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Ventuz Introduction

  • Introduction
  • Getting Started
  • Ventuz Editions
  • Ventuz Products
  • Realtime Rendering
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Common Mistakes
  • Deploying a Ventuz Presentation
  • Scene Performance and Tweaks

Quick Guides

  • Quick Guide Index
  • Business Logic
  • 3D Art
  • 2D Art
  • Programming
  • System Engineer

General

  • Index
  • What's New
  • Ventuz System Requirements
  • Communication Protocol Overview
  • Configuration Editor
  • Audio / Video Configuration
  • Machine Configuration
  • Web Configuration Editor and License Manager
  • GPI Configuration for Runtime or Director
  • Supported Formats
  • Supported Hardware
  • Multisampling / Anti-Aliasing
  • Input Subsystem
  • Ventuz Proprietary Files
  • Migrating Content to Ventuz 6
  • Migrating Content to Ventuz 5
  • Summary Shortcuts
  • Terminology
  • Manual Index

Ventuz Designer

  • Designer Indices
Introduction
  • Designer Introduction Index
  • Designer Overview
  • Realtime Rendering
  • Project Browser
  • Designer Interface
  • Designer Options
  • Working with Nodes
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • 2D Workflow
  • 3D Workflow
  • Animation Workflow
  • Best Practices
  • Reading Data in Ventuz
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Scene Performance and Tweaks
  • Deploying a Ventuz Presentation
  • Render to Disk
User Interface
  • Designer User Interface Index
  • Designer Interface
  • Renderer Window
  • Layer Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Property Groups
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Content Editor
  • Find and Replace
  • Toolbox
  • Animation Editor
  • Shader Editor
  • Text Editor
  • Message View
  • Scene Tree
  • Stage Editor
  • Container Outline
  • Watches Editor
  • Performance Statistics
2D Workflow
  • 2D Workflow Index
  • 2D Workflow
  • Layer Editor
  • Common Layer Properties
  • IPP Effects
  • Color Correction FX
  • Distortion FX
  • Filter FX
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Display Images and Movies
3D Workflow
  • 3D Workflow Index
  • 3D Workflow
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Renderer Window
  • Camera Navigation
  • Manipulate Objects with Gizmos
  • Layer Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Isolated Objects
  • Containers
  • Text Rendering
  • Character Sets
  • Geometry Import
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Particle System
  • Creating Realistic Reflections
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
  • E2E Node Overview
Logic Workflow
  • Logic Workflow Index
  • Hierarchy and Content Editors
  • Content Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Working with Nodes
  • Property Editor
  • Containers
  • Project and Scene Data
  • Reading Data in Ventuz
  • Display Images and Movies
  • Input Subsystem
  • Multitouch
  • TUIO Protocol
  • Open Sound Control
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
  • E2E Node Overview
Animation Workflow
  • Animation Workflow Index
  • Animation Workflow
  • Animation Editor
  • Content Editor
  • Hierarchy Editor
  • Property Editor
  • Animation and State Engine
  • Templates
  • Template Engine
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
Project Structure
  • Project Structure Index
  • Annotations
  • Projects and Scenes
  • Project Properties
  • Project Maintenance
  • Project and Scene Data
  • Scene Management
  • Scene Statistics
  • Scene Tree
  • Performance Statistics
How Tos
  • Designer How to Index
  • How to Run Ventuz
  • How to Work with Designer
  • Ventuz Designer Drag&Drop Workflow
  • How to work with Shadows
  • How to Build Content for Multiple Screens
  • How to Use Emoijs
  • How to Build a Template
  • How to Use the Color Difference Keyer
  • How To Use the HDR Engine
  • How Create Lens Flares and Bloom
  • How to Create Visuals Loader Node
  • How to Remote Control with a Phone
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to work with 3D Reference Layers
  • How to create a Firework Particle System
  • How to use DDS with new Block Compression modes
  • How to use the Substance Integration
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To use the Vertex Integration
  • How To Control and Customize Ventuz
Reference
  • Available Nodes
  • Animation Nodes
  • Material&Color Nodes
  • Data Nodes
  • E2E Nodes
  • Geometry Nodes
  • Interaction Nodes
  • IO Nodes
  • Layers
  • Light Nodes
  • Logic Nodes
  • Render Option Nodes
  • Slides Nodes
  • Sound Nodes
  • Text Nodes
  • Texture Nodes
  • VR Nodes
  • World Nodes
  • Summary Shortcuts
  • Layer Editor Shortcuts
  • Hierarchy Editor Shortcuts
  • Content Editor Shortcuts
  • Animation Editor Shortcuts
  • Director Shortcuts

