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Ventuz Express Designer Changelog

What's new in Ventuz Express Designer 3.00.00 Beta

Oct 20, 2010
  • Windows 7 only:
  • Starting with Ventuz 3, only Windows 7 - both 32bit and 64bit (x64) - is supported. This allows us to take advantage of some of the latest Windows capabilities and provide a tighter integration with the system. Some examples of this are:
  • the taskbar icon now contains links to all Ventuz editions and tools.
  • major improvements of the Windows kernel in talking with the display drivers. Latest graphics boards like the AMD FirePro? and nVidia Quadro 6000 gain big advantages from this new driver model. Ventuz 3 too!
  • Windows 7 allows for a far deeper integration with the windows explorer, which will give us some new great possibilities.
  • the ability for us to begin shifting towards newer DirectX versions.
  • Finally, MS is discontinuing support for XP, which indicates we shouldn't be supporting it.
  • Unified Installer:
  • A single installer can now be used on 32bit and 64bit operating systems. The installer is currently not able to install the 32 bit version on 64 bit. This implies that Quicktime is not supported under 64 bit installations. Although there are no plans we know of for Quicktime to be available for 64bit windows, we're working on a general solution.
  • The second issue is that our installer does not allow for 32bit Ventuz to be installed on a 64bit Windows. We are aware of the issue. If this is a major problem, please let us know.
  • Reduced number of file formats:
  • To simplify the understanding of Ventuz asset and file management, Ventuz not longer supports/requires dedicated runtime formats. Therefore the following file formats are no longer supported as previously:
  • Director file (vzd)
  • The Director launch file doesn't exist anymore. Use the project file (.vzp) to launch Ventuz Presenter/Runtime in Director mode. The actual runtime parameters are now part of the Project Properties.
  • Runtime archive (vra)
  • The Ventuz Presenter (in Director mode) will only import normal scene archives (.vza) if they are located in the AutoImport folder.
  • Runtime Scenes (vrs)
  • The Ventuz Presenter (in Director mode) will load normal scene (.vzs) only. Old Ventuz 2008 scenes should be re-saved with Ventuz 3 for better import performance. The Ventuz 2008 .vrs scenes cannot be loaded anymore!
  • Project OEM License
  • Is configured as a file reference to the signature file. All scenes saved in such a project are signed with that license and able to run in the OEM Presenter)
  • End of support:
  • The following technologies are no longer supported:
  • DMX Soundlight
  • The proprietary hardware support for Soundlight DMX on PCI has been stopped. We will implement an Ethernet-2-DMX solution instead.
  • 1st generation Ventuz dongles
  • The very first generation of License Dongles (silver with Ventuz print and write protect switch) are not supported anymore. Please contact our sales department for an exchange.
  • J# support
  • Microsoft stopped support for J#. A 64bit version was never even available. So we decided to remove J# support as well.
  • Misc:
  • Hardware Profile:
  • Hardware Profiles do not exist anymore. The hardware configuration is found in the Machine Configuration and has to be adjusted per system. The previous hardware profiles configured the hardware per project.
  • Automatic XML/Excel Data Binding:
  • The standard data binding (xml and Excel) has been removed, we're looking at an alternative.
  • Pixel Aspect Ratio of Broadcast SD formats have been adjustedpixel aspect of SD formats:
  • In Ventuz 2008 the pixel aspect was wrongly set to be square pixel for 4:3 and exactly 16:9 for anamorphic formats. We now use the recommended aspect values for SD formats. Imported Ventuz 2008 Scenes have to be adjusted to fit the new projection aspect!
  • Recursion with math effect nodes:
  • Some Math Effect Node were able to be bound in an invalid recursive manner, which resulted in weird scene behavior. Ventuz 3 does not allow such bindings anymore.
  • Some nodes have new input-output dependencies:
  • Some nodes had wrong input-to-output dependencies what cause slow down of the scene or unwanted node validation.
  • Presentations / .vpr:
  • The export resp. runtime parameters are now part of the project properties.
  • Mouse & Keyboard:
  • Mouse and Keyboard nodes now fire 'Released' events and clear 'Pressed' flags on release even if they have been deactivated before. In earlier versions the buttons gained their 'Released' state only if the nodes had been re-activated again.
  • Animation:
  • If one animation was controlling another one via embedded animation channels and the inner animation was scaled very small, event key frames of the inner animation were sometimes skipped. Ventuz 3 ensures a proper triggering of such events. Also useless properties such as AutoDeactivate have been removed.
  • Script Node:
  • The Script Node had a one-frame input-to-output delay. This is removed in Ventuz 3.
  • Mover Node:
  • The Mover Node doesn't fire OnRepeat events on Reset in OneShot mode. Also a OneShot, !Random mover was always starting with the value 0 after copy or reload of the scene. Now it starts with a random value.
  • Delay Node:
  • The Delay Node was only delaying the values if the actual value had changed. Now it really delays on frame basis.
  • Advanced Image Loader:
  • The Advanced Image Loader is loading DDS files faster and with less memory overhead. It also got the resize option 'Auto' to keep the original image size if the graphics board supports that feature.
  • Counter Node:
  • The Counter Node is now able to count down in Auto-Run mode.