www.filterforge.com - Beta 14.0

Preview always on

Rachel Duim — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 07:37:59 -0500

Rachel Duim, Tue, 05 Nov 2024 23:44:48 -0500
On the Mac with the latest version of Sonoma, the display appears to be stuck in preview mode, even if Tools/Options /Interface/Reduce image size for large images is unchecked. Here's an example in FF14 beta with the Preview message at the bottom:

GMM, Wed, 06 Nov 2024 07:37:59 -0500
Thank you Rachel. This is a known issue to be fixed in the next beta update.

Animation and perlin phase

Rachel Duim — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 09:09:53 -0400

Rachel Duim, Tue, 15 Oct 2024 23:30:24 -0400
Attached is a test of the phase option in Perlin Noise. The noise is inside the cloud group. Manually if you click frame 1 on the timeline, then frame 90 the test renders match pixel for pixel. The Perlin Noise is looped. However if you Render Animation in any format, the animation does not loop properly.
Latest macOS with FF14

GMM, Mon, 21 Oct 2024 09:09:53 -0400
Rachel, thanks for your report.

The devs say this behavior is by design and is not related to rendering animation in a single container: if you browse through rendered frames one by one quickly enough, you'll see the same twitching behavior.

It is caused by the fact that blending of the noise octaves is not uniform along the Z-axis. You can try shifting phases a bit differently. Maybe increasing roughness or adding a constant somewhere will result in less twitching.

Beta 14 is out — you're welcome to download and play

GMM — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:21:41 -0400

GMM, Wed, 29 May 2024 09:22:43 -0400
I personally recommend the new 3D noises:

https://www.filterforge.com/download/beta14/

Rachel Duim, Wed, 29 May 2024 16:18:59 -0400
Sent the request for a Mac license and got this error message back: "We already received a request from your email address. Please wait a bit while we're processing it."

Rachel Duim, Wed, 29 May 2024 17:57:13 -0400
When I ran the free version of FF14 beta on my Mac, it did this at the opening:

Rachel Duim, Thu, 30 May 2024 00:10:14 -0400
When trying to submit Generate Bug Report... in the previous post, no information was sent. I believe FF13 also has this issue

GMM, Thu, 30 May 2024 07:08:02 -0400

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: it did this at the opening

Rachel, thanks for the report. Did FF open correctly after that?
Also, did you change the default installation folder?

Rachel Duim, Thu, 30 May 2024 08:21:52 -0400
No, didn’t get that far. Installed it, ran it and it crashes immediately ie does not run. The missing graphic is not in the default folder. I’ve always installed/run FF from the main drive.

GMM, Thu, 30 May 2024 12:04:56 -0400
Thank you Rachel, we identified and hopefully fixed the issue. Please redownload and reinstall:

https://www.filterforge.com/download/beta14/

S. Obermann, Thu, 30 May 2024 13:46:23 -0400
Hi there, I just installed FF14beta with all filters incl. my owns copied from my FF13studio into FF14. Tried to experiment with new noise components phase, pase loop and phase loop max. But all noise components are like the ones from my FF13studio without the new phase ones. What could be te reason for that? Stefan O.

Rachel Duim, Fri, 31 May 2024 00:04:55 -0400
GMM: the upd ate for FF14 beta on the Mac has fixed the issue. The Z axis addition for noise (implemented as phase) looks interesting, especially for animation. Question: is there a se t of values for phase to match the non-phase version? Or does the implementation prevent that?
S. Obermann: if I understand you correctly, your FF13 filters will now have older versions of the noise components, and will be tagged that way in the filter editor. If you want the new functionality you will have to replace the old components with the new ones and Enable Phase.

S. Obermann, Fri, 31 May 2024 01:54:01 -0400
No, no, you missunderstood me completely: I installed FF14 parallel to my FF13Studio and FF14 noise components haven't the proposed new 3d components (phase etc.). In other words my FF14beta has the same functionallity than my FF13Studio...a bit strange for me! S. Obermann/SOmoa

Bookwormious, Fri, 31 May 2024 06:01:34 -0400
I have downloaded it and asked for a key, but it is telling me that my key from FF 13 is wrong. Should I worry?

GMM, Fri, 31 May 2024 08:11:34 -0400

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: Question: is there a se t of values for phase to match the non-phase version? Or does the implementation prevent that?

It is not possible for Perlin Noise but is quite possible for Worley (all other noises than Perlin). Phase set to 0 should give you the same result as disabled phase.

GMM, Fri, 31 May 2024 08:12:52 -0400

Quote
Bookwormious wrote: my key from FF 13 is wrong. Should I worry?

Nothing to worry about, every FF version requires a different license key. You can request a free beta key from the beta page:
https://www.filterforge.com/contact/beta/

Bookwormious, Fri, 31 May 2024 09:23:13 -0400
Thanks a lot for answering me, GMM.
But it was when I requested that free beta key for FF14 I got the answer that the key for FF13 I provided was wrong.
Sorry for not explaining it more fully earlier. I copy/pasted the FF13 key into the form for requesting a new new beta key for FF14, but was told that that key was wrong ...
So I will only have the beta version of FF14 for 30 days, I guess :D

Bookwormious, Fri, 31 May 2024 09:27:02 -0400
Please forget about it. I might have found the problem :D

S. Obermann, Fri, 31 May 2024 15:45:49 -0400
Here is S. Obermann again with that problem, that my FF14beta hasn't the new 3d noise functions. Please look at the file documentation:

S. Obermann, Fri, 31 May 2024 15:53:05 -0400
This is the result for Noise in Filter Editor of FF14beta

S. Obermann, Fri, 31 May 2024 15:58:46 -0400
You see, Phase etc. isn't there!!!

Rachel Duim, Fri, 31 May 2024 16:58:03 -0400
The Enable Phase checkbox is not in the editor view. Instead it is in the lower left pane when you select the component.

S. Obermann, Fri, 31 May 2024 18:38:09 -0400
Thank you Rachel Duim that you solved my missunderstanding and that you showed, that sometimes some people discover a problem that in reality doesn't exist. Main reason for such missunderstandings is a wrong expectation - in this case the expectation that the new functions are shown directly in the editor view. S. Obermann

SpaceRay, Sat, 01 Jun 2024 05:12:36 -0400

Quote
GMM wrote: I personally recommend the new 3D noises: https://www.filterforge.com/download/beta14/

I agree with you about the new 3D noises

WOW!! This is a very good thing that is already available the new FF 14 with such awesome and amazing feature to be able to animate the noises as these have a really wide extension to do many possible things, congratulations and thanks very much for making this.

Animated Noise example

Quote
Animated 3D Noise Components Link to Animated 3D Noise Components help Filter Forge 14.0 updates six familiar components from the Noise category: Perlin Noise, Blocks, Cells, Chaffs, Pyramids, and Techno. All these noise components can now be animated along the Z-axis to give authors more room for creativity. Algorithms for Perlin and Worley noises are inherently 3D. Previous Filter Forge versions implemented noise as a two-dimensional slice cut from a three-dimensional noise space. Filter Forge 14 adds the Phase parameter to all Noise components that shifts the slice plane along the Z-axis (perpendicular to the screen, or back and forth from our point of view). It gives filters authors a "boiling noise" effect often used in animation.

Quote

Animated 3D Noise Components Link to Animated 3D Noise Components help

Filter Forge 14.0 updates six familiar components from the Noise category: Perlin Noise, Blocks, Cells, Chaffs, Pyramids, and Techno. All these noise components can now be animated along the Z-axis to give authors more room for creativity.

Algorithms for Perlin and Worley noises are inherently 3D. Previous Filter Forge versions implemented noise as a two-dimensional slice cut from a three-dimensional noise space. Filter Forge 14 adds the Phase parameter to all Noise components that shifts the slice plane along the Z-axis (perpendicular to the screen, or back and forth from our point of view). It gives filters authors a "boiling noise" effect often used in animation.

I think that this will really give a much bigger options and a new world and way to animate things not possible before.

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: The Enable Phase checkbox is not in the editor view. Instead it is in the lower left pane when you select the component.

Thanks very much Rachel for showing this as I did not know it and is very good. I do not know why is not activated already by default as the other values.

SpaceRay, Sun, 02 Jun 2024 11:51:08 -0400
If you are interested in the new FF 14 3D noises I have put this thread to help as this thread here is a beta page and will not be available later to answer

New FF 14 Animated 3D Noise Components Tutorial and help with filters

NOTE: IMPORTANT
Be aware that if you are using any previous version of a filter that was done BEFORE FF 14, you must replace the Noise component with the new one available in FF 14 for it to work with the new 3D noises

and as told by Rachel as shown below, you also have to enable the checkbox of "Enable Phase" in settings of the Noise component

and do not forget that BEFORE you delete the old noise component, COPY carefully the already customized data settings included in the old component and put it in the new noise component of FF 14

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: The Enable Phase checkbox is not in the editor view. Instead it is in the lower left pane when you select the component.

SpaceRay, Thu, 27 Jun 2024 15:54:16 -0400
I have to say that after testing the phase animation of noises, is really awesome and amazing what could be done and opens a whole new way to make animations

Thanks very much for creating this

David Roberson, Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:21:41 -0400
I think I made the same mistake submitting my FF14 Beta key request. I used my beta key for FF13 rather than my full version. Now I just wait for it to process...

Very intrigued by the new noises! :D

Cannot download several filters

Furyofaseraph — Sat, 21 Oct 2023 23:52:23 -0400

Furyofaseraph, Sat, 21 Oct 2023 20:05:51 -0400
"Downloading Filters..." hangs for a good long while when downloading some filters. There does not seem to be a pattern to the failures in terms of version number, upload date, or what not. The selected filters fail consistently (meaning trying again about half a dozen times, in fact, fail to work consistently), while I am able to download some other filters.

"Filter download failed. Reason: 'get_filter_xml(4639,3) failed.".

"Filter download failed. Reason: 'get_filter_xml(8890,1) failed.".

"Filter download failed. Reason: 'get_filter_xml(16486,2) failed.".

There was no other error message.

Furyofaseraph, Sat, 21 Oct 2023 23:52:23 -0400
Looks like whatever service had crashed has come back - disregard.

Render hangs FF13 beta Mac

Rachel Duim — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:57:23 -0400

Rachel Duim, Thu, 28 Sep 2023 01:49:42 -0400
Using Cutout Madness, using Save Image As (rendering) hangs on blank or regular images above a certain size on the Mac with FF13 Studio beta. To reproduce:

Make sure that Tools / Options / Interface / Reduce preview size for larger images is CHECKED

1 - Run Cutout Madness
2 - Source / Blank Image
3 - Set to 4000 x 3000 with blue color, then hit OK
4 - Hit Save Image As
5 - Use PNG any channel format, hit OK
When rendering gets to the end, it just hangs, but you can hit Cancel. Using the top command in Terminal shows FF is not using much CPU, like it is waiting for something. Let me know if this can be reproduced.

Workaround: UNCHECK Tools / Options / Interface / Reduce preview size for larger images, then let preview completely draw the large image, then do a Save Image As

Rachel Duim, Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:57:23 -0400
+1 from another user(Windows?) with the same issue.

elapsed time bug FF13 beta

Rachel Duim — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 06:46:42 -0400

Rachel Duim, Fri, 22 Sep 2023 15:16:47 -0400
Show elapsed rendering time in Options/Interface does not show the time for any filters. Only tested Mac FF 13 beta

Djekki, Mon, 25 Sep 2023 06:46:42 -0400
Thanks, Rachel! I'll pass this info to the developers.

