PluginPac Adapter (supporting VirtualDub filters) released!!

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 1:52 AM

PluginPac Adapter for Vegas (to use VirtualDub filters in Vegas) is now available for free download. With this new FX you can use a large number of image and video processing VirtualDub filters in Vegas.

I've tested successfully with a large set of freely available VirtualDub filters online, however there are bound to be some filters which may not work properly in Adapter... point out such filters to me.

VirtualDub filters inherantly do not support keyframming. So dont expect to have keyframmable parameters in PluginPac Adapter... (you can still keyframe the 4 parameters given above as they are external to the VDub filters).

Limitations of VirtualDub filter support:
-----------------------------------------

1. VirtualDub filters have a very different interface which is unsupported directly by Vegas, so there are 4 parameters (Frame number, Frame rate, Start of sequence and End of sequence) which are given to the user to allow control how VirtualDub plugins see the filtered video. For most VirtualDub filters, letting these parameters to default values should be fine but play with them if you dont see expected results.

2. VirtualDub filters are not designed for parameter storage to a project file, so you will not be able to save the filter parameters into your Vegas project file. This means each time you close and open Vegas, you have to choose the VirtualDub filter parameters again.

The help file for PluginPac Adapter features a novel new idea, using a Flash movie for showing how to use the FX. Open the PluginPac Adapter help file and click the link that says "for the first time usage, click here." and you'll see a flash-based tutorial. This tutorial was created using Wink, a tut-creation program developed by me (and will be available free in a couple of weeks). Check it out...

Download latest PluginPac from DebugMode . Also featured are minor bug fixes for 3DLE and Shatter3d.

Thanks
Satish

PS: Tutorials on how to use Adapter with a few tricky filters (including the Deflicker filter) will be posted soon.

Comments

tailgait wrote on 3/19/2003, 3:03 AM

What are Virtual Dub filters?

roger_74 wrote on 3/19/2003, 3:37 AM

Great Job!

Is there any way to get to the internal VirtualDub-plugins, like TV and Temporal smoother? Perhaps those plugins can be compiled into standalone filters?

TorS wrote on 3/19/2003, 4:09 AM

tailgate,
Take a look at virtualdub.org

Here's a hint:
"VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (98/NT/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images."

Tor

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 8:56 AM

yes they can be compiled separately from the sources... let me check.

MarkWWWW wrote on 3/19/2003, 10:44 AM

Thanks very much for making this available Satish. I've just tried it with a couple of simple VDub filters and it seems to work great.

The only problem I've found is that the Flash movie in the help file doesn't work for me. If I click on the "click here" link the contents of the window change to one with a "PluginPac Adapter Filter : Setting up" bar at the top, but I don't see anything else in the window - no movie, just a blank white space.

I've tried it on a couple of systems (one Win98SE, the other Win2kSP2) both of which have Macromedia Flash Player 6 installed, but the behaviour is the same - no movie.

Otherwise, it seems to work perfectly. Thanks again.

Mark

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 1:42 PM

It is possible that a newer version of the HTMLHelp control (the one which displays the help files in Windows) is required... I'll check about that.

Meanwhile, is anyone able to view the flash movie in the help file at all??

rextilleon wrote on 3/19/2003, 1:52 PM

Although I have no interest in VirtualDub----a great job nevertheless----Satish, someone said you are working on something that would allow us to use Photoshop Plug-ins in Vegas---was that just an urban myth?

MarkWWW wrote on 3/19/2003, 2:33 PM

Hmm, my previous post was describing what was happening on a couple of machines I have at work where I have installed V4 in demo mode - on both of them I wasn't able to see the flash movie.

But now I'm at home and I have just installed the new PluginPac on my real V4 machine and I find that the flash movie is working just fine.

Perhaps I don't have the latest version of the Flash player on the work machines - I'll check tomorrow and see if there is a later version available and let you know if it makes any difference.

