garageCube

lotech · by **lotech** » Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:23 am

So its been 14 months since the last major .1 update to Modul8, you guys added some nice new features. My favourites being sound, midi import/export and blend modes.
You even fixed some bugs with that 2.6.1 update - which coincidentally came out pretty much exactly a year ago.

Since then you've all been pretty quiet, while lots of other developments are happening in the computer based VJ world - mapping being the big one.

Now my question is, and has been for the last 6 months - what next for Modul8?

Although you have a feedback site setup (http://modul8.uservoice.com/) none of the requests have moved to the accepted ideas section.

From my hunting the forums I can only find vaguely announced features such as MadMapper & Syphon support. Both of these are great but what else?
GUI Improvements? Improved MIDI/OSC support? Updated Manual?
Theres 3 pages of improvements and feature requests on uservoice.

I didn't start this post to be a requests thread, I'm just asking for an idea of whats in the short and longterm development Modul8.
Thanks

ilan · by **ilan** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 1:58 pm

Right now the focus is on developing and then releasing Mad Mapper.

vj furure · by **vj furure** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:25 pm

cool to hear, that you are working on the MadMapper.
but it would be also nice to implement a hickupfree
playback.
so it would be possible to play highres footage with modul8.
in the current state of modul8 it unfortunately not possible
to do commercial stuff.

is it that difficult to realize ?

ilan · by **ilan** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:34 pm

We have plenty of people using Modul8 hiccup free and in the commercial sphere, receive compliments for its stability and so on.

If you have a particular problem please ask for advice and provide as much detail as possible about your hardware and you are optimizing your media for playback.

Nothing is difficult to realize given the hardware that is available and given the time allocated for the development team to work on it.

Because mapping has become so high in demand we saw it best to focus on the creation of a new tool that everyone will benefit from. This takes time, although a lot less then we anticipated. We think it is time well spent.

When Mad Mapper is out we will then re-focus our attention on the further development of Modul8.

vanakaru · by **vanakaru** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 5:13 pm

vj furure wrote:cool to hear, that you are working on the MadMapper.
but it would be also nice to implement a hickupfree
playback.
so it would be possible to play highres footage with modul8.
in the current state of modul8 it unfortunately not possible
to do commercial stuff.

is it that difficult to realize ?

We use M8 for commercial events at least 3 years all the time.
http://vimeo.com/9266144
Modul8 has never been a limit what you can do - only the hardware is. Again, M8 is very good player for creative stuff.
Mad Mapper is really due to come soon with Resolume IR Mapio and VPT v.5 already there.

vj furure · by **vj furure** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:35 pm

try to play a single fullhd clip properly with a codec of your choice on a mac pro with a software raid. (no efx)

it will always stutter.

there might be client, who tolerate that but
if you have to deal with costy videoproductions,
modul8 at its current state is a absolute nogo.

the hardware is not the problem.
i can play 3 fullhd clip with openframeworks,
mix them on the same machine without stutering or hickups.

the playback engine of modul8 seems to be totally outdated.

it's a pity.
i love to work with modul8 !

vj future

ilan · by **ilan** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:59 am

I understand your disappointment and I sincerely apologize that in this particular vein, the work that you are involved in, Modul8 cannot work for you.

The fact is that, for the moment, the majority of the community use Modul8 on a laptop. And for the most part running that kind of size media you have mentioned, on a laptop, is not possible.

I am glad to know that you have an alternative solution by using OpenFrameWorks. It is definitely a powerful and flexible tool. However, unlike Modul8, it is not a solution for everyone, as is the availability of a Mac Pro for doing large scale projects such as yours.

For the moment, instead of trying to cater to a small group, we are trying to bring world class mapping software that will be accessible to everyone.