FF13 Beta - Animation - feature requests

Marcus_EU — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 02:34:36 -0400

Marcus_EU, Wed, 30 Aug 2023 02:34:36 -0400
I really love the opportunity to create animations now and think it could be much more fun with the following features:
- (realtime) animation preview - a minimized view of the animation, before sending it to the final render.
- keyframe animation - the option to set keyframes with values available in the settings panel, this would help much to create predictable animations fast.
- rendered animation previews for the gallery

Thanks in advance.

FF13 Beta – check it over

GMM — Fri, 26 May 2023 12:59:50 -0400

GMM, Fri, 26 May 2023 11:37:18 -0400
Folks, the first beta is now live:
https://www.filterforge.com/download/beta13/

Try loading a video right into the main window :) Later beta stages will add more cool stuff.

CFandM, Fri, 26 May 2023 12:59:50 -0400
Right off from the start on first downloading and seeing the exe. I like the icon. Hopefully I can get some other work done today. :D :D

Beta 12: very visible artefacts in generated video

NightSkyDreamer — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:49:45 -0400

NightSkyDreamer, Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:36:43 -0400
Hello, I tested to generate 1920x1080 15 sec video with https://filterforge.com/filters/15990.html

After the first run noticed that there were very strong visible artefacts in the video. I checked the filter and found that three of five colors were HDR type and two not.

I modified the filter and all colors became HDR ones that was right away visible in generated image preview. But new generated video was still very bad - looks like small resolution MP2 video was stretched to much higher window..

I noticed also that "video settings" is always disabled in all possible modes..

Will be it better when FF12 released?

STEPH08, Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:49:45 -0400
I assume that video settings will be enabled for the full version. I have already mentioned the low quality of the video output in this post.

FF12 Beta: Video export 3 sec only, cannot loop most of filters,

NightSkyDreamer — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 17:18:56 -0400

NightSkyDreamer, Mon, 31 Oct 2022 05:42:24 -0400
Hello,

looking at Beta v.12 - mostly interested animation/video new features...

This is my feedback to FF developers

I checked many filters - as they have 90 frames only produces only 3 sec 30 fps videos. Most of filters I checked was not looped or it is not possible to produce longer continuous films.

Most film editors use 15-30 sec fragments during video editing. And it is not possible to use 3 sec fragment.

Short conclusion: technically FilterForge produces video files that practically have no usage ...

3 sec not looped video just illustrate the possibility to merge 90 animated frames into one short video and nothing more. We could do that with After Effects even with FF11.

Filter developers should get "video ready" description only if filter can generate at least 10..15 sec of continuous or looped video, otherwise it is still "animated" but not "video" filter

CFandM, Mon, 31 Oct 2022 09:28:48 -0400
All filters before version 12 you have to edit the filter and add some controls for animation. Some in version 12 as well. You also add a frame component to change the 90 frames default.

GMM, Mon, 31 Oct 2022 12:10:29 -0400

Quote
NightSkyDreamer wrote: This is my feedback to FF developers...Most of filters I checked was not looped

We only develop Filter Forge, not the filters. You can contact the filter authors directly.

Quote
NightSkyDreamer wrote: I checked many filters - as they have 90 frames

It's up to you how many frames to render. Switch to the Animation tab and set the desired frame rate and frame count:
https://filterforge.com/more/help/Main...rties.html

NightSkyDreamer, Mon, 31 Oct 2022 17:18:56 -0400
thank you very much, you asked all the questions I was worried about. Did not know that frames number was already easy configurable :cry:

Beta Gallery

GMM — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 09:30:42 -0400

GMM, Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:52:37 -0400
Feel free to post your works made with the new beta here.

infiniview, Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:15:48 -0400
Here are a few images I made with bomber's new image mixing.

Indigo Ray, Fri, 29 Apr 2011 18:05:54 -0400
I had made this filter in V2, but now I can add another image to use as a reflection, which is neat.

Indigo Ray, Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:13:35 -0400
How about my water caustics filter? :)
(the sand is actually generated in FF, but I pre-rendered it and loaded it as an image, so yes, this filter uses multiple images)

lolahiroshima, Sun, 01 May 2011 08:49:34 -0400
Hey Infiniview, I'm just wondering if you could give some details as to how you made those images, they look really cool!

Skybase, Sun, 01 May 2011 13:41:33 -0400
Using some new features to generate a Large/Small tiling using images. I threw in several of my pattern renders into the source.

infiniview, Mon, 02 May 2011 17:14:40 -0400
Thank you, and sure.

I made a generalized image bomber filter. Meaning that I made it with lots of controls for doing a varity of effects for experimentation. a couple of the images are just straight mix of other images and textures I had already made. And others were the same thing but also utilizing a background image. One of the real cool things you can do with the BG image is use the Particle Mode to change visibility in various respects similar to layer adjustments in photoshop. In certain modes your affects will mostly be seen in certain areas. But I basically just made them trying a bunch of different slider combinations. Here is a screen shot of the filter construction.

infiniview, Mon, 02 May 2011 17:27:21 -0400
here are a few more. :)

This image is an all green leaf type texture before FF. Then just using a number of colorful textures plugged into the color controls and messed with until it looked more natural.

This one I did after the leaf I think I used a light stone texture bg leaving some of the colorul elements and adding some other differing stone textures into color inputs.

This bg image is the structure that you can see but it was just BW greyscale before.

Then the daisy is of course one of the new installed images again using particle mode it blocked out certain elements on areas that were too light in color like the white and to a lesser degree to the yello and green yet applied the elements to the bug

Sphinx., Tue, 03 May 2011 06:11:43 -0400
12 Stops HDR combiner (w. adaptive contrast and saturation). Source images can be found here: http://kirkt.smugmug.com/Photography/...5088_nakmt

Skybase, Fri, 13 May 2011 12:13:39 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: 12 Stops HDR combiner (w. adaptive contrast and saturation).

You just made my day.

Skybase, Sun, 15 May 2011 23:39:20 -0400
Uhh... stacking modes?? I'm trying simple object removal via multiple exposures. So this one has 5 slots. More = the better.

Sphinx., Tue, 17 May 2011 01:53:54 -0400
Skybase, would you mind sharing the photos? It is an interesting challenge..

Skybase, Tue, 17 May 2011 14:43:47 -0400
Yup, absolutely! :) They're in a gallery, you can save the images by clicking on the thumbnails and at the bottom of the slideshow thing there's a save button.

Stacking source images

I mean some of the methods for stacking already exist to "remove" objects anyway. For example, you have median stacking in Photoshop. Though I'm curious as to how you would do that in FilterForge. :)

Sphinx., Fri, 20 May 2011 07:04:59 -0400
Alright Skybase.. first attempt ready. I used the first 8 images.

Strategy: sel ect sample with least difference fr om average of all 8 inputs..

Sphinx., Fri, 20 May 2011 07:05:55 -0400
Max difference :D

inujima, Sat, 21 May 2011 03:50:43 -0400
Because sorting is necessary, it is difficult to make a percentile filter without using a script. :|

StevieJ, Sat, 21 May 2011 13:03:10 -0400
Hey Infiniview, I'm really liking this sample... 8)

Sphinx., Sun, 22 May 2011 05:06:24 -0400
Second attempt at object removal merging with Skybases imagestack.

The algorithm is somewhat complex and uses multiple steps.

1. calculate combined average: (src1 + src2 + srcN) / num_sources, use as reference
2. calculate table with differences btwn each source and reference
3. sort diff table
4. pick second lowest difference entry as new reference
5. in 3 passes sum the three lowest entries, each contributing sample is scaled by its inverse difference from last pass
6. pick second lowest difference entry from 3 pass result as final result

step 5 and 6 are quite hard to explain ;) You might wonder why I use the second lowest difference entry. Since the original reference is an average of all images, the lowest difference result seem to contain too much bleeding from each image. The second lowest difference entry looks much better.

Here is the result (8 images used)

Sphinx., Sun, 22 May 2011 05:07:53 -0400
Here is the initial simple average result I use as temporary reference in first "pass" (step 1,2 and 3)

Sphinx., Sun, 22 May 2011 05:13:50 -0400
Here is the new intermediate reference used from step 4 and onwards. It is a composite of the samples with the second lowest difference from the initial average. The reference is replaced by a weighted sum in each pass in step 5

Sphinx., Sun, 22 May 2011 05:23:38 -0400
For comparison, here is the entries with least difference from simple average. Compared with previous image, you can clearly see more "ghosting" here. The second lowest diff. entries don't contain as much ghosting. Entries with even higher difference are no good, as they start introducing noise and parts of moving objects (see the second image I posted the other day - max. diff).

James, Sun, 22 May 2011 10:35:12 -0400
Seems like a great filter, how are you making it with lua scripting?

Sphinx., Mon, 23 May 2011 02:59:02 -0400
Hmm.. I'm trying to post the script here, but the forum gives me the following error: "Message text.". :-D I wonder what that means..

Yes, it is a script. I'll attach it instead (please note that I intend to publish it when we are allowed to publish FF3 filters).

Simply leave unused source inputs transparent - then the script will ignore them.
Passes ( > 1 ) and Ghosting Removal only starts to have an effect with a large source set (above 6-8 depending on actual source set).

James, Mon, 23 May 2011 05:12:23 -0400
Cool, thanks Sphinx this works great.

There can be artifacts that you don't notice much but i guess it depends on the source images and the amount used also. Generally though this seems to be a great technique and has good results, nice work. :D

Sphinx., Mon, 23 May 2011 05:20:10 -0400
Thanks :) I have an idea for another approach which could give much better result with fewer sources.. but there are some loose ends in the concept yet I have to solve.

Basically the idea is to exclude samples with changing data and only use the ones with consistency, but it is easier said than done ;) With Skybases image set I noticed that some of the problem areas (under the bridge) are changing a lot, but a few images actually contain the correct information. The initial simple average reference I use can't take that into account... I need to figure out how to pick the two images with consistency and exclude the inconsistent (changing) ones..

beekeeper, Mon, 23 May 2011 14:50:47 -0400
Thanks Sphinx for an advance preview of this filter. :D I was more than impressed by how few artifacts were left post processing.

meyendlesss, Mon, 30 May 2011 15:19:49 -0400
Nice stuff so far.
I haven't been around in a while, and didn't even know 3.0beta was out.
Got it downloaded and will post some stuff here later.

inujima, Sat, 02 Jul 2011 09:17:53 -0400
Sprites on the Curve

I want Gradients Control component.

betatester65, Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:10:14 -0400
I have done a Bandpass sharpen / blur together with highpass sharpen together with color contrast changes that cause not so easy overexpose, so all most important steps in a image can do in 1 plugin.my beta filterforge time is over, no faster beta is see, here is a example what can do.next post i upload the filter, maybe it is usefull for somebody, or he can speed it up.currently its very slow.here is a demo pic

betatester65, Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:15:18 -0400
a more drastic change of settings

betatester65, Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:17:22 -0400
here is the filter forge beta ffxml file.please post me a note, if somebody can enhance this

Indigo Ray, Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:30:22 -0400
C'mon, where is everyone? We had a ton more posts in the beta 2 gallery...

Here's a silly one using the new color control and edge detector components.

StevieJ, Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:49:33 -0400
Like that one alot, Indigo... 8) Is that a posted filter??? :devil:

CFandM, Thu, 04 Aug 2011 19:17:11 -0400

Quote
Indigo Ray wrote: C'mon, where is everyone? We had a ton more posts in the beta 2 gallery... Here's a silly one using the new color control and edge detector components.

Very cool Indigo..Like that one... :)
I know... :| Seems there was a new page in that thread every other day if not everyday..Everyone taken a break or just the usual internet thing and hang out here for a while then eventually go to another place altogether... :bunny: :|

BenBeckwith, Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:16:31 -0400
I'm using 3 all the time now and have been lurking around. It's all been for work though, and don't show off any new features.

