Version 9.5 Release Notes
Released: 2020/03/09
These release notes contain features, improvements, and fixes for the following XPression items:
- XPression
› BlueBox
› File Handling
› Framebuffers
› Material Manager
› Sequencer
› User Interface
› Visual Logic
- XPression Clips
- Hardware
- INcoder
- Remote Sequencer
- MOS Workflow
- API
- RossTalk
- As Run Log Formatter
- DataLinq™
- Video Codec
- Third-Party Tools
XPression
BlueBox
- BlueBox now has a preference to choose a default video format for the engine
File Handling
- The audio file import dialog box now allows you to select multiple WAV files to be imported
- A new preference to force the handling of PSD files as pre-multiplied or straight color
- XPression can now use a user-supplied version of FFMPEG to export video clips to MOV files. The path to
the ffmpeg.exe must be configured in the Advanced Preferences menu to enable the export via ffmpeg option
FFMPEG is not distributed or bundled with XPression.
FFMPEG can be downloaded here:
https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/
Framebuffers
- The RossLinq framebuffer can now select channel numbers up to 256
- Live inputs can now be configured on inputs also used by internal keyers on Matrox DSX cards
- The SMPTE 352 payload on Matrox DSX outputs now includes Rec. 2020 and HLG 2100 when applicable
- Blackmagic UltraStudio HD Mini is now supported with Bluebox GO!
- Server Channels can now have a dedicated framebuffer assigned as their preview channel
Material Manager
- Color and alpha blend settings from a texture on an object will now be copied to volatile textures that get applied
- Read-only properties for the xpVideoShader to read the in/out point of a sub clip assigned via the ClipStore.
- The video shader now has a setting for adjusting the master audio level of the video shader (ClipStore clips assigned to this published material will be adjusted by both their own audio level and the shaders master audio level)
- The material color properties (diffuse, ambient, etc.) can now accept a string value in hex form #RRGGBB or
decimal R,G,B
- The M: material tag can now take an optional digit (1-5) to specify the font attribute layer. For example
{M:1:matname} for Face, {M:2:matname} for Border, etc
Sequencer
- Additional color choices for Sequencer take items
- The export to video now has an option to use to sequence item name instead of a fixed base name, and also has an option to not include any numbering suffix
User Interface
- Objects in the Object Manager can now be colored, similar to Sequencer take items
- Copy/Paste of a stagger animation from one track to
another is now supported
- The text list widget has an option to allow manual entry of text
- The live log, tracking monitor, and live input monitor can now be assigned hot keys in the keyboard map editor
Visual Logic
- A new Time Offset Visual Logic block to add/subtract values from dates/times
- The Time Delta block in Visual Logic now has property outputs to indicate which date is larger or if they are equal
XPression Clips
- The ClipStore can now start a web server that provides a REST interface for retrieving clip info
- ClipStore clips can now have their audio level adjusted on a per-clip basis by using the Clip Editor dialog
- The ClipStore Manager now has the ability to create preset event tracks with RossTalk and SceneDirector Trigger events on them
- Event tracks can be assigned to clips in the XPression Clip Editor
- A MOS Plugin can now create a placeholder based on recall ID to be placed into the rundown (requires Gateway to be configured for clip recall via recall ID and for ClipStore to not allow duplicate recall IDs)
- The outpoint and length of stills will now be visible in the Clip Browser when they have been modified
- A right-click option to enable/disable looping and hold last frame for several clips at once
- Dragging a clip from the ClipStore to a published field while holding the CTRL key will link it to the published field by recall ID instead of by the clips unique ID
Hardware
- The Adrienne GPIO driver now includes options for choosing the initial pin state and whether the logic should be active high or active low
INcoder
- INcoder now has better error detection to report failures when clips fail to transcode correctly
- INcoder now has a button to duplicate a source and duplicate a processor
- INcoder is now faster at processing XPVC clips that are on a network drive
- INcoder now shows a progress bar when importing clips that are already in XPVC format
- INcoder now shows the watchfolder and processor for files in the task list
- INcoder has the capability to split clips into multiple regions and stripe regions of a source clip into a clip of
different dimensions
- INcoder has an option to force a processor to only handle clips of a specified dimension and fail otherwise
- The INcoder Processors tab can assign event tracks to clips processed by a watchfolder
- INcoder has an option to force the encoding quality setting of a processor
Remote Sequencer
- New mappable keyboard hot keys in Remote Sequencer to move focus on a channel up or down by a single item at a time.
