Graphics

Hi all,

I was having issues with some graphics which were being shown with occasional lines and artefacts on screen.

I have checked the original TGA-sequence which I rendered with the VideoCoder and that was clean. I didn't think that would have been the issue because it's not always and never on the same point. So it's either in XPression or in the videocard. I'm using the AJA Kona 3G. I already replaced the cards by those from another XPression to rule out any issues with this particular card but the issue still remains. As a next step I have updated the drivers on the AJA-cards. Now I can't even assign the cards anymore to XPression. It doesn't see the cards anymore.

When I check in the system, the cards show that they are properly installed and there are no errors. So it seems to me that XPression is not yet capable of using the AJA-cards with the latest drivers. Could that be possible?

The Aja-driver which I'm using is 10.6.1

Also, if anyone would know where these lines or artefacts are coming from, please do share.

Thanks,

Kenneth

Hi Kenneth,

I think we have the same problem with lines on video material.



This is really annoying and happens only on projects with multiple material (+50).

To avoid that, I only flush the cache, but it doesn't work each time...

The other way is to remove some material, or make your scene slighter.

#XPression

Hi Vincent,

It looks more or less the same indeed.

What graphics card are you using and what videocard?

Because I just installed a BlackMagic Card in it and it shows the same issue.

I'm going to upgrade my Nvidia-card next to see if that helps.

Thanks for the reply.

Kenneth

#XPression

BlackMagic and AJA

#XPression

My project has indeed 74 materials but I can't go any lower than that.

But I did try to create a new project and import a single scene into that new project to see if I have the same issue there. There I only had 12 materials and it still shows the artefacts and the lines occasionally.

I also upgraded my NVidia-drivers but without any luck.

I also tried playing around with the preferences a bit, checking the Hardware Renderer and changing the Video Engine buffersize, Changing the XPression process priority etc... but nothing helps.

#XPression

I think I've found the issue.

I've imported the original TGA-sequence directly into XPression as a material instead of passing through the Video Coder and it seems that now I don't have any artefacts or lines anymore. I've just ran the animation 10 times and I didn't see any errors anymore. Before after a maximum of 2 tries I always saw something.

Before I had rendered the TGA-sequence into a video using the Video Coder and made an AVI out of it, which I then imported into XPression. I was rendering in Progressive mode. I'll have a try later to see if the problem persists in Upper Field First but for now the problem seems to be solved.

Concerning the AJA-cards. I downgraded the AJA-driver to 10.4.1 and now XPression is seeing the cards again although it recognizes them as Xena-cards and not as Kona, but what's in a name...

#XPression

And what about perf ?

#XPression

It's getting hard. I'm in the 90's.

#XPression

Actually by fiddling around with the settings for anti-alias and the number of cores the video-decoder may use I was able to get it to 80%. Which is still ok for a machine running 4 HD-outputs.

#XPression

Kenneth, is this problem easy to reproduce if you were to send me a project?

#XPression