I think the biggest problem is that so far, the betas have mostly been workflow improvements rather than new creative tools. I'm not complaining, I'm loving all the new additions, there's just not much in these betas that I can't accomplish in FF2 so far. I hope the next beta release has some new toys :P

Skybase, Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:27:49 -0400
New version of Dabber uses Edge Detector :)
Also introduces some more parameters.

Skybase, Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:37:38 -0400
I removed some nodes too for speed improvement. It does look higher quality, but turns out slightly slower than its original (probably edge detector)

CFandM, Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:42:22 -0400
Very nice Skybase. :)
Since the curve editor is now a feature I have added it to one filter that I had for a long while now..This was actually many different fiters with different shapes but now its up to the user to control the shape....

CFandM, Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:42:41 -0400
Then one more.. :) All in one filter now.. :hammer: :loveff:

StevieJ, Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:51:49 -0400
Chuck, you just gave me a brilliant idea!!! *as StevieJ bolts to his lab* Just keep the coffee coming!!! ;) :D

... :devil:

CFandM, Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:01:15 -0400
The Coffees still brewing Stevie.. ;) :)

Another image from the filter above... ;)

Sphinx., Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:23:53 -0400
Collage Synthesizer .. Main source input is used to sel ect best matching areas fr om six additional image inputs. No original main source input samples are used.

Sphinx., Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:24:18 -0400
One more, using the build in preview images..

SpaceRay, Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:56:56 -0400

Quote
Sphinx wrote: Collage Synthesizer .. Main source input is used to sel ect best matching areas fr om six additional image inputs.

WOW!!! this is really beautiful and very creative and great use for multiple images source. Great !! Looks lovely and it could have a great potential. Very well done.

CFandM, Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:31:12 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: Collage Synthesizer .

Like that one Sphinx :) 8)

lipebianc, Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:33:12 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: Collage Synthesizer ..

Wow!!! GREAT!!!
Impressive v3.0 filters soon will invade FF library!

Indigo Ray, Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:49:13 -0400
Hey, Chuck, that's an interesting method to make diamond plates. Do I see a blurry lifesaver in that last pic, or am I seeing the darned thing everywhere now? ;)

Sphinx, that's really sweet! I'd love to see more of that one! 8)

Indigo Ray, Sat, 20 Aug 2011 21:53:06 -0400
My turn.

Here's a wild way to use bombers: Chalkboard eraser smudges! Combine that with the new edge detector component, and you get something like this:

*writing from someone else's image

Rod_D, Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:40:50 -0400
I call it Cast Iron pan.

Please don't laugh it's my first one. ;)
Only settings are varying the pixel size of the cast surface.
Most lighting settings can be used though.

I really have to learn more about this it's quite fun to play with.

Rod_D, Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:46:40 -0400
Preset 3 with my own image

Check out FF 12 Beta

GMM — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 12:11:24 -0400

GMM, Mon, 25 Jul 2022 11:11:38 -0400
Folks, we've got something for you to check over. Try right-clicking any component on the Filter Editor canvas :)

https://filterforge.com/download/beta12/

SpaceRay, Wed, 03 Aug 2022 21:11:18 -0400
Good news that the beta of FF 12 is available

Please, would be possible to know if it will be available in beta 2 the saving or export to MP4 from an animated filter instead of only sequence images?

I know that you can use an external software to join the sequence images into a movie and if you use Mac this is automatic and very easy with QuickTime player, but would be better if it was already included in FF itself, thanks

Skybase, Thu, 04 Aug 2022 01:03:26 -0400
Strong user still. Thanks as always for these betas! They're fun.

GMM, Thu, 04 Aug 2022 04:51:04 -0400

Quote
SpaceRay wrote: export to MP4 from an animated filter

Yes, this is one of the main features of FF12. You can import and export MP4 files natively, support for other formats is under active development.

Rachel Duim, Thu, 04 Aug 2022 18:11:27 -0400
This is a good start. There appears to be an issue with the codec (MPEG-4 part 2) and most browsers. The only browser that can read the mp4 is Safari on the Mac. Firefox and Edge can not read mp4's generated by FF12 on both Win and Mac. With that in mind, here is a 700x700 example of the default preset of Swirl Tile Animate, 6s@15fps, 1.7megabyte file
Fox Animate (loop)
Fox Animate (no loop)

GMM, Fri, 05 Aug 2022 06:35:55 -0400
Rachel, mp4 files are meant to be played by a video player, not by a browser. We tested the resulting files with most major video players but we can't guarantee compatibility with other types of software.

Rachel Duim, Fri, 05 Aug 2022 15:01:55 -0400
Fair enough. How much flexibility will there be on the mp4 output? Bitrate, codec choice (h.264?), etc??

SpaceRay, Thu, 25 Aug 2022 12:11:24 -0400

Quote
GMM wrote: mp4 files are meant to be played by a video player, not by a browser

I agree that I think that they should be able to be played by a video player software, and if you want that it should be possible to make that the video can be seen in a browser directly (without any link from YouTube or vimeo or other) it should the website that should provide the needed software to do it

I have tried to upload some videos I have done (not with FF) to some websites I have learned that there are different ways to do it and it also depends of what browser you use

I do not say that FF could not offer a website compatible format, I mean that it should be at least mp4 and then you make it work in the website or page needed

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: How much flexibility will there be on the mp4 output? Bitrate, codec choice (h.264?), etc??

I think that the best could be that it supports mp4 with h. 264 that as far as I know is now the best optimized codec with best quality

FF11 beta preview bug

Rachel Duim — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:39:00 -0400

Rachel Duim, Mon, 25 Oct 2021 17:31:25 -0400
Couldn't post in the beta thread so...

On the Mac with Catalina FF11 beta I can't read preview images in the editor:
Filter / New
Add new Image component
Image / Built-in previews
Preview window comes up, but "focus" is not passed to it so you can't select an image.
Let me know if you need anything else.

GMM, Tue, 26 Oct 2021 10:39:00 -0400
Oops, I forgot to open the beta forum for posting :) I've moved the thread to the relevant forum now.

Thanks for your report, the issue is confirmed and forwarded to the devs.

[crash] Can not edit filters

Rachel Duim — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 05:38:49 -0500

Rachel Duim, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 13:16:45 -0500
New FF version 10.005 just downloaded: can not edit any filters. Attempt to edit and you get a silent crash.
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.7, 2019 Macbook Pro

Rachel Duim, Thu, 24 Dec 2020 09:04:51 -0500
+1 I’ve had to roll back to 10’004 Nov 30 to b able to edit filters. Can someone else confirm this issue on the Mac?

GMM, Fri, 25 Dec 2020 05:38:49 -0500
Thanks for your reports. It should be fixed in today's silent update. Please redownload and reinstall.

[web] Filter comments image

Rachel Duim — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:32:21 -0500

Rachel Duim, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 11:58:29 -0500
This was reported before, but I will mention it again now that the website looks so good :D The image at the top of the Filter Comments page in the forum is the wrong size. It is a "-small" image in the filename, so it is a thumbnail blown up.

SpaceRay, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:06:13 -0500

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: now that the website looks so good

YES, I totally agree that now with new website this error is more obvious and looks even worse than before

I have already put this also FF 10 new website errors I have found that needs to be fixed

SpaceRay, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:10:22 -0500
and more clearly seen

SpaceRay, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:32:21 -0500
is a real pity that in the new website the main thumbnail looks bigger, better and sharper and the forum one looks so bad in comparison

[display] rollover text on presets

Rachel Duim — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:56:16 -0500

Rachel Duim, Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:10:06 -0500
When rolling over the presets with the cursor, the notes only display for the last preset (Blank Template). Here is the FF10 filter from the Mac, latest everything.

Rachel Duim, Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:13:30 -0500
Example of the rollover text, this is the only preset that displays the rollover.

GMM, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:56:16 -0500
This is intended behvior: tooltips are shown for notes that exceed 10 characters. Try renaming your "Elephants" to "Lots of elephants" :)

minor weg thing

Rachel Duim — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:02:42 -0500

Rachel Duim, Sat, 12 Dec 2020 22:16:31 -0500
Such a minor thing...

SpaceRay, Sun, 20 Dec 2020 22:04:16 -0500
is true that it shows this on all FF 10 filters

did not notice as I usually do not pass the mouse over the number because is already told the number already but is curious that on this one puts FF 2.0

GMM, Wed, 23 Dec 2020 05:02:42 -0500
Thanks for your report - should be fixed in the new website design.

FF10-Error in Order of Controls keys shown to send top or bottom wrong

SpaceRay — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 13:54:01 -0500

SpaceRay, Mon, 16 Nov 2020 13:54:01 -0500
I have seen that either in FF 9.0 and also in FF 10.0 beta there is an error

If you go to filter editor in FF 10 mac version and then go to menu Filter ---> Order Of Controls

You see that to send a control to the top or bottom is shown the keys

⌘ plus Home

on Mac there is no real home button but the equivalent for this is the Right Arrow (on the wireless keyboard) but this does not work in FF and nothing happens when you use these two keys because the real and true combination that works in FF is these 3 keys

fn plus ⌘ plus Left (with this combination it works correctly and sends the control to the top)

fn plus ⌘ plus Right (with this combination it works correctly and sends the control to the bottom)

So I suggest to fix, change and replace the following

⌘Home ----> with ----> fn⌘Left
⌘End ----> with ----> fn⌘Right

Or instead it could maybe changed the code input could be configured maybe to the real keys combinations of Home and End in Mac

fnLeft
fnRight

this is shown The “Home” & “End” Button Equivalents on Mac Keyboards

10.004 selection bug

Rachel Duim — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 10:02:19 -0400

Rachel Duim, Fri, 23 Oct 2020 15:19:18 -0400
If I double click the Scale component near the end (right side) of the Hexaflower cache filter, then hold down the Command key to add to the selection with the Free Polygon, it puts up the crash window.

Mac, latest FF

Rachel Duim, Fri, 23 Oct 2020 15:30:49 -0400
Double click of the Scale component

Rachel Duim, Fri, 23 Oct 2020 15:32:12 -0400
Command click of the Free Polygon just to the right of the Scale (red dot)

GMM, Fri, 30 Oct 2020 10:02:19 -0400
Thank you Rachel, this issue is confirmed and forwarded to the devs.

Filter Forge 10.004 Beta update

GMM — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 08:48:39 -0400

GMM, Fri, 23 Oct 2020 08:18:21 -0400
We have just released an update to FF10 beta. We recommend you update to the latest beta version, espcially if you use Filter Forge as a Photoshop plug-in.

Raymond, Fri, 23 Oct 2020 08:48:39 -0400
Thanks for that. It works well now in CC21

Beta 10 - update batch renderer

FFCreator — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 16:24:19 -0400

FFCreator, Mon, 31 Aug 2020 14:42:30 -0400
I have updated FFEasyRender (my batch renderer for FF).
It now supports FilterForge till version 10 beta.

Free to use, but I 'll accept donations (hint, see "PayPal button" on my website).

You can download it from my website:

https://www.ipadtouches.com/ffeasyrend...ter-forge/

Kraellin, Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:03:01 -0400
is this for windows or mac? also, it seems to want a password and i don't know it.

Kraellin, Tue, 15 Sep 2020 01:06:53 -0400
found the password :) but still need to know if this is for mac or pc.

FFCreator, Tue, 15 Sep 2020 16:30:07 -0400
It is for PC (Windows).

I 'm working on version 2.2.
It 'll have an option to (batch) render presets with the preview images of FilterForge as used in the presets of an Effect filter (like LIFESAVER, GARLIC, LIONFISH). So the output of a rendered preset of a filter with FFEasyRender will be the same as shown in the GUI of FilterForge (for texture and effect filters) when this option is used.

