What's new in Wax 2.0e
Feb 11, 2010
- Added colour picker tool for picking colours in plugin parameters.
- Added Chroma key plugin
- Added support for Freeframe video plugins, they can be used just like internal Wax plugins with full keyframming support and save/restore plugin parameters. More info on Freeframe plugins at www.freeframe.org and http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeframe/
- Added Track Properties feature for video tracks where the track's opacity/compositing modes can be selected (and keyframmed if required). Click on the small tick mark icon next to the track's enable/disable button to view track properties
- Wax now plays audio when previewing (audio plays when preview is running, not when scrubbing the timeline)
- Added Frameserver support! Wax can now frameserve the rendered video+audio directly to any other application which can open AVI files. Need to install the Debugmode Frameserver package along with Wax for this to work. Using this feature you can now overcome the 2gb avi file limit in Wax.
- Added new stretch mode for images and video elements in the timeline. Earlier image/video elements could be stretched to fit and with or without maintaining aspect ratio. Now these options have been replaced with 4 stretch modes with one new mode - to fill the output dimensions complete with the image/video maintaining the aspect ratio. Try the 4 stretch modes to find the difference.
- Bug: Context menus had the project settings option enabled when running as a plugin. Fixed now.
- Bug: If a light plugin was applied alone in a track it was not getting used (eg. modelload.wxp sample has such a plugin in the last track and it did not show any light on the model). Fixed now.
- Added multiple selection ability, you can now press ctrl when clicking on elements in the timeline to do multiple selection and move all selected elements/delete all selected elements etc. easily. Also with this comes improved drag/drop support so you can select multiple files from media pool and drag to the timeline.
- Bug: In Quick3D plugin the transformed image was showing a dark border when composited over a background, fixed now.
- Added support for Vegas 6.0.
New in Wax 2.0c (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed rare hang when closing Wax plugin window inside the NLE host.
- Fixed issues/crashes with drag-n-drop of media/plugins in Wax.
- Added "Choose color" item to color selection button choices because new users were unable to find how to choose a new color.
- Added loop function to the preview toolbar.
- Fixed crashes when rendering from Wax standalone as mpeg/swf.
- Fixed overflow bug in mpeg output which caused strange colours in output when overflowed.
- Added new shortcut in start menu to change Wax preferences without invoking Wax, so that users who have issues with hardware accel can change settings and try again.
- Added option to disable loading 3rd party plugins (including default directx plugins) to optimize for users who dont use them.
- Added feature to choose the display of timeline position from three formats.
- Fixed rare crash in the vegas plugin.
- Added full support for using Avisynth .AVS scripts in Wax.
- Fixed bug in using of image sequences as videos.
- Added seek support while using as Vegas plugin. Now if you click in the Wax timeline the correct video frame from the vegas media will be shown.
- Added ability to dynamically preview in the Vegas preview window (and also in any external monitor connected) while working in Wax.
- Added feature to use Wax as plugin without accessing the host media. This speeds up load time and works even on hosts that cannot give host media info to the plugin - for eg. if Vegas is unable to run scripts or if you have errors using Wax standard with Vegas you can enable this option and run Wax.
- Fixed bug in RotoMate bezier approximation.
- Improved RotoMate - you can now view shape outlines for better clarity while drawing/editing shapes - the outlines are shown even when you are in masked mode. Also added feature to delete/add points to existing shapes. To delete a point select the point and press del key, to add a new point select the shape and double click on the shape where you want to add the point.
- Added presets feature. Wax comes with many stock presets for FX/transitions and users can create their own presets as well using the standalone version of Wax. These presets can also be shared between users and online at the Debugmode Gallery website.
- Added Wax plugins for PureMotion EditStudio and Canopus EDIUS.
- Combined Position3d, Rotate3d and Scale3d into a single plugin named "Transform3d" for easier use. Also added a user interface for this plugin - you can open this plugin's options dialog and using the tools shown there you can rotate/resize/position the 3d objects by click-n-drag in the preview window.
- Alpha channels in 32 bit avi files were ignored. Fixed now.
- Fixed issue with undo and drag-n-drop : after doing an undo/redo using the Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+Y key combination, the next drag-n-drop was failing. Fixed now.
- Fixed bug in Text3d plugin that produced strange edges for some characters if bevels are used in the edges.