- The Remote Sequencer now has a swap channel mappable keyboard hot key.
- New keyboard shortcuts in the Remote Sequencer to set focus on any of the channel sequence lists or the linear sequence list.
- The keyboard mapping menu in Remote Sequencer now shows shortcut conflicts.
- The cue action in Remote Sequencer can now cue multiple selected take items.
- In Remote Sequencer, the next/prev story hot keys now work on the Tessera channel.
- The Remote Sequencer now has an Edit Enable button (similar to XPression Studio) that will disable framebuffer/layer changes from the rundown tree but will also enable/disable all template data modifications.
- The output monitors list in the Remote Sequencer now grows to show items on layers outside of -3 to +3
MOS Workflow
- HTML5 Plugin: ability to conditionally render Add To Story, OK, and Cancel buttons via Gateway config
- HTML5 Plugin: will now navigate to the last previously viewed route when relaunched, rather than the Browse tab
- HTML5 Plugin: new preview controls feature where users can pre-load all preview frames to avoid blank preview images showing while scrubbing over preview timeline
- HTML5 Plugin: CSS enhancement when adjusting dimensions on preview editing form on smaller resolutions
- HTML5 Plugin: when editing preview images users can now use the mouse wheel to adjust values for position, rotation, scale, etc
- A setting in the MOS Gateway OFL engine configuration to reserve an OFL engine for use by NLE clients
- Holding Shift while changing projects in the MOS ActiveX Plugin will retain the data from the existing template.
- The ActiveX Plugin will now remember a user’s ClipStore filter setting
API
- Added API function xpSlabObject.GetDatalinq()
- A new property in the Tessera API to get the ID that a node is rendering as (useful when dealing with backup nodes)
- The xpLinesObject in the API now supports SetMaterial/GetMaterial calls
RossTalk
- A preference to allow Rosstalk TAKE/SEQI commands to be ignored if the item is already in the online state
- The RossTalk CUE command can now cue a sequence group set to Take All
As Run Log Formatter
- The As Run Log now allows partition total values to be exported to CSV files
Datalinq ™
- The NBA NGSS DataLinq has been updated to support the NBA’s new SSL connection requirements (Windows 10 only)
- Selecting a new game in NGSS will reset the box score and game stats
- The NGSS DataLinq home/away team tables now include player status fields
- A new DataLinq source for connecting to STATS LLC for out of town scoring feeds
- The STATS DataLinq will now parse SCORES data file as well
- The STATS DataLinq will now parse Womens College Basketball data
- In the STATS DataLinq, multiple games can now be selected and enabled/disabled
- The STATS DataLinq has a column for conference and rank for college football
- The OES lacrosse DataLinq now supports corner kicks
- A check box that allows the DataLinq to read text files that are currently opened for writing in other applications that lock the file
Video Codec
- The XPression Video Codec installer now includes a plugin for VLC 3.x to allow VLC to play XPression Codec videos
Third-Party Tools
- The Stream Deck plugin now supports the actions being used in Multi-Action buttons
- Support for the SeaLevel 8012e GPIO card
Version 7.0 Release Notes
Released: 8/23/2017
XPression
- All installers and executables are now digitally signed with a verified certificate.
- Font tags can now be used to apply a material to a text object. The syntax for the tag is {M:materialname}. To clear the material you can use {M:}.
- A new docking system that is easier to move/dock windows within a layout.
- The browse for folder dialog is now more user friendly.
- Modifying the template data fields of MOS items in Studio will now prevent those changes from being overwritten by new MOS updates.
- A button in Sequencer has been added to revert modified template data of MOS items back to the original MOS data from the NRCS.
