Hello VDMX Fans!
We’re thrilled to announce the official release of the biggest update to VDMX in over a decade: VDMX6!
What’s changed? Oh, just the entire rendering engine.
VDMX6 is now powered by Metal, fully transitioning away from the deprecated OpenGL technology. This update not only prepares us for the future of Mac hardware and OS updates but also opens new doors for upcoming features, improvements, and even more optimizations.
What’s else is new?
Read on! Looking to download the new release or buy a license? Visit the new Vidvox.net homepage!
HAP R
One of the first new benefits of our new Metal rendering engine is we can add support for the latest addition to the HAP video codec family!
Following in the footsteps of HAP Q, we now have HAP R.
What do you need to know about HAP R?
The HAP R format creates files that are higher quality than HAP Q, with alpha channels, at about the same size.
The latest AVF Batch Exporter utility app in the Extras folder includes support for importing / exporting to the newest variation of HAP.
HAP R is more technically known as HAP 7A because it is based on the BC7 texture format.
Other developers looking to update their own software to support HAP R will find technical details of the format on the HAP Specification and the HAP in AVFoundation framework GitHub pages useful in getting started.
Stay tuned for more details and benchmarks on HAP R in a future blog post!
Updated Automatic BPM Detection
Along with overhauling the rendering engine we’ve rewritten the tempo tracking algorithm completely from scratch to run natively on both Intel and ARM64 processors. No more having to use Rosetta to take advantage of this crucial feature on newer Mac hardware!
Leaner and Cleaner
Along with the performance boost of switching the rendering engine over to Metal we’ve optimized several other core parts of VDMX, making the app more efficient with an overall lower memory footprint.
New Pricing and Plus Version
One of the top things we hear from people who want to get started in working with live visuals is the financial barrier to entry. Along with adding feature improvements we understand that one thing we can do to make our software better is to make it more accessible to everyone and anyone, so we’ve decided to set the price on VDMX6 at 99 USD.
We have also introduced VDMX6 Plus at 249 USD for users who want to extend their experience by using TouchDesigner and Vuo compositions alongside the rest of the powerful features included in the standard version.
Students, teachers, and hobbyists can apply by email for our educational discounts of 25 USD on VDMX6 and 100 USD on VDMX6 Plus.
Upgrade Discounts
Existing VDMX5 users who purchased their license after September 12th, 2023 are entitled to a free update to VDMX6 Plus.
All other VDMX5 users can write in to receive a coupon to get 100 USD off on VDMX6 Plus.
Customers who have a license of VDMX6 can get the full price off of their original purchase if they choose to upgrade to VDMX6 Plus later.
TouchDesigner Support!
Using TouchDesigner compositions in VDMX6
Yes indeed, as mentioned just above, in VDMX6 Plus you can now use TouchDesigner compositions as interactive generators, effects, and control data plugins.
Note: that using TouchDesigner compositions in VDMX6 Plus requires a TouchDesigner install, and a valid paid TouchDesigner license on the same computer (Education, Commercial, or Pro) Non-commercial will not work.
Example compositions can be found on the VDMX6 dmg in the Extras folder and additional detailed information can be found in the VDMX documentation.
New ISF Generators and FX
No update to VDMX is complete without some new interactive video generators and FX to play with!
In this release we’ve got a new category of FX, Overlays, which include useful FX such as Doodler, Cursor, and Highlighter. These make it easy to add small elements on top of your video without having to do additional layer management.
There’s also some other new fun audio visualizers and glitch FX to play with:
Audio Waveform Shape
Pattern Glitch
Stylize Glitch
Improvements to BlackMagic and Video Capture Support
BlackMagic makes some of the most popular audio / video capture devices on the market, and we’ve just made using them with VDMX even better…
Use BlackMagic devices for simultaneous input and output, also known as full duplex mode, on supported devices.
Send audio streams to BlackMagic outputs.
Lower latency audio capture from BlackMagic inputs.
Apply key streams as alpha channels on supported devices.
Output alpha channels as external key streams on supported devices.
Themes and Interface Improvements
Find your favorite FX and sources even faster.
A major overhaul like this also deserves some new style, so we’ve included some new color themes and various minor interface tweaks throughout the app to improve overall usability.
One of the most useful UI additions is the new ‘Search’ field for quickly filtering the options in the layer source & FX menus.
Base and Recommended System Requirements
Minimum requirements: macOS 12; Intel or ARM64 Mac
Recommended OS: macOS 13 or later; M1 processor or later.
Sadly, we had to drop support for older OS releases where that could not take advantage of certain features and optimizations to Metal that were introduced in macOS 12. But we will continue to host old versions of VDMX5 to support older systems. See (VDMX Versions for details).
While VDMX6 will run on macOS 12 and Intel machines, the biggest performance gains are found in the newest OS releases and hardware where Metal itself is more optimized. We strongly recommend updating to macOS 13 or later where possible.
The Future???
With so many changes behind the scenes to create a stronger foundation for us to build on, one of the most existing parts of the VDMX6 update is what will come next… make sure to keep your eyes on this blog, tag and follow us on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, and sign up for our email list to get the latest news from VIDVOX!
Updating from VDMX5? Read the FAQ!
We tried to make the process of updating from VDMX5 as seamless as possible: for example opening existing project files will create a copy that will be automatically updated to for the new version and GLSL based ISF shaders will be automatically transpiled as Metal shaders on launch.
Beyond that, we know that people updating from older versions have a ton of specific questions about the update process and we have created a VDMX5 upgrade FAQ page on this topic in the VDMX6 documentation. This page includes a listing of major changes to be aware of, and if needed we are also happy to answer questions you may have by email or on the forums.
With VDMX6 moving into Metal, some older plugins, custom FX, or ISF shaders may not be immediately compatible with the latest version. We recommend testing out the demo of VDMX6 first before making a full transition. If something is incompatible VDMX will do it’s best to give you a warning. And the best part is, you can have VDMX5, VDMX6, and VDMX6 Plus all installed on the same machine without conflict!