Boris Continuum Complete 7 Vid Card problems

Sidecar wrote on 2/28/2011, 8:08 PM
Vegas has never needed a powerful graphics card to function. If you install Boris Continuum Complete 7, be prepared for serious hassles with your video card.

Boris uses the video card's ability to generate 3D objects quickly. When it works, it's amazing. When it doesn't work, you get no 3D effects in Boris at all.

BCC7 on my Win7 64-bit Core i7 system with a entry level NVIDIA FX 580 card (didn't think I'd need more card when I had the machine built) did not work at all at first. As soon as I tried to drop a 3D effect on the timeline, Vegas 10c 64-bit would hang and then crash. The solution was to update the drivers on the FX 580 to current 64-bit drivers. Both of my monitors were driven just fine, too.

I installed BCC7 on my HP z-400 dual Xeon XP Pro 32-bit system that has a much more powerful NVIDIA FX 1800 card and, no matter what I do, Vegas simply will not work with BCC7's 3D effects like Extruded Text.

Contacting Boris Support, they recommended that I turn off one of my monitors. That at least stopped Vegas from crashing. I got as far as entering text. But when I hit Apply, a Boris Warning window pops up that says, "There is not enough resolution depth to run Blue" and "Boris has determined that one of your components is not compatible: press the YES button to enable OpenGL and it may render, but not likely. Press the NO button to exit without rendering."

In other words, a more powerful FX 1800 video card does not work at all with XP Pro 32-bit while a less powerful FX 580 card works fine with my Win 7 64-bit system.

Don't know what to do now.

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/1/2011, 10:38 AM
I'm using BCC7 in Windows 7 64-bit with dual monitors on an old NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card ($89USD) and it works fine. No problems at all.

One thing you might try is changing your display drivers to the ones from the card manufacturer. For example, if it's a PNY Quadro FX 1800, then install the latest drivers from the PNY site not the NVIDIA site. These have been tested by PNY and may work better with your hardware even though the ones of the NVIDIA site may be newer.

~jr
Sidecar2 wrote on 3/1/2011, 12:14 PM
Good idea. I went to the HP site for my Z400 and installed their drivers and then even a card firmware update, all HP approved.

Both failed to fix the problem. Vegas still crashes if I attempt to drop a BCC Extruded Text filter onto an empty event, per Boris instructions.

What gets me is that the Boris window comes up and says two things:
1)" Hardware Status: Insufficient depth resolution to run Blue.
Critical Testing: Successful."

2) "A component of your system has been detected which is not officially supported by Boris FX for OpenGL based rendering.
YES: Enable OpenGL and continue (may render)
NO: Disable OpenGL and continue (unlikely to render)"

What component would that be? Boris specifically says it has tested the FX 1800 card.

Really frustrating. The capabilities in Boris are what I have needed for years.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/1/2011, 12:59 PM
I would contact Boris FX. If your card is on their approved list, their technical support should be able to help you.

~jr
Sidecar wrote on 3/5/2011, 2:09 PM
Got a little intel at the Createasphere show last Thursday at Universal Hilton. A rep at a company promoting NVIDIA cards told me that the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 card is actually quite old and that they regularly pull and replace them when building HP computers for video.

He recommended using at least an NVIDIA Quadro 2000. The "FX" line is obsolete. Now it's just "Quadro." The key is that the newer cards have Fermi technology chips on them.

This is probably why I'm getting the "A component of your system has been detected which is not officially supported by Boris FX for OpenGL based rendering" notification.

So, if you're building a computer out there and expect to run Boris, better put in at least an NVIDIA Quadro 2000.

What I don't understand is that the Boris site claims they have tested BCC7 with the FX 1800 card. Then again, it came with the HP Z400 and for all I know, HP did something to the card to "customized" it as OEMs sometimes do.
RRA wrote on 3/6/2011, 3:30 AM
Hi,

I use nVidia Quadro FX 1800. There are some effects in BCC7 (all 3D and some connected with compositing) which cause instant crash of Vegas in two monitor setup. In order to avoid crash, second monitor has to be disconnected on level of graphic card driver (there is tab in nVidia control pannell connected with monitor's management).

Did not obseved any other issues in my setup. Other effects work properly in two monitor setup. Don't know this error message, which you have quoted.

I don't think, that there is a chance, that the newest nVidia driver (or specyfic driver from vendor) is able to resolve problem with 'extruded' plugins. I always install the newest driver as soon as possible, but looking on release notes, nVidia is not spending time on issues, which are important for us ... rather piece of code should be changed on side of BCC7.

During last webinar in Boris ('killer titles' with J.Rofrano), I have asked about possible fix for problem with two monitor setup. They answered, that they have already solution and are on stage of testing. It's good news, believe that it will resolve problems for all nVidia cards, not just for the simplest.

