General

The Software ships with a bundle installer containing all necessary components. It is recommended to use the bundle installer when setup needs to be done manually.

• The Setup application (both MSI and Bundle installer) must be run in Administrator mode.

• Visual C++ Redistributable files are no longer part of the .msi setup file. These files are now installed with the bundle setup application (VIZENG-13210, VIZENG-12629, VIZENG-12701).

• The bundle setup application installs or upgrades Viz Artist together with its required Visual C++ Redistributable files (VIZENG-12936, VIZENG-13804).

• All files contained in the bundle setup application can be extracted using the /dump command line option. This creates a sub-folder where the files are extracted (VIZENG-13020).

• Multiple installations of Viz Engine are not supported.

• The installer automatically upgrades (replaces) any existing Viz Artist/Viz Engine 3.x installation. However, downgrading is currently not supported (VIZENG-7098).

• If Adobe After Effects is installed after Viz Engine, then the Viz installer needs to be executed again to install the AE plug-in (VIZENG-7876).

• The user account must have SeCreateGlobalPrivilege (SE_CREATE_GLOBAL_NAME) enabled.

• The configuration profiles shipped with Viz Engine guarantee a correct Audio/Video delay to have a proper lip-sync setup or a correct video wall installation. A manual configuration (for example, number of inputs, clips, etc.) is still necessary after applying these profiles (VIZENG-18861).

• To use Global Illumination in Viz Artist/Viz Engine, at least Direct X version 9 is required. An installer can be found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 (VIZENG-19983).

• The Basic, Viz DataPool, Viz PixelFX, Viz Maps, Viz Extension and Viz Socialize plug-ins are released together with Viz Engine starting with version 4.0.0 and are included in the bundle installer. The basic plug-ins are installed by default.

Windows

• This software has been tested to run on Windows 10 (LTSC 1809), Windows 11 and Server 2019 and Server 2022.

• Windows transparency effects should be turned off (former known as Aero). In Windows 10 set Show transparency in Windows to Off in Settings > Display and Transparency effects to Off in Settings > Personalization > Colors > More options.

• Power management and hibernation mode must be turned off under Windows. You can execute powercfg -h off to remove hiberfil.sys from the hard disk.

• It is recommended to install the latest Windows Security Updates and Patches, except NVIDIA updates.

• Installations on Windows 10 are only supported on their respective supported hardware (see Supported Systems).

• Dot.NET framework 4.5 or higher is required (VIZENG-6036).

• The minimum Windows Installer version is now 5.0.0 (VIZENG-10146).

To run Viz Engine without Administrator privileges, you need to grant the following permissions:

• SeIncreaseBasePriorityPrivilege

• SeCreateGlobalPrivilege

• SeCreatePagefilePrivilege

• SeIncreaseWorkingSetPrivilege

UAC

• Viz Engine is UAC aware. Configuration files, profiles, log files, and additional files are stored in %VIZ_PROGRAMDATA%, which defaults to %ProgramData%\Vizrt\VizEngine. Temporary data is stored in %VIZ_TEMPDATA% which defaults to %TMP%\Vizrt\VizEngine. The default value can be changed in the command line of viz.exe.

• Existing Lens files are copied from %ProgramFiles% install folder to the new UAC aware %ProgramData% folder during installation (VIZENG-8757).

• Existing Viz configuration files are copied from %ProgramFiles% install folder to the new UAC aware %ProgramData% folder during installation (VIZENG-7472).

Cinema 4D

• Cinema 4D LiveLink Installation: The installer searches the following location first: %ProgramFiles%\MAXON\CINEMA 4D R16\plugins (VIZENG-7965).

• Cinema 4D LiveLink package can be installed any time later by using Viz Artist Installer in Repair mode. Its installation folder is not selectable anymore (VIZENG-8996).

• Cinema 4D R23 or newer: LiveLink plug-in is available at %ProgramFiles%\Vizrt\VizEngine\CINEMA 4D LiveLink\R23 (VIZENG-25344).

NVIDIA Drivers

NVIDIA driver 528.89 is recommended for GPUs with Ada Lovelance Technology. Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal or Maxwell Technology cards have been tested with 516.59 only.
A driver upgrade is not recommended in general.
Kepler GPUs are not recommended anymore, however they might still work using older driver version 473.47 . Boards that do not support this version of the driver should use rev. 419.17.

