hello there
i'm getting started with gem and have a handful of questions that i haven't been able to answer with the tutorial or manual... i'm planning on trying to use supercollider for my sound meanwhile sending OSC messages to PD so that i can control Gem. these questions don't reflect that yet; i'm still dealing with the basic quirks of gem and pd.
let's get started... i'm running Mac OS 10.4, am using PD 0.37-2, and Gem 0.90 for G3.
for most of my following questions, i'm a little unsure of where the problems lie - i.e. is it machine specific, is it gem specific, is it pd-specific...?
here it goes...
- is the pd-list the best place to ask basic gem questions, or should
they be sent to gem-dev?
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...). but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then my patch is stuck in front of the image, and i can't close the patch window or else that stops everything and closes the gem window too. so - can i hide the main patch window? is there a way to enable command-tilde(~) so that windows will come to the front? can i have the gem window in front of everything? i understood the parts of the manual that talk about changing monitor preferences to use two separtate screens, one for your patch and one for your gem-output, but unfortunatley that does not apply to my situation - i want to be able to display the Gem output on my laptop screen without anything in front of it for others to view and to have the patch stuff in the background. i don't intend to use extra computers in the process either. is this/will this be possible?
- all of the tutorials have all of their toggle switches set to the
OFF position, but whenever i open a tutorial and 'create' a genwin from scratch, all of the various geos that are supposed to be disabled instead pop-up on the screen, covering each other up. i then have to go to every point in the patch and toggle each gemhead on and then off in order to get the screen to go to its clear default OFF state. is there a way to have all of the gemhead's *really* start in the OFF state? i tried adding the -noloadbang flag thinking that that might help, but that wasn't it. it's kind of annoying to have to search around in all the subpatches for all the rogue geos and gemheads...
- i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film with
pix_mix (tutorial 8) if the multiple pictures or videos being mixed together are not the exact same dimensions. will this limitation ever be changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?
- i've found that pd won't stop playing sound from my quicktime movies
in the pix_film mixing examples (tutorial 8) even when i turn off the individual gemhead and/or 'auto' toggles. if i then 'destroy' the gemwin, the sound finally goes off with it after about a second, but as soon as i 'create' another gemwin the sound from the already stopped videos goes back on right where they left off... is there a way or will there be a way to make these videos and their soundtracks completely stop after starting?
alrighty. thanks so much for the help! adam
adam overton wrote:
hello there
- is the pd-list the best place to ask basic gem questions, or should
they be sent to gem-dev?
it is perfect. gem-dev is rather for development-issues and in-depth-questions.
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...). but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then
i think this is a problem with how pd works together with osX-gui (they don't go together very well). there have been attemtps (e.g. by jamie) to come around this limitation, and as i understand it, these will be included in future versions of pd.
- all of the tutorials have all of their toggle switches set to the OFF
order to get the screen to go to its clear default OFF state. is there a way to have all of the gemhead's *really* start in the OFF state? i
well, [gemhead]s are by default ON. there is no way to turn them off by default. [toggle]s are by default OFF. however, they can be set to "init", which propagates their state on startup: this is similar to "loadbang"; what it means is, that the state displayed in the [toggle] matches the state of the [gemhead]. (in short: edit the properties of each toggle and set it to "init")
- i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film with
changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?
there used to be [pix_resize] object, but a) i don't know if it is really working (i guess it is not), and b) it will only enlarge images to the next power-of-2 (this is not exactly what you want)
and no, i don't plan to change the restriction that images need to be equal sized for mixing but yes, [pix_resize] will probably be fixed.
mfg.ads.r IOhannes
awesome, IOhannes! thanks for the speedy and insightful reply.
- is the pd-list the best place to ask basic gem questions, or
should they be sent to gem-dev?
it is perfect. gem-dev is rather for development-issues and in-depth-questions.
great. i look forward to bugging you all more in the near future...
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...). but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then
i think this is a problem with how pd works together with osX-gui (they don't go together very well). there have been attemtps (e.g. by jamie) to come around this limitation, and as i understand it, these will be included in future versions of pd.
looking very, very forward to such developments... figured it was an osx dealie.
- all of the tutorials have all of their toggle switches set to the
OFF order to get the screen to go to its clear default OFF state. is there a way to have all of the gemhead's *really* start in the OFF state? i
well, [gemhead]s are by default ON. there is no way to turn them off by default. [toggle]s are by default OFF. however, they can be set to "init", which propagates their state on startup: this is similar to "loadbang"; what it means is, that the state displayed in the [toggle] matches the state of the [gemhead]. (in short: edit the properties of each toggle and set it to "init")
ahh, i will try this...
