Just in time!

Only a whopping 6 years and one and an half months after its first mention during Keynode 13 and to the day exactly 5 years after the release of the The Humble Quad Bundle, you can finally hold it in your own hands. Not exactly as the full release we had planned but as a preview:

To our own surpise we couldn't finish all the things we had planned to release today. Most notably the "windows executable export" didn't make it. We know this is a bummer, but we want to get this right and it just needs some more time.

Apart from that we figured there is no more need at this point, to keep it to ourselves. It is definitely good enough for a preview, definitely good enough to gather some feedback to incorporate into the final 1.0 release for which we take some more time to finish our plans. So let's have a look at what we got:

What's new compared to the vvvv beta series

Forum

To accommodate for the fact that from now on we essentially have 2 products, we added two main categories to the forum:

The existing question, feature, bug, general sections were moved into vvvv beta, and the vvvv gamma section got its own question, feature, bug and general sub-sections. Note that by default the search is constrained to the category you're currently viewing. When you're using vl in beta, still feel free to ask questions in the beta forum. We'll handle that.

Tutorials

Head over to this forum section to watch some video tutorials:https://discourse.vvvv.org/c/tutorials

Pricing

We've previously announced the upcoming pricing model for vvvv gamma, which we're currently refining and we'll update you on changes to it soon.

Until further notice, the previews of vvvv gamma are free of charge but due to its preview-nature we don't recommend using it in commercial scenarios yet.

Download

Here you go: vvvv gamma 2019.1 preview 827

Changelog:

827: 09 10 19

• setup.exe is now signed and shouldn't trigger "windows protected your PC popup anymore"
• added Quad>Windows>Key/MouseDisplay
• fixed GrayScale Skia ColorFilter
• added Damper/Oscillator 2D, 3D
• Packages are now in AppData\Local\vvvv\nugets

703: 16 09 19

• tooltip performance improved
• ImageReader now returns correct format of images
• added FromBytes (SKImage)
• added Resize (SKImage)
• LinearSpread now has Phase input
• added midi ProgramChange node

667: 03 09 19

• added IsEven/IsOdd nodes
• added Morph node
• added MultiFlipFlop node
• added ConnectAll node
• added CounterFlop
• added Random (Centered)
• added Sort (FormerIndex)
• added OrderBy (FormerIndex)
• added IndexOf (KeySelector)
• added Search
• added Search (KeySelector)
• added Resample nodes (Point, Linear, Repeat, Hermite, BSpline)
• Switch node can now have more than 2 inputs
• Filter node now has TweenerMode exposed
• Nodebrowser now also looks for tags in nugets
• FromImage (Skia) now has options for the case of R16->R8
• FromImage (Skia) now handles 24->32bit conversions
• ADSRSettings has optional inputs for Attack, Decay and Release curve settings
• ADSR has an input to set a new clock at any moment
• fixed AddRange (Array) of SpreadBuilder
• updated VL.OpenCV to 0.2.129-alpha

618: 22 08 19

• SVG/PDFWriter now deal with background correctly
• improved some warnings
• increased max tooltip height

615: 21 08 19

• more tweaks for tooltips
• Ctrl+F now also considers nodes category
• updated to VL.OpenCV 0.2.122

573: 08 08 19

• pin tooltips now show their infos again when available
• copying messages from tooltips is now via ctrl+shift+c
• added simpler Mouse and Keyboard (Skia.IO) nodes
• skia primitives (rect, circle,...) now come in two versions, instead of as overloads
• updated to VL.OpenCV 0.2.121

552: 01 08 19

• reworked tooltips
• new settings: MouseMiddleButtonOpens to activate middleclick to open patches of nodes
• addded node: FromImage (MutableArray)
• added skia ColorFilter nodes: Transform, Brightness, Contrast, Grayscale, LUT

411: 12 06 19

• Value to bytes nodes now have defaults
• Fixed somehow newly introduced crash in patches making use of serialization (like Tilda) or reflection API (like the runtime-model-editor demos)
• Fixed accumulators on loops being auto-disposed causing object disposed exceptions in more complex patches (ike Tilda)
• Fixed Sampler (Reactive) getting stuck in an endless loop if upstream observable crashed (also seen in Tilda)