- General improvements to the Unicode subsystem to provide better support for handling Unicode data.
- An option in the Visual Logic editor to set Visual Logic to run after the scene directors are stopped so that any objects linked to animated objects will move in sync.
- •The material manager now has an ‘Ungrouped’ folder which will show all materials that have not been grouped into folders.
- Export to images can now export a stereo WAV file along with the image sequence.
- A new ‘take all’ mode for sequence groups that will put all items inside the group online when the group is cued/taken.
- A new preference to choose the default continuous animation sync mode.
- Initial support for NewTek Network Device Interfaces (NDITM).
- When importing scenes/materials from another project, when matching folder names (parent folder needs to match as well) are found, the newly imported material will be placed into the matching existing folder.
- Background objects can now have sizes larger than 9999.
- Scenes can now be created and converted to sizes down to 10 pixels.
- The output framebuffer option to use hardware (GPU) color space conversion can now be combined with the option to output full range (super black to super white).
- User input controls can now be used to assign global materials to quad objects.
- A preference to enable font cache optimizations for East Asian languages.
- The project import dialog now shows the scene IDs alongside the scene names.
- The Send To Clip Store dialog now remembers its settings when reopened.
- The DirectShow audio device now supports 5.1 and 7.1 audio monitoring.
- The renderview shader will now call the onrender script of the render view scene.
- The sequencer now has a thumbnail column which can display a thumbnail for each sequencer item.
- The maximum width/height of the quad and slab objects has been increased.
- A custom format string can now be used in the Visual Logic format float block.
- A Format String block in Visual Logic that can take an arbitrary string and replace %s symbols with incoming string parameters.
- A number of date/time blocks in Visual Logic (for encoding, decoding, formatting, and calculating time deltas).
- Camera tracking data can be associated with a video shader using a matching .xpCam file.
- The slab object now has an option to lock the radius/smoothing of all corners together.
- Psf video formats (HD and UHD) are now supported in XPression projects and on AJA NTV2 boards.
- The name field in the CII external update fields can now use %DataLinqkey% or @textobject@ macros to dynamically change the field name.
- The framebuffer inputs and outputs can now have user configurable names.
- The New Image option in the material manager can now import multiple images simultaneously (Shift + click in the texture explorer).
- The viewport now has a configurable zoom level. Holding Ctrl and scrolling the mouse wheel will adjust the zoom level.
- A sequence item using CII X commands can now continually poll for updates at a configurable refresh interval.
- The cue item keyboard shortcut can now cue a specific take item by ID and can optionally set focus to that item.
- The active viewport setting (blue diamond) will retain its state when XPression is restarted.
- A right-click option in the published object order list to unpublish an object.
- All published object properties of type int, float, and boolean can now be keyframed. This allows for things such as the keyframing of cylinder angles, object effect parameters, etc.
- Added Aspect, Near, and Far Plane properties to the Camera objects for use in Visual Logic.
- AJA NTV2 boards that support it can now output in UHD 2SI.
- The sequencer can now show a countdown column which will indicate how much time is left playing the default scene director (useful only when the scene director plays linearly to its end).
- Double-clicking in the Material Manager in sequencer mode can now add material tags to the selected text in the template data.
- Outgoing SmartGPI / RossTalk commands can now be sent using UDP.
- Scripts can now use globally defined methods (functions and subs) by using the Edit > Scripting > Global Scripts Method Editor.
- A button in the template links tab to update sequencer items with the current value of publishable properties from layout mode.
- The template links controls will now scale with the size of the tab.
- The sequencer search dialog now has an option to search take item names.
- A new Visual Logic property for Text Objects, “TextWithTags” to get the value of a text object which includes its font tags.
- The TextWithTags property in Visual Logic now includes two children properties to configure if the TextWithTags should include either Font Tags, Material Tags, or both.
- The Render View shader can now be set to use the “Owner Scene” as its target; to allow the shader to point to itself and still support Scene Copies, Previews, etc.
- The CII X command can now send **** for the Tab Data Message ID, controlled by a global preference setting.