Ventuz Director

  • Index
  • Introduction
  • Environment
  • Show
  • User Interface
  • Assets
  • Taking Action
  • Property Editor
  • Shot Box
  • Project Data
  • Pages
  • Playlist
  • Timeline
  • Content References
  • Topology
  • Channels
  • Macros
  • Designing Templates
  • Plug-Ins
  • Shortcuts
  • Command Line Options
  • Application Settings
  • Glossary
  • GPI Configuration

Ventuz Runtime & Configuration

  • Runtime Index
  • Configuration Configuration Editor
  • Machine Configuration
  • Video/Audio Configuration
  • Web Configuration Editor and License Manager
  • Render Setup Editor
  • Warping and Soft-Edging Editor
  • Machine Clustering
  • Supported Hardware
  • Director Mode
  • Runtime How Tos Index
  • How to Configure Audio
  • How to Use Live Options
  • How To Play Out On Multiple Screens
  • How To Render on a Machine Cluster
  • How to Use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to Setup Spout with Ventuz
  • How to Use Newtek NDI
  • How to Use a Mixed Frame Rate Cluster
  • How to Use Tracking

How To

Designer
  • Designer How to Index
  • How to Run Ventuz
  • How to Work with Designer
  • Ventuz Designer Drag&Drop Workflow
  • How to work with Shadows
  • How to Build Content for Multiple Screens
  • How to Use Emoijs
  • How to Build a Template
  • How to Use the Color Difference Keyer
  • How To Use the HDR Engine
  • How Create Lens Flares and Bloom
  • How to Create Visuals Loader Node
  • How to Remote Control with a Phone
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to work with 3D Reference Layers
  • How to create a Firework Particle System
  • How to use DDS with new Block Compression modes
  • How to use the Substance Integration
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To build and playback Ventuz Content in Vertex
Runtime & Configuration
  • Runtime How Tos Index
  • How to Configure Audio
  • How to Use Live Options
  • How To Play Out On Multiple Screens
  • How To Render on a Machine Cluster
  • How to use Head Mounted Displays
  • How to setup Spout with Ventuz
  • How to use Newtek NDI
  • How to use a Mixed Frame Rate Cluster
  • How to use Tracking
  • How To Integrate Unreal
  • How To Integrate Notch
  • How To build and playback Ventuz Content in Vertex
Director
  • How To Control Multiple Graphics Independently From Each Other
  • How to use the Companion with Director

Ventuz Node Reference

ANIMATION
  • Mover
  • Alternator
  • Simple Control
  • Timeline Control
  • Anmation Rig
  • Keyframe Animation
  • Animation Group
COLOR/MATERIAL
  • Alpha
  • Fog
  • Ground Fog
  • Sky Box
  • Color to RGBA
  • HSLA to Color
  • RGBA to Color
  • Color Transformer
  • HLSL Shader
  • Color
  • Material
  • Color Picker
  • Substance Material
DATA
  • Database
  • Excel
  • JSON
  • RSS Feed
  • Resource Linker
  • Text File
  • XML
E2E
  • E2E Axis
  • E2E Data
  • E2E Control
  • E2E Layer
  • E2E Provider
  • E2E Node Overview
GEOMETRY
  • Rectangle
  • Rounded Rectangle
  • Gradient Rectangle
  • Overlay Rectangle
  • Cube
  • Circle
  • Sphere
  • Cylinder
  • Cone
  • Torus
  • Chart
  • Random Points
  • Mesh Loader
  • Geometry Import (Live)
  • Volume
  • Get Bounding Box
  • Arrow
  • Particle System
  • Path Renderer
  • Geometry Renderer
INTERACTION
  • Interaction Rect
  • Touch Button
  • Touch Excluder
  • Touch Marker
  • Touch Paint
  • Touch Pattern
  • Touch Proxy
  • Touch Ripples
  • Touch Transformations
  • Web Browser
  • Touch Teleport
  • Touch Simulator
INPUT/OUTPUT (I/O)
  • GPI
  • Joystick
  • Keyboard
  • MIDI
  • Mouse
  • Network
  • Open Sound Control
  • Serial
  • Timecode
  • DMX
  • HTTP
  • RamDiskWriter
LAYER
  • 3D Layers
  • 3D Layer Reference
  • 2D Layers
  • PSD Import Layer
  • E2E Layer
  • Others
LIGHT
  • Light Sources
LOGIC
  • Array Processing
  • Convert To Text
  • Cluster Synchronization
  • Counter
  • Date Time
  • Directory
  • Dispatcher
  • Enumeration
  • Expressions
  • Invert
  • Log
  • Loop Breaker
  • Math Effects
  • Matrix Operations
  • Scene Event
  • Script
  • String Operations
  • System ID
  • Text Splitter
  • Timer
  • Toggle
  • URL
  • Value Switch
  • Value Buffer
  • Variables
  • Visual Indexer
RENDER OPTIONS
  • Alpha Blending
  • Color Write
  • Alpha Testing
  • Clip Plane
  • Filter
  • Mask
  • Mirror
  • Effect
  • Render Cube Map
  • Draw Modes
  • Stencil
  • ZTesting
SOUND
  • Audio Clip
  • Sound
  • Volume Control
  • Audio Analysis
SLIDES
  • Slide Manager
  • Slide
  • Slide Port
  • Pivot
TEXT
  • Text Effects
  • Text Layouts
  • Text Rendering
TEXTURE
  • Background
  • Hatch
  • Image
  • Texture
  • SVG Loader
  • Gradient Texture
  • Live Video
  • Movie Stream
  • Movie Frame
  • Movie Clip
  • Texture Loader
  • Snapshot
  • Snapshot Framebuffer
  • Texture Saver
  • Video Source Selector
  • VIO Input
  • Spout Receiver
  • NDI Receiver
  • Substance Loader
  • QR Code
VR/AR
  • Tracked Devices
  • Draw Tracked Devices
WORLD
  • Axis
  • Billboard
  • GetWorld
  • SetWorld
  • Arrange
  • Ticker
  • Layout
  • Group
  • World Z Sort
  • YesNo
  • Switch
  • Spread
  • Filter Pass
  • Set Pass
  • Hierarchy Container
  • Scene Port
  • Content Container
  • Template Port
  • Container Info
  • Camera
  • Paths