406: 10 06 19

• Fixed crash when creating IOBoxes in regions while linking
• Fixed pin highlights when linking via region border point
• Fixed application restart with F8/F5
• Skia gradient nodes rework

398: 05 06 19

• fixed couple of regressions in compiler introduced between 369 and 380
• fixed splash screen flicker
• fixed a null exception on startup

380: 01 06 19

• fix for Tokenizer (Frame/Postfix) with empty separators

369: 27 05 19

• Skia PerfMeter (F2) now measures full paint time
• fixed "Countdown" output of Trigger node
• fixes in compiler
• performance improvements in compiler
• added pixel format R32G32F to imaging
• fixed a freeze in Tokenizer
• added Tab, CR, LF, CRLF nodes
• added serializer for Range
• theme and interaction improvements
• added Skia checkerboard style that can be used as a paint
• fixed removing .vl doc references

344: 14 05 19

• PerfMeter in Skia renderer (F2) now shows UpdateTime and RenderTime
• added checkerboard style that can be used as a paint for any layer
• improved scrolling behaviour for sliders
• CoreLib improvements
• sped up RepellingCircles demo patch
• several compiler fixes
• compiler performance improvements

318: 09 05 19

• frames now let you choose colors from a palette instead of the color chooser
• frames now move their content along as you drag on their titlebar
• frames now only move elements that are fully contained
• frame is now included in the "surround with" context menu
• press SPACE to force-include frames in selections
• in inspektor changing precision for floateditor now also sets precision for min, max and stepsize.
• can now grab border control points on regions properly without interfering with region resize
• default culture setting is now invariant

303: 08 05 19

• fixed missing dependency for VL.OpenCV

301: 07 05 19

• windows timer is set to 1ms on start
• mainloop uses less performance and doesn't block windows messages
• Skia Renderer has PerfMeter build in, toggle with F2 when selected
• fixed dpi problem with text in SymbolFinder
• ctrl+T/ctrl+shift+T to bake/clear type annotations on datahubs
• fixed "invalid cast in typeunification" error

287: 06 05 19

• shortcuts now work with all tabs closed
• Renamed action "Assign->Pop" to "Assign->Clear assignment" to make it easier to understand what the action does
• Firmata: Tokenizer was stuck in an endless loop
• fixed null exception in ResizeSelectedMouseHandler
• Typewriter: Shift+PageUp/PageDown - select to the beginning/end of the document, cursor stays at the same column.
• OverlayEditor now has minimumsize (again)
• ImageEncoder doesn't have the bmp option anymore as skiasharp can't encode into bmp

273: 02 05 19

• fixed another problem with editors/tooltips and high dpi settings
• fixed "ReguarExpression" typo
• AllAtOnceEditor for vectors now sticks to value of first component
• fixed problem with enum-editors on pins getting stuck
• no more duplicate "Horizontal" entry in IOBox inspektor
• inspektor now also shows elementtype properties for Spread<Vector>
• serialization for custom types doesn't throw errors for inspektor/defaults
• upstream dis/connected iobox no longer looses its settings
• added GroupBy (Length) and GroupBy (Count) nodes to split a spread into spread-of-spreads
• added Clean node: removes slices with empty strings
• added RepellingCircles skia demo

252: 27 04 19

• fixed dpi handling for fonts in editors
• can now set ApartmentState of BusyWaitTimer to make UI threads
• mainloop now has high precision
• added PerfMeter to VL.Skia
• editing comment/string now keeps size of editor
• comments now have correct initial size
• StringEditor on pin now has wider fixed width
• fixed problem with paddings differing between single and multiline textbox
• fixed setting bool pin value via dragging
• fixed interaction in signature view of patch explorer
• fixed deadlock when implementing interfaces

230: 24 04 19

• fix for regions inside operation definitions disappearing
• fix for patches with more than 10 operations showing later operations as black
• quad icon now works for all themes
• previous/next icons now colored correctly in all themes
• string editors/comments now have a configurable "Max Visible Characters" to prevent low performance with too long lines

222: 18 04 19

• VL.Skia Camera 2d is not experimental anymore
• fixed pin interaction in signature view
• fixed an edge case when then node browser wouldn't show up
• fixed IOBox rendering freezes
• added many tags to VL.CoreLib to find nodes faster
• VL.Skia is referenced by default for new documents
• toggle toggles on every mouse click
• IOBox values are not applied while typing anymore