Of course this can only be done if the FilterForge preview images are present for the commandline renderer as external images. I rendered (generated) the needed external images like 'TREE_OPAQUE.png' myself with FilterForge.

Am I allowed to distribute these rendered (generated) images with FFEasyRender?
I suppose these images are "my image render of my artwork of my user filter that uses the built in preview images of FilterForge", so the same as an image render of any other filter?

PierreD, Fri, 02 Oct 2020 17:48:21 -0400
Hello FFCreator.

Super thanks for developing your BatchRenderer. I'm trying it out now. Though, after entering all the pertinent information in the appropriate fields, then hit the Render button, I obtain a "Filterforge command line renderer not found!" message. Is there something I've missed somewhere? Many thanks again for your kind work and endeavors!
Pierre D.

FFCreator, Sat, 03 Oct 2020 04:41:39 -0400
Hello PierreD

Some tips and a question.

1) You can't run FFEasyRender if it is still zipped. You must first extract the downloaded file and place the unzipped files in a directory.
2) Make sure to select a Filter Forge version you actually installed before rendering.

FFEasyRender assumes that the Filter Forge command line renderer is in the default installation location of FilterForge (version dependant).

3) Make sure you place the FFEasyRender files in a (new or old) directory in which FFEasyRender has sufficient write permissions.

Questions:
1) Which version of Filter Forge are you using?
2) Does the Filter Forge command line renderer itself work? For explanation in Filter Forge, see Help - Filter Forge Help - Miscellanius - Command-Line Renderer

PierreD, Sat, 03 Oct 2020 15:43:52 -0400
Hello FFCreator.

Thanks for your kind reply.

As I did unzip the contents of FFEasyRender into a new folder and have legit versions of FF installed (e.g. version 9 and 10 beta), those versions of the software are installed on my D: dirve (for disk space issues I installed FF on another drive volume). Hence, that does explain why I'm receiving the message about the cmd line renderer not being found. I haven't had the chance yet to test the FF cmd line batch renderer (haven't tried that feature yet). So, I'll keep you posted with that test. In the meantime, is there a way around the issue if FF is installed on a different drive other than C:? Also, I'm trying to understand why the library file are stored in my C: Users path, although the FF SW is installed on D:? Anyway...

Many thanks again for your help!
Pierre D.

PierreD, Sat, 03 Oct 2020 16:14:41 -0400
FFCreator:

My versions of FF are: v9.007 and 10.002

Cheers.
P

PierreD, Sat, 03 Oct 2020 19:45:37 -0400
Greetings FFCreator.

It worked after I uninstalled version 9 and reinstalled v-9 in the default C: installation path. So, for users who install FF in non-C: drive paths, I guess that could be somewhat problematic to a certain degree. I'd also like to mention that I work with incrementally named image files, since I render out sequences from a 3d SW I use, and the files (obviously) are appended with the Preset info, thus resulting with no frame number suffix. Generally, I could have over 400 frames (image files), and renaming them is another issue. Would you entertain adding a file extension option that can increment image files in the case that one is dealing with large image sequences? Just a thought. But, your tool worked very well indeed, and I will make a donation for sure.

Again, many thanks!!!
Pierre D.

FFCreator, Sun, 04 Oct 2020 05:48:14 -0400
@PierreD

Version 2.2 of FFEasyRender (not yet published) will have an option to add the input image name to the resulting output image name (I had already added this myself).
At this point, the implementation is that the preset number is the last part of the resulting name for the output image. I think you are suggesting that the input image name is the last part to keep the order of your images.
So input images like: Image-0001, Image-0002, .....
Output names (optional): Filter1_Preset01_Image-0001, Filter1_Preset02_Image-0001, Filter1_Preset01_Image-0002, Filter1_Preset02_Image-0002......
(1) Is this correct?

(2) I assume you had Windows installed on your C: drive and Filter Forge on your D: drive?
Looking in my code I think I understand why it didn't work when you installed Filter Forge on your D: drive. I'll look if I can solve this.

PierreD, Sun, 04 Oct 2020 14:52:33 -0400
Hello FFCreator.

You've got it. Yes, just the ability to be able to keep an image sequence, such as image.1.jpg, image.2.jpg, etc. I used a basic batch file renaming app in the beginning of my render tests, to remove the extra file info in the filenames. But, I discovered that if I unchecked the 'Add filter filename' and 'Add preset Number' options, my rendered files retained their number sequence. So, that works out! Also, yes, my Windows 10 OS is installed on my C: drive and Breta 10 on my D: drive. To get things working for my evaluation, I uninstalled FF version 9 from my D: drive and re-installed FF v-9 on C:. The process works pretty fast and pretty error free. I think that if you are able to add features for saving render jobs (e.g. Open and save render files) and having the ability to select a filter that goes beyond number 20 (unless I'm not aware of how to make that happen?), you'd have a pretty powerful tool!

Again, many thanks for your valuable rendering tool and replies.
Pierre D.

FFCreator, Sun, 04 Oct 2020 15:53:58 -0400
@PierreD and others:

From my website you can download version 3.0 beta 1 of FFEasyRender.

There are a lot of changes and new options, see readme.txt.

It is a beta with no update of the quick start guide.
Please feedback in this topic.

Website: https://www.ipadtouches.com/ffeasyrend...ter-forge/

Password: Betatest01

PierreD, Sun, 04 Oct 2020 17:00:07 -0400
Thanks FFCreator. I'll d/l your beta version and give it a test drive.
Much appreciated. PD

PierreD, Tue, 13 Oct 2020 15:16:43 -0400
Greetings FFCreator.

I hope all is well. Apologies for this long delay. I've had time to delve more into your very useful batch render tool. I'm getting more comfortable with its workings. The new added options make things much easier. So, thanks for that! I was wondering about the situation with custom presets (created with Add Preset). For some reason, I can't check those in the Preset Selection box. For example, if a filter has 5 factory presets and I save a new one, which becomes the 6th, I can't check the number 6 box. Nothing gets checked? I'm wondering if this is a know issue on FF's end? Anyway, it would be helpful if one could select one's custom filters. But, in general, fantastic job. I love the batch render!

Many thanks again!!!
Cheers,
Pierre D.

FFCreator, Tue, 13 Oct 2020 16:59:39 -0400
Hello PierreD.

FFEasyRender can't render directly custom presets from Library Filters for technical reasons:
1 The commandline renderer of Filter Forge doesn't render these custom presets of Library Filters either.
2 Custom presets of Library Filters are stored by Filter Forge in seperate files that can have different number of parameters in comparation of the "standard" presets from the same Library filter (probably caused by different versions of Filter Forge; Filter is released for FF version "X" and the custom presets of the Library Filter are written by FF version "Y").

I remember another post that this is more or less 'by design' of FF.

However there is an easy workaround.

1) Sel ect the Libary Filter with the custom preset you want to render.
2) Open the filter editor.
3) Save the filter as an User Filter.
4) Render the preset(s) fr om the User Filter you want.

SpaceRay, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 06:38:36 -0400

Quote
FFCreator wrote: FFEasyRender can't render directly custom presets from Library Filters However there is an easy workaround. 1) Sel ect the Libary Filter with the custom preset you want to render. 2) Open the filter editor. 3) Save the filter as an User Filter. 4) Render the preset(s) fr om the User Filter you want

thanks very much for explaining this

So, if I understand correctly, you can´t use any custom preset that is added to Library filters downloaded and that have factory presets

The workaround is to convert all the presets to a custom filter, so all the presets are converted to custom presets.

PierreD, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 11:31:29 -0400
Grateful to both of you FFCreator and SpaceRay for your kind help. I will give the workaround a go. Un gros merci!
Pierre D.

FFCreator, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 11:52:04 -0400

Quote
SpaceRay wrote: So, if I understand correctly, you can´t use any custom preset that is added to Library filters downloaded and that have factory presets

Yes, correct, you can't render any custom preset that is added to Library filters. This is not a limitation of FFEasyRender. The standard Filter Forge commandline batch renderer can't do this either, "by design", see these posts:

Post 1

Post 2

Quote
SpaceRay wrote: The workaround is to convert all the presets to a custom filter, so all the presets are converted to custom presets.

Yes, open the Library Filter with the custom preset(s) in the editor (button Filter Editor ....), do a "dummy change" (with undo) and save the Filter in the Filter Editor. Now you have a new custom Filter with all the presets you can render.

PierreD, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 12:22:41 -0400
Works great. Many thanks again gentlemen! Pierre.

PierreD, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 12:43:45 -0400
What I ended doing is the following:

1) Opened my custom filter in the Filter Editor;
2) Did not make any changes to my custom filter whilst in the Filter Editor;
3) Did a 'Save Filter as', giving my filter a new name;
4) Closed the Filter Editor;
5) From the FF workspace, in the Filter list (top left-hand area), the new custom filter was visible;
6) Right-clicked over the new custom filter, and selected 'Submit to Library';
7) Right-clicked again over the new custom filter, and selected 'Locate file';
8) I used that new custom filter file in FFEasyRender.
9) Result: worked like a charm!

Mega thanks again!
Pierre

PierreD, Wed, 14 Oct 2020 16:24:19 -0400
Oops. I made a mistake. There's no need for step no.6, unless one wants to submit their Preset to the FF lib.What I forgot to add, was that step no.3 should include this:

... From the 'Result' node, click on the 'Filter Controls option, then edit the parameters as needed, from the properties editor located at the bottom left-hand side of the Filter editor. Then proceed with the 'Save Filter as' step.

Sorry for the mix up.
P.

[bug] Can not turn off draft

Rachel Duim — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 05:07:17 -0400

Rachel Duim, Thu, 08 Oct 2020 14:59:47 -0400
On my Mac (MacBook Pro 2019) draft mode can be turned on, but not off. Here are 3 images to illustrate the issue. 1st in regular mode, 600x600

Rachel Duim, Thu, 08 Oct 2020 15:00:33 -0400
2nd image, draft mode turned on, everything ok

Rachel Duim, Thu, 08 Oct 2020 15:04:44 -0400
3rd image, draft mode turned off, but still in draft mode anyway. The original resolution can be recovered by doing the 2 following commands:
View / Preview Size / Reduced
View / Preview Size / Actual

GMM, Fri, 09 Oct 2020 05:47:29 -0400
If you want us to look into the issue please provide detailed steps to reproduce it.

Rachel Duim, Fri, 09 Oct 2020 14:53:27 -0400
It happens with any filter.
Run FF10 on MacBook Pro.
Pick a filter. Let render
Hit Draft Mode. Button turns blue. Let render
Hit Draft Mode. Button turns grey. Let render
Look at results and time to render. Still in Draft Mode.
Go to another filter. Still in Draft Mode.

I don't know how I can be any clearer.

Rachel Duim, Fri, 09 Oct 2020 14:53:52 -0400
#####

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 18:51:28 -0400
I have finally got my FF 10 beta key and can test it with MacOS Catalina 10.15.5

I can help you to test it also and see what may be wrong and help the developers be able to reproduce it

I have seen that there is a new FF 10 update from 7 October 2020 that I have used to do the test.