Advanced and Development

  • Advanced and Development Index
  • Command Line Options
  • Ventuz IP Ports
  • Ventuz Machine Service
  • TUIO
  • .NET Scripting
  • HLSL Shader Programming
  • Ventuz API and SDK
  • Ventuz Extension API
  • Ventuz VIO API
  • Ventuz File Format (VFF)
  • Ventuz Stream Out API
  • Lens Calibration File for FreeD
  • E2E Node Overview
  • Unreal Integration
  • Notch Integration
Remoting
  • Remoting Index
  • Remoting Overview
  • How To Control and Customize Ventuz
  • Remoting 4
  • Remoting 4 via Websockets
  • Remoting 4 via HTTP
  • Director Remoting
  • Deprecated Remoting
  • Remoting Machine Signature

Misc

  • Presets
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F.A.Q.

Table of Contents

  1. Installation
  2. Configuration
  3. Deployment
  4. License
  5. MultiTouch
  6. Nodes and Properties
  7. Rendering
  8. Text and Fonts
  9. Video
  10. Remoting
  11. Scripting

This document contains frequently asked questions received by the Ventuz staff. Before posting to the forum or contacting Ventuz support, please check whether your question has already been answered here. Whenever something comes up multiple times, it is added to this list and the relevant documentation pages are improved.

Users new to Ventuz should also check the Common Mistakes by New Users document.

Installation

Q: Why I am not able to install Ventuz? Getting an error related to a Cabinet file.
A: You probably try to install Venutz on a Windows 7 System that is not up to date. Microsoft changed the Global Root certificate. So you either update you system or download the certificate ​here

Q: Why I am not able to install my Deltacast board? Getting an error related to the driver signature.
A: You probably tried to install it on a system that is not up to date. So please make a complete update to your system to get the board correctly installed. Another option is to disable the driver signature verification in Windows. How to do that is extensively discussed online, you can find some ​info here for Windows 8.x or 10.x - for other Windows versions just search online.

Configuration

Q: I have two or more machines constantly changing orders inside the Machine List of the Configuration Editor.
A: You are probably using cloned Windows images. Ventuz is creating a so called SystemID that is generated from several System and Hardware IDs which are unfortunately not unique all the time. To solve this simply create a file called 'SystemID' (without file extension) in 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Ventuz6\Configuration\VMS'. Open this file in a text editor and add a unique text string and save the file.

Deployment

Q: Why does my presentation not run smoothly?
A: Assuming the hardware is powerful enough, there are various things that can cause a presentation to stall or stutter. For one, running a show is different from designing one. Read the documentation regarding Deployment and always run the final presentation in the Ventuz Runtime, not the Designer. The latter does auto-saving and many other things that are not necessary to run a presentation but can disrupt normal rendering. Then make sure that the presentation is running in Exclusive, not Virtual, Fullscreen.

