since Viz Engine 3.5.0 when the ringing filter is activated. Before Viz Engine version 3.5.1 there was no ringing filter for HD. Turn off the ringing filter via configuration or scene-setting to get the same performance.

  • Sporadic NVIDIA driver error The NVIDIA OpenGL driver lost connection with the display driver and is unable to continue. which in turn causes Viz Engine to freeze. Make sure that the driver profile Workstation App > Dynamic Streaming is selected. Always use the recommended NVIDIA driver for your GPU.

  • Possible performance problems with scenes imported from Viz Engine 2.x. Check the following settings (applies to old 2.x scenes only):

    • Image Combining should be set to Multi Texturing in the Render options in the configuration (or flag combine_with_multitex = 1 in the configuration file) to avoid inefficient image combining.

    • Set Key Render Mode to Single Pass in the rendering options in the configuration. The Key Render Mode can also be set on scene level. Available options are:

      • Config (inherit the setting from the configuration).

      • Single Pass (fill and key are rendered in a single pass).

      • Double Pass (fill and key are rendered in separate rendering passes).
        Key rendering results differ between these options for compatibility reasons.

  • Use Single Pass scenes imported from Viz Engine 2.x and Double Pass for Viz Engine 3.x scenes.

  • The configuration flag exec_all_animations in the section RENDER_OPTIONS should be set to 0 if it is not necessary to execute hidden animations.

  • Turn off the VGA preview in On Air mode to avoid performance drops due to multiple rendering of the scene (applies only to video version of Viz Engine).

  • Hide containers that are not required for the current animation.

  • Re-import fonts directly with the Viz Engine.

  • Grid picking currently only works for Cube and Cylinder geometry.

  • The behavior of scripts with cyclic dependencies to other scripts is undefined. Avoid cyclic dependencies.

  • Bad performance when using multiple dynamic scenes, even if they are set inactive. To avoid unnecessary updates, change the Update mode in Dynamic Scenes to Auto instead of Always.

  • CLR LOAD command can crash Viz if not used correctly. Required function signature: static int pwzMethodName(String pwzArgument).

  • Alpha setting for DVEs is not correctly supported when a scene is used nested using a GFX channel (VIZENG-10212).

  • Glow plug-in drops performance when used on multiple containers and rendered within a GFX channel or viewport tile (VIZENG-11342).

  • Scene transitions do not work when dynamic images from different folders are involved. Dynamic images always need to be stored directly in the root folder dynamic and references must point there. Dynamic images in a subfolder of the dynamic folder or any other folder are not found.

  • Font option "lighted" has no effect on fonts rendered with type "vector" (VIZENG-18941)

  • 16-bit PNG images are not rendered properly when imported with compression.

Unreal Integration

  • Unreal Engine 5.x with Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) enabled can lead to flicker issues when used in combination with NVIDIA Driver 528.89. Changing to FXAA solves the issue.

Post Renderer

  • Because of performance issues rendering fullscreen sequences in UHD is not supported.

  • Ghosting effect in post-rendered interlaced video: Make sure that the Flicker Filter is set to 0 in the post-rendering options of the Video Render plug-in.

  • Post-rendering does not work properly if onair_no_videoout flag = 1 (Videowall mode).

  • Post-rendering does not work properly if TriCaster integration is active and the output format is set to User Defined or Fullscreen.

  • DVCPRO expects 720x480 in NTSC resolution. Please set the correct output width in AVIRenderer.

  • The alpha channel cannot be rendered with Intel Indeo 5.10 codec. This codec is not supported.

  • Viz Engine might crash if certain VfW codecs are used on non-Matrox installations in Post Render Mode.

Matrox

  • Enable Hardware DVE/(Fast Texture Mode) is only available for two instances.

  • The configuration ClipIn[n].UseV210 and ClipIn1. ContainsAlpha are mutually exclusive and should not be enabled at the same time.

  • The overall delay is one field higher than in previous versions using IO3 This is caused by the required A/B buffer of IO 4.

  • A program output channel needs to be defined. Pure preview or Cleanfeed is not supported.

  • HDR output on UHD 2SI requires at least a Quadro P6000 GPU.

  • HDR input support is currently for HLG only.

  • Mixing different frame rates with clips processed by a M.264 board is not supported and causes jittering.

  • Upgrading the FPGA can cause a PCI error during the boot process on certain systems. Unattended upgrading of the FPGA is not recommended.