- Added feature to save compressed audio in rendered AVI files (earlier only WAV output had this ability).
- Added "Shatter Image" 2D plugin to shatter non-3D image/video elements. If you got any image/video element with an alpha channel and want to shatter it, this is the plugin to use.
- Added checks in the Vegas Plugin to verify that the dynamic RAM parameter value is set to 0, preview window does not have the FX bypassed option on etc..
- Fixed bug in using transitions when running Wax as a plugin using dummy host media. The transition length was always 500 frames instead of getting resized to the host media's length and caused render problems.
- Fixed bug in ModelLoader plugin - when loading textured Milkshape models, the texture was inverted and used.
New in Wax 2.0b (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed installer bug writing a bad shortcut to the User Guide.
- Fixed crashing bug in ModelLoader while loading some .3ds files
- Removed message when a ModelLoader plugin was added and saved to vegas without specifying a filename.
- Fixed bug in Win98/ME/2000 where the window position and state were not saved properly
- Fixed crash in Win98/ME when the mouse was moved over a parameter edit box in the trackview
- Fixed crash in Win98/ME/2000 when any drag-drop was performed inside Wax plugin for Vegas and Wax window was closed.
- Fixed very rare bug causing error message "cannot load wax.dll. please reinstall".
- Added Avisynth .AVS file import support.
- Fixed crash while loading some VirtualDub filters. Now 3rd party plugins that cannot be loaded will be safely shown in the "Preferences" dialog.
- Added option to change 3rd party plugin folders at install time if reinstalling Wax over an existing install.
- Fixed bug in display of media length in the Media Pool.
- Fixed crash when ProjectSettings dialog was opened twice and only the output file type was modified and closed.
- Fixed crash and message "invalid stream id passed by plugin" in certain situations (eg. plugin RotoMate was used to draw something, then an undo was done, then again draw something and this msg pops up).
- Added parameter "Invert Mask" to the RotoMate plugin.
- Fixed annoying MRU bug in Wax standalone where files opened from the MRU list were not moved to the top.
- A few more crashing bugs not mentioned above..
- Added Wax as a plugin for Adobe Premiere!
New in Wax 2.0a (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed bug in AVI file loading - OpenDML 2.0 files were not loaded properly when working as a Vegas plugin.
- Added VirtualDub PluginAdapter and DirectX/WindowsMovieMaker PluginAdapter.
- When an external AVI with audio+video was imported into Wax plugin, it was giving "file not found" message while rendering in Vegas. Fixed now.
- Added dummy Vegas help file to point to the tutorial.
- Added preview play toolbar to the workspace window.
- Fixed bug - Vegas preview is set to "Preview - full" and Wax is opened. Rotomate plugin was applied and a shape was drawn. Then Wax was closed and Vegas preview was changed to "Preview - auto" to show a smaller size preview... the rotoscoped shape was not visible or was visible partially in the render. Fixed now.
- Fixed bug in 3DText while using non US-ASCII single byte characters (like Hebrew chars).
- Added User Guide.
New in Wax build 190 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Added "Mask Blur" parameter to RotoMate plugin when the output is a mask. Using this you can soften the edges of the generated mask.
- Provided keyframming types for shape keyframming in Rotomate plugin. Now after drawing a shape you can choose from various keyframming methods like other parameters.
- Removed the message "Not enough space to save settings when returning from Wax to Vegas".
- Paintbrush and eraser are now visible in all frames, not just the frame where they were used. But remember they cannot be keyframmed like shapes.
- Fixed bug in camera movement - in Vegas best(full) and good(full) are showing different images than the other options.
- Fixed bug - occasionally when opening Wax plugin window a message saying "Not a valid wax project" appeared. Fixed now.
- Fixed bug - when the 'add media' button in the media pool toolbar was clicked nothing happened. Fixed now.
- Fixed bug - when the "save snapshot" button in the workspace toolbar was clicked and a filename was entered, it was giving the error "Unable to open ". Fixed now.
- Added UNDO/REDO!
- Added WinMorph warp (2D plugin) and morph (2D transition) into Wax. If you run Wax Vegas plugin and apply WinMorph on the host video event, you will only see the current frame in WinMorph (all other image elements/video elements will work just fine).