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 18:59:30 -0400
I will follow your list of steps you have put to reproduce it in the same way

Run Fresh FF 10
Pick Textures ---> Stones ---> Crysta filter with Preset 1

So this is Crysta without Draft Mode

Wait until it ends render

It takes 36.82 seconds

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:04:29 -0400
So now you click on the Draft Mode button and it turns blue

Wait until it ends render

It takes 3.29 seconds

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:08:34 -0400
So now you click again on the Draft Mode button and it turns grey

Wait until it ends render

It takes 8.10 seconds

So is not 36.82 seconds as it was without Draft Mode, although is not Draft mode either as it is 8.10 and not 3.29, so then there is something wrong or weird here

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:12:48 -0400
So now the last step is to go to another different filter

Pick Textures ---> Stones ---> Layered Stone Preset 1

Wait until it ends render

It takes 8.50 seconds

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:22:58 -0400
So now to really test if Layered Stone render time is wrong because it seems very similar to the last result from Crysta

I close FF 10 and restart it again fresh

When I restart it is choosen by default again the Layered Stone again

Wait until it ends render

It takes 50.88 seconds!!! and not 8.50

So it is supossed that this should not be right, as in the post above, the Draft Mode is switched off and the render time is 8.50 so, if now the draft mode is also off, should be the same, but this shown here is the real time that is RIGHT and NOT the time that is shown in the post above

So I think that this is what Rachel means, that after activating and then switch off, something wrong happens

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:25:19 -0400
So now to test it again I activate the Draft Mode

Wait until it ends render

It takes 3.04 seconds

SpaceRay, Sat, 10 Oct 2020 19:28:36 -0400
So now you click again on the Draft Mode button and it turns grey

Wait until it ends render

It takes 8.40 seconds

So as it happened already with Crysta, is not 50.88 seconds as it was without Draft Mode, although is not Draft mode either as it is 8.40 and not 3.04, so then there is something wrong or weird here after you switch off draft mode

How is explained that the time render is so different before and after you use the draft mode button?

It should have around the same render time with a difference of 1 or 2 seconds and the render time does not go back to the same render time before using the draft mode button

SpaceRay, Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:27:44 -0400
All the tests I am doing is with the 600x600 pixels

DRAFT MODE TIME IS HIGHER ?

There is more curious things as I when I was trying more on this I have seen something more weird as on all the above, when you activate the draft mode, the render time is reduced much, but when I use Pin Art by ThreeDee the render time with Draft mode is HIGHER!!!

Start FF 10 fresh
Open Pin Art and preset 1 and wait to finish

it takes 3 minutes 51 seconds

SpaceRay, Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:32:09 -0400
So now you click on the Draft Mode button and it turns blue

Wait until it ends render

It takes it takes 4 minutes 57 seconds !!!!

SpaceRay, Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:33:58 -0400
And if the above is not weird enough if you simply switch off draft mode

Wait until it ends render

It takes it takes 2 minutes 25 seconds !!!!

SpaceRay, Sun, 11 Oct 2020 14:37:32 -0400
If now click on another filter the time is lower than it should be

I have done the last 3 posts above 2 times, and I got around the same result.

I hope this all helps to find what may be happening and what may be wrong with the Draft mode

GMM, Mon, 12 Oct 2020 05:07:17 -0400
Rachel, thank you for the detailed steps. It's not the entire draft mode that remains in effect but only the reduced resolution (cache, AO, and AA settings are switched back to normal but the resolution is not). Should be fixed in the next program update.

Batch Render !!!

Deskar — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 05:58:05 -0400

Deskar, Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:06:43 -0500
Please, please, please, make the batch render inside the program.

Please, please, please, with automatic generator of presets.

We would be make a lot of images faster than today.

:D :D :loveff: :D :D

DreamWarrior, Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:16:44 -0500
+1000 :D

CorvusCroax, Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:01:08 -0500
+1!

A simple batch function in FF would be awesome.
Also a 'render selected maps' function to go with it. (diffuse, bump, normal)

Deskar, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:09:58 -0500
If there an error, the batch render window close and see the error cause is too difficult if not impossible.
May be is important improvement the feedback batchrender-filtermakers.

;)

Thanks

meyendlesss, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:51:05 -0500
I think a simplified batch function would be good.
Not sure I totally like the idea of random presets though.
That would make it just too easy for those who do nothing but render textures to sell on renderosity and places like that.

Deskar, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:25:40 -0500
Textures for 3D Movies, 3D and 2D Games, Second Life, PÃ³sters, Graphic Design, MÃ¡rketing, Publicity, etc. etc. etc.

I hope Filter Forge spirit is to use the program in all themes and works, not only a game to make funny textures, but to work in serious uses too.

The batch render is esential to this task.

Photoshop, Cinema 4D and many professional softwares use effective and easy to use batch renders.

Filter Forge today no.

DreamWarrior, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:36:58 -0500
I think random presets would be great. It would be very handy to leave the machine rendering at night and pick those results that are pleasing in the morning.
I don't see anything wrong with that.

CFandM, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:48:09 -0500
Have you seen this yet?..;)
http://www.filterforge.com/forum/read...#nav_start

DreamWarrior, Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:56:05 -0500
I haven't. Thank you! :banana:

Deskar, Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:18:28 -0500
Is a new batch render graphic interface comming up?
:loveff:

Totte, Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:45:51 -0500
If you have Mac OS X, I have a batch renderer that works really well.
http://www.filterforge.com/forum/read...5&TID=7051

And that's why I have an interesting note, the FF2 batch renderer is way faster than the FF2.app to render. I've done some long runs (50 or 100) renders and those are much faster to render than rendering in the app, specially if you have AO enabled in the preset. But AO is used in the final render.

I've been doing doors for my map making in FF, batched them out in 50 batches. They look really neat I think.

Kraellin, Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:28:46 -0500
tabbed gui, tabbed gui, tabbed gui with one of the tabs a batch renderer!

Deskar, Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:27:37 -0400
Will the next versiÃ³n have a GUI for batch renders?

:) :loveff:

earthbound, Mon, 16 Nov 2015 17:08:28 -0500
Five years later . . . the answer remains NO. The web site has also said that an 80% discount promotion ends tomorrow for the last, jeez, way too long (half a year)? Message: no nuff' money :cry:

I would drop money out of the sky for this if I could.

Deskar, Mon, 16 Nov 2015 18:01:59 -0500
:(

SpaceRay, Sun, 04 Oct 2020 05:58:05 -0400

Quote
Deskar wrote in 2010: Will the next versiÃ³n have a GUI for batch renders?

Quote
earthbound wrote in November 2015: Five years later . . . the answer remains NO.

Now we are near november 2020 and 5 or 10 years later... still the answer remains NO.

BUT not all is lost, and is really not needed that FF team includes batch render inside FF itself as there are now available some external tools that can do it instead

Do you use Windows or Mac?

if you use Windows the most recent and updated one to even work work with FF 10 beta is

FF Easy render 2.1 batch from FF Creator

You can find some of the batch render tools in the FF wiki that can be found here

FF Wiki main page and go down to the part wh ere is put External Filter Forge tools

Filter Forge 10.002 Beta

GMM — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 20:01:42 -0400

GMM, Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:27:49 -0400
This is the second stage of verison 10 beta testing - feel free to update and check it over.
You may need a new beta key to test the new features - please request one on the beta page:
https://www.filterforge.com/download/beta10/

Also, we're discussing the changes to the High Usage prize system, please stay tuned for further information.

emme, Mon, 21 Sep 2020 13:07:16 -0400
Nice. Is this release just bugfixes? A changelist would be great :)

GMM, Wed, 23 Sep 2020 11:12:52 -0400
Oh, this is definitely a feature release rather than just a bugfix. Please check over the news article here.

emme, Wed, 23 Sep 2020 20:01:42 -0400
Got it, thanks

Loading external images -> Crash

Sphinx. — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:39:00 -0400

Sphinx., Tue, 01 Sep 2020 11:59:23 -0400
FF10
1. Create a filter with a color control that allow images, connect to result node
2. Load an image into the color control and save filter
3. Load another filter and switch back, filter crashes after trying to load external image

Crash report has been submitted.

GMM, Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:22:43 -0400
I'm afraid we can't reproduce that. Does this issue happen with anyone else?

Sphinx., Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:22:44 -0400
Same here... I'm not sure which configuration of the universe lead to this. Just ignore. I'll bring it up again if I find out anything useful ;-)

xirja, Wed, 23 Sep 2020 08:39:00 -0400
Maybe related to this issue I noticed in version 9?

[bug] Color Control 'Paste Image' issue

[bug] Beta 10 Stage 2 Description

xirja — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 13:03:04 -0400

xirja, Tue, 22 Sep 2020 11:51:58 -0400
From: https://www.filterforge.com/download/b...oards.html

Quote
Being a niche feature aimed at CGI teams, Projects are only available in Filter Forge Studio Edition.

Filter Forge Studio Edition?

What's that? https://filterforge.com/buy/

GMM, Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:14:00 -0400

Quote
xirja wrote: Filter Forge Studio Edition?

Please request a new beta key and sel ect Studio fr om the dropdown edition list.

xirja, Tue, 22 Sep 2020 12:33:05 -0400
A new edition yet to be in the price list, right, not a bug. :(

SpaceRay, Tue, 22 Sep 2020 13:03:04 -0400
So then there is going to be a new additional version now then

Basic
Standard
Professional
Studio?

Will the ones that have a lifetime membership get this new studio edition?

Will the suscription option include an option to have also the studio version?

Beta 10 - some simple improvements for productivity

FFCreator — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 07:02:18 -0400

FFCreator, Mon, 31 Aug 2020 07:02:18 -0400
Yesterday I installed beta 10.

I like the "Draft" mode: to quickly browse through the filters.
I like doïng this with my keyboard (cursor keys).

However switching between the "filter selection pane" and the "preset selection pane" requires multiple keyboard strokes or a mouse.

In the "filter selection pane" you don't have to use " Enter" to select a filter, in the "preset selection pane" you have to use " Enter".

Suggestions:
1 Add a shortcut key (like F3) to select the "filter selection pane" (focus).
2 Add a shortcut key (like F4) to select the "preset selection pane" (focus).
3 Make it possible tot select a preset in the "preset selection pane" without using "Enter" (if this hasn't unwanted side effects).

This 'll increase the productivity when working with a keyboard (browsing) and 'll enhance the new "draft mode" feature.

Beta 10 - About caching

emme — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 23:03:47 -0400

emme, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 13:29:22 -0400
Ok, so I was just writing a post about integrating the bitmap-caching settings to the existing bitmap-components, but then I realized it's already there. Maybe this Was added in the latest patch, or maybe I was just blind and didn't realize it earlier. Great.

So it looks like only the internal bitmap operations are calculated at the caching resolution and not the whole thing. I was expecting the entire processing to be done at lowered resolution. I wonder how this works internally..? This is probably still work in progress - are you expecting to get more speed advantages from this? At the moment there doesn't seem to be much speed difference even between 100% and 3.125%. Does seem to be more memory efficient though.

The new bitmap-cache component also doesn't seem to work well with other bitmap-components. Would be great if it would simply tell the preceding bitmap-component to re-apply its caching configuration, instead of re-caching the cache (or whatever it does, which seems to be very slow and memory intensive).

Ideally how I imagine the bitmap-cache working at 50% resolution is that everything before it gets effectively processed at 1/4 the sample count and then cached. I'm sure there's some overhead and stuff to slow things down. Still, hoping we can get a significant speed advantage with this.

This is good progress with a lot of potential :)

Rachel Duim, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 19:12:43 -0400
So far my experience with the cache has been good. Recursive bitmap filters are helped greatly by this. Another plus, you can turn off post anti-aliasing and control it yourself (see attached image). This example is in a code group for shadows. Since the "petal" is going to be repeated, anti-aliasing this one is good enough. You can also put anti-aliasing code & controls into your filters.

emme, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:49:44 -0400
Yes, to be clear, I'm really happy with the bitmap-caching in general. I've already been able to reduce rendering times to 1/4 on some filters.