  • Watchdog is only supported in 50/60M and 60Hz frequencies.

  • When using 3G formats (1080p/UHD) or the Zero-Frame-Delay Mixer, auto-sensing of the sync signal is not supported due to incompatible H-/V-phases, that are set in the process.

  • Instead, either Tri-Level or Blackburst must be used together with correct H-/V-Phase. This might result in a missing key signal (VIZENG-11708).

  • For dual channel systems, please perform the following steps after enabling the watchdog to ensure the correct state is written to the Matrox Board:

    1. Start Channel 1.

    2. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

    3. Start Channel 2.

    4. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

    5. Exit channel 2.

    6. Exit channel 1.

    7. Start channel 1.

    8. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

    9. Start channel 2.

  • ClipOut channel does not work when Matrox0.VideoOut1.FrameBufferDelay is set to zero (VIZENG-16373).

  • UHD Clip Playback with M264 S1/S2/S3 alone requires color conversion on the shader level. (VIZENG-20700).

  • Two Sample Interleave (2SI) clips played as DVE are not supported.

  • Cutting of Audio tracks should not be done at all, as this results in a crackling noise. Always use a cross-fade to change audio sources.

  • Monitoring live, clip and genlock status via SNMP is not supported (SNMP was deprecated and is no longer supported by Microsoft).

  • Certain M4V clips may cause Viz Engine to lock and flood the console with errors when being played in a loop.

  • Running interlaced AVC-Intra 100 clips on M.264 boards may lead to instabilities when played non-stop over several hours.

X.mio3 Boards

  • If the Viz instance is closed unexpectedly, the X.mio3 topology might become unusable. To reset the topology, enable ResetTopology in the config file, restart Viz, close it and start Viz again.

  • X.mio3 IP boards should have an active signal connected to SFP A prior to booting the system.

  • Turning on the Cleanfeed Feature increases the delay by one frame.

  • It is not recommended to change the frame group of any input signal while Viz Engine is running.

  • Only two DVE UHD inputs are supported at 50Hz. For 60M formats, only two texture inputs are supported.

  • Animating UHD DVE scaling might result in jittering. You need to increase the VideoDelayDVE setting to 2.

  • Texture delay with PAL/NTSC, and Enable Hardware DVE is five fields instead of four fields. (VIZENG-16955).

  • When using watchdog together with a clean feed, the watchdog triggers on the clean feed connector rather than the program output (VIZENG-16589).

X.mio5 Boards

  • Standard Definition (PAL and NTSC) resolutions are not supported by X.mio5 IP boards according to the SMPTE ST 2110 standard.

  • Streampunk ledger RDS does not list the Matrox X.mio5 nodes. This is due to some old NMOS APIs that are partially deprecated.

  • Riedel Explorer fails listing the X.mio5 nodes. Riedel Explorer automatically selects NMOS API Version 1.3 instead of 1.2. It is possible to select the used API version manually if you switch to static mode and/or enable version downgrade in the Riedel Explorer.

The X.mio5 board has been tested to support up to 12 Inputs (1080i 50 and 60M) on a 10GbE network. 

DSX.core

After the installation of the DSX-core client version of the driver perform the following steps:

  1. Unregister mvfDsxCore.dll.

    1. Click Start > Run (or use the Windows command line: Search > CMD > (Right click) Run as Administrator)

    2. Type REGSVR32 /U "C:\Program Files\Matrox DSX-TopologyUtils\System64\mvfDsxCore.dll" and press ENTER.

  2. Shut down http://X.info in the task manager (mveXinfo.exe).

  3. Delete mvfDsxCore.dll from the folder C:\Program Files\Matrox DSX-TopologyUtils\System64\.

  4. Start http://X.info (mveXinfo.exe).

Other Video Boards

  • When Viz Engine is in On Air mode, there might be audio distortions using Bluefish cards (VIZENG-8853).

  • Bluefish Supernova S+ cards can only be used in a Virtual Set Environment if the board is synced to Blackburst/Trilevel.

  • GPUDirect is not supported in combination with AJA or Bluefish boards.

NVIDIA

  • When the computer is running out of virtual page size and the user keeps ignoring the low memory warnings in the console, the NVIDIA driver may cause Viz Engine to crash. 

  • The NVIDIA driver doesn't recognize other GPUs under certain circumstances in combination with video wall mosaic installations. Remove and reinstall the driver.