License

Q: What are the changes in the license model
A:

  • Since the release of Ventuz 4, the Express and Touch versions are deprecated. Beginning with Ventuz 4, there is now only one version of Ventuz Designer. If you need additional info on upgrading from previous versions please contact ​sales@ventuz.com
  • The release of Ventuz 5 implies that Ventuz 3 is now End of Life (EOL). This means that no more development will be added to Ventuz 3, including bug fixes or additional hardware support, and no additional Ventuz 3 support cases will be accepted. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to Ventuz 4 or, even better, Ventuz 5. If you need additional info on upgrading from previous versions please check our website for specific information or contact ​sales@ventuz.com.
  • Runtimes now always include the Cluster option, meaning that the Runtime price has increased accordingly. In addition the old Runtime without Cluster is now called Runtime Lite and can only be purchased in packs of 5 or more licenses. If you are interested in Ventuz Runtimes and upgrade paths from previous versions please contact ​sales@ventuz.com.
  • You can purchase additional Output Options such as Single Channel SDI out (Fill+key), Dual Channel SDI out (Fill+key), iVGA out, NDI out. If you are interested in Ventuz Output options or need more information please check our website, or contact ​sales@ventuz.com.

Q: So the Director is not included in Ventuz 5 Designer?
A: Since the release of Ventuz 4, Ventuz Director is a separate product with a separate license. If you are interested in Ventuz Director or need more information please check our website, or contact ​sales@ventuz.com.

Q: How do I get a Community Edition?
A: Simply open the License Manager and request a Community license from there.

Q: I have built a project with the PLE version, can I use it with a licensed Ventuz version?
A: Ventuz PLE version is meant for only evaluation and learning purposes. Projects and scenes built in the PLE version cannot be transferred to any other Ventuz version.

Q: When starting Designer or Runtime the LicenseManager pops up with following message: Uncaught exception while searching for dongles: invalid class. Perhaps an invalid drive is installed? Check for virtual CD-ROM or other virtual drives. What can I do to fix that?
A: First try to remove virtual CD-ROM and other virtual drivers. If this does not help, you may have encountered a Windows problem which is not a bug in Ventuz. Please try the instructions provided here:

  • ​https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-performance-team/wmi-rebuilding-the-wmi-repository/ba-p/373846
  • ​https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-performance-team/wmi-repository-corruption-or-not/ba-p/375484

MultiTouch

Q: Why is none/only one touch received when using Windows Touch?
A: First of all, make sure your display really sends Windows Touch information not just mouse position updates (which are converted by Ventuz into a virtual touch). Some devices come with a driver that supports multiple protocols (mouse simulation, Windows Touch, TUIO, ...). Check in the Machine Configuration that Windows Touch is enabled. Finally, check the relevant settings in the Windows Control Panel (see links in the Windows Touch tab of the machine configuration).

Q: Why are touches registered at the wrong position?
A: Enable the input diagnostics in the Renderer window and check where the raw touch positions are registered. Most of the times, the problem lies in the input hardware or driver and not inside Ventuz.

Q: Why does the behavior of my Touch Rotation node look wrong?
A: First, check if the Rotation Mode (on- vs. off-axis) is set appropriately. You might also want to change the IntersectionType to "Mesh" and see if that improves things. Otherwise, keep in mind that the rotation node uses a plane as its mapping system. Try changing the RotationAxis so that it is aligned with the geometry and try to avoid using Axis Nodes underneath the Rotation Node. Instead, one should also put the Axis above the Rotation Node and thus transform both the mapping system and the geometry in a consistent fashion.

Q: I try to use the Touch Paint node to paint onto an object. Why is the mapping completely wrong?
A: Keep in mind that the Touch Paint node uses a planar mapping and is thus totally independent of the actual geometry underneath it. A 1:1 mapping is therefore only possible if you use a unit size Rectangle. For any other geometry, if the geometry is transformed, or if the mapping of the Rectangle is not set to "Flat", the results might not be as you expect. Use a rectangle directly underneath the paint node, and then apply all transformations to both, by adding the appropriate Axis above the paint node.

Q: What is the Touch Pattern node for?
A: The Touch Pattern node can be used to detect abstract movement patterns, for example if the user swipes to the left in order to navigate through a collection of items. For more information, see Touch Pattern.