- The Import from Project dialog now has an option to use existing fonts that match the imported font, rather than creating duplicate fonts. This feature can be disabled if it is preferred to not have the existing fonts reused.
- The ability to preview, select, and renumber take items imported from XML.
- The ability to renumber a selection of take items by applying an offset.
- Improved performance when using an output framebuffer on a Matrox card.
Tessera
- Selecting regions in the Tessera region mapper will now select the mapping entries as well and the other way around.
- When adding a new Tessera region, a size dialog will now allow you to enter its size.
- Bulk assignment of Tessera Sources can now be done through the Take Item Inspector.
- Tessera now uses a NET ID so multiple master/node combinations can operate in parallel on the same network.
- BlueBox now supports Tessera.
- Added Tessera network settings to BlueBox.
DataLinq
-
- A new RTD DataLinq for receiving real-time data from Daktronics and other compatible data sources.
- OES DataLinq now supports baseball ISC9000 feeds.
- The RSS DataLinq now supports gzip encoded responses.
- Additional logging in the Dashboard DataLinq.
- Better handling of OES DataLinq basketball “h” & “g” messages for team names.
- A JSON DataLinq source to parse local JSON files.
- The XML/JSON DataLinq can now search multiple attributes or elements to return a node that matches all search criteria. For example, Players<team=ny;jersey=10>.</team=ny;jersey=10>
- The RSS DataLinq can now apply a local XSL transform file.
- OES DataLinq basketball and volleyball feeds now support “s” messages for player stats.
- The XML DataLinq now has an option to interpret the XML file using different encodings such as UTF8, UTF16, and ISO-8859.
- A DataLinq comparison key such as <club=ross> can now have an additional index parameter as well, such as <club=ross<2>>, which will retrieve the second item matching the key.</club=ross<2></club=ross>
The RSS DataLinq now contains an option to read HTTP based JSON sources.
- Added DataLinq source to connect to Swiss Timing NBA Tissot Timer Scoreboard feed.
- The RSS DataLinq now has a configuration option to enable the use of a proxy server to connect to the network.
XPression Clips
- The record client can now do a bulk import of multiple files to the Clip Store.
- The Clip Store’s sync mechanism now fully supports resume for interrupted transfers.
- The Clip Store manager now shows the progress of syncing to a remote Clip Store.
- Holding Ctrl while dragging a clip item from the sequencer to a server channel will cue a copy of the item (thus preserving the take item’s original server channel assignment).
- The Clip Editor now has buttons for marking and jumping to loop start/end points.
- The Clip Editor now uses the multipoint loop settings while playing back clips.
- The INcoder can now auto-assign a recall ID configurable on a per-project basis.
- The server channels now have basic API functions for play, pause, and eject.
- Stills from the Clip Editor can now be exported directly to the Clip Store.
- When dragging clips from the clip browser to the sequencer, the Take ID assigned will use the Recall ID or the next highest available number.
- The server channel now has a “pause mode” option to determine which field/frame to display when a server channel is paused.
- Each video server channel can now have a preview channel where clips can be cued while still allowing the on-air clip to be controlled and have its timecode and countdown visible.
- The server channel now has an “Auto Take” feature to automatically take the clip cued on its preview channel when the on-air clip has finished.
Media Control Gateway
- A VDCP option in the Media Control Gateway to clear the CUE/INIT flag as soon as CUE/INIT DONE is set.
- The Media Control Gateway now supports a VDCP extension to turn looping on (0x1X 0xF1) and off (0x1X 0xF2).
XPression MOS Plugin
- A PNG image can now be exported from the MOS Plug-in by right-clicking on the preview.
- The OpenMAM button has been moved to the lower toolbar in the MOS plug-in so it is available on all tabs.
- An option in the MOS Gateway to exclude item timing from being put in the editorial time fields of the MOS object.
- An option in the MOS Gateway to disable the channel and layer options in the MOS Plug-in.
- The MOS Plug-in now has an icon to indicate which fields are material fields.
- The font size in the MOS Plug-in template list has been increased.
- Improved icons in the MOS Plug-in material property editor.