Graphic Hub

  • Communication with the Graphic Hub Server might fail if virtual network adapters are active. Please disable all virtual adapters or increase the timeout.

  • If the connection to the naming server fails, please verify the communication port in the config file (Port 19396).

Adaptive Scene Design

  • WindowMask plug-in prevents Flexbox labels from being picked.

Audio

  • Unplugging a USB microphone from the machine while EAS is enabled freezes Viz Engine without the possibility to recover (VIZENG-29571).

Supported Hardware and Software

This software has been tested to run on:

  • Windows 10 (LTSC 1809)(1)

  • Windows 10 (LTSC 21H2)

  • Windows 11

  • Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019

(1) Unreal Engine requires a newer Windows 10 version than 1809. UE Integration was successfully tested with 21H2

Note: Only English language Operating System(s) are supported.

Supported Systems

System

Lenovo P3 Ultra

Lenovo P620

Lenovo SR655 V3

DELL R7920

HP Z8 G5 Fury

HP Z8 G4

HP Z4 Rack G5

HP Z4 G4

HP ZCentral 4R

Supported GPUs

Ada Lovelace GPUs

Ampere GPUs

Turing GPUs

Volta GPUs

Pascal GPUs

Maxwell GPUs

Kepler GPUs (1)

RTX 6000 Ada

RTX A6000

RTX 6000

GV100

Quadro P6000

Quadro M6000

Quadro K6000

RTX 5000 Ada

RTX A5500

RTX 5000

Quadro P5200

Quadro M4000

Quadro K5000

RTX 4500 Ada

RTX A5000

RTX 4000

Quadro P4200

Quadro M2000

Quadro K5200

RTX 4000 Ada SFF

RTX A4500

RTX 3000

Quadro P4000

Quadro K4000

RTX A4000

T1000

Quadro P3200

Quadro K4200

RTX A2000

Quadro P2200

Quadro K2000

RTX A3000 (mobile)

Quadro P2000

Quadro K2200

RTX A2000 (mobile)

Quadro P1000

RTX A1000 (mobile)

Orange entries are recommended for rendering photo-realistic graphics on the Viz Engine Pipeline.

(1) Kepler GPUs require an older driver version (473.47). Supported on the Classic Render Pipeline for backward compatibility only.

Supported Video Boards

Video Board

Configuration

Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd

Matrox X.mio5/X2 SDI

Up to four 12G SDI input with up to four SDI 12G SDI outputs
variable configuration from 12in0out to 0in12out

Matrox X.mio5/8 SDI

Up to four 12G SDI input with up to four SDI 12G SDI outputs
variable configuration from 8in0out to 0in8out

Matrox X.mio5 IP

Up to 32 ST 2110 inputs and 32 ST 2110 outputs depending on used SFPs and resolution

Matrox X.mio3 Full Height

Various input/output configurations from 48 to 84

Matrox X.mio3 IP

Two IP Streams in, two IP Streams out

Matrox X.mio3 12G

Two 12G inputs, two 12G outputs

Matrox M.264 S1/S2/S3/S4

H.264 Encoder/Decoder board

Matrox DSX LE 5L /4

Various input/output configurations from 04 to 40, all in 12G

Matrox DSX LE 4 /8

Various input/output configurations from 08 to 80

Matrox DSX LE 4 /4

Various input/output configurations from 04 to 40

Matrox DSX LE 4 IP

Various input/output configurations from 04 to 40

BlueFish Technologies

Bluefish Epoch Neutron

Two video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

Bluefish Epoch 4K Supernova

Two video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

Bluefish Epoch Supernova S+

Two video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

Bluefish Kronos K8

Four video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

AJA Video Systems, Inc.

AJA IO4K Plus

Two video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

AJA Kona 4

Two video inputs, two video outputs (fill & key)

Please refer to the Viz Engine Administrator Guide for which drivers and driver settings to use.

Build Information

Platform Toolset: Visual Studio 2022 (v143)
Windows SDK Version: 10.0.22621

Documentation

Documentation for Viz Engine, Viz Artist and Viz Plugins are available at the Vizrt Documentation Center:

Installation and Support

Installation

The installation wizard guides you through the installation process. Make sure to close any running Viz application prior to the installation. In order to run Viz Artist or Viz Engine independent of a database server, you need to install the Viz Graphic Hub database software locally.

Support

Support is available at the Vizrt Support Portal.