My original post was more about some specific areas, where the caching doesn't seem to work as well as expected. Mainly that lowering the caching resolution shows little to no performance boost in some cases, or even slows things down. It could well be that my initial testing setup was too simple and producing misleading results. Testing with more complex networks has shown better performance. I'll continue testing.

Rachel Duim, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 21:44:30 -0400
Caching is a fine art. I am not surprised that some cases are not helped or even made worse, I've seen this happen before in other code I've worked on. But I don't have a handle on the caching resolution. For now I'm gonna stick with 100% unless there is a good reason not to.

GMM, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 04:47:48 -0400
This is not the case where any additional cache would speed things up. This is a bitmap cache, and adding bitmaps into a procedural pipeline is more likely to slow the process rather than speed it up. You should always check filter performance with and without the cache, and generally prefer fully procedural rendering.

Quote
emme wrote: everything before it gets effectively processed at 1/4 the sample count and then cached.

As far as I understand (could be wrong though), it's just the opposite. Everything is sampled at full size and then the bitmap is resized, so the benefit applies to components after the cache, not before it.

emme, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 08:59:27 -0400
GMM, I'm pretty sure you're wrong :)

The subtree certainly seems to be sampled at lower resolution, when the cache resolution is lowered. This is suggested both by rendering speed and the change in rendering block size. I don't think it would make sense to sample at full resolution and only downscale the bitmap. Still, I'm getting very inconsistent speeds. My current guess is that the (relative) change in rendering block size can sometimes make individual blocks less efficient. At lower image resolutions (very low rendering block count) this could sometimes make rendering slower even when the total sample count would be lower. Haven't done enough testing to confirm it yet.

Any chance the devs could give some technical info on this? Thanks.

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:08:14 -0400

Quote
emme wrote: At the moment there doesn't seem to be much speed difference even between 100% and 3.125%.

This is because the subtree you're plugging into the Bitmap Cache is fast enough. You will get the maximum speed advantage when 1) the Bitmap Cache subtree is slow to render, 2) the cache resolution is lower than 100%, and 3) the Bitmap Cache component is connected to multiple inputs.

Quote
emme wrote: The new bitmap-cache component also doesn't seem to work well with other bitmap-components.

This is probably due to our cache reuse mechanic. When the output of a bitmap-based component is plugged into a bitmap-cached input, the input doesn't re-render the cache, but instead reuses the output cache of the connected component as its own input cache. A corollary: cache settings for the bitmap-cached input will be ignored in this situation.

Quote
emme wrote: Ideally how I imagine the bitmap-cache working at 50% resolution is that everything before it gets effectively processed at 1/4 the sample count and then cached.

It works exactly as you describe. 100% means 1x sample count, 50% means 1/4 sample count, 25% means 1/16 sample count etc. Note that the sample counts are impacted by the Anti-Aliasing settings of the input.

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:09:57 -0400

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: But I don't have a handle on the caching resolution. For now I'm gonna stick with 100% unless there is a good reason not to.

Here's a tip: if you're using a blur with a relatively large radius on a heavy procedural subtree, you can safely set resolution to 50% or even lower.

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:10:55 -0400

Quote
GMM wrote: As far as I understand (could be wrong though), it's just the opposite. Everything is sampled at full size and then the bitmap is resized, so the benefit applies to components after the cache, not before it.

Of course not :) We sample per cache pixel, so less cache pixels = less samples.

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:46:44 -0400
In general, Bitmap Cache is not a magic "give me speed" button. When you're caching a fast subtree, you may actually lose speed because memory access isn't cheap, especially with bicubic filtering, which requires 16 pixel fetch operations (as opposed to 4 of bilinear or 1 of no filtering).

emme, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:18:49 -0400
This is all good to hear. Makes sense. Thanks Vladimir :)

Sphinx., Fri, 31 Jul 2020 03:08:01 -0400

Quote
Vladimir Golovin wrote: This is probably due to our cache reuse mechanic. When the output of a bitmap-based component is plugged into a bitmap-cached input, the input doesn't re-render the cache, but instead reuses the output cache of the connected component as its own input cache. A corollary: cache settings for the bitmap-cached input will be ignored in this situation.

Juicy :-) If I understand this correctly, as long as a path consists purely of bitmap components, no new buffer allocation takes place, and the internal bitmap is passed on by reference? If that is true, what happens with sidechains to sampler components?

I.e. consider this chain of bitmap components:

A -> B -> C

A creates the cache, do its thing and passes on the cache to B etc..

Now B is connected to a normal sampler, i.e. Invert, which requries a persistent and unique B cache. I guess that would ruin the strategy?

Vladimir Golovin, Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:10:12 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: I.e. consider this chain of bitmap components: A -> B -> C A creates the cache, do its thing and passes on the cache to B etc..

Correct. Component A creates the output cache, component B reuses it as the input cache for the cached input (ignoring its cache settings) and produces its output cache, which then gets reused by C's cached input.

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: Now B is connected to a normal sampler, i.e. Invert, which requries a persistent and unique B cache. I guess that would ruin the strategy?

Correct. A creates the output cache, B samples it and produces samples, C renders the input cache because it has no cache to reuse from component B.

Rachel Duim, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 14:45:41 -0400
Thanks Vlad. The reduction of the cache resolution is perfect for sending a rotation map (derivatives etc) into a Bomber+ loop. Setting it to 50% or 25% works well with little reduction in image quality. The Bitmap Cache component is written for me... I do so much symmetrical image manipulation, it improves the speed of my recursive routines, sometimes by as much as 400%.

Indigo Ray, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 20:22:42 -0400
Rachel, I tried the above with This Way filter, setting the cache resolution to 25%, and the render time stayed the same or slowed down slightly.

I tried setting the "blur" (at the beginning) to 25%. I also tried adding a bitmap cache component between the "subtract" (rotation map) and the bomber/offset and setting it to 25%. No luck either way.

I understand how to use the lookup/tile (solid fill)/free rectangle components to reduce sampling and speed up filters, but I'm not sure I understand how the bitmap cache settings can be used similarly...

Rachel Duim, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:21:19 -0400
First of all, a Bomber or Bomber+ project with a density of 1 will not benefit from the bitmap cache. The cache is helpful for filters that have repetitive operations. So that would be bomber projects with higher densities (above 3?). Or anything with recursion or deep branching. Anything that renders quickly (under 10 seconds) will probably not benefit from the cache.

I've attached a modified Impressionist Curve (FF10 only). The 50% resolution cache is placed at the input of the rotation map into the Bomber+ loop. The filter is about twice as fast on average with the cache.

Rachel Duim, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 21:30:05 -0400
Here is a modified Koch Crystals. The cache is placed at the end of a group that recursively calls itself up to 5 times. Here is a list of filters that benefit from the cache.

Koch Crystals 3 to 4 times faster
Koch Square 50% faster
Impressionist Curve 2 times faster
Impressionist Channels 2 times faster
Pentaflower 25% faster
Heptaflower 25% faster
Hexaflower 50% faster
Octoflower 50% faster
Detail Painter 2 times faster
Gosper Crystal 2 times faster
Distorted Echo Mask 2 times faster
Detail Painter 2 to 3 times faster

Vladimir Golovin, Wed, 05 Aug 2020 05:18:35 -0400

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: Here is a modified Koch Crystals. The cache is placed at the end of a group that recursively calls itself up to 5 times. Here is a list of filters that benefit from the cache.

Nice speedups. Is the quality reduction noticeable?

Rachel Duim, Wed, 05 Aug 2020 23:03:47 -0400
The quality is fine as far as I can tell. It's all down to knowing what part of the cache tool to use and when. It's a cache, anti-aliasing tool, and resolution (blur like) tool. And much appreciated. I do push those pixels around.

[bug] Rotate Madness changed

Rachel Duim — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 04:24:54 -0400

Rachel Duim, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 21:38:12 -0400
In FF10 on the Mac the default preset has changed for Rotate Madness. Attached is build number.

Rachel Duim, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 21:39:03 -0400
On the left the default preset for Rotate Madness in FF9, FF10 on right.

UPDATE: Same issue in FF10 under Windows 10 with latest July 28 build.

Indigo Ray, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 19:56:06 -0400
Some volunteer testing...

The "multiply" before the blur is identical - I took screenshots and blended them. I think the blur component has slightly different outputs between versions. Changing the cache settings in FF10 does not seem to replicate the FF9 final result.

Does this mean all bitmap components give different results in FF10 than in previous versions?

Rachel Duim, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 22:58:12 -0400
No. Derivative Diffusion has multiple blurs and it is fine. Something else is going on.

GMM, Wed, 05 Aug 2020 04:24:54 -0400
Thanks for reporting, we're actively looking into the issue.

Bitmap Cache: Add "Bypass" property

Sphinx. — Tue, 04 Aug 2020 09:11:23 -0400

Sphinx., Thu, 30 Jul 2020 04:45:47 -0400
It would be useful with a simple boolean property to bypass the bitmap cache and pass through source samples in conventional procedural manner.

The reason for this is easier empirical testing of performance improvements and/or qualitative impact. Also this could be used to give the user the final decision about quality vs speed.

GMM, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 04:56:26 -0400
We plan to implement this functionality via a separate Bypass component. I'm afraid I can't give an ETA for its appearance.

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 06:00:51 -0400

Quote
GMM wrote: separate Bypass component

Not a component, of course. We'd like to implement a proper Bypass feature, but this is not a trivial thing to do, because a proper bypass would require two internal component trees -- one visible to the user in the Editor, and another one for the renderer with all the bypassed components thrown out. This is a significant rewrite because the current Editor uses the same single tree for both the UI and the renderer.

Sphinx., Fri, 31 Jul 2020 03:03:04 -0400
A real infrastructural Bypass would be awesome and preferable. I understand why that is alot work ;-)

A simple internal bypass (i.e. f(x) -> x) would also do - perhaps as a first edition before the "significant rewrite".

Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're considering the feature :-)

Vladimir Golovin, Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:18:13 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: Anyway, I'm glad to hear you're considering the feature

We even have a preliminary design for it:

Vladimir Golovin, Fri, 31 Jul 2020 08:31:48 -0400
Here's a more recent pic that looks a bit better:

Sphinx., Sat, 01 Aug 2020 05:20:39 -0400
Looks good :-)

How is it going with the work on "The Next Big Thing"? Need testers?

Vladimir Golovin, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 03:45:12 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: How is it going with the work on "The Next Big Thing"? Need testers?

In short, GPUs are weird, hard to program, and we still have no idea what to do with them on Mac, especially given Apple's transition to their own silicon.

And BTW, the screens aren't from The Next Big Thingy -- they are from an Editor overhaul we're planning for normal, regular Filter Forge.

emme, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 08:57:30 -0400
So, is The Next Big Thingy currently on pause, or still in development? Too bad about the GPU difficulties, but it's understandable.

The new FF editor designs look clean. Looks like there might be some new functionality along with the new visuals? Is this planned for version 10 or for later?

Vladimir Golovin, Mon, 03 Aug 2020 07:45:04 -0400

Quote
emme wrote: So, is The Next Big Thingy currently on pause, or still in development? Too bad about the GPU difficulties, but it's understandable.

No, not on pause. The current focus is a tile-based / render-on-demand architecture for GPUs, which is needed for rendering anything bitmap-based.

Quote
emme wrote: Looks like there might be some new functionality along with the new visuals?

There'll be a lot of new functionality -- dragging connectors from inputs (not just from outputs as before), click-click-connections in addition to dragging, ability to reconnect connections coming from an output, component creation menu available during connecting (like in Houdini / Unity / Unreal), dots for rerouting connections, named pins for distributing connections, named wireless pins for laying connections through the air, ability to rename components, collapsible component previews, framed groups (like in Unity), and a proper bypass -- but this one may take a while.