PS. I have also question to John Rofrano : I have noticed, that Light Wrap produce artefacts if used in 32bit project colour depth - is it plugin capable to work in 32bit or I'm doing something wrong ? Had to replace Light Wrap with Glow Alpha Edges (it works properly with 32bit project) but result is slightly different ... in this case 'slightly' makes huge difference. Could you put any comment how to overcome this obstacle ? I insist on working in 32bit mode, bacause in my case, I'm replacing chromakeyed areas mostly with gradients surfaces (can't accept quality of gradients in 8bit mode).

Best regards,
kairosmatt wrote on 3/6/2011, 6:07 AM
Sidecar-I get the same message if I use extruded text in 32 bit Vegas on Vista 64. However, the 64 bit works just fine!! Wierd.

RRA-you should start a new thread with your question since it may get overlooked here. Lots of people here have depth of knowledge on color space that is beyond me! Or even try posting on the BorisFX section of creative cow.

kairosmatt
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/6/2011, 6:38 AM
> "PS. I have also question to John Rofrano : I have noticed, that Light Wrap produce artefacts if used in 32bit project colour depth - is it plugin capable to work in 32bit or I'm doing something wrong ? Had to replace Light Wrap with Glow Alpha Edges (it works properly with 32bit project) but result is slightly different ... in this case 'slightly' makes huge difference. Could you put any comment how to overcome this obstacle ? I insist on working in 32bit mode, bacause in my case, I'm replacing chromakeyed areas mostly with gradients surfaces (can't accept quality of gradients in 8bit mode)."

I don't use 32-bit color depth because I just haven't had a need for it. I just tested on some chroma keyed footage and I don't see any artifacts in 32-bit mode with Light Wrap. I would definitely report this to Boris FX so that they are aware of it and can work on a fix. You'll need to provide a reproducible test case. I can't explain it to them because I just don't see it (sorry) but I have read that 32-bit mode doesn't work correctly with certain plug-ins (which is another reason I don't use it).

~jr
LReavis wrote on 3/7/2011, 1:24 PM
I don't get any crashes w/BCC7 with my GT240 (latest driver for Win7-64), but I do get black previews with 3d text. I probably would use it if I could get it to work. Before I contact Boris, any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm new to BCC7, but I'm presuming that the preview window turning instantly black whenever I load a 3d text plugin is not because I'm failing to checkmark a box or something, right?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/7/2011, 3:17 PM
> "I'm new to BCC7, but I'm presuming that the preview window turning instantly black whenever I load a 3d text plugin is not because I'm failing to checkmark a box or something, right?"

Well... it's only black until you launch the text window and add some text. Is this not what you're experiencing?

~jr
Sidecar2 wrote on 3/7/2011, 4:54 PM
Yeah, the window was "black" for me too. I.e., nothing showed up. If I turn off one monitor that at least allowed me to drop the effect on the timeline without crashing Vegas 10c 32bit outright.

I then launched the BCC text insertion window and typed some text. Click OK and I get a window that says a component is incompatible. Thanks for playing.

This, after Boris specifically says they tested the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 card.

The 3D qualities of Extruded Text, Shattering, and any other BCC7 OpenGL 3D simply don't work.

Again, my NVIDIA Quadro FX 580 card running two monitors under Windows 7 64bit works fine after I installed the latest drivers.

The Quadro FX 1800 in my HP Z400 simply won't do ANY 3D effects, even if I unplug the second monitor.

I ordered a $539 NVIDIA Quadro 2000 with 1GB of RAM today. Ouch. It better work. I'll be really bummed if Boris comes out with a software fix that meant I didn't have to buy a $500 card on top of $500 worth of plugins.

The darned plugins and related fixes are more expensive than the whole Vegas suite!
LReavis wrote on 3/7/2011, 9:53 PM
@johnnyRoy

Thanks - after experimenting and reading the .PDF more carefully, I now understand that it's easy to get the preview window to go black. For some reason, after once invoking the type-on-text plugin, the preview window does NOT go black the second time I invoke the plugin. A bit quirky, but now that I get it, OK.

I also found that if I switch away from Vegas to another program, the window is black again when I go back to Vegas with the BCC7 plugin window open. But when I click "apply," all is well. I think I'm going to like BCC7 quite a lot after I accommodate its quirks - they don't seem much of a problem after all.

Regarding VGA cards, my cheap ($40) Asus nVidia GT240 seems plenty good enough for Boris.
Alf Hanna wrote on 3/7/2011, 11:14 PM
My Boris problems went away after upgrading my video drivers from the NVIDIA site. There were significant problems before that. Now they are gone. Also, my recommendation is to get off XP 32 bit and get on with W7 64 bit. It really performs much better overall. However, I understand if there are specific 32 bit apps you need. But remember, you upgrade a 5 year old computer to get today's speed and performance, do the same with your OS.