New in Wax build 170 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed minor annoyance - when Wax plugin window was closed Vegas window was not getting the focus properly.. had to click twice on the Vegas window everytime to get it active. Fixed now.
- Choosing "Preferences" from the context menu or pressing F4 key was not bringing up preferences dialog in Wax plugin. Fixed now.
- Added zoom and scroll to workspace/preview window.
- Added navigation features to plugin parameter controls - now you can use Tab, Shift+Tab keys to move to next/previous controls while typing in values for plugin parameters, Enter key to finish changing the value, ESC key to cancel the edit and use previous parameter value. Pretty cool now...
- Fixed bug - particles.veg was causing a crash when moving frame by frame.
- Fixed UI bug - Change from hw to sw acceleration and Wax still shows HW accel used. Had to close and open plugin window to see the change.
- Fixed crash - happened when you have Vegas preview set to "Preview (Full)" while working in Wax, then set it to "Preview (Auto)" to reduce it's size and then open Wax again.
- Fixed crash when opening certain type of DV AVI files in Wax.
- Added "RotoMate" plugin for doing rotoscoping in Wax. Features include drawing using variable sized pre defined+user defined brushes (user defined should be placed in same folder as pre-defined), eraser, keyframmable shapes with fill, variable line thickness, onion skin interface for easy drawing on video frames... and much more. Try it and you'll love it.
New in Wax build 160 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed installation issue - file "dbghelp.dll" was not getting installed properly on some Windows configurations.
- Added ".MS3d" (Milkshape 3d) file format to ModelLoader plugin.
- Disabled "Project Settings" context menu option when Wax is running as a Vegas Plugin.
- Fixed bug - if "Sync cursor" was enabled in plugin window and the cursor was outside the video event Wax window was locking up. fixed now.
- Fixed bug - which was causing an infrequent lockup when closing Wax plugin window.
- Fixed bug - which was causing wrong image displayed in Wax window sometimes if two Wax plugins were applied in a plugin chain.
- When opening Wax plugin window, it was hanging there without doing anything if there was another video event (without FX and transitions) in any track above this one in the Vegas timeline. This was because Vegas optimizes the rendering and decides that this Wax plugin need not be executed for the rendered output - because of that Wax cannot get the video frames to display from Vegas. The workaround is to have this track as solo just when changing Wax properties and then switch to normal mode - An explanatory message about this and other such issues will now be displayed if Wax is waiting for video data from Vegas for too long.
- Fixed texture wrapping issues with plugin Text3d. Textures will now seamlessly wrap your 3D characters.
- Added feature - plugin Text3d now allows using different media for different faces of the text (not just the parent media).
- Fixed a whole lot of stability and potential crash issues. Also fixed incorrect rendering sometimes when H/W accel was enabled. It is also now possible to apply Wax twice in same plugin chain and work seamlessly. Wax should be much much more stable now (of course i cannot guarantee i ran thro' all scenarios so thats why there is beta testing. :) )
New in Wax build 150 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Added ModelLoader plugin which can load 3D model files (.3DS and .MD2 supported now, with some lighting issues for .MD2 as of now...). Checkout the samples "modelload.veg" and "modelload.wxp"
- Fixed bug in uninstaller, which caused the Vegas plugin install directory to be removed completely at uninstall. So if Wax plugin was put in the default vegas plug-ins folder, that entire folder was removed at uninstall. Ouch...
- Fixed a few minor memory usage issues.
- Fixed minor preview window issue which made some other frame to be displayed instead of current frame sometimes.
- Fixed crash when loading a media file that could not be opened by Wax (eg. an AVI rendered as NTSC DV AVI from Vegas, which has only a Directshow codec and no VFW codec).
- Fixed crash that happened when any text item was keyframmed.
- Fixed crash that happened when adding a media file, and the file type was changed to "All supported media files".
- Added feature - when opening an existing project and one of the media file is missing, Wax will ask to choose a replacement file and use it.
- Fixed bug - When switching from another app to Vegas with Wax window open, the window was not redrawn properly and draws portions of it as the mouse moves over it. Fixed now.
- Fixed bug - Wax was giving errors while loading "particles.veg" sample file because that sample used external media files which Wax could not find. Now it will popup a dialog asking you to choose the media file manually (if all needed media files are in same folder then it will ask only once and load the others on it's own).