Oh, and design-wise, every single thing is now aligned to the grid, which hopefully will somewhat mitigate spaghetti networks facilitated by the current editor.

Quote
emme wrote: Is this planned for version 10 or for later?

That would be nice, but the development may take longer. We'll see.

Sphinx., Mon, 03 Aug 2020 09:04:28 -0400
This is indeed exciting news :-) Looking forward to that update.

emme, Mon, 03 Aug 2020 10:27:26 -0400
Awesome! This will really make the workflow more robust.

One small but useful feature would be the ability to duplicate connections fr om inputs with a modifier key (like ctrl). There's a connection from A -> B and I want to connect A -> C, I could simply ctrl + drag from the B input to C input and duplicate the connection. Useful for large trees wh ere the components can be very far from each other.

Maybe the features you listed already solve this :)

Vladimir Golovin, Tue, 04 Aug 2020 09:11:23 -0400

Quote
emme wrote: Maybe the features you listed already solve this

No, they don't :) This sounds like a good idea.

Bitmap Cache: Inconsistent Previews

Sphinx. — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:52:11 -0400

Sphinx., Mon, 27 Jul 2020 09:41:30 -0400
Something is wrong with the Bitmap Cache previews.

Notice the extreme difference between component thumbnail preview and main preview (here at 600x600):

Sphinx., Mon, 27 Jul 2020 10:09:34 -0400
Here is the same rendering, but with the image size set to 300x300, notice how the big preview is completely different from the one above (600x600)

emme, Mon, 27 Jul 2020 12:10:38 -0400
Yeah, looks like the sampling grid resolution doesn't scale relative to the preview image size, which it ideally should do to get accurate previews. Seems to basically always sample every nth pixels. Also in general, would the great to have an option to use a sampling resolution independent from the image resolution.

GMM, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 10:04:09 -0400
Thank you for reporting.

We have just released a serious fix to the beta. I'm not sure if this issue is addressed but stuill, please reinstall the beta from the beta page and confirm the issue still persists.

emme, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 10:50:15 -0400
The update did not change this behavior. The issue persists. Btw, is there a changelog for the beta somewhere?

GMM, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:18:01 -0400
emme, we'll (hopefully) post the changelog once we publish the 9.002 update. Right now I'm not sure what has been alrady fixed and what hasn't.

emme, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 13:27:50 -0400
Alright, thanks GMM

SpaceRay, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 14:15:30 -0400
Sorry that I may be missing something or doing it wrong if this is a bug, but I do not get any error preview as shown on screenshot, maybe because I am adding a bitmap object color control?

Please, where is available the "Input Cache Settings" panel?

I have searched in the options and do not find it

Where can be this made visible?

The Bitmap cache does not have any settings as shown here Bitmap cache help page

Thanks very much

Sphinx., Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:52:11 -0400
Look here. Preview inconsistencies starts to appear at other cache resolutions than 100%

Bitmap Cache: HDR in, but LDR out?

Sphinx. — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 10:33:42 -0400

Sphinx., Wed, 29 Jul 2020 10:40:20 -0400
If possible please enable HDR output for the Bitmap Cache component :-)
Source is HDR, but output is clipped (LDR).

Also this may call for a "Clip HDR Before Averaging" checkbox in the rasterization options of the source prop

Vladimir Golovin, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 06:04:01 -0400
This is a bug which we're currently fixing. Of course, the Bitmap Cache component should have HDR output.

emme, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:23:32 -0400
Good to hear. Related, would it also be possible to make the blur component output HDR?

Sphinx., Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:35:35 -0400
Ah great, I also found it rather strange with HDR input but not output. Emme, Blur is already HDR :-)

emme, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:16:00 -0400
Sphinx, Blur only outputs LDR for me... Am I missing something?

Sphinx., Fri, 31 Jul 2020 02:56:39 -0400
Well it worked earlier (here V9). But I can see that its broken in V10 - probably the same bug (also the Blur component has the yellow hdr sign at the output, while the Bitmap Cache has not).

Vladimir Golovin, Fri, 31 Jul 2020 04:20:53 -0400
This is already fixed, should be out in the next update or hotfix.

emme, Sun, 02 Aug 2020 10:33:42 -0400
Ok great :)

FF 10.0001 crash when downloading filters on Mac Catalina

Robertus — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:36:46 -0400

Robertus, Mon, 27 Jul 2020 15:45:12 -0400
Filter Forge 10.0001 Professional edition on Mac Catalina 10.15.6

Every time when via the site “Open this filter in Filter Forge” then it’s doing some things - downloading it seems, then FF just disappears.
Start FF - the earlier selected filter is there, now Ok

It doesn’t matter which filter you select to download - always FF exits but after the manual restart the filter is present

Rachel Duim, Mon, 27 Jul 2020 16:22:26 -0400
+1 same for windows, obsolete downloading gets the filter then exits FF10.

SpaceRay, Mon, 27 Jul 2020 17:17:46 -0400
i have not tested FF 10 but this happens the same with the latest version of FF 9 and so I think is the same problem that has not been fixed

Many times that you want to download a filter in FF 9 when it is shown the "getting the filter" it crashes and then when you reopen the filter is there but this is not something if it crashes each time you download a filter

Maybe the download throught the supossed Obsolete filter download should be NOT obsolete anymore and be upagraded and restored inside FF 10 and make it right to download filters in it multiple filters at once instead of having to download one by one

Robertus, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 15:08:41 -0400
Hello FilterForge,

Any thoughts on this bug?
Was it also already present in FF 9 as reported above by SpaceRay?
Is it difficult to fix then?

CFandM, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:53:04 -0400

Quote
Robertus wrote: Any thoughts on this bug?

I have thoughts but I do not work for FF just a user and author..LOL...
I installed FF10 and before doing anything I used the Obsolete downloader. I noticed that once you get the error and get past that then it does not come up again...But I only downloaded a couple of filters after the error........

I did manage to capture the error dialog but was not able to send a report.....

CFandM, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:57:24 -0400
To bring up this bug you have to have a fresh install of FF10....So delete any and all files and folders related to FF10 before installing....Once installed go straight away to downloading with the built-in Obsolete downloader....I just chose a simple snippet....If you get the dialog that pops up with the "Category structure has changed" then you might get the error.....If you do not get the error then start from the beginning again with uninstalling and delete all files and folders then reinstall.....

Robertus, Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:04:55 -0400
@CFandM: thanks

My system is a new Mac on which I installed a fresh FF 10
The FF 10 crash behaviour is repeatable and every time when I download a random chosen filter from the site it happens as earlier described

When switching to the old obsolete downloader: same crashing behaviour, so no workaround on my Mac unfortunately :)

So I was hoping on a reaction from one of the FF moderators on this one

GMM, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 04:45:48 -0400
CFandM. could you please confirm you're still observing this behavior on the latest beta build (and not on the one that was initially released on 07/25).

Robertus, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:34:53 -0400
This is my Mac version: 10.001.56096.50 Release-10.7 July 24, 2020 14:35
Check updates: no update found

CFandM, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:00:15 -0400

Quote
GMM wrote: CFandM. could you please confirm you're still observing this behavior on the latest beta build (and not on the one that was initially released on 07/25).

Yep I just grabbed the newest build that was July28....Still get an error but I did manage to send a bug report this time......Here is the error this time......Same as the previous bug on reproducing...
Just for a little more context, I am also running the trial version and have not yet registered.......It also happens in Windows 7 as well as Windows 10 where this error was reported from.....

SpaceRay, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 17:26:22 -0400
I have tested the latest FF 10 released July 28,2020 and it seems that it does not crashes when downloading filters using Firefox (have not tried other browser)

I have tested both, having already open, or opening FF after selecting filter, and both seems to work correctly now

Downloaded 5 different filters without crash

Quote
Robertus wrote: This is my Mac version: 10.001.56096.50 Release-10.7 July 24, 2020 14:35 Check updates: no update found

Yes, there is a new update from July 28 although it has the same number, and maybe FF update does not find it, download it again, and reinstall it.

Rachel Duim, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:15:39 -0400
Still does not load even a single filter without crashing from the obsolete download in my testing.

Robertus, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:27:12 -0400
@SpaceRay

Now downloaded that other minor version = FF 10.001.56137.36994 release-10.7 July 28 2020 11:56

With Safari already tried several filters without that crashing / disappearing :)
So that seems a good one on Mac Catalina latest stable version 10.15.6

Thanks

Robertus, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 18:36:46 -0400
@Rachel Duim

Quote
Still does not load even a single filter without crashing from the obsolete download in my testing.

Yes, me too still that crashing/disappearing FF with the obsolete download.
But try Safari or FireFox, maybe that's better then

Draft Mode: Expose setting in designer

Sphinx. — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:12:31 -0400

Sphinx., Thu, 30 Jul 2020 04:49:12 -0400
It would be useful to somehow be able to determine if the filter runs in Draft Mode or not (I'm thinking an "External" category component).

Some filters implement their own strategies for draft mode / fast mode / low quality etc. Having the front end setting available design time could lead to a more complete experience that avoid conceptual double ups.

emme, Thu, 30 Jul 2020 09:12:31 -0400
Yes, this would be nice. It could also allow filter designs that work around potential problems caused by the draft mode.

[bug] 10.001 window cut off - Windows

Indigo Ray — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:15:17 -0400

Indigo Ray, Sat, 25 Jul 2020 08:45:12 -0400
In the main window, the right side is cut off. Does not happen in FF 9. See attached

Windows 10
1920 x 1080
150% scale (recommended)
taskbar on left

Looking forward to trying out the new time-saving features!

GMM, Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:15:17 -0400
Indigo Ray, thanks for reporting. Should be fixed by now: please reinstall the latest beta from the beta page.

first 10.1 things

Rachel Duim — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 23:54:18 -0400

Rachel Duim, Fri, 24 Jul 2020 23:54:18 -0400
On the Mac (2019 MacBook Pro model, latest Catalina), Save Image As always crashes.

Mac again: Download More Filters... works with obsolete (filters download), but it crashes right after download is finished.

Beta 9004 Mac

Totte — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:49:08 -0400

Totte, Wed, 30 Oct 2019 14:29:17 -0400
Seamless tiling checkbox bug.

I opened a filter edited it with the seamless checkbox set. After edit, the checkbox was set but the tiling was not seamless. Uncheck and Recheck the Seamless tiling checkbox made it seamless again.

GMM, Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:32:55 -0400
Hi Totte, I'm afraid we can't reproduce that. What particular filter fails for you this way? How many open tabs do you have? Any other relevant settings?

A video would also be helpful.

Totte, Thu, 31 Oct 2019 06:49:08 -0400
OK, I will make a video , it' was not a 100% thing but happened several times.

Beta 9.003 - Download new filter

RichardJ — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 08:41:45 -0400

RichardJ, Tue, 29 Oct 2019 20:54:52 -0400
On trying to D/L a new filter I get:

Newer version required, install yes/No?

Is download disabled with the beta/demo?

Richard

GMM, Wed, 30 Oct 2019 06:17:14 -0400
Filter downloads are available both in the beta and demo - but only in the latest program version. You always need to have the latest version to be able to download filters.

RichardJ, Wed, 30 Oct 2019 08:41:45 -0400
OK, just checked and downloaded 9.004, works again.

Thanks for the quick response.

Richard

Minor interface order issue

Sphinx. — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:39:17 -0400

Sphinx., Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:31:47 -0400
Drag a connected component on top a note component:
connections are behind note, component is on top.

GMM, Wed, 02 Oct 2019 10:06:12 -0400
Confirmed, thanks for testing!

