Syphon with Arkaos Grand VJ

[VJ Eye]

Hello,

I’m having issues using madmapper with Arkaos Grand VJ passing by Syphon. I just don’t understand at all. I’ve found nowhere a tutorial or just a little hint in how using it with GVJ. I’ve seen that I’m suppose to use either quartz composer or freeframe gl but nothing. It doesn’t output my general output, it only outputs the QTZ it self.

Is it possible to have a small hint on how i’m suppose to do that?

Thank you very much.

VJ Eye

[bangnoise]

This isn’t as easy as it should be…

EDIT: YES IT IS – GRANDVJ NOW SUPPORTS SYPHON NATIVELY, IGNORE THIS THREAD

I’ve made a Quartz Composer effect you can use to get a Syphon Server running in GrandVJ. Download it from here (removed, GrandVJ now supports Syphon natively). Because GrandVJ uses the Quartz Composer “Image Effect” protocol, which restricts the sort of patches you can use in an effect, I’ve had to use a Render In Image patch to draw the input image and send it out via Syphon. This is probably a bit of a slowdown – maybe someone has a better idea to get around that…

Install that file in ~/Library/Application Support/ArKaos/GrandVJ/Quartz Composer/Effects and it will show up in the Effects tab of GrandVJ under “Quartz Composer (User)”.

I don’t know if you can have an effect on the output in synth mode, rather than on an individual clip (I’ve never used GrandVJ), but it works fine in mixer mode – put the effect on a layer above everything else you’re triggering, and you’ll see it appear in MadMapper.

[vade]

That is exactly how I had to manage it bangnoise, via an RII patch. I also could not figure out how to send the entire output of Grand VJ into an effect. This *greatly* limits how Syphon can work with it.

You can of course use a Syphon Client as a QTZ “source” to trigger. That works as expected.

In my playing with Grand VJ, it strikes me that they would either have to add Syphon to Grand VJ natively so it grabs the full mixed output, or re-do the effects architecture to make it work in any way that users would reasonably expect a Syphon *output* to work.

Does that clear it up, even if it is somewhat less that helpful? I would petition or ask the Arkaos folks about it.

[bangnoise]

I also could not figure out how to send the entire output of Grand VJ into an effect.

GrandVJ has two modes – synth and mixer – toggled by a toggle at the top of the window. Mixer mode gives you eight layers in which you trigger clips/sources. As I described, in mixer mode you can put the Server effect in the topmost layer and trigger clips or whatever in the layers below – the server needn’t be tied to a clip.

I couldn’t spot a way to untie effects from clips in synth mode, but mixer mode works fine.

[bangnoise]

Oh, except the image gets flipped…

[VJ Eye]

Yes perfect! It works except just like you said, the image is upside down. How can I have it normal? Is it an error in the QTZ?

[VJ Eye]

Another thing, It doesn’t look like the resolution is the same as my arkaos. Is it possible to change the resolution manually?

I tried to change the parameters in quartz composer but every time i open the QTZ in quartz. The program crashes and I have to do a hard shutdown of the program.

Any ideas?

[vade]

If Quartz Composer is crashing you likely have something like QCRehab installed somewhere. I would suggest removing it. Once you get Quartz to open, you can manually specify the size of the render in image patch to the size of the incoming image (via the Image Dimensions patch), or set the pixels width/height to 0 so it will size to the *destination* context (usually the full window). I would suggest using the input image size, as outputting to the context/destination size is kind of unnecessary in my opinion.

[VJ Eye]

Ah ok, but what about the upside down problem? How come it is doing that?

[vade]

No idea. We did not write Arkaos 😉

It could be how Arkaos handles flipped textures by flipping the modelview matrix of the OpenGL scene when finishing rendering. If it inputs a flipped image, well, its gonna be flipped. You can fix that in Quartz pretty easily though. Does it do it for *every source*, every live camera input and even for rendered sources (like Quartz sources, or built in generative sources?). If so, un-flip it in the QTZ 🙂

[bangnoise]

Right, GrandVJ is a bit of a pain…

I’ve updated the QC effect to flip the image, so if you download it again it will at least be the right way up.

However GrandVJ seems to render its scene stretched to nearest-power-of-two dimensions, so the Syphon output is always going to be stretched unless you have GrandVJ configured to a POT resolution.

vade, any ideas..?

[bangnoise]

Right, new version up which appears to render the right way up and at the right dimensions. New problem is that sometimes GrandVJ’s output goes white when I trigger a clip…

[VJ Eye]

The flashing is because, modifications have been done on the channel (the positions /size options and the some in the mixing box).

To avoid the flashing problem, you need to first set up, what you want in those options and then after that you can insert the syphon server in a channel without having the flash but as soon as you change something in the options, it will flash again.

[VJ Eye]

another solution is to set the transparency of the channel where there is the syphon server to zero.

The white flash while triggering disappears.

[bangnoise]

Whatever triggers it, I think it’s probably a bug in GrandVJ – I’d see if you can provoke Arkaos into action.

[VJ KayCee]

Hi Bangnoise & VJ Eye,

I am having trouble with getting grandvj out to Mad Mapper. Tried everything that you guys have discussed but somehow it does not work. Please help

[bangnoise]

@Vj KayCee

Do you have the Syphon Plug-In for QC installed? It’s available on the Syphon site.

You’ll need that, as well as the effect linked above.

[jonnygriffiths]

Hi mate

Im new to using syphon and cant get my head around it.

want to send resolume output to grand vj

totally stuck on the quartz composer stuff

any help would be appriciated

[bangnoise]

You’re probably best to contact ArKaos for help with GrandVJ – or try googling “GrandVJ Syphon input”.

If you’re having specific problems with Syphon for Quartz Composer then let us know what steps you’re performing, what you expect to happen and what problems you’re encountering.

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