- Added feature - Wax can now load DV AVI and other types of AVI files using DirectShow. So you can render AVIs from Vegas as DV and import into Wax for using in another project if required.
- Added feature - When you apply any 3D plugins on a timeline element, the "Position3d", "Rotate3d" and "Scale3d" plugins will be automatically added to it if not present. Of course on top of this you can add these three plugins in any order anytime for advanced effects.
New in Wax build 135 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Still more garbled image issues were present on some 3D cards, fixed them.
- If Wax was part of a plugin chain and it was disabled in the chain, the display was not drawn properly (the contents of the screen just stayed as it is when switching windows, was not updated properly). Fixed now.
- Added a "Please wait..." message during Wax startup to inform users that Wax is working with Vegas for some event information. This is very helpful if Wax is applied on a long event and it takes a long time to bring up the plugin window.
- Fixed a divide-by-zero error which was causing crashes.
- Fixed a bug that caused a crash when the render mode (draft/good quality, hw/sw renderer) was changed while render was still going on in the background.
- Improved startup time taken when Wax plugin window opens up, particularly visible if applied on long video events.
New in Wax build 130 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Added Particles plugin.
- Fixed bug which caused a non-fatal crash every time Wax plugin was applied on a new event.
- Fixed bug which caused a lockup for 20 seconds if a crash happened during render.
- Fixed issue which caused a "Unable to load Wax.dll" message pop up during installation.
- Fixed bug which caused crash while applying the plugin to a new Vegas event.
- Fixed bug which caused the video image from previous frames to stay in current frame also and give a "trailing" effect (this happened only on specific display cards, some from nVIDIA).
- Fixed bug which caused no render to happen if the project has only 1 plugin in the timeline (no other elements)
- Fixed bug: When a plugin parameter value is keyframmed and changed to non-keyframmed mode, the value was changing to the last keyframe's value. Corrected now to change to the first keyframe's value.
- Fixed bug in Mediapool window which was causing the icons for image/video files not show alpha channel transparency correctly.
- Added keyframming capability to text 3d plugin so that the same text plugin can be used to show different text at different times.. (checkout the particles sample project for example)
- Minor scroll bug fixes in the timeline/tracks window
- If the timeline was scrolled to right and plugin/app was closed, the next time it was opened the timeline scrolls to right position but ruler was staying at 0. Fixed now.
- The workspace window was rendering the preview image even if that frame was already rendered before and available in the preview cache. Fixed now.
- Wax crashed if the app/plugin was closed while preview was running. Fixed now.
- When the framerate of a project was changed, all elements were resized improperly to the new framerate. Fixed now.
New in Wax build 120 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Added dynamic preview as and when parameter values are changed. For eg: click and drag on a plugin's parameter value and the workspace window will show the change immediately. If there are not too many elements in the timeline, this dynamic preview will be realtime!!
- Fixed a few hardware acceleration bugs and improved rendering.
- Added crash handling feature - if Wax crashes it would generate an error report in the file "c:\WaxError.txt" and "c:\WaxError.dmp" - please send these two files to "[email protected]" for me to analyze and fix it. Also give a brief description of what you were doing to create the crash.
- Added new plugin "Vortex" - and sample "vortex.veg"+"vortex.wxp" to show off the new plugin's usage.
- Added feature to highlight the currently selected element/plugin's track.
- Fixed bug which caused the render output to be too short sometimes - for eg. the project is in 25.00 progressive and you do a render out to 25.00 interlaced, the plugin showed output only for half the length. Also added ability to handle cases where the plugin was applied on an event and the event was resized later in Vegas.
- Better integration with vegas while startup - no more "longer than 5 seconds" dialogs.
- Removed the "Wax will work only in full screen" limitation. Now Wax plugin window will fit into any size you choose.
- Added feature to support preview in Vegas window while Wax window was open. You can resize the plugin window to be present in the left half of the screen and see vegas preview on the right side - after making any changes in Wax hit the "save" toolbar button on the top-left corner and your changes immediately reflect in Vegas preview window with all other Vegas composites.
New in Wax build 102 (Feb 11, 2010)
- Fixed a UI bug which causes a crash when plugins are dragged and dropped on the track view (left of timeline)