Sphinx., Wed, 02 Oct 2019 13:23:36 -0400
if possible it would be great if the Note component always stayed behind other components. This way it could be used to show a certain relation/context between the note and a set of components :-)

GMM, Thu, 03 Oct 2019 05:39:17 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: great if the Note component always stayed behind other components.

I'm afraid it would require a rewrite of the entire z-order logic...

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: show a certain relation/context between the note and a set of components

If you need to comment on a set of components (rather than a single component), our suggested workflow is to combine the components into a group.

Note: linebreaks disappears

Sphinx. — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 10:05:59 -0400

Sphinx., Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:46:21 -0400
Linebreaks from editor disappears in component view

GMM, Wed, 02 Oct 2019 10:05:59 -0400
Confirmed, thanks for testing!

Help missing for new features

Sphinx. — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 09:13:39 -0400

Sphinx., Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:42:07 -0400
"Help: Note" - missing, new result node features are missing and probably more - I guess you update the help as last thing before releasing?

GMM, Wed, 02 Oct 2019 09:13:39 -0400
Yes, that's always been the case. Help is the last thing to be added to the new version.

Beta 9: Unable to set light color

Sphinxmorpher — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:34:00 -0400

Sphinxmorpher, Sun, 16 Jun 2019 10:18:53 -0400
There is a problem with the controls when adding a custom light. The color picker control shows, but magically disappears when you try to click it (looks like the environment drop down takes over)

GMM, Mon, 17 Jun 2019 05:57:04 -0400
Thank you for your report - forwarded to the developers.

Sphinxmorpher, Tue, 30 Jul 2019 02:19:03 -0400
FF 9.002 - this is still a problem. As soon as I move the mouse, the color picker field disappears and the environment dropdown is on top.

GMM, Fri, 02 Aug 2019 06:32:52 -0400
For some unknown reason this fix was not included in 9.002. Hopefully will be fixed in 9.003.

Sphinx., Wed, 02 Oct 2019 06:34:00 -0400
Fixed :-) Thanks

Beta 9.003 released

GMM — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 05:04:57 -0400

GMM, Tue, 24 Sep 2019 10:14:38 -0400
Folks, if you're into beta testing please update to 9.003. Really many fixes and stability improvements there. For a more formal change log, please check over our news:

https://filterforge.com/more/news/

Sphinx., Wed, 25 Sep 2019 04:25:18 -0400
Great news :-)

I'm looking forward to trying out the new features.

Do you have a list of which minor bugs were fixed?
Also - is there a backlog/roadmap for V9 somewhere?

GMM, Wed, 25 Sep 2019 05:50:09 -0400
Roadmap? We would never publish a roadmap because it would mean a commitment we don't want to take. Here's a blog post from Raymond Chen at Microsoft on the subject:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewt...ainContent

As for the list of fixed issues, please check the changelog at the bottom of the news article:
https://filterforge.com/more/news/1097.html

Sphinx., Wed, 25 Sep 2019 07:59:57 -0400
well, I believe there is a middleway between keeping us in total dark and talking about hard commitments. Nevermind.

I was referring to this line in the changelog you link to: "Minor bugs fixed."

GMM, Wed, 25 Sep 2019 11:49:03 -0400

Quote
Sphinx. wrote: I was referring to this line in the changelog you link to: "Minor bugs fixed."

It's me who writes change logs, and I use this phrase to cover things that didn't appear in our bug tracking system. For instance, one of the beta builds had file formats mixed up: when you saved the render as JPG it showed up as BMP. The patch was released as a hotfix within hours, I doubt someone was really affected by the issue. It's also possible something else was hotfixed this way, I'm not sure.

If you wonder whether some specific issue has been fixed in 9.003, feel free to ask me, I'll try to investigate.

Rachel Duim, Wed, 25 Sep 2019 23:28:45 -0400
Thanks for the list of fixed issues. Is the "MacOS-specific: Rendering is no longer slowed down on Hi-DPI displays" issue going to be fixed in FF8 on the Mac?

Skybase, Thu, 26 Sep 2019 02:43:46 -0400
OH DEAR OH DEAR lol there's that long long long long-requested notes component. Thank you

Ramlyn, Thu, 26 Sep 2019 03:01:19 -0400
Three nice changes:

- A new Note component to add comments to the filter structure.
- Fixed minor visual issues on Hi-DPI displays.
- Custom filters can be renamed without entering the Filter Editor.

Thank you!! :D :D :D

GMM, Thu, 26 Sep 2019 06:21:49 -0400

Quote
Rachel Duim wrote: Is the "MacOS-specific: Rendering is no longer slowed down on Hi-DPI displays" issue going to be fixed in FF8 on the Mac?

Yes, it should be available in the next update to 8.0 (version 8.006).

CFandM, Fri, 27 Sep 2019 05:04:57 -0400

Quote
Skybase wrote: OH DEAR OH DEAR lol there's that long long long long-requested notes component. Thank you

Ditto..........
There is just so much to say!

Unable to get beta license

Rachel Duim — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 09:29:42 -0400

Rachel Duim, Fri, 19 Jul 2019 20:07:50 -0400
I have a valid FF8 license for the Mac, and I doubled checked it by re-registering FF8. However I have received 2 rejections saying the serial is invalid. And got this reply from support:

Quote
Dear Rachel This is expected beh * avior: every Filter Forge version requires a different license key. Feel free to request a beta key from the beta page https://filterforge.com/download/beta9/ - it will be emailed to you automatically. Best regards, Filter Forge Support support@filterforge.com

Huh... I sent support my valid serial number and this is the reply?

Yuya, Sat, 20 Jul 2019 04:23:49 -0400
Oh heh... I gave a direct copy and paste of my number and name and it also didn't register?

CFandM, Sat, 20 Jul 2019 09:29:42 -0400
If I remember correctly from last time FF 7/8 the serials for the version that was purchased with the Hu credits does not work with the online beta registration...It comes back as a invalid number....So mail support..

Lighting element blank

Rachel Duim — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:41:01 -0400

Rachel Duim, Thu, 27 Jun 2019 00:53:52 -0400
In FF9 beta on the Mac I saved a new default preset for the attached filter with the "Bridge" as the Environment. If I close FF9 then reopen it, the Lighting element is a blank gray. It can be restored by changing to "Church" then back to "Bridge".

Rachel Duim, Thu, 27 Jun 2019 00:56:34 -0400
What the screen looks like

GMM, Thu, 27 Jun 2019 06:15:36 -0400
Thank you Rachel, the issue is confirmed and forwarded to the devs.

GMM, Wed, 17 Jul 2019 07:41:01 -0400
Should be fixed in 9.002.

Beta 9: BMP file can not be read by image editor

jhantares — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:10:55 -0400

jhantares, Fri, 21 Jun 2019 17:10:55 -0400
after saving a .bmp file, the file can't be read by image editor.

No response to help contact us??!!

cd32919 — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 04:40:58 -0500

cd32919, Wed, 06 Feb 2019 10:51:20 -0500
Anyone else having difficulty in contacting help? I have sent 4 emails from the contact page citing my problem entering the license key for 8, I get "License key invalid format" and still no response from the help desk, even when including invoice information.

EKMittong, Wed, 06 Feb 2019 14:39:18 -0500
I can't find a way to reach any form of support. My key is prompting that the key is invalid. I am angry, no problem for them securing their payment but I have a non functional program. They have no adequate means of contact for their customers and that seems no way to run a business.

GMM, Fri, 08 Feb 2019 04:40:58 -0500
It is possible we receive your requests but you can't hear from us back. Please check this forum thread.

[suggestion] Per node timing functions

Grimbly — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:23:00 -0500

Grimbly, Thu, 18 Oct 2018 19:19:08 -0400
I have a filter I've been playing around with over the last few years and it has grown to be massive at this point, many hundreds of nodes nested across dozens of groups with most being in the primary editor graph. As such it can be very performant with certain settings and very very slow with others.

I would like to see if you could add node timing capabilities to this upcoming version as a new feature for all existing nodes. Basically, it would be an optional way to view the node graph which would have a millisecond->second->minute->whatever text timer displayed under the node after it fully renders. This would time the node fr om the start of its rendering till it finishes.

This would be very helpful for me to debug this and many other filters and improve their performance. Knowing where the bottleneck is occurring makes performance tweaking much more targeted. For a normal filter this would likely be overkill but with something like this it takes hours to render sometimes and I can't sit there the whole time watching each node to try and figure out where most of that time was spent. Other times it may only take minutes with certain settings so it becomes very hard to determine wh ere the slow down is occurring with no timers on that many nodes.

It might also be handy to have the text color coded to more easily spot the really slow ones. (green->yellow->red or maybe just green->red)

GMM, Fri, 19 Oct 2018 04:44:33 -0400
Thank you for your input. We are looking into ways to display filter performance, and your ideas are somewhat consistent with ours.

Grimbly, Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:23:00 -0500
Nifty. Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to seeing something like this eventually :)

FF 7.005 Crashed when opening filter from website.

Logic Artists — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 18:55:06 -0400

Logic Artists, Tue, 21 Nov 2017 08:30:58 -0500
If I open this filter: https://filterforge.com/filters/13580.html FF 7.005 crashes. Doesn't generate any bug report, just stops responding and has to close.

Joel Damien, Fri, 01 Dec 2017 10:33:37 -0500
Same with this one: https://filterforge.com/filters/8709.html

When I switch to the category it's in, it opens the filter and BOOM. Crash.

CFandM, Sat, 02 Dec 2017 03:24:23 -0500
Just tested these and for me the first one works but the second one crashes FF....See Video.....Win764bit.....Just checked and it works with FF5 but not FF6.......Must be a change in Lua script FF5 to FF6 that is the issue....

GMM, Mon, 04 Dec 2017 09:27:08 -0500
I Dream In EGA crashes indeed. We're actively working on it.

Joel Damien, Mon, 04 Dec 2017 10:39:41 -0500
Yay, thanks GMM. It is one of my fav filters :D

GMM, Thu, 08 Feb 2018 08:46:46 -0500
Good news: we figured out the issue, and the fix should be available in the next program update.

Krynnm, Thu, 14 Jun 2018 18:55:06 -0400
I'm having this issue. I'm on Filter Forge 7.007.

[bug] crash in ColorControl->Set Image

Totte — Tue, 12 Dec 2017 10:44:26 -0500

Totte, Mon, 25 Sep 2017 06:50:04 -0400
Hello,

found a crash bug that I also now reproduced in 6.0, sent the bug report in through FF.

But if anyone wanna try:

(1) Create a new filter
(2) Add a Color Control
(3) Enable Images
(4) Add Image -> Recent Images (but select the parent Recent Images not any of the actual menu item children with images.

Totte, Mon, 25 Sep 2017 06:50:15 -0400
And the error:

Ramlyn, Mon, 25 Sep 2017 08:39:23 -0400
Not happening for me. Do you use the Windows or the Mac version?

Totte, Mon, 25 Sep 2017 08:41:39 -0400
Mac Version ...

GMM, Mon, 25 Sep 2017 09:04:57 -0400
Thank you Totte! I can't reproduce it on Windows but I'll ask our tester to try it on MacOS.

Ramlyn, Tue, 26 Sep 2017 11:21:08 -0400
Yes, I also tested it on Windows. It is probably a problem of the Mac version.

GMM, Thu, 28 Sep 2017 10:15:15 -0400
We have reproduced the issue on macOs - that's a bug point for Totte.

Totte, Thu, 28 Sep 2017 10:44:30 -0400
Thankies ;-)

GMM, Tue, 12 Dec 2017 10:42:36 -0500
Should be fixed in 7.006.

Totte, Tue, 12 Dec 2017 10:44:26 -0500
Thanks ;-) I've slipped and crashed countless times on this, me thinks me needs a new mouse , lol.