NVIDIA driver configuration (Manage 3D settings):

Matrox Drivers

• For Matrox video cards, driver version 10.4.101.1285 is required. This version is mandatory. Pre-release versions are not supported.

• Uninstall previous versions of Matrox DSXUtils prior to installing this driver.

• Install drivers (DSX-TopologyUtils.exe) only from a local drive.

• Reboot between uninstall and install of drivers, and another time after the installation has finished.

• The VfW codecs are included in this driver, so uninstall previous versions of the Matrox VfW codecs and do not install any Matrox VfW codecs over the regular driver installation.

Other Drivers

• The latest firmware for Supernova and Supernova S+ is 162.

• The latest firmware for Neutron is 1i2o 35. There is no longer 1in1out firmware.

• The recommended firmware for AJA IO4K+ devices is 2021/06/23.

• The recommended driver version for Plura AV timecode reader cards is 5.34.

Please refer to the Viz Engine Administrator Guide for which drivers and driver settings to use.

Given that a supported Matrox device is installed, the following codecs are supported for post-rendering with MatroxFileWriter and the ClipOut channels:

• RLE (animation), playback only

• H.264

• Apple ProRes

• HDV

• XDCam

• DVCPro

• DNxHD (4849)

• XAVC (UHD requires M264 board)

• The clog command now includes all child processes. Upon abnormal end, all child processes are terminated before a restart is attempted (VIZENG-11361).

Licensing Model

• The CodeMeter Runtime (installed with the bundle installer) is required to use the WIBU license system. Details can be found in the manual in section "WIBU-based Licensing System". Please refer to the documentation on how to apply a license container.

• Cloud-based installations require a license server; standalone cloud installations are not supported.

Other Upgrade Notes

• X.open dongles are no longer supported because of missing USB driver support for Windows 10.

• Viz Engine is not forward-compatible! A scene saved with this version might look different if you open it in a previous version. This affects scenes containing more than four streaming channels.

• Viz Engine does not support half-height rendering anymore.

• Lens distortion uses a slightly different norm since revision 54263. If you need older lens files, please use use_lens_compatibility_mode = 1 in the config file.

• Viz Artist is now being started by the Viz Engine process and not by command file anymore. If you start viz.exe and VizGui.exe independently, the Restart Current option fails.

A 64-bit version of each codec must be installed to work with Softclip64. Most codecs come with an installation manual on how to install them correctly.

Softclip64 has been tested to work with the following 64-bit codecs:

• HuvYuff Version 2.1.1

• Lagarith Version 1.3.27

• Newtek SpeedHQ

Key Features

17 issues

New Features: General

17 issues

New Features: Renderer

30 issues

New Features: Video IO

16 issues

Fixed Issues: General

11 issues

Fixed Issues: Renderer

11 issues

Fixed Issues: Video IO

14 issues

Changes: Renderer

• NVIDIA Kepler GPUs were set as deprecated (NVIDIA isn't supporting Kepler boards in newer driver versions anymore).

Changes: VideoIO

• Improvements in the IO sequence made GPU direct obsolete. The setting was removed.

General

• Saving a new scene with references that do not exist anymore fails. Those references need to be removed manually to save the scene.

• Importing HDR images with special characters in its file name from a drive with 8dot3 disabled fails.

• Transition Logic scenes require to have GeomAutoFree = 1 set in the Viz Config file. With inactive GeomAutoFree, system stability is not guaranteed.

• Interactive Applications within a GFX channel only work in DVE mode in Fullscreen or if the GFX channel has an offset in Fullscreen. Scaled GFX channels or plug-ins that rely on screen coordinates (Graffiti) are not supported.

• Bones and Skin live motion data tracking requires Tracking Hub 1.1.2 (released together with Viz Engine 3.11).

• Viz Engine REST interface does not start if a user is Non-Admin (VIZENG-23386).

• On Air output shows wrong field-of-view if AuxRenderer is enabled, PP in scene editor is disabled and Viz Engine is not in On Air mode.

• Viz One Browser clip preview might fail on Viz One Versions >=7.0

• The Toggle plug-in can not handle the background loading of objects or scenes.