200: 15 04 19

• inputs/outputs of definitions/regions and groups can be moved (again)
• fixed problem with documents not opening anymore
• fixed file path serialization of dependencies when the path couldn't be made relative to the document itself
• fixed coloring of pads and region bordercontrol points

191: 13 04 19

• a comment that only holds a link can be right-clicked to open in the browser
• recent sketches now show in reverse order: most recent is topmost
• fix: improved recizing of nodes, regions and ioboxes
• fix: input/output indicators on pins and pads are now in sync with tooltip (again)
• fix: selected spread ioboxes can now be deleted with backspace when hovered with the mouse

180: 11 04 19

• fixed background for definition patches
• Skia ButtonBehaviour now lets you specify which buttons to listen to

177: 10 04 19

• new setting DocumentAskOnFirstSave sets whether to ask for save location on first document save
• added "Show Intro Patch" to quad menu, to recall intro patch even if it's not shown on startup
• reactivated play/pause mode visualization
• various coloring/theme fixes
• active tab is underlined (again)
• definition patches now have a hatched background
• removed RestructureDocument from patch context menu
• default count of a collection pin group can now be configured
• Skia Group defaults to 2 inputs (again)

150:

• VL.OpenCV now comes with demo patches in Help Browser!
• fixes for Skia ImageReader and ImageWriter
• added '-m' or '--allowmultiple' command line arg to allow running multiple instances side-by-side
• shortcuts are deactivated for patch when Finder box is open
• several fixes for IOBox drawing and interaction

139:

• fixes various assembly not found exceptions when using nodes of the Midi category, the Script region or binary serialization: a, b, c

137:

• fixes problems with pin-editors: a, b, c
• enables spread-editors directly on pins

134:

• Info.vl in now called Intro.vl
• double-clicking .vl files will open with the already running instance
• Skia renderer goes fullscreen via F11 or Alt+Enter
• many fixes and tweaks

Apart from the promised and still missing parts, we're aware of quite some little glitches still and will update the download link above periodically. So please check back often and report your findings!

Yours truely,
devvvvs.

In preparation for the Xenko game engine integration we decided to change the default math library of VL from SharpDX to Xenko. The decision was particularly easy since both math libraries have the same origin and most types and methods are identical. And thanks to the VL import layer it's easy to switch out the types, without any noticeable changes for the VL user.

What you get:

• Existing VL patches will continue to work as before
• No conversion needed when working with Xenko
• Faster matrix uploads to GPU (see below)

Trivia

We are (again) in luck with Xenko since it just so happened that Alexandre Mutel, who developed SharpDX, was a core developer at Xenko. We actually didn't know that at the time we started to work on the VL core library. We chose SharpDX mainly because it was well established, complete and open source. So it was quite a nice surprise when we browsed the Xenko source code for the first time and saw that they basically use the same math code.

Download

Here are direct links to the latest preview versions:
vvvv gamma 2019.1 preview 624
vvvv_50alpha38.2_x64
addons_50alpha38.2_x64

Technical Details

This section is only relevant for library developers.

Transposed Matrix Memory Layout

Xenko's 4x4 matrices have a transposed memory layout compared to SharpDX. This is not to be confused with transposed matrix elements (M11, M12, M13 etc.), it is only relevant when doing low-level operations with memory and pointers, such as uploading them to the GPU. The big advantage of it is, that Xenko's matrices can directly be uploaded to the GPU without the overhead of transposing them.

Changes on C# Projects

Most C# projects written for VL don't need to be changed. Only if they use the SharpDX.Mathematics nuget to work with vectors, matrices, rectangles etc.:

• Must switch to Xenko math
• Must use the new SDK style project format

In order to transition your C# project to Xenko, remove the SharpDX.Mathematics nuget and install Xenko.Core.Mathematics instead. Then change the using statements in the C# files:

//old:
using SharpDX;
 
//new:
using Xenko.Core.Mathematics;

If you then get an error on compilation, your project might be in the old format. Upgrading is quite easy, it just involves changing the header and deleting most lines in the project file. Follow this guide or join our chat if you need help.

Please give the new version a spin and send us a report if anything doesn't work as before.
Happy calculations!

Yours,
devvvvs

jojojo IO,

one of the more important features for quick prototyping in vvvv always were the IOBoxes. Here is an update that finally brings the vl IOBoxes up to par (and beyond) with what you were used to from vvvv beta.