- i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film
with changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?
there used to be [pix_resize] object, but a) i don't know if it is really working (i guess it is not), and b) it will only enlarge images to the next power-of-2 (this is not exactly what you want)
and no, i don't plan to change the restriction that images need to be equal sized for mixing but yes, [pix_resize] will probably be fixed.
figured you'd say that. i just need to take more responsibility for what i try throwing into gem...
mfg.ads.r IOhannes
thanks again! adam
cool. i actually just figured out that if i set gemwin to fullscreen and hide pd (command-h), the fullscreen image remains, but the annoying patches disappear. woohoo! [although it'll be nice if one day the toolbar at the top can disappear too] good enough for now! a
On Sep 2, 2004, at 1:24 AM, IOhannes m zmoelnig wrote:
adam overton wrote:
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...). but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then
i think this is a problem with how pd works together with osX-gui (they don't go together very well). there have been attemtps (e.g. by jamie) to come around this limitation, and as i understand it, these will be included in future versions of pd.
On Sep 2, 2004, at 1:19 AM, adam overton wrote:
let's get started... i'm running Mac OS 10.4, am using PD 0.37-2, and Gem 0.90 for G3.
Are you really running a 10.4 developer seed? I have it around here somewhere but have yet to install and test anything on it.
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...).
Cmd+click the title bar and then drag it around. There is currently work on a version of Pd that allows for the GEM window to be a real window. It does work, but I have no idea when it will surface (I'm not the one developing it so don't bug me).
but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then my patch is stuck in front of the image, and i can't close the patch window or else that stops everything and closes the gem window too. so - can i hide the main patch window?
Well you shouldn't do that! Cmd-w might kill the window, but the thing you absolutely have to do is make a key command in your patch that triggers a 'destroy' message to the gemwin.
- i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film
with pix_mix (tutorial 8) if the multiple pictures or videos being mixed together are not the exact same dimensions. will this limitation ever be changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?
Use OpenGL to composite if the images are of different sizes. The CPU based pix_ objects restrict dimensions as an optimization - the first thing anyone working with video usually does is make all of their media the same dimensions to avoid costly scaling. GL will do all the scaling on the GPU at a much faster rate than the CPU could ever hope to achieve.
- i've found that pd won't stop playing sound from my quicktime
movies in the pix_film mixing examples (tutorial 8) even when i turn off the individual gemhead and/or 'auto' toggles. if i then 'destroy' the gemwin, the sound finally goes off with it after about a second, but as soon as i 'create' another gemwin the sound from the already stopped videos goes back on right where they left off... is there a way or will there be a way to make these videos and their soundtracks completely stop after starting?
I though I made the sound off by default for those objects, but it looks like that code is not actually in CVS. I must have done a custom build for someone and forgot to add it.
cgc
let's get started... i'm running Mac OS 10.4, am using PD 0.37-2, and Gem 0.90 for G3.
Are you really running a 10.4 developer seed? I have it around here somewhere but have yet to install and test anything on it.
doh. i meant 10.3.5. i knew it was getting up there, but didn't remember correctly. i'm definitely not that cool.
- is there a way to make the Gem output window come to the front and
sit on top of the other open pd windows? i can't move the window, and i know that's because you can only control that with the 'position' command to gemwin (will that ever change?? it'd be nice to be able to drag it around...).
Cmd+click the title bar and then drag it around. There is currently work on a version of Pd that allows for the GEM window to be a real window. It does work, but I have no idea when it will surface (I'm not the one developing it so don't bug me).
cool cool trick. of course it doesn't work with the border gone, but that's alright.
but if i'm doing a fullscreen thing with gem, then my patch is stuck in front of the image, and i can't close the patch window or else that stops everything and closes the gem window too. so - can i hide the main patch window?
Well you shouldn't do that! Cmd-w might kill the window, but the thing you absolutely have to do is make a key command in your patch that triggers a 'destroy' message to the gemwin.
i've just figured out that Cmd-h gets everthing out of the way with no fuss... which is nice.
- i get lots and lots of errors when i use pix_image and pix_film
with pix_mix (tutorial 8) if the multiple pictures or videos being mixed together are not the exact same dimensions. will this limitation ever be changed, or is there already an easy way around this besides actually going and changing all of my images to the same size?
Use OpenGL to composite if the images are of different sizes. The CPU based pix_ objects restrict dimensions as an optimization - the first thing anyone working with video usually does is make all of their media the same dimensions to avoid costly scaling. GL will do all the scaling on the GPU at a much faster rate than the CPU could ever hope to achieve.
ok
- i've found that pd won't stop playing sound from my quicktime
movies in the pix_film mixing examples (tutorial 8) even when i turn off the individual gemhead and/or 'auto' toggles. if i then 'destroy' the gemwin, the sound finally goes off with it after about a second, but as soon as i 'create' another gemwin the sound from the already stopped videos goes back on right where they left off... is there a way or will there be a way to make these videos and their soundtracks completely stop after starting?
I though I made the sound off by default for those objects, but it looks like that code is not actually in CVS. I must have done a custom build for someone and forgot to add it.
cgc
thanks chris!! adam
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adam overton -
chris clepper -
IOhannes m zmoelnig