• Oversized snapshot requests (bigger than the configured output resolution) in the Classic Render Pipeline aren't supported. Use the Viz Engine Render Pipeline instead.

26 issues

Installation

• Do not use the C4D Version 15R2 patch file(s) unless you are using this version. Otherwise, it prevents Cinema 4D R16 from starting up.

• When uninstalling Viz Engine, the installer might report that links could not be removed. Please check that none of the desktop.ini files of Windows have write protection. For example, Skype seems to change the permissions of some desktop.ini files with every update.

Windows 10

• Right-clicking on the Taskbar icon of Viz Engine starts a new instance. Starting an additional VizGui process is prevented on Windows 10.

• Error message "Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler has stopped working while opening specific clips with Softclip x64". To fix open Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder options > View tab, and deselect Show preview handlers in the preview pane.

Videowall

• It might happen that Viz Engine is running at half speed on videowall, but goes back to full speed if another window comes into focus. If so, start viz.exe -y -w, instead of the regular videowall mode viz.exe -n -w .

• GFX channels with Alpha != 100% decrease render performance. On video wall setup, gfx_channels_antialiased = 0 should be turned off in the Viz Configuration section RENDER_OPTIONS.

• Windows scaling can lead to unwanted side effects.

• The maximum resolution on videowall setups is limited to 16392px by 16392px.

• Enabling video output for audio setups is not recommended for performance reasons. It is recommended to grab the audio from one of the HDMI/DP outputs of the NVIDIA GPU and use an Audio embedder instead.

Configuration

• Specifying a path in the configuration file including the # character is not supported. Such paths are cut before the # character.

Viz Engine Render Pipeline

• The Browser plug-in is not supported on the Viz Engine Render Pipeline.

• Existing Scenes using Global Illumination might need a precompute again to enable debug views.

• Background loading of external images (filesystem, network locations, etc.) is not supported. Images from Graphic Hub should be used.

• Fonts using GEOM_TEXT may slightly differ between 4.2.0 and 4.3.0.

• Flexbox labels in Scene Editor do not support Unicode characters.

Classic Render Pipeline

• Scene Transitions within GFX channels or Superchannels are not supported.

• Soft Shadow intensity is currently not working together with Global Illumination.

• We recommend using a warmup scene showing all needed assets once. Under certain circumstances, video and clip surfaces can show up red the first time being used.

• Playing Audio clips on systems with no physical audio hardware available stops the renderer. You need to turn off audio in the configuration file.

• On some systems with hybrid graphics, like laptops, the dynamic swapping must be disabled in the BIOS and the stronger GPU must be assigned as default.

• Stencil-based shadows (Caster/Receiver) do not work on rotated geometry.

• When changing CurlAuthUnsafe = 1, Viz One Browser does not work anymore.

• VGA Fullscreen Output is only active if offscreen rendering is turned off. Setting offscreen=0 in section RENDER_OPTIONS enables fullscreen output.

• Blending cubemapped images are not supported.

• Cubemapping with Browser plug-in is not supported.

• Fonts need to be re-imported to use new Pathrendering or Razor fonts technology.

• Masks are not supported on Path rendered Fonts (VIZENG-13737).

• Do not send other commands than IS_RENDERER_READY and database connection commands before this command returns 1, otherwise the renderer and video output might not be initialized.

• If you encounter stability issues with an NVIDIA driver or issues during driver installation, uninstall the old NVIDIA driver completely, delete the folder C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\Installer2, install the new driver and select Custom installation, then check-mark the perform clean installation option and finish the installation.

• Enabling background loading might decrease the render performance by up to 15 frames per second. This is due to OpenGL requirements.

• M-Zone keyer only works with HD when rendering with full frames.

• Decreased render performance in HD since Viz Engine 3.5.0 when the ringing filter is activated. Before Viz Engine version 3.5.1 there was no ringing filter for HD. Turn off the ringing filter via configuration or scene-setting to get the same performance.

• Sporadic NVIDIA driver error The NVIDIA OpenGL driver lost connection with the display driver and is unable to continue. which in turn causes Viz Engine to freeze. Make sure that the driver profile Workstation App > Dynamic Streaming is selected. Always use the recommended NVIDIA driver for your GPU.