As for the long term vision, we prefer not to promise anything now. But in time all the optimizations and features that have been requested will be addressed one way or another.

mowgli_uk · by **mowgli_uk** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:47 pm

vj furure wrote:
the playback engine of modul8 seems to be totally outdated.

it's a pity.
i love to work with modul8 !

vj future

yet from my experience it's the fastest and most stable of all the vj soft around...
and I do use modul8 commercially and have been doing so since 2004

gmint · by **gmint** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:42 pm

mowgli_uk wrote:
vj furure wrote:
the playback engine of modul8 seems to be totally outdated.

it's a pity.
i love to work with modul8 !

vj future

yet from my experience it's the fastest and most stable of all the vj soft around...
and I do use modul8 commercially and have been doing so since 2004

+1

vanakaru · by **vanakaru** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 9:41 pm

vj furure wrote:try to play a single fullhd clip properly with a codec of your choice on a mac pro with a software raid. (no efx)

it will always stutter.

there might be client, who tolerate that but
if you have to deal with costy videoproductions,
modul8 at its current state is a absolute nogo.

the hardware is not the problem.
i can play 3 fullhd clip with openframeworks,
mix them on the same machine without stutering or hickups.

the playback engine of modul8 seems to be totally outdated.

it's a pity.
i love to work with modul8 !

vj future

I think you ask Modul8 to do something it is not designed to do. There are better suited tools for play more demanding video reliably (we use Qlab.) But for mixing clips and live with effects M8 is the best I have ever used.
This is again the question if you want the one app do everything to you or you agree that it is better to have different apps perform the best with specific task.

vj furure · by **vj furure** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 2:23 am

all i want to say is that the core of modul8 has not changed
since 2004. i think its time to work on its core, otherwise
most of us can not use it nanymore i the future

- its still 32bit, we can not use all our ram
- ot has a totally outdated effects section (freeframe efx)
- horrible framerates, if you want to use multiple gpus
- as i remarked a bad playback engine (hickups)

the pros are and i love module8 for that:
- very stable
- easy to use
- fast learning curve

i do not understand why garagecube does not do their homework.
perhaps they dont have the programming skills anymore ...

vj future

ilan · by **ilan** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 3:56 am

@vj future

I understand your concerns. We are doing our homework.

As I outlined in a previous edition to this thread, we are paying close attention to the current and pressing needs of our community.

Currently, the most pressing need is that of a simple and friendly mapping tool. Judging from the other tools we have seen, The MadMapper will open up the medium to a lot more people. This is exactly what Modul8 itself did. We are doing this for mapping with the MadMapper.

We have one of the most over qualified programmers. I think if you will look around our forum and see posts from David, you will find he is a highly competent computer programmer.

When we are 'done' with the MadMapper and have opened the way for mapping to become as simple as Modul8 made VJ'ing, we will then begin to focus on the next tool that will likely address many of the requests that we are seeing here on the forum, the uservoice, as well as countless other suggestions.

The biggest challenge we face is the revision of the interface. Engines can change, but for the next generation of Modul8 we are looking to anticipate what our vision is of the future of this medium the same way we did with the first and second versions of Modul8.

This is by no means an easy task, and judging from the activity of our competitors, it is in our best interest to learn from observation and get things done right instead of rushing.

I understand your concerns and needs. We want to see higher performances in the long term and we will get there.

Thank you for your support of Modul8 thus far. It does not go un-appreciated.

lotech · by **lotech** » Fri Jan 28, 2011 4:20 am

@Ilan - thanks - thats exactly what I wanted to know. The lack of updates sometimes makes us wonder if theres anything happening. It's just good to hear you guys are getting things done.

Your post is probably worth sticking on the Modul8 blog - it will easily get lost in the depths of the forums.

vj furure · by **vj furure** » Sat Jan 29, 2011 5:17 pm

good to hear, that David ist still onboard

that makes me hope, that in the future we will have a modern version of modul8.

in the meantime we have to use other programs ...

vanakaru · by **vanakaru** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:24 pm

Just like to tell you I have used Modul8 for mapping levelly for real. And I am just so pleased with the workflow.
We did a white room at the corporate telemedia event with 12 projectors filled the space with video. It was pretty much first time I used Mapmap plugin for real and it took me no time to map all projectors some going triplehead and dualhead. I ran about 20 clips on each MBP 1024x768 ProRes4444, some of these with alpha for 5 hours. No problems what so ever. ProRes is rather good for graphics too - chisp and strong color.
So mapping is good direction for dev on my opinion as well
And once again I would say it is better to have multiple apps perform the best for specific tasks than dump everything into one and have a monster to maintain..

garageCube

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