Support for Spreads

Most notably missing so far was proper support for spreads. Sorted. When creating an IOBox via "start link -> middleclick" you now always get an interactive IOBox for the supported primitive types: ints, floats, bool, string, path, color, enum, even if they are spreaded or spread-of-spreaded or...

Or configure your own, by first creating a normal IOBox via right doubleclick and then configuring its type (middleclick it) via the Inspektor to a Spread type:

Key to spread IOBoxes is that you can directly set their count, without the need to open an inspektor. By default they now show a maximum of 5 entries and add a scrollbar to show more. If you want to see more, you can change the "Maximum Visible Entries" count via the Inspektor.

To quickly modify a constant spread you can also insert/remove slices when the inspektor is active:

Same as with other editors, the spread editors also work on inputs of a node to quickly tweak values:

And you can now specify defaults for input pins that are spreads:

Override values temporarily

Mostly useful for numbers and bools, in vl you can override upstream values directly, by manipulating an IOBox that sits in the middle:

Numbers

What we're used to from beta: Entering values via formula now also works:

Vectors

Vectors now allow you to change all components at once:

Also the Inspektor now shows all properties that you get on a float IOBox, so you can now also configure e.g. a vectors precision.

Strings and Chars

Both can now optionally show non-printable characters:

Colors

Color IOBoxes now also show you transparency:

Paths

Paths finally can be reduced to smaller sizes and show proper path ellipsis, ie. preferring to keep the last part of the value visible:

Click the little O icon to open the current file/directory with their associated program. ALT+click the icon to show the file/directory in the explorer.

Matrix

For completeness:

This is it for now.. Available for testing in both latest alphas and gamma previews.

Up until now VL had a rather rudimentary support for pin groups. Only nodes following a certain pattern had the option to have a dynamic amount of input pins. For simple nodes like a plus or a multiply this worked out fine, but for others it either felt like a hack or it was simply impossible to use at all. A node having a dynamic amount of outputs was never supported at all.

Pin Groups by Index

This all changes now by introducing proper support for pin groups. So let's jump right into it and have a look at the definition of the very famous Cons node:

As we can see the pin inspektor is showing one new entry called "Pin Group". This flag has to be enabled obviously. Then we annotate the pin with type Spread. This creates pins with the name "Input", "Input 2", "Input 3" etc. on the node.

If we now look at an application of the Cons node we can already see a couple of nice new features:

1. It's much faster. To build the input spread it can make use of a spread builder allocating the needed memory in one go, compared to the old Cons node which concatenated one spread after the other, leading to a total of 8 copies.
2. The returned spread will stay the same as long as the inputs stay the same. This is done by keeping the generated spread for the input group in an internal field. When building up the new spread each slice will be compared to with the one from before. And only if one of those slices change a new spread will be allocated.

Pin groups are not limited to inputs, they also work for outputs which brings us to a new node called Decons - deconstructing a spread into its outputs:

Pin Groups by Name

Cons and Decons are examples of using a pin group as a Spread. But there is another variant where the group gets annotated as a Dictionary<string,*>. Instead of addressing the pins by index, they get addressed by their actual name. Let's have a look at two other new nodes again called Cons and Decons but residing in the Dictionary category:

Pins can get added as usual with Ctrl - +, but what's new is that those pins can be renamed in the inspektor UI giving us the ability to quickly build up dictionaries.
The patch of the Cons building up a dictionary compared to the one building up a spread only differs in the type annotation of the input pin.

Apart from Spread and Dictionary the system also supports pin groups of type Array, MutableArray and MutableDictionary. According Cons and Decons nodes can be found when enabling the Advanced view in the node browser.

Creating Pins from within a Patch

So far the pins of a pin group have always been created by the user interface of the patch editor. Things get really interesting though when creating them from within the patch itself:

Imagine the string being an expression of some sort generating inputs for each unbound variable. The possibilities are endless :)

The nodes needed to create and remove pins can be found in the VL category after adding a reference to VL.Lang - the patch from the gif above can be found in the help folder of the VL.CoreLib package.

More information on those nodes will be covered in an upcoming blog post. Until then you can try these new pin groups in our latest alpha downloads and happy patching,

yours,
devvvvs