• Possible performance problems with scenes imported from Viz Engine 2.x. Check the following settings (applies to old 2.x scenes only):

  • Image Combining should be set to Multi Texturing in the Render options in the configuration (or flag combine_with_multitex = 1 in the configuration file) to avoid inefficient image combining.

  • Set Key Render Mode to Single Pass in the rendering options in the configuration. The Key Render Mode can also be set on scene level. Available options are:

• Config (inherit the setting from the configuration).

• Single Pass (fill and key are rendered in a single pass).

• Double Pass (fill and key are rendered in separate rendering passes).
  Key rendering results differ between these options for compatibility reasons.

• Use Single Pass scenes imported from Viz Engine 2.x and Double Pass for Viz Engine 3.x scenes.

• The configuration flag exec_all_animations in the section RENDER_OPTIONS should be set to 0 if it is not necessary to execute hidden animations.

• Turn off the VGA preview in On Air mode to avoid performance drops due to multiple rendering of the scene (applies only to video version of Viz Engine).

• Hide containers that are not required for the current animation.

• Re-import fonts directly with the Viz Engine.

• Grid picking currently only works for Cube and Cylinder geometry.

• The behavior of scripts with cyclic dependencies to other scripts is undefined. Avoid cyclic dependencies.

• Bad performance when using multiple dynamic scenes, even if they are set inactive. To avoid unnecessary updates, change the Update mode in Dynamic Scenes to Auto instead of Always.

• CLR LOAD command can crash Viz if not used correctly. Required function signature: static int pwzMethodName(String pwzArgument).

• Alpha setting for DVEs is not correctly supported when a scene is used nested using a GFX channel (VIZENG-10212).

• Glow plug-in drops performance when used on multiple containers and rendered within a GFX channel or viewport tile (VIZENG-11342).

• Scene transitions do not work when dynamic images from different folders are involved. Dynamic images always need to be stored directly in the root folder dynamic and references must point there. Dynamic images in a subfolder of the dynamic folder or any other folder are not found.

• Font option "lighted" has no effect on fonts rendered with type "vector" (VIZENG-18941)

• 16-bit PNG images are not rendered properly when imported with compression.

Unreal Integration

• Unreal Engine 5.x with Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) enabled can lead to flicker issues when used in combination with NVIDIA Driver 528.89. Changing to FXAA solves the issue.

Post Renderer

• Because of performance issues rendering fullscreen sequences in UHD is not supported.

• Ghosting effect in post-rendered interlaced video: Make sure that the Flicker Filter is set to 0 in the post-rendering options of the Video Render plug-in.

• Post-rendering does not work properly if onair_no_videoout flag = 1 (Videowall mode).

• Post-rendering does not work properly if TriCaster integration is active and the output format is set to User Defined or Fullscreen.

• DVCPRO expects 720x480 in NTSC resolution. Please set the correct output width in AVIRenderer.

• The alpha channel cannot be rendered with Intel Indeo 5.10 codec. This codec is not supported.

• Viz Engine might crash if certain VfW codecs are used on non-Matrox installations in Post Render Mode.

Matrox

• Fast Texture Mode is only available for two instances.

• The configuration ClipIn[n].UseV210 and ClipIn1. ContainsAlpha are mutually exclusive and should not be enabled at the same time.

• The overall delay is one field higher than in previous versions using IO3 This is caused by the required A/B buffer of IO 4.

• A program output channel needs to be defined. Pure preview or Cleanfeed is not supported.

• HDR output on UHD 2SI requires at least a Quadro P6000 GPU.

• HDR input support is currently for HLG only.

• Mixing different frame rates with clips processed by a M.264 board is not supported and causes jittering.

• Upgrading the FPGA can cause a PCI error during the boot process on certain systems. Unattended upgrading of the FPGA is not recommended.

• Watchdog is only supported in 50/60M and 60Hz frequencies.

• When using 3G formats (1080p/UHD) or the Zero-Frame-Delay Mixer, auto-sensing of the sync signal is not supported due to incompatible H-/V-phases, that are set in the process.

• Instead, either Tri-Level or Blackburst must be used together with correct H-/V-Phase. This might result in a missing key signal (VIZENG-11708).

