[Philip Knight]

OK, thanks for clarification.

========== Owner/operator of CompassionSensuality.Net – (https://www.compassionsensuality.net/) ==========
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” ~ The Dalai Lama

[Philip Knight]

Yeah, well, Alan, we wondered (pun-hint) what happened to you. 🙂

As to the new activation/PI version: I learned late about the new GenArts PI 3.0.9 (Windows version) here only because my PI stopped being able to be activated. But I neither ever got an FYI email nor saw any News statement at Woundertouch about this important change. So I emailed you at support, Amy answered and the upgrade was quite painless. I was just puzzled why it was so under-the-radar considering this was the first major update in a long time. An oversight or did I miss something?

One thing the FAQ on this new upgrade does not seem to directly address is to what extent the new PI is now 64-bit if at all (something I’ve kind of harped on over the years). Could you ‘splain how much of it is or is not 64-bit and what it affects under-the-hood?

Thanks

[Philip Knight]

Thanks, Ann.

I got it figured out not long after I posted my last posting here — I got an email from GenArts support (which as you mentioned, didn’t come from Alan as it has in years past) and it was all rather painless. Uninstall, reinstall. Done.

All my Emitters — and my core main custom library — and PI projects are on a separate drive anyway, so no problems there either (I just had to pop in a shortcut to those Emitters into the default PI folder for such as I have had all along).

[Philip Knight]

Well, I just sent an email to Alan for I’m a bit confused here.

Seems that we are talking about two different installers here — the Windows one (3.0.4.x) and the Mac one (3.0.8 — I say 3.0.8 for I have not found any news or download for .0.9 at GenArts Wondertouch). Besides, I have the Windows version.

So out of curiosity, I fired up my PI and ran into the “Activation code is not defined properly!” thing. Irritating for my system configuration is the same as usual with same driver letters assigned to each drive. I’ll go through the whole online activation thing again if necessary but it’s a pain in le derriere. That said…

Is this my-PI-is-dead symptom an indication that there there IS a new GenArts installer/verifier for both Windows and Mac?

If so why hasn’t it been officially announced here and at GenArts?

Sincerely,

Confused-ious 🙂

[Philip Knight]

Renton,

First, welcome 🙂

Second, you’re not the only one using PI and Vegas Pro. So do I (been using Vegas since v.6 and have v.10 for I don’t need v.12); there are a few of the veterans over at the Sony Vegas Pro forum at Sony that do too.

So feel free to ask stuff about using PI in Vegas over there if necessary. Due to other life priorities, I haven’t been around here or even there that much or if so, very sporadically. But others can help you.

I always imported my PI effects sequences into Vegas as .PNG sequences and usually on their own tracks. It’s IMO the cleanest way to go even though there is technically not much difference between an uncompressed .avi file and a .png or any other format — they are all simply containers for frames.

The advantage of .PNG sequences is that you can see each frame in its folder. Sometimes I’ll steal a frame of a sequence to use in some still artwork I do 🙂

Oh, and don’t forget that using an NLE like Vegas gives a second layer of emitter tweaking through event effects chains to even further enhance or polish the particles appearance (gain, color, gamma, color balance, whatever).

I use a lot of sparkles and glows and I can really make stuff pop out even more with Vegas.

[Philip Knight]

I use .png format for stuff that require transparencies–which is basically everything. I’ve used and studied Photoshop but can’t afford it and so have used Corel Photopaint (part of Corel’s Graphics Suite) for 15 years and it’s great.

If you need a good free program, get Gimp. It’s GUI is a bit different from most digital imaging programs, but it saves in just about any format.

One way to go about creating your own shape, is to go to an emitter you like that is similar to what you wish to create and export/save it out of PI. Then use that as a template for whatever it is you wish to make. Many of the particles are only 128 pixels square and much smaller and only 8-bit.

In fact, as I understand it, making shapes too large and at higher resolution/quality such as 32-bit will drastically slow down PI due to the work load to draw them out. But I’ll let Alan correct me on that if necessary.

[Philip Knight]

Alan,

As you know, I’ve brought up the 64-bit question/suggestion for PI before as I have reiterated it here in this thread above, but I don’t recall you ever directly responding to its (realistic or unrealistic) implementation.

Could you please elaborate a little on whether this is a totally pie-in-the-sky user-wish or a feasible expectation/possibility? If the latter, any sense of when it could become a reality?

