Vue 7 xStream and Infinite shipping now

e-on Software today released Vue 7 xStream and Vue 7 Infinite. Vue is a 3D landscape generation product that has been used on many features including Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. Infinite is the stand-alone version and xStream integrates fully into 3D modeling packages such as Maya and Cinema 4D.

The best feature in my opinion is the Ecosystem technology. This allows you to change a few parameters and automatically create a forest or some grassland or a desert, complete with random plants and rocks. Each object is varied slightly to give the impression that each rock and tree is completely unique. This makes it very realistic. It can also be used for other tasks, such as the vast robot army in the Vue 7 trailer.

Vue 7 takes this even further with Ecosystem III, which intelligently places objects according to the shape of the terrain. For example, it places fewer trees on a slope than on a flat area, as they would grow in reality. You can also create dynamic Ecosystems that stretch into the horizon without slowing your machine to a crawl. The Ecosystem Painter gives you precise control over your Ecosystem.

What's great about Vue is just how much you get "for free". If you add an Ecosystem to your terrain and then create some global wind, the plants will animate realistically with no input from you. Animating the sun and clouds creates realistic shadows on the terrain below.

There's also Solid Growth IV which minimizes flicker on far-off vegetation, the ability to render 360 degree panoramas (I love this), and something I've been waiting for - a water editor. Water was always pretty realistic but now you have a lot more control. You can now import camera tracking information from Boujou, MatchMover and SynthEyes (but not PFTrack it would seem) which is a big bonus.

Finally, it incorporates a new OpenGL engine that can render up to 4 times faster and the application has been optimized to take full advantage of multi-core systems.

e-on has released a cool trailer showing what Vue 7 can do. Well worth checking out.

FCS Remover 2.0.1 released

We've just released FCS Remover 2.0.1.

There was a minor bug in which dialog boxes wouldn't display in certain situations that has now been fixed. There is also now a user manual to guide new users through the process.

There have been several user interface changes. The "Final Cut Pro" option has been renamed to "Final Cut Pro / Express" to clarify that it also applies to the Express version - there was some confusion over that. There is now a preset for Final Cut Server and the interface now includes icons next to the application names.



FCS Remover allows you to completely uninstall Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Final Cut Server and related components. It is entirely free and is available here.

Important Update: You must install the update manually. You cannot use the built-in installer to do this. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Preference Manager 1.0.7 released

This is a maintenance release of Preference Manager, bringing it up to version 1.0.7.

Only minor changes this time around - there were some icon tweaks and the Sparkle updater framework has been upgraded. The main reason for releasing this update, however, was to include a comprehensive user manual for people who may have difficulty using the software, and to let them know of the support options available.

Preference Manager is a tool for managing Final Cut Studio preference files. It allows you to trash, lock, backup and restore these files. It is suitable for troubleshooting, and also for transferring user preferences from one machine to another.

It is completely free and is available here.

Web tool "Link to Calculation" misunderstandings

Just got some feedback from one of our web tools about the little "Link to this Calculation" link at the bottom.

I thought it best to explain what the feature is for and how to use it. If you just want to put a general link on your blog, just copy and paste the link at the top of your address bar as normal. Link to this Calculation is for linking to the tool with certain settings pre-set. So, for example, if you use the Film Rate Calculator to work out how much film you'll need to buy, you can use the Link to this Calculation send a link to someone else with those options already entered into the form so they don't need to enter them themselves.

The feedback poster thought the feature wasn't working but in fact it is. When you click the link, it changes the link in your address bar to the new format. Consequently, the page reloads but everything remains the same except the address bar. You can then copy + paste that new link and send it to someone else.

I'll try to make this clearer in future versions.

Replacing the CRT

Broadcast Engineering has a great article called Replacing the CRT. This details some of the existing and upcoming technologies looking to resign CRT broadcast monitors to the grave. They are:

* Plasma
* DLP
* SED (which looks very promising - not out yet though)
* OLED
* FED

This article is well worth checking out.

Upcoming Snow Leopard features you should know about

Snow Leopard is the name of the next version of Mac OS X, due next year. The idea behind Snow Leopard isn't to add a lot of features but instead to overhaul and optimize the OS for maximum performance. Developers are already receiving pre-release versions - here are some of the biggest features:

* No PowerPC support - This operating system will be Intel-only I'm afraid.

* Full 64-bit support - This was somewhat rudimentary in previous versions and consequently developers didn't really take advantage of it.

* New default display gamma - This one is very important for editors. With previous versions of Mac OS X, the default gamma was 1.8 which was great for print work. The default display gamma in Snow Leopard is now 2.2, which brings it closer to most TVs and Windows computers.

* Cocoa rewrites for all applications - "Almost all" of the visible applications (including Finder) have been rewritten in Cocoa. Cocoa and Carbon are two different application programming interfaces (APIs). Basically, Apple has decided that it wants to transition developers away from Carbon (which is more convenient if you are also developing for Windows) and towards Cocoa instead. Consequently, Cocoa tends to get all of the new features (such as 64-bit support) while Carbon gets left behind.