• For dual channel systems, please perform the following steps after enabling the watchdog to ensure the correct state is written to the Matrox Board:
  

  1. Start Channel 1.

  2. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

  3. Start Channel 2.

  4. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

  5. Exit channel 2.

  6. Exit channel 1.

  7. Start channel 1.

  8. Wait until channel has started up and topology has been written.

  9. Start channel 2.

• ClipOut channel does not work when Matrox0.VideoOut1.FrameBufferDelay is set to zero (VIZENG-16373).

• UHD Clip Playback with M264 S1/S2/S3 alone requires color conversion on the shader level. (VIZENG-20700).

• Two Sample Interleave (2SI) clips played as DVE are not supported.

• Cutting of Audio tracks should not be done at all, as this results in a crackling noise. Always use a cross-fade to change audio sources.

• Monitoring live, clip and genlock status via SNMP is not supported (SNMP was deprecated and is no longer supported by Microsoft).

• Certain M4V clips may cause Viz Engine to lock and flood the console with errors when being played in a loop.

• Running interlaced AVC-Intra 100 clips on M.264 boards may lead to instabilities when played non-stop over several hours.

X.mio3 Boards

• If the Viz instance is closed unexpectedly, the X.mio3 topology might become unusable. To reset the topology, enable ResetTopology in the config file, restart Viz, close it and start Viz again.

• X.mio3 IP boards should have an active signal connected to SFP A prior to booting the system.

• Turning on the Cleanfeed Feature increases the delay by one frame.

• It is not recommended to change the frame group of any input signal while Viz Engine is running.

• Only two DVE UHD inputs are supported at 50Hz. For 60M formats, only two texture inputs are supported.

• Animating UHD DVE scaling might result in jittering. You need to increase the VideoDelayDVE setting to 2.

• Texture delay with PAL/NTSC, and Fast Texture Mode is five instead of four fields. (VIZENG-16955).

• When using watchdog together with a clean feed, the watchdog triggers on the clean feed connector rather than the program output (VIZENG-16589).

X.mio5 Boards

• Standard Definition (PAL and NTSC) resolutions are not supported by X.mio5 IP boards according to the SMPTE ST 2110 standard.

• Streampunk ledger RDS does not list the Matrox X.mio5 nodes. This is due to some old NMOS APIs that are partially deprecated.

• Riedel Explorer fails listing the X.mio5 nodes. Riedel Explorer automatically selects NMOS API Version 1.3 instead of 1.2. It is possible to select the used API version manually if you switch to static mode and/or enable version downgrade in the Riedel Explorer.

The X.mio5 board has been tested to support up to 12 Inputs (1080i 50 and 60M) on a 10GbE network.

DSX.core

After the installation of the DSX-core client version of the driver perform the following steps:

1. Unregister mvfDsxCore.dll.

   1. Click Start > Run (or use the Windows command line: Search > CMD > (Right click) Run as Administrator)

   2. Type REGSVR32 /U "C:\Program Files\Matrox DSX-TopologyUtils\System64\mvfDsxCore.dll" and press ENTER.

2. Shut down X.info in the task manager.

3. Delete mvfDsxCore.dll from the folder C:\Program Files\Matrox DSX-TopologyUtils\System64\.

4. Start X.info.

Other Video Boards

• When Viz Engine is in On Air mode, there might be audio distortions using Bluefish cards (VIZENG-8853).

• Bluefish Supernova S+ cards can only be used in a Virtual Set Environment if the board is synced to Blackburst/Trilevel.

NVIDIA

• When the computer is running out of virtual page size and the user keeps ignoring the low memory warnings in the console, the NVIDIA driver may cause Viz Engine to crash.

• The NVIDIA driver doesn't recognize other GPUs under certain circumstances in combination with video wall mosaic installations. Remove and reinstall the driver.

Graphic Hub

• Communication with the Graphic Hub Server might fail if virtual network adapters are active. Please disable all virtual adapters or increase the timeout.

• If the connection to the naming server fails, please verify the communication port in the config file (Port 19396).

Adaptive Scene Design

• WindowMask plug-in prevents Flexbox labels from being picked.

Audio

• Unplugging a USB microphone from the machine while EAS is enabled freezes Viz Engine without the possibility to recover (VIZENG-29571).

Supported Systems

Supported GPUs

Supported Video Boards

Please refer to the Viz Engine Administrator Guide for which drivers and driver settings to use.