Q: What is the Touch Marker node for?
A: Some camera based tracking systems are able to identify unique objects instead of declaring everything a generic touch. These are often also called Fiducials. For example, if a glass has a special barcode on its bottom and is placed on an appropriate surface, the system could read the ID and pass the information to Ventuz. To use marker objects, your hardware device has to send TUIO 2dobj messages containing the unique ID. Those will be relayed to the Touch Marker node with the appropriate ID set. This node can be ignored when only a Windows Touch based system is available. For more information, see Touch Marker.

Q: Why does a Windows Touch display not trigger the Mouse I/O nodes?
A: When touching a Windows Touch display, two kinds of messages are emitted into the Windows operating system. For one, WM_TOUCH messages are send that are touch specific. To allow applications without explicit multi-touch support to support the display, Windows also create artificial WM_MOUSE... messages. These messages however behave somewhat weird in that order of mouse movement and press events can be mixed up. For those reasons, Ventuz does block all artificial mouse messages when the Windows Touch checkbox is activated in the [MachineConfigurationMC#Interaction Machine Configuration]. If a scene that uses mouse nodes is to be used with a Windows Touch device, deactivate the Windows Touch checkbox to treat the device as just a mouse.

Q: Why isn't the correct interaction node triggered by my touch?
A: By default, a quick ray vs. bounding box intersection test is used. The bounding box of an object however can be much larger than the object itself. For more precise intersection, set the IntersectionType property in the interaction node to Mesh. This is a bit slower but exactly compares the touch against the triangles of the geometry.

Nodes and Properties

Q: In the Property Editor I can see, that output properties of my Script node are changing but the nodes which are bound to this properties do not react on the changes. Is this a Bug?
A: No, this is not a Bug! Most probably you did not set the 'changed' flag correctly in the source code. Every time an output property changes, the 'changed' flag must be set to true because the Generate() method returns a boolean value dependent on this flag. Only if Generate() returns true, bound nodes are informed about the property changes.

Rendering

Q: What is the difference between exclusive and non-exclusive fullscreen?
A: In exclusive fullscreen, DirectX will take over the complete screen. While this offers the best rendering performance, switching to another application will hide the rendering output. If you work with Ventuz alongside some other applications and are constantly switching, you should rather use the non-exclusive (a.k.a. virtual) fullscreen mode. This creates a window that is the size of the display and hosts DirectX inside that window. While performance may not be as good as in exclusive fullscreen, the rendering output will stay alive even when switching to another application.

Q: Why is my fullscreen window sometimes minimized automatically as if by magic?
A: Make sure that every other running process cannot display any pop-up window. Also check whether the notification icons in the Windows Taskbar are set to “Hide icon and notification".

Text and Fonts

Q: Why does Ventuz not render my text elements?
A: To load all the character sets of a font into the memory would affect the performance massively. Due to that only the Latin and Symbol character sets are enabled per default. To activate different character sets you need to change the settings in the Machine Configuration.

Q: How do I enable Far-Eastern (e.g. Chinese or Korean) character rendering in Ventuz?
A: Open the Machine Configuration and enable 'Special 2' character set in the 'Culture Settings' section. And you certainly need a font which contains far-eastern characters.

Q: Why does Ventuz not show Emoijs?
A: Please check if you enabled the Emoji processing on the related Text Provider Node. A good resource to learn more about Emoijs in Venutz is the related How To.

Video

Q: Why does my DeltaCast board not work correctly although I installed the drivers recommended by Ventuz?
A: Try to shutdown your computer, remove the card, wait a bit, put it back in and reboot. There is a known issue on DeltaCast's boards, sometimes the driver does not correctly initialize itself and this seems to be the only way to solve it. You should contact DeltaCast to report this problem.

Remoting

Q: Why do the OSC Nodes not work in the exported VPR presentation whereas everything worked fine in Ventuz Designer?
A: VentuzPresenter.exe which runs the presentation is different from Ventuz.exe (Ventuz Designer). So you have to configure the Windows Firewall for VentuzPresenter.exe as well to allow network communication.

Q: Why does my Remote Application using Ventuz .net Remoting not work any more after update to the latest Ventuz version?
A: Please check the Release Notes for changes in the Ventuz.Kernel.Remoting DLLs. If any of these DLLs has changed, you have to re-compile your remote application with the newest Ventuz.Kernel.Remoting DLLs!

Scripting

Q: The Output property of my Script node is changing but bound nodes do not react on the changes! What's going on?
A: Most probably you did not set the changed property to 'true' in the Validate() method. This is necessary to inform bound nodes about the change of properties. Find more information here: C# / VB Scripts

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