Mark

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 2:45 PM

Yes i am working on that too, but got sidetracked into VDub filters because these are easier to implement. ;) now back to the Photoshop Adapter. Also, work is in progress for the Rotoscoping plugin as well...

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 2:47 PM

VDub filters such as Subtitler use the timecode of the input video for processing. Hence you should create two keyframes at the beginning and end of the FX event, set the "frame number" to the appropriate values (since Vegas plugins have no interface to get the current frame's timecode, this has to be done manually) and also the "frame rate" parameter. This will make them work fine.

BillyBoy wrote on 3/19/2003, 2:57 PM

Where should you put the VD filters? Can you point them in their current folder in Virtual Dub's, folder or do you need a seperate folder under Vegas? I haven't tried to use VD filters yet from Vegas, just asking up front.

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 3:01 PM

Just point to the existing VDub filters folder. That is enough.

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 4:31 PM

Here is a tutorial on how to use the Subtitler filter with PluginPac Adapter.

http://www.debugmode.com/pluginpac/subtitler_usage.htm

sjohn wrote on 3/19/2003, 5:47 PM

Just tried pointing to my virtualDub plug-in directory and when it tried to load smart smoother it crashed Vegas.

Now everytime I try to bring in PluginPac Adapter it crashes. I even tried to remove the plug-in directory so it would not try to load the smart smoother plug-in.. no luck..

any ideas?

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 6:01 PM

I tried smart smoother on my PC, works fine with Adapter.

Best is to go to an IM conversation and see if you can help me reproduce the crash here. Do you have any instant messaging ID which we can use to talk with? you can mail me at webmaster at debugmode

Thanks

taliesin wrote on 3/19/2003, 6:05 PM

Exactly the same happens to me.

When I first installed the new PluginPac, I could start the Plugin-Adapter but I could not find any VD-filter in there. Then I tried directing to the VD plugin directy (which is empty too, though I could use lots of filters in VD). When I then tried starting the Plugin Adapter once again it crashed Vegas.
I deinstalled the PluginPac, rebooted my system, reinstalled the PluginPac, but same error occurs any time I click on the Plugin Adapter in the VideoFX window.

This happens both in Vegas 4 and VegasVideo 3.

Marco

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 6:23 PM

If the VirtualDub plugins folder is empty, that means there are no external filters installed for VDub. By default, Virtualdub has a few filters built into the software, and these cannot be used by PluginPac Adapter currently. I got your mail and i'm looking into the problem.

Thanks

satish wrote on 3/19/2003, 7:41 PM

I think i fixed the bug now. Please get the latest from the PluginPac homepage and give a try. Thanks

MarkWWWW wrote on 3/20/2003, 7:35 AM

OK I've now updated both the machines at work to the latest version of the Flash player (could have sworn that I already had it, but obviously not) and the Flash movie in the Adapter help file now works just fine on both of them.

Sorry to worry you - it was my fault all along.

Mark

sjohn wrote on 3/20/2003, 7:34 PM

Your latest fix fixed the problem with the smart smoother. Thanks.. this is awesome..
I can now use the side by side preview to tweek the plugin..

satish wrote on 3/20/2003, 11:22 PM

Coool. :)

BillyBoy wrote on 3/21/2003, 10:25 AM

If I drop the PluginPac on the timeline, then proceed to do a split and sometimes select other actions from the menu or tool bar, the PluginPac window randomly pops up when I do a cut. This requires selecting the OK button on the Adapter to dismiss it.

satish wrote on 3/21/2003, 10:59 AM

Which window pops up? Is it the FX properties window or the "Choose Plugin" window?

BillyBoy wrote on 3/21/2003, 1:10 PM

The Choose plug-in window. Move cursor over timeline, click CUT on menu bar. Soon as you do the choose plug-in window pops up. Worse, because Vegas 'remembers' this action if you are attempting to resize an event or something, your plug-in has the focus, so when you do some undo, the plug-in action is what's undone. Then trying to do something on timeline again it pops the plug-in window.