Thanks.

~ Philip Knight

[Philip Knight]

Good points all around.

I think I used the word “spoiled” a few months ago in reference to how we were so used to getting our monthly goodies in a post to Alan 🙂 I’ve had PI for some years now–and at least in my case–I tend to specialize in certain emitters, develop them and consider the oogles of the rest more or less as nice-to-have spare parts. But then I use PI in a non-commercial (not a job) though serious manner where I don’t have clients requesting this or that effect.

As to the how-often release thing…

PI has been rather unique in this giving away new emitters for so long — how many other companies do that? I know of none. So I’ve been grateful for it and could live with quarterly or twice-a-year releases of quality emitters.

As to what to focus on, I’ve also mentioned in the past that having PI be 64-bit would be a big improvement for work-flow due to how 32-bit can only access so much RAM and no more. I’ve got 16 Gig of RAM of which PI can only use probably less than 2. Not efficient. That said…

64-bit capability may be far more daunting to pull off on a programming level then any user can realize for PI is complex.

But it would also be nice to have PI at least go to v.4 64-bit or not. Improve some of the GUI perhaps (tool icons sometimes require more than one click to activate, etc.), have it less prone to crashes (though that is usually due to it struggling with only-so-much-RAM).

Again, I tend to make rather complex or high “Number” effects so that may put more of a load on PI than most other users.

Tutorials would be nice though I only use them much like a dictionary — to figure something out. Most of the time I just learn-as-I-do.

Bottom line: I love PI and even if I never got new emitters, I’d be fine with it. I just wish it had more processing/RAM power-ability 🙂

========== Owner/operator of CompassionSensuality.Net – (https://www.compassionsensuality.net/) ==========
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” ~ The Dalai Lama

[Philip Knight]

Alan,

I get both sides of this issue or perceptual stakes. The quarterly emitters doesn’t bother me for as I’ve said, we have more than what we can use, I mean… really 🙂 Besides, frankly, I was so impressed with the quality of some of the later ones such as the Clouds, I’d prefer a “quality over quantity” approach anyway.

Where I do agree with the concerns or what’s-really-going-on part of the inquiry is that emitters are one part of the equation; the other just as important part is development and upgrade of the engine that makes all this magic-making possible — the PI software.

Apart from some more or less orbital improvements, PI hasn’t really changed in the 6 years I’ve had it. I started with v.3, we’re at 3.4. In one sense this reflects that the changes have been overall small. And I also am well aware that Alan has in one sense carried most of PI — there isn’t a penthouse suite with 100 coders at his disposal. And its a one-of-a-kind and rather complex program under-the-hood.

But even the GUI looks dated in a way, and there have been no new features that stand out. Maybe that’s what the opening post was about… is PI ever going to go to v.4 or version PI Pro or whatever and take on a whole new look with new user-friendly features?

It doesn’t have to look like a high-end Mac workstation or have Aero glass icons, etc. — this is a workhorse program, not a phone app. Yet improved GUI’s do matter and can give users a boost, a sense of “Yeah, I’m driving my new baby now…”

Last but not least and as mirrored by the inquiry of this thread, I or we are only seeing things from our side of the fence — as users. You have priorities and have to do things we don’t have a clue about.

And as you also well know, I am very, very grateful for even having PI for the reason you know know well from back 6 years ago. It’s helped me really continue to fine-tune my signature visual style as well invent stuff I never thought I could make up.

So none of the above is some complaint-fest and my/our respect for you is unwavering, but I hope that you can also see it from our end. In other words, we would love to know if there are some plans for, pardon the Star Trek analogy, a “PI – The Next Generation.”

Sincerely,

~ Philip Knight

[Philip Knight]

Every program has its quirks and problems but since I too am a faithful fan of PI, I deal with them. That said, a couple of things that would seems useful:

— In addition and/or as one aspect to being able to better play background HD and essentially any videos better (not slow down playback to reee-eeally slow workspace viewing even after one tweaks things in the project to help) is for PI to… go 64-bit. I have 16 Gb. DDR3 RAM–I’d like PI to access it.

— I don’t know what the wiring on CPU access is for PI and so maybe it can already deal with multiple cores. But if not, I have 6 actual cores (not virtual) and would like them to be used just as Vegas Pro does.

— Some way to lock in X and Y scaling for viewing graphical and timeline settings. They always go back to default every time one re-opens the project.