Ars Technica speculates that Carbon applications in Snow Leopard could be "wrapped" in Cocoa. I imagine this would affect performance and it should be noted that Final Cut Pro is currently written in Carbon. A Cocoa rewrite of FCP is inevitable (and much appreciated) but of course, no-one knows when that will occur.

* And then of course, all the features mentioned in the original press release - Grand Central for more efficient multi-core processing, OpenCL for using the GPU as another processor (must be why the new MacBook Pros have two GPUs) and QuickTime X which offers "optimized support for modern codecs and more efficient media playback" which would imply some kind of acceleration.

So all in all, this looks to be a promising update for people in the film and TV industries.

FCS Remover 2.0.0 released

We've just released a major new version of FCS Remover. This is a complete rewrite of the application that incorporates many of the features you have been asking for.

The biggest of these is the UI overhaul that now allows you to choose which components to remove and which components to keep. It's also a lot better at removing files that are in use or require admin privileges, and it can also remove content such as Motion templates and LiveFonts even when they are not in the default location.

Final Cut Server users will be pleased to hear that this version now removes the Final Cut Server database - but only if you want it to. There are also presets for common actions such as removing only content. The Maximum Compatibility preset in particular is useful if you have another ProApp such as Logic or Shake on your system and don't want to interfere with it. This preset will remove all of the Final Cut Studio files except for the ones shared by other applications.

FCS Remover is free and can be downloaded here.

We are always trying to improve our software so we appreciate any feedback we receive. We'd be very interested to know what people think of the new release.

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Preference Manager 1.0.6 released

This is a minor update to Preference Manager, bringing it up to version 1.0.6. It's mainly just tweaks and optimizations with the aim of making the software easier and faster to use. To do this we've added shortcut keys, removed the Lock button in the Lock tab (selecting/deselecting an item immediately locks/unlocks it) and the application now remembers which options you last selected so that you don't have to keep selecting everything over and over in order to perform a backup. Also, the Select All buttons now toggle between Select All and Select None.

Preference Manager is an application designed to trash, backup, lock and restore Final Cut Studio preference files. These files save your user settings, window positions, etc and can cause problems if they become corrupted. Preference Manager allows you to back these up, restore them if a problem occurs, and then lock them to prevent further changes. You can also use these backups to transfer your user preferences onto a different machine.

Preference Manager is completely free and is available here. We are always looking for ways to improve our software so let us know if you have any suggestions.

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Solving Logic Studio installation issues

I just bought Logic Studio so expect more posts on this in the future. Upon trying to install the application, I had the problem many people have been experiencing - Compressor is grayed out and refuses to install. I also noticed that upon completing the installation, Soundtrack Pro would crash when launching, citing a missing framework (ProFX.framework) as the cause. I don't know what causes this as I don't have Final Cut Studio installed on my Logic machine to conflict with it, and there were no receipts related to Compressor on my system. However, there is a simple workaround.

1. Install all the other components and let the installer skip Compressor for the time being.

2. On the main Logic installer disc, ctrl-click on Install Logic Studio and select Show Original.



3. Click on the Packages folder.



4. Double-click Compressor.mpkg and complete the installation process.



5. If you also got the same error as me about the missing ProFX framework when launching Soundtrack Pro, double-click the file PluginManager.pkg and follow the installer.



6. I was then able to launch Compressor but upon performing a test render, I noticed that Batch Monitor was missing (why, I don't know). So if you get that problem too, install Qmaster.mpkg.



This finally solved all of my problems and I was able to operate the Studio fully.

P.S. In case you were wondering, the difference between .pkg and .mpkg is that .mpkg (meta-packages) are containers for sub-packages (.pkg). The .pkg files only install one set of files whereas the .mpkg files can install a group of related packages.

Is this the death of FireWire?

One of the biggest things making the rounds this week is the fact that Apple's new MacBooks have had their FireWire 400 port removed. Now why would Apple do this when they were the company that popularized it in the first place?

Someone posted an email purportedly from Steve Jobs onto Flickr in which Steve states that most modern consumer camcorders nowadays operate over USB 2. That may well be the case but as we all know, FireWire is the superior standard and it seems silly in my eyes to phase it out in favor of an inferior format. It seems like a case of Betamax vs VHS in which the most convenient format and not the best format actually won, with the best format relegated solely to the professional market. It's a great shame in my eyes.

Advertising may also play a part too - USB 2 is advertised as operating at 480 Mbps vs FireWire's 400 Mbps which looks good on paper but as we all know, FireWire is capable of sustaining 400 Mbps whereas 480 Mbps is just a theoretical limit for USB 2.

FireWire still hasn't achieved mass adoption among PC users. Apple is its primary proponent so if Apple lets it go, it will most likely die (as a consumer format at least). It's good to see it remain on the professional side - where I think it will stay for some time - but it's a little more inconvenient to now need an adapter to use FireWire 400 equipment. This is inconvenient because there seems to be considerably more 400 equipment out there than 800.

The most troubling thing for me isn't the demise of FireWire, it's the lack of a suitable replacement from Apple. eSATA would be great for hard drives but Apple seems